Khanate
A khanate or khaganate was a polity ruled by a khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum.[1][2] Khanates were typically nomadic Turkic, Mongol and Tatar societies located on the Eurasian Steppe,[3][4][5] politically equivalent in status to kinship-based chiefdoms and feudal monarchies.[2] Khanates and khaganates were organised tribally, where leaders gained power on the support and loyalty of their warrior subjects,[3] gaining tribute from subordinates as realm funding.[6] In comparison to a khanate, a khaganate, the realm of a khagan, was a large nomadic state maintaining subjugation over numerous smaller khanates.[7] The title of khagan, translating as "Khan of the Khans", roughly corresponds in status to that of an emperor.[2][4]
Mongol-ruled khanates


Chagatai Khanate (1226–1347)
After Genghis Khan established appanages for his family in the Mongol Empire during his rule (1206–1227), his sons, daughters, and grandsons inherited separate sections of the empire. The Mongol Empire and Mongolian khanates that emerged from those appanages are listed below.
In 1226, the second son of Genghis Khan, Chagatai Khan established the Chagatai Khanate. At its height in the late 13th century, the khanate extended from the Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea to the Altai Mountains in the border of modern-day Mongolia and China, roughly corresponding to the defunct Qara Khitai Empire. Initially the rulers of the Chagatai Khanate recognized the supremacy of the Great Khan, but by the reign of Kublai Khan, Ghiyas-ud-din Baraq no longer obeyed the emperor's orders.
Il-Khanate (1252–1335)
In 1256, Il-Khanate was established by the grandson of Genghis Khan, Hulagu Khan. Its core territory lies in what is now part of the countries of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. At its greatest extent, the Ilkhanate also included parts of modern Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, part of modern Dagestan, and part of modern Tajikistan. Later Ilkhanate rulers, beginning with Ghazan in 1295, converted to Islam. In the 1330s, the Ilkhanate was ravaged by the Black Death. Its last khan Abu Sa'id died in 1335, after which the khanate disintegrated. The Ilkhanid rulers, although of non-Iranian origin, tried to advertise their authority by tying themselves to the Iranian past, and they recruited historians in order to present the Mongols as heirs to the Sasanians (224–651 AD) of pre-Islamic Iran.
- List of Mongol khanates
- Bogd Khanate (1911–1924), under rule of the Bogd Khan, the last Mongol khagan
- Dzungar Khanate, formed in 1634, covering Xinjiang region of China, Kyrgyzstan, eastern Kazakhstan and western Mongolia; 2 December 1717 – 1720, also styled Protector of Tibet; 1755 tributary to the Qing dynasty, 1755 annexed by Qing dynasty
Golden Horde
- Blue Horde
- White Horde
- Kalmyk Khanate, established c.1630 by the Torghut branch of the Mongol Oirats, settled along the lower Volga River (in modern Russia and Kazakhstan), 1630-1771
- Kara Del
- Keraite Khanate
- Khamag Mongol Khanate
- Khoshut Khanate
- Khotgoid Khanate
- Mergid Khanate
- Moghul Khanate
- Naiman Khanate
- Qara Khitai (Western Liao dynasty)
- Rouran Khaganate
- Tatar Khanate
- Yuan dynasty
Turkic khanates
First Turkic Khaganate
- Second Turkic Khaganate
- Uyghur Khaganate
- Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate
- Xueyantuo
- Kara-Khanid Khanate
- Khazar Khaganate
- Turgesh Khaganate
Golden Horde
- Cumania
- Pechenegs
Old Great Bulgaria
- Volga Bulgaria, predecessor to the modern Chuvash Republic and the Chuvash people.
- First Bulgarian Empire, which started as a Turko-Slavic state, also known as Danube Bulgaria (in contrast to Volga Bulgaria, as both were established by members of the same Bulgar clan), but later became fully Slavicized and a Tsardom.
- Keraite Khanate
- Naiman Khanate
- Tatar Khanate
- Merkit Khanate
Central Asian Turkic khanates

- Senior zhuz
- Middle zhuz
- Junior zhuz
- Astrakhan Khanate
- Besh Tau El
- Bukey Horde, Bokei or Buqei; also known as the Inner or Interior Horde – This state founded in 1801 by Sultan Bukey under Russian suzerainty, and restyled as the khanate of the Inner Horde in 1812. 5,000–7,500 families of Kazakhs from the Younger Kazakh Zhuz tribe settled between the Volga and Yaik (Ural) rivers. In 1845 the post of khan was abolished, and Russia took over the region
- Khanate of Bukhara
Crimean Khanate
- Kara-Kyrgyz Khanate
- Karluk Khanate
- Khanate of Kashgaria – Kashgaria was founded in 1514 as part of Chagatai Khanate; in the 17th century it was divided into several minor khanates without importance, with real power going to the so-called Khwaja, Arabic Islamic religious leaders. It became the Yarkent Khanate which was annexed by the Dzungar Khanate in the Dzungar conquest of Altishahr in 1680
- Kazakh Khanate
Khanate of Kazan – The Mongol term khan became active when the Genghisid dynasty was settled in Kazan Duchy in the 1430s; imperial Russia added to its titles the former Kazan khanate with the royal style tsar
- Kimek Khanate
Kokand Khanate
- Kumul Khanate – a vassal state to Qing dynasty and Republic of China, abolished in 1930
- Maimana Khanate
Nogai Khanate
- Oghuz Yabgu State
- Qasim Khanate (hence modern Kasimov) – named after its founder, a vassal of Moscovia/Russia
Khanate of Sibir – source of the name Siberia, as the first significant conquest during Russia's great eastern expansion across the Urals
- The Khanate of Tuva near Outer Mongolia
- Uzbek Khanate
- Western Turkic Khaganate
- Yarkent Khanate
- Avar Khaganate
18th- to early-19th-century Khanates of the Caucasus in the Qajar Empire
- Ardabil Khanate
- Baku Khanate
- Derbent Khanate
- Erivan Khanate
- Ganja Khanate
- Gazikumukh Khanate
- Javad Khanate
- Karabakh Khanate
- Karadagh khanate
- Khalkhal Khanate
- Khoy Khanate
- Kura Khanate
- Maku Khanate
- Maragheh Khanate
- Marand Khanate
- Nakhchivan Khanate
- Nishapur Khanate
- Quba Khanate
- Sarab Khanate
- Shaki Khanate
- Shamakhy Khanate
- Shirvan Khanate
- Tabriz Khanate
- Talysh Khanate
- Urmia Khanate
Manchu-ruled khanate
- Later Jin dynasty – Later evolved into the Qing dynasty
Other khanates
See also
- Rus Khaganate (not an actual Khanate but so named retroactively)
- Afsharid dynasty
- Beg Khan
- Orda (organization)
- Safavid dynasty
- Timurid dynasty
References
- "Definition of KHANATE". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
- "khagan in Old Turkish - English-Old Turkish Dictionary | Glosbe". glosbe.com. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
- "khanate". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
- "What Is a Khan?". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
- "The Mongol Khans". education.nationalgeographic.org. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
- Cartwright, Mark. "Genghis Khan". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
- Królikowska-Jedlińska, Natalia. Law and Division of Power in the Crimean Khanate (1532-1774).
External links
Media related to Khanates at Wikimedia Commons