Women in Mongol Iran: The Khatuns, 1206-1335

309 Pages·2017·28.678 MB·English

by  Bruno De Nicola

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‘This is a book I will recommend to my students and shall continue to use
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in my own work. I imagine it will quickly become a standard text for this o

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subject as well as an indispensable companion for any student of the e
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Ilkhanate and the Mongol Empire in general. It will occupy a space on
i
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our library shelves which has been empty for far too long.’ o
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George Lane, SOAS, University of London a
explores the political, economic and religious role of women
W
in the Mongol empire
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The Mongol invasions of Eurasia in the thirteenth century re-shaped the political
map of Asia, opened up economic exchange and triggered unprecedented religious m
transformations in the territories they conquered. However, when the Mongols left their
homeland and settled in the Middle East, they brought with them not only their wives, e
daughters and concubines but also their particular idea of women’s role in society into
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the Islamic world. This book offers the first in-depth study in the English language of
the history of these women in the Mongol empire, looking at the role they played in the

political, economic and religious landscape of medieval Iran. i
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Exploring patterns of continuity and transformation in the status of these women in
different periods of the Mongol Empire as it expanded westwards into the Islamic
m
world, the book offers a view on the transformation of a majority nomadic-shamanist
society from its original homeland in Mongolia to its settlement in the mostly sedentary-
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Muslim Iran in the mid-thirteenth century.
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Key Features
• The first in-depth study of Mongol women in Iran based on original sources
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• Goes beyond the classical study on women’s role in politics to engage in aspects of Women in
economic and religious transformation
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• Discusses processes of acculturation and Islamisation
• Centres on the evolution of women’s role in Mongolia, Central Asia and Iran
l mongol iran
• Draws comparisons with other geographical areas such as Russia, Europe, India,

