mongol expansion & eurasian commercial axes 59
hülegü, as the best placed of the various claimants, cut the gordian
knot briskly and brutally. the circumstances, and his own ambition, per-
suaded him to proclaim himself ruler of persia and of the neighbouring
territories mentioned above, and he improvised a qurultai (probably late
in the year 1260) to confirm his decision.107 whether or not it held strictly
to the laws and customs which traditionally consecrated Mongol rulers,
this gathering created a new first-order reality in the chinggisid world,
known to history as the ilkhanate.108
unlike the steppe chieftains who kept their characteristic customs
in an environment very like their ancestral home, from the very begin-
ning geopolitical circumstances forced the ilkhanids to adopt ambivalent
behaviours: they were Mongol khans and shahs of persia at one and the
same time. in order to preserve some nomad ways, hülegü and his succes-
sors spent the greater part of the year in the green pastures of the trans-
caucasia with their hordes.109 as heirs to the rulers of persia, the ilkhans
inherited industrious subjects and rich territories, but they also inherited
problems which needed continual attention.
chief among these were the numerous rich cities, which brought in
revenue incomparably greater than the poorer khans of the golden horde
could draw upon, with their relatively few urban holdings.110 For the most
part, these cities were commercial centres on the silk road.111 it was more-
over of central importance that hülegü ruled not just the whole expanse
of persia from Khorasan to the gates of asia Minor, but also, as suzerain
of the seljuk sultan and the king of cilician armenia, controlled the end
points of the great commercial arteries.
the ilkhans conquered Mesopotamia, the fertile land between the tigris
and euphrates and a source of riches ever since Babylonian times, from
the abbasids, and thus gained another great corridor of intercontinental
long-distance trade, the iraqi spice route which linked the indian ocean
to the Mediterranean ports of syria and cilician armenia, via the persian
gulf.112 the egyptian spice route, however, remained outside the ilkhanid
107 Jackson, “dissolution,” p. 232.
108 it lasted from 1261 to 1335; for the meaning of the name, see below, p. 61.
109 cf. spuler, Mongolen, pp. 278–280 (chapter ‘die hauptstädte und aufenthaltsorte
der ilchane’).
110 the contrast was striking at the time, and also impressed ‛umarī/lech, p. 136.
111 cf. above, chapters 2.1.2, 2.2.1.
112 cf. below, chapters 3.2, 3.4.2.