Jalāyirid

Jalāyirid, Mongol tribe that supported the Il-Khan Hülegü’s rise to power and eventually provided the successors to the Il-Khan dynasty as rulers of Iraq and Azerbaijan. A Jalāyirid dynasty made its capital at Baghdad (1336–1432).

Ḥasan Buzurg, founder of the dynasty, had served as governor of Anatolia (Rūm) under the Il-Khan Abū Saʿīd (reigned 1317–35). Following the death of Abū Saʿīd, Ḥasan Buzurg competed for real control of the empire with his rival, the Chūpānid amīr Ḥasan Küčük (“the Small,” so designated to distinguish him from Ḥasan Buzurg, “the Great”); they set up rival khanates. Soon afterward the empire broke down into local dynasties in Anatolia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia.

Ḥasan Buzurg had, meanwhile, established his line in Baghdad, from which he conducted his agitation against the Chūpānids. His son Uways I (reigned 1356–74) enlarged Jalāyirid domains by seizing Azerbaijan (1360) and placing the Moẓaffarid principality of Fārs under his suzerainty (1361–64). The dynasty, however, was beset by the westward migrations and invasions of various Turkic and Mongol tribes. The khans of the Golden Horde, successors of Batu, unsuccessfully attempted the conquest of Azerbaijan in 1356–59, while the Timurids routed Aḥmad (reigned 1382), forcing him to leave Baghdad and seek the protection of the Mamlūks of Egypt until Timur’s death in 1405. The Kara Koyunlu (q.v.) Turkmens, initially in Jalāyirid service, eventually overwhelmed Azerbaijan and western Iran, executed Aḥmad (1410), and captured Baghdad.

A subsidiary line of Jalāyirids maintained itself as vassals of the Timurids in lower Iraq until it was conquered by the Kara Koyunlu in 1432.