Middle East Kingdoms

Jalayirid Sultanate
AD 1336 - 1432

The Jalayirids were a Mongol successor state to the Il-Khans who managed to secure south-western Persia for themselves, ruling it from Baghdad. Their founder had been the governor of Anatolia until the death of the Il-Khan Sultan Abu Said. While attempting to take control of Persia, they tried to maintain puppets on the throne from western Persia, always in opposition to their main rivals, the Chobanids in north-western Persia, while both sides used the surviving Il-Khan Puppets themselves.

The Jalayir (or Yyalair) seem to have originated as a unit of the Darliqin Mongols, forming one of the three core tribes of the Khamag Mongol confederation which was a precursor to the Mongol empire. During the rise of the empire they spread across Central Asia and also entered the Middle East under Chingiz Khan and his commanders in the thirteenth century. Those Jalayirs who remained in Central Asia eventually adopted Turkic language and could be found in many of the subsequent Mongol splinter and successor states, starting with the Golden Horde. Those who ventured into Persia were responsible for founding the Jalayirid sultanate. Their name is the Mongolian version of a Turkic name which was used to describe the ruling dynasty of the Second Uigur Kaganate.

Included in the Jalayirid territories were parts of the collapsed Turkic sultanate of Rum, but the expanding Ottoman Turks had already taken much of the western Anatolian lands. Instead, the Jalayrids were confined to territory that corresponded to modern Iraq and Iran (western Persia).

1336 - 1356

Tajuddin Hasan Buzurg

Ex-governor of Anatolia. First sultan from 1340.

1336 - 1340

The puppet Il-Khan, Musa, is challenged by Hasan Buzurg. His master, Padsah, is killed and Musa flees after being defeated at the Battle of Qara Darra on 24 July 1336. Buzurg maintains his own puppet, the child Muhammad Khan, on the Il-Kahn throne between 1337-1338. Then the Chobanid, Hasan Kucek, defeats Buzurg and Muhammad at the Battle of Alataq on 16 July 1338. Buzurg flees but Muhammad is captured and executed. Following a short flirtation with another claimant, Togha Temur, in 1339, Buzurg's next puppet is Jahan Temur (1339-1340). After this he abandons the idea of puppet claimants to the throne and establishes his own Jalayirid sultanate in Baghdad.

1356 - 1374

Uwais I

1374 - 1382

Jalaluddin Hussein I

1382 - 1410

Ghiyathuddin Hussein I

1382 - 1383

Bayazid

1387 - 1405

The Jalayirids are conquered by the Timurids from Persia, with Baghdad falling in 1401. They also lose control of their vassals, the Black Sheep Emirate. The sultanate is re-established after the death of Timur.

1410 - 1411

Shah Walad

1411 - 1415

Mahmud

1415 - 1421

Uwais II

1421 - 1422

Mohammed

1422 - 1424

Mahmud

1424 - 1432

Hussein II

1432

The sultanate is finally conquered by its former vassal, the Black Sheep Emirate.