Chagatai Khanate | |||||||||||||||||
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![]() The Chagatai Khanate, with contemporary polities circa 1300, before the expansion of the Timurid Empire into Transoxiana from 1363.[1] | |||||||||||||||||
![]() The Chagatai Khanate and its neighbors in the late 13th century | |||||||||||||||||
Status |
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Capital | Almaliq, Qarshi | ||||||||||||||||
Common languages |
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Religion | |||||||||||||||||
Government | Semi-elective monarchy, later hereditary monarchy | ||||||||||||||||
Khan | |||||||||||||||||
• 1225–1242 | Chagatai Khan | ||||||||||||||||
Legislature | Kurultai | ||||||||||||||||
Historical era | Late Middle Ages | ||||||||||||||||
• Chagatai Khan inherited part of Mongol Empire | 1227[7] | ||||||||||||||||
• Death of Chagatai | 1242 | ||||||||||||||||
• Chagatai Khanate split between west and east (Moghulistan) | 1340s | ||||||||||||||||
• Western portion annexed by Timurid Empire | 1363 | ||||||||||||||||
• Moghulistan split into the Yarkent Khanate in the west and the Turpan Khanate in the east | 1487 | ||||||||||||||||
• Turpan Khanate disappeared | 1660s | ||||||||||||||||
• Yarkent Khanate conquered by Dzungar Khanate | 1705 | ||||||||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1347 | ||||||||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||||||||
1310 or 1350 est.[8][9] | 3,500,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||
Currency | Coins (dirhams, Kebek, and pūl) | ||||||||||||||||
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The Chagatai Khanate, or Chagatai Ulus[10] was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate[11][12] that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan,[13] second son of Genghis Khan, and his descendants and successors. At its height in the late 13th century the khanate extended from the Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea to the Altai Mountains in the border of modern-day Mongolia and China, roughly corresponding to the area once ruled by the Qara Khitai (Western Liao dynasty).[14]
Initially, the rulers of the Chagatai Khanate recognized the supremacy of the Great Khan,[15] but by the reign of Kublai Khan, Ghiyas-ud-din Baraq no longer obeyed the emperor's orders. From 1363, the Chagatais progressively lost Transoxiana to the Timurids. The reduced realm came to be known as Moghulistan, which lasted until the late 15th century, when it broke off into the Yarkent Khanate and Turpan Khanate. In 1680, the remaining Chagatai domains lost their independence to the Dzungar Khanate, and in 1705, the last Chagatai khan was removed from power, ending the dynasty of Chagatai.
The administrative and bureaucratic language of towns and khanates was Persian. Whereas Persian was the dominant literary language of the area, Chagatai shared its distinction by being the only Turkic literary language in Central Asia from the fourteenth to the early twentieth century.