Chagatai Khanate

History

The khanate that grew out of the lands given to Chagatai, the second son of Genghis Khan, and ruled by his descendants over the steppes and oasis cities of Central Asia.

Keepers of the Yassa

Legend has it that Chagatai was the strictest enforcer of the Yassa, the traditional Mongol code of law. He is said to have insisted even on the rule against washing one's hands in running water, and among his brothers he was known as the one who held everyone to the letter of the law. Reflecting that spirit, the khanate long retained its rugged, nomadic way of life.

A realm of both steppe and city

Sitting in the heart of Central Asia, it controlled key stretches of the Silk Road - The Silk Road was a very long network of trade routes that connected the East and the West in ancient times. It got its name, which means 'route of silk,' because expensive and beautiful Chinese silk was traded along these paths starting from the Han Dynasty. Merchants traveled on camels across deserts and mountains, exchanging not only goods like spices and jewels, but also sharing different religions, new technologies, and interesting stories. Later, massive empires like the Tang Dynasty and the Mongol Empire gained incredible wealth and power by protecting and managing these important routes.. In the west lay the oasis cities of Transoxiana - The land of Central Asia between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya rivers. Mawarannahr is Arabic for 'what lies beyond the river', and the Greek and Roman name Transoxiana means the same thing. It covers today's Uzbekistan and Tajikistan along with southern Kazakhstan.Water drawn from the two rivers let oasis cities such as Samarkand and Bukhara grow in the middle of the desert, and they thrived as staging posts on the Silk Road. Because the taxes of those cities and the profits of their merchants were so large, the khanates that emerged from the divided Mongol Empire fought hard to control the region. The Talas kurultai of 1269 was, in the end, a meeting about how to share out its pastures and its taxes.Samarkand carries an old legend of its own. It is said to have been founded by Afrasiab, the king of Turan in the Persian epics, and the mound of the old city is still called Afrasiab today. such as Samarkand - One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia and a vital hub on the Silk Road. It was captured by Qutayba ibn Muslim in 712 and became a major center for Islamic learning and commerce. and Bukhara - A historic city in modern-day Uzbekistan that long served as a center of trade, scholarship, and culture on the Silk Road. It was added to the Umayyad Caliphate in 709 during the conquests of Qutayba ibn Muslim.; in the east lay Almaliq and the grasslands. Wanting the taxes of the cities while refusing to give up the herding life left the khanate straddling two worlds, and that is what eventually tore it apart.

Years of being pulled by neighbours

After the Mongol Empire split, the Chagatai Khanate was often at the mercy of stronger neighbours. At the Talas kurultai of 1269 it agreed with Kaidu on how to share land and taxes, but when Baraq marched west against the Ilkhanate - The Mongol khanate Hülegü founded in Persia and the Middle East; its very name means a khan who obeys the Great Khan. the next year, lost badly and died, the khanate fell under Kaidu's influence for a long time.

Split in two

By the middle of the 14th century the west, which wanted to settle in the oasis cities, and the east, which wanted to stay on the steppe, finally parted. The eastern half became known as Moghulistan, while in the west Timur took power behind a Chagatai khan and built an empire of his own.