Monday, March 13, 2023

2023: Ikhwan - Ilyas

 


Ikhwan, al-
Ikhwan, al- (“The Brothers”).  Refers to the sedentarized bedouin soldiers for Ibn Saud.  The term applies to the Arab tribesmen who joined a religious and military movement between 1912 and 1930 under the rule of ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al Sa‘ud.  The movement, which was inspired by the resurgence of Wahhabism and spread rapidly, was characterized by religious fervor and the settlement of nomadic tribesmen in military cantonments.  ‘Abd al-‘Aziz‘s intention was to supersede the tribal tie with that of religion.  Thanks to the prowess of the Ikhwan, most of the Arabian Peninsula was brought under the sway of ‘Abd al-‘Aziz.  However, they at last revolted against their sovereign who checked and confined them.  Ikhwan also refers to members of the Society of the Muslim Brothers.

The Ikhwan was the Islamic religious militia which formed the main military force of the Arabian ruler Ibn Saud and played a key role in establishing him as ruler of most of the Arabian Peninsula, in his new state of Saudi Arabia. The Ikhwan were made up of Bedouin tribes. According to Wilfred Thesiger, this militant religious brotherhood declared that they were dedicated to the purification and the unification of Islam. This movement had aimed at breaking up the tribes and settling the Bedu around the wells and oases. They felt that the nomadic life was incompatible with strict conformity with Islam. Ibn Saud had risen to power on this movement. Later the Ikhwan rebelled when they accused Ibn Saud of religious laxity when he forbade them to raid into neighboring states. After the conquest of the Hejaz in 1926 brought all of the current Saudi state under Ibn Saud's control, the monarch found himself in some conflict with elements of the Ikhwan. He crushed their power at the Battle of Sabilla in 1930, following which the militia was reorganized into the Saudi Arabian National Guard.

The Ikhwan, being irregular tribesmen, relied mainly on traditional weapons such as lances and swords and sometimes old fashioned firearms. Usually, they attacked in the forms of raids which is a style Bedouins had always used in the deserts of Arabia. Those raiders traveled mainly on camels and some horses. Their savage raids on others in and around Najd were merciless. Typically, every male captured was put to death by cutting his throat.

In August 1924, the Ikhwan militia traveled 1600 kilometers (1000 miles) from Najd in modern day Saudi Arabia to attack Transjordan; now Jordan which was at that time under British mandate. Just 15 kilometers off Amman, the raiders were spotted by the British RAF which in turn attacked the Ikhwan using airplanes. The Ikhwan army suffered heavy casualties. It is reported that out of the 1500 raiders, only 100 escaped. Without the help of the RAF, Amman would most likely have been captured by the Ikhwans.

Other raids include, the Ikhwan raid on Southern Iraq in November 1927, and on Kuwait in January 1928 in which they looted camels and sheep. On both occasions, though they raided brutally, they suffered heavy retaliations from RAF and Kuwaitis.

The Brothers see Ikhwan, al-
Society of the Muslim Brothers see Ikhwan, al-


Ikhwan al-Muslimun, al-
Ikhwan al-Muslimun, al- (“The Muslim Brethren”)  (The Muslim Brotherhood) (The Society of the Muslim Brothers).  Muslim movement both religious and political, founded in Egypt by Hasan al-Banna‘ in 1928.  Dedicated to the service of Islam, the Brethren’s main objective was the struggle against western invasion in all its forms and the creation of an authentically Muslim state.  Their ideas are still widely spread.

The al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn (the Muslim Brotherhood) was religio-political organization founded in 1928 at Ismailia, Egypt, by Ḥasan al-Bannāʾ. It advocated a return to the Qurʾān and the Hadith as guidelines for a healthy modern Islamic society. The Brotherhood spread rapidly throughout Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, and North Africa. Although figures of Brotherhood membership are variable, it is estimated that at its height in the late 1940s it may have had some 500,000 members.

Initially centered on religious and educational programs, the Muslim Brotherhood was seen as providing much-needed social services, and in the 1930s its membership grew swiftly. In the late 1930s the Brotherhood began to politicize its outlook, and, as an opponent of Egypt’s ruling Wafd party, during World War II it organized popular protests against the government. An armed branch organized in the early 1940s was subsequently linked to a number of violent acts, including bombings and political assassinations, and it appears that the armed element of the group began to escape Ḥasan al-Bannāʾ’s control. The Brotherhood responded to the government’s attempts to dissolve the group by assassinating Prime Minister Maḥmūd Fahmī al-Nuqrāshī in December 1948. Ḥasan al-Bannāʾ himself was assassinated shortly thereafter; many believe his death was at the behest of the government.

