The Il-Khanate spread over many regions, cities and states. The new regime’s presence was felt to varying degrees in different places. In a general sense security, especially on the roads, was increased and this greatly increased and promoted not only commercial exchange but also cultural exchange. 544 In Rum the Il-Khans’ impact on daily life was minimal, in Azerbaijan, especially in the areas east of Lake Urumiyeh, their presence would have been unavoidable. In general over the first decades, the Mongol rulers were content to encourage cooperation in order to ensure that trade, agriculture and industry flourished and taxes continued to be paid. The process of cultural integration, already apparent at the highest levels in the princely ordus, had centuries of contact between the steppe and the sown on which to further develop. Often the ruling élites were themselves Turks only two or three generations removed from the steppe and both parties appeared to agree it desirable and possible that a symbiotic relationship be established.
The three states examined in the following chapters provide examples of camparison and contrast among the Il-Khanid provinces. The Qarā
commander and recent convert to Islam, established the Qutlugh Khanid dynasty of Kirman. Its rulers worked closely with the Mongols and the province prospered especially under the enlightened reign of the remarkable Qutlugh Terkān. In Shiraz the Turkoman dynasty of the Salghurids was also led by a woman during part of the Il-Khanid period. However in sharp contrast to her namesake in Kirman, Shiraz’s Terkān Khātūn did not have, never earned, and would not deserve the respect or support of her subjects and the years of her ascendancy and the early decades of Il-Khanid dominance were grim for this southern province. In Khorasan circumstances were again different. The Karts of Herat were an indigenous Afghan dynasty who could claim successor status through marriage from the Ghurids. Maintaining close personal and military contacts with the Mongols from the first, Kart rule saw their capital, Herat, prosper and flourish laying a strong commercial and cultural basis for the city’s eventual heyday under the later Timürids.
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth Century Iran: A Persian Renaissance.
Contributors: George Lane - Author.
Publisher: Routledge Curzon.
Place of publication: New York.
Publication year: 2003.
Page number: 96.
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