Khanate
A khaganate or khanate was a political entity ruled by a khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum. This political entity was typically found on the Eurasian Steppe and could be equivalent in status to tribal chiefdom, principality, kingdom or empire.
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
- Khamag Mongol Khanate
- Keraite Khanate
- Mergid Khanate
- Naiman Khanate
- Tatar Khanate
- Qara Khitai (Western Liao dynasty)
Golden Horde
- Yuan dynasty
- Northern Yuan dynasty
- Moghulistan
- Kara Del
- Khoshut Khanate
- 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
- 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
Turkic khanates
First Turkic Khaganate
- Second Turkic Khaganate
- Uyghur Khaganate
- Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate
- Xueyantuo
- Karakhanids
- Khazar Khaganate
- Turgesh Khaganate
Kipchak Khanate
- 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

Kazakh khanate
- Senior zhuz
- Middle zhuz
- Junior zhuz
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.
Sibirean Khanate – source of the name Siberia, as the first significant conquest during Russia's great eastern expansion across the Urals
- Astrakhan Khanate
Crimean Khanate
- Qasim Khanate (hence modern Kasimov) – named after its founder, a vassal of Moscovia/Russia
- 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.
Nogai Khanate
- The khanate of Tuva near Outer Mongolia.
- Besh Tau El
- 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.
- Kumul Khanate – a vassal state to Qing dynasty and Republic of China, abolished in 1930
- Kimek Khanate
Khanate of Bukhara
Khanate of Kokand
- Karluk Khanate
- White Horde
- Oghuz Yabgu State
- West Turkic Khaganate
18th- to early-19th-century Khanates of the Caucasus in the Qajar Empire
- Ardabil Khanate
- Baku Khanate
- Derbent Khanate
- Erivan Khanate
- Ganja Khanate
- Javad Khanate
- Karabakh Khanate
- Karadagh khanate
- Khalkhal Khanate
- Khoy Khanate
- Talysh Khanate
- Maku Khanate
- Maragheh Khanate
- Marand Khanate
- Nakhchivan Khanate
- Quba Khanate
- Sarab Khanate
- Shaki Khanate
- Shirvan Khanate
- Tabriz Khanate
- Urmia Khanate
- Zanjan 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
External links
Media related to Khanates at Wikimedia Commons