the Middle East and China i
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Bruno De Nicola is Research Fellow in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of The KhĀtŪns, 1206−1335
St Andrews. He is co-editor of The Mongols and the Transformation of the Middle East a
(2016), Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia (2015) and Knowledge and Language n
in Middle Eastern Societies (2010).
Cover image:A Mongol Khan and his Kha-tu-n, Persia, 14th Century © akg-images/Pictures From History
Cover design: Stuart Dalziel
ISBN 978-1-4744-1547-7 Bruno de nicola
1
9 781474 415477
WOMEN IN MONGOL IRAN
The Royal Asiatic Society was founded in 1823 ‘for the investigation of
subjects connected with, and for the encouragement of science, literature
and the arts in relation to Asia’. Informed by these goals, the policy of the
Society’s Editorial Board is to make available in appropriate formats the
results of original research in the humanities and social sciences having to
do with Asia, defined in the broadest geographical and cultural sense and
up to the present day.
The Monograph Board
Professor Francis Robinson, CBE, Royal Holloway, University of
London (Chair)
Professor Tim Barrett, SOAS, University of London
Dr Evrim Binbas¸, The Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, University
of Bonn
Dr Barbara M. C. Brend
Professor Anna Contadini, SOAS, University of London
Professor Michael Feener, University of Oxford
Dr Gordon Johnson, University of Cambridge
Dr Rosie Llewellyn Jones, MBE
Professor David Morgan, University of Wisconsin- Madison
Professor Rosalind O’Hanlon, University of Oxford
Dr Alison Ohta, Director, Royal Asiatic Society
For a full list of publications by the Royal Asiatic Society
see www.royalasiaticsociety.org
WOMEN IN MONGOL IRAN
THE KHĀTŪNS, 1206–1335
2
Bruno De Nicola
To Marta, Lara and Marco
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© Bruno De Nicola, 2017, under a Creative Commons
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ISBN 978 1 4744 1547 7 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 1548 4 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 1549 1 (epub)
The right of Bruno De Nicola to be identified as author of
this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related
Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements vii
A Note on Transliteration ix
Maps xi
Introduction: The Study of Women in the Mongol Empire 1
1 Women and Politics from the Steppes to World Empire 34
2 Regents and Empresses: Women’s Rule in the Mongols’ World
Empire 65
3 Political Involvement and Women’s Rule in the Ilkhanate 90
4 Women and the Economy of the Mongol Empire 130
5 Mongol Women’s Encounters with Eurasian Religions 182
6 Concluding Remarks 242
Glossary 249
List of Abbreviations 253
Bibliography 255
Index 283
Illustrations
Maps
1 Map of the Mongol Empire xi
2 Map of the Ilkhanid State 1260–1335 xii
Figures
1.1 The ancestors of Chinggis Khan (part 1) 37
1.2 The ancestors of Chinggis Khan (part 2) 46
2.1 The Great Khans and empresses of the Mongol Empire 67
2.2 The khātūns of the House of Chaghatai 78
3.1 The Ilkhans and khātūns of Iran 92
3.2 The early Oyrats and their connection to the Chinggisid
family 96
4.1 The Keraits and their connection to the Chinggisid family 141
4.2 The evolution of the khātūns’ ordos in Ilkhanid Iran 160
Plates
Between pages 148 and 149
1 A portrait of Alan Qo’a in a nineteenth-century manuscript of
the Muʿizz al-ansab
2 Mongol court scene
3 The birth of a Mongol prince
4 Ardashir being poisoned by his wife (from the Great Mongol
Shahnamah)
5 Mongol men and woman in the ordo
6 Portrait of a khan and khātūn
7 Preparations for a Mongolian festival
8 Two Mongols reading the Quran
Acknowledgements
The appearance of this book in printed form would never have been
possible without Professor Charles Melville, my PhD supervisor at the
University of Cambridge from 2007 to 2011. I thank him for his encour-
agement throughout those years and for his patient reading of my work
as it progressed, for his trust in this project and his constant academic
support. I have benefited hugely from his knowledge and guidance,
making it an enormous pleasure to work with him. For his trust, help and
support, I will always be grateful.
I would also like to thank Dr Teresa Vinyoles and Dr George Lane,
both of whom, at an early stage, inspired and encouraged my interest in the
history of women in medieval times generally and in the Mongol Empire
in particular. In addition, I would like to thank Ms Narguess Farzad and
Dr Christine van Ruymbeke for helping me to acquire some knowledge of
the Persian language in order to carry out this research.
Although the bulk of the research included in this book is based on
my doctoral dissertation, other colleagues have been key in my academic
development since I have left Cambridge. I would like to express my grati-
tude to Ms Ursula Sims-Williams and Dr Andrew Peacock for trusting
me to work with them at a postdoctoral level. Both have been important
sources of knowledge, advice and support in recent years. Similarly, I
would like to thank Sara Nur Yildiz and Zeynep Okay for their contribu-
tions to my later approximations on the history of medieval Anatolia. My
gratitude also goes to Prof. David Morgan, Dr David Sneath, Prof. Peter
Jackson, Dr Judith Pfeiffer, Prof. Denise Aigle, Prof. Karin Rührdanz and
Yonatan Brack for their comments and suggestions at different stages
in the process of writing this work. My deep gratitude goes also to Prof.
Anne Broadbridge, who made some key observations to the final version
of the book’s manuscript. The book is also the product of the support of
the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, owing especially
to the arrangements made by Dr Evrim Binbas¸, who kindly suggested that
I submit my manuscript to the Society and to Edinburgh University Press.
vii
Women in Mongol Iran
Apart from the academic support I have received from the people men-
tioned above, this project would not have been possible without the friends
who have accompanied me during the process. Nicolás Barbieri has been
a constant emotional support for many years now, proving that friendship
withstands geographical separation. My appreciation also goes to my
Cambridge friends, who made my time at the University of Cambridge
a unique experience: Yonatan Mendel, Manar Makhoul, Prajakti Kalra,
Siddarth ‘Montu’ Saxena, Ella Yedaya, James Weaver, Ignacio Sanchez,
Simon Ridley, both Pilar and Ana Lacuna Gran, Eduardo Bort, Sam Jones
and Ronald Klingebiel (among many others), all of whom have been cru-
cially important in making this research a reality.
I would like to thank Isla Rosser-Owen for checking the early manu-
script of this book and the staff of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern
Studies (University of Cambridge), of Pembroke College and of the
British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS) for their constant help in navi-
gating the intricate administrative pathways of a PhD degree.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for always being by
my side during all my years of constantly pursuing my dream of making
my passion for history into a profession. But, above all, this project would
not have been possible without the tireless support and constant love of
my wife Marta Dominguez Diaz and our two kids, Lara and Marco. It is to
them that this book is dedicated.
viii
A Note on Transliteration
The lack of a standardised system of transliteration in the field of
Mongolian studies always presents a challenge. The transliteration of
proper names has been carried out on the understanding that I am not a
master of the Mongolian language and that most of the sources used for
this research are in Persian rather than Mongolian. In order to help the
reader’s understanding, the spelling of Mongol and Turkish names has
been based on the system adopted by J. A. Boyle in The Successors of
Genghis Khan. For names that do not appear in this work, I have used
W. Thackston’s system from his Jamiʾu’t-Tawarikh: Compendium of
Chronicles. There are, however, some exceptions, most obviously with
regard to the use of ‘Chingiz Khan’ and ‘Sorqoqtani Beki’, which have
been changed to ‘Chinggis Khan’ and ‘Sorghaghtani Beki’ respectively.
For Arabic and Persian terms, I have followed the transliteration table that
appears below for special terms and work titles in the notes and bibliogra-
phy. However, I have removed diacritics from any proper nouns (names,
place names, etc.) and words found in the English dictionary. For those
names that only appear in The Secret History of the Mongols, I have fol-
lowed the transliteration used in the Igor de Rachewiltz 2004 edition, with
the exception of the Mongolian and Turkish č, which has been replaced
with ch. Place names have been given in their current anglicised forms,
where applicable, for example Kerman, Yazd and Khurasan. Similarly,
terms which have entered the English language, such as Mamluks, sultan,
khan, and so on, have been left in their English forms. Dates are generally
given in Common Era, but are preceded by their Hegira correlations when
appropriate, separated by a dash.
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