Mongol Military Rulers and the Crisis of Succession in the Ilkhanate Era

The issue of succession in the Ilkhanate era, under the influence of the authority and the influence of the Mongol military rulers and aristocracy, became a socio-political crisis. Reflection on the influence of the Mongol rulers on the issue of succession and the process of turning it into a socio-political crisis show that the increasing role of the Mongol military rulers in the issue of succession is a result of the socio-political and economic-military realities of this period. Accordingly, the greater our distance from the founding of the Ilkhans to their Muslim period, the smaller the role of the Mongol emirs and aristocracy in the issue of succession, and instead the role of the Iranian bureaucracy in the succession crisis increases. This study thus aimed to investigate and explain the same pattern and the various components involved in its formation and continuation. The hypothesis of this research is that from the establishment of the patriarchal government until the coming to power of Ghazan, military commanders played an important and irreplaceable role in the issue of succession. However, with the coming to power of Ghazan, the conversion of the Ilkhans to Islam, and the rise to power of the Iranian bureaucrats, the role of military commanders in the issue of succession diminished. The results of this study also show that the influence of the Mongol princes in turning the issue of succession into a crisis depended on complex and multiple factors, and with the change in the type of Mongol politics and government in Iran, the pattern of military princes' involvement in the issue of succession also changed.