JAHĀN TIMÜR

 

JAHĀN TIMÜR (TEMÜR), son of Alafrank (q.v.) son of Gaikhatu Khan (q.v.). A phantom Il-khan, previously known as ʿEzz-al-Din, Jahān Timür was recognized briefly in Iraq and Mesopotamia in 1339-40 during the period of the collapse of the Il-khanate following the death of Abu Saʿid (q.v.) in 736/1335.

The evidence for Jahān Timür’s career is extremely scarce, reflecting his own insignificance and the brevity of his place in the spotlight. Neither the pro-Jalayerid Tāriḵ-e Šayḵ Ovays of Ahari, nor Faryumadi’s continuation of the chronicle of Šabānkāra’i mention Jahān Timür, and some of the information we possess is conflicting. According to Mostawfi (tr. pp. 108-9, text, pp. 448-49), his elevation followed the failure of Šayḵ Ḥasan-e Bozorg’s initiative to recognize the Khorasanian candidate, Ṭaḡāy Timür, as Il-khan and the collapse of the second Khorasanian invasion of western Iran in the summer of 739/1339. This also marked a new rift with the Chobanid, Šayḵ Ḥasan-e Kuchek, whose subtle diplomacy had broken up an alliance that was anyway beginning to unravel (see CHOBANIDS, p. 500). Returning towards Iraq from Sāva, Ḥasan-e Bozorg stopped at a settlement called Aqtaq near Talbar (or Talambar, near Šahr-e Naw of Hamadan) and turned to prince Jahān Timür as an alternative Chinggisid figurehead to the Chobanid Sati Beg (shortly to be married to, and replaced by, Solaymān Khan, a grandson of prince Süge). Mostawfi was himself at Sāva at this time, in the service of Ḥasan-e Bozorg’s newly appointed vizier, Ḵᵛāja Šams al-Din Zakariā (tr. p. 111, text, p. 451). This must have been early in 740/autumn 1339, for Šayḵ Ḥasan is then reported to have gone to Baghdad for the winter. Most of this information is followed by Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru (p. 208).

Confirmation is provided by the issue of coins in the name of Jahān Timür Khan throughout the area controlled by Šayḵ Ḥasan and his allies (notably Ḥāji Ṭaḡāy of Diyarbakır [Diarbekr] and Eretna in E. Anatolia), in the year 740 A.H.: in Baghdad, Basra, Erzincan, Hella, Arbīl, Jazirat b. ʿOmar, Khilat (Ahlat), Mosul, perhaps Samsun (read by Album as an issue for Ṭaḡāy Timür), Sinjar, and Wastan (Album I, pp. 84-87, Album II, pp. 65-70, Aykut, pp. 109-10). On the other hand, Ebn Fatḥ-Allāh (p. 75) states that Ḥasan-e Bozorg elevated the previously unknown Jahān Timür to the Khanate in 743/1342-43 at Noʿmāniya (S. Iraq): possibly, therefore, a second ‘coronation’ in Iraqi territory, though the date must be disregarded, despite the fact that Ebn Fatḥ-Allāh is citing a contemporary source.

Jahān Timür’s dismissal was as abrupt as his rise. Mustering his forces in the spring of 740/1340, Ḥasan-e Bozorg marched together with his protégé on Azerbaijan. They fought a pitched battle at Aqtash near Küitü (for which see Melville, p. 55 n. 165) on Wednesday 29 Ḏu’l-Ḥejja 740/21 June 1340 and the Jalayerids were defeated and fled (Mostawfi, tr. p.122, text p. 459). At some stage after this, returning to Baghdad, Ḥasan-e Bozorg recognized that Jahān Timür was of no use and deposed him before returning to the attack with a new campaign to Azerbaijan in the spring of 741/1341 (ibid., tr. p. 125, text p. 462). In the interval, according to the same source, Chobanid forces attacked Baghdad but were repulsed. The same events, though in a different order, are reported by Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru (pp. 209-10, 212). Whatever the exact date of Jahān Timür’s dismissal, it is significant that no coins in his name were minted in Iraq in the year 741/1340, though there are a few from Jazirat b. ʿOmar early in the year, before local allegiance was instead given to the Chobanid Solaymān Khan (Album, II, pp. 57, 67-68). As noted by Album (I, p. 85), the coinage of Jahān Timür, with a lighter standard (double dirham of 10 qirāts), departed from the standard established by Ḡāzān Khan’s coinage reform and retained elsewhere, so that now a single currency no longer prevailed in the Il-khanid empire.

The removal of the wholly insignificant Jahān Timür is generally considered to mark the start of Ḥasan-e Bozorg’s independent rule, although on occasions, as circumstances dictated, he did briefly offer allegiance to other figurehead Il-khans outside his own control (cf. J. M. Smith, Sarbadārs, pp. 99, 110-11; Roemer, p. 5).

 

Bibliography:

S. Album, “Studies in Ilkhanid history and numismatics I. A late Ilkhanid hoard (743/1342),” Studia Iranica 13, 1984, pp. 49-116.

Idem, “Studies in Ilkhanid history and numismatics II. A late Ilkhanid hoard (743/1342),” Studia Iranica 14, 1985, pp. 43-76.

T. Aykut, “The Yapı Kredi coin collection, in Ak Akçe. Mongol and Ilkhanid coins, Yapı Kredi coin collections I, Istanbul, 1992, pp. 41-120.

Š. Bayāni, Tāriḵ-e Āl-e Jalāyer, Tehran, 1966, repr. 2002, pp. 26-27.

ʿAbd-Allāh b. Fatḥ-Allāh, al-Taʿriḵ al-Ḡiāṯi, ed. T. N. al-Hamadāni, Baghdad, 1975.

Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru, Ḏayl-e Jāmeʿ al-tawāriḵ, 2nd ed., ed. Ḵ. Bayāni, Tehran, 1971.

Charles Melville, The fall of Amir Chupan and the decline of the Ilkhanate, 1327-37: A decade of discord in Mongol Iran, Indiana, 1999.

Ḥamd-Allāh Mostawfi, Dayl-e Żafar-nāma, facs. ed. Z.V. Pirieva, Baku, 1978; Russ. tr. by M. D. Kazimova & Z. V. Pirieva, Baku, 1986 (entitled Ḏayl-e Tāriḵ-e gozida).

Hans Roemer, “The Jalayrids, Muzaffarids and Sarbadārs,” in Cam. hist. Iran, VI. The Timurid and Safavid periods, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 1-41.

J. M., Smith, “Djalāyir, Djalāyirid,” in EI2, II, pp. 401-2.

Idem, The History of the Sarbadār Dynasty 1336-1381 A. D. and its Sources, The Hague and Paris, 1970.

(Charles Melville)

Originally Published: December 15, 2008

Last Updated: April 10, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. XIV, Fasc. 4, pp. 385-386