With the advent of the revolutionary regime in Egypt in 1952, the Brotherhood retreated underground. An attempt to assassinate Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in Alexandria on October 26, 1954, led to the Muslim Brotherhood’s forcible suppression. Six of its leaders were tried and executed for treason, and many others were imprisoned. Among those imprisoned was writer Sayyid Quṭb, who authored a number of books during the course of his imprisonment; among these works was Signposts in the Road, which would become a template for modern Sunni militancy. Although he was released from prison in 1964, he was arrested again the following year and executed shortly thereafter. In the 1960s and ’70s the Brotherhood’s activities remained largely clandestine.

In the 1980s the Muslim Brotherhood experienced a renewal as part of the general upsurge of religious activity in Islamic countries. The Brotherhood’s new adherents aimed to reorganize society and government according to Islamic doctrines, and they were vehemently anti-Western. An uprising by the Brotherhood in the Syrian city of Ḥamāh in February 1982 was crushed by the government of Ḥafiz al-Assad at a cost of perhaps 25,000 lives. The Brotherhood revived in Egypt and Jordan in the same period, and, beginning in the late 1980s, it emerged to compete in legislative elections in those countries.

In Egypt, the participation of the Muslim Brotherhood in parliamentary elections there in the 1980s was followed by its boycott of the elections of 1990, when it joined most of the country’s opposition in protesting electoral strictures. Although the group itself remained formally banned, in the 2000 elections Brotherhood supporters running as independent candidates were able to win 17 seats, making it the largest opposition bloc in the parliament. In 2005, again running as independents, the Brotherhood and its supporters captured 88 seats in spite of efforts by President Ḥosnī Mubārak’s administration to restrict voting in the group’s strongholds. Its unexpected success in 2005 was met with additional restrictions and arrests, and the Brotherhood opted to boycott the 2008 local elections. In the 2010 parliamentary elections the Mubārak administration continued to restrict the Muslim Brotherhood by arresting members and barring voters in areas where the organization had strong support. After Mubārak’s National Democratic Party won 209 out of 211 seats in the first round of voting, effectively eliminating the Muslim Brotherhood from the parliament, the organization boycotted the second round.

In January 2011 a non-religious youth protest movement against the Mubārak regime appeared in Egypt. After hesitating briefly, the Muslim Brotherhood’s senior leadership endorsed the movement and called on its members to participate in demonstrations. When protests forced Mubārak to step down as president in February, leaving a transitional military administration in control of the country, the Muslim Brotherhood signaled that it intended to begin officially participating in Egyptian politics. The Muslim Brotherhood announced that it would apply to become a recognized political party as soon as constitutional amendments allowing wider political participation were completed but stated that it did not intend to nominate a candidate for the presidential elections.

In late April 2011 the Muslim Brotherhood took further steps toward open participation in Egyptian politics, founding a political party called the Freedom and Justice Party and applying for official recognition from the Egyptian interim government. Leaders of the Freedom and Justice Party stated that the party’s policies would be grounded in Islamic principles but that the party, whose members included women and Christians, would be non-confessional. The party received official recognition in June, allowing it to enter candidates in upcoming elections.


The Muslim Brethren see Ikhwan al-Muslimun, al-
The Society of the Muslim Brothers see Ikhwan al-Muslimun, al-
The Muslim Brotherhood see Ikhwan al-Muslimun, al-

Ikhwan al-Safa‘, al-
Ikhwan al-Safa‘, al- (The Brethren of Purity) (The Brethren of Sincerity).  Arabic phrase meaning “brethren of purity.”  Al-Ikhwan al-Safa‘ was a secret philosophical-religious society which arose in the tenth century at Basra, in Iraq. They were associated with the Batini Isma‘ilis, who had engaged in secret political propaganda since the death of their imam, Isma‘il ibn Ja‘far al-Sadiq, in 760.   The Brethren injected into this propaganda a new scientific and philosophical spirit and dedicated themselves to enlightening and spiritually purifying themselves.  They propagated their ideas in various parts of the Islamic empire and produced fifty-two philosophical epistles and a compendium of their teachings.  The so-called Epistles of

the Brethren of Purity conceal the identity of the brethren.  Of Isma‘ili inspiration, the Epistles were composed in Basra around 960, and should be regarded as an attempt to reunite the non-Fatimid Isma‘ilis on a common doctrinal basis countering the ideological offensive of the Fatimids.

The Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ(Brethren of Purity) was a secret Arab confraternity, founded at Basra, Iraq, that produced a philosophical and religious encyclopaedia, Rasāʾil ikhwān aṣ-ṣafāʾ wa khillān al-wafāʾ (“Epistles of the Brethren of Purity and Loyal Friends”), sometime in the second half of the 10th century of the Christian calendar.

Neither the identity nor the period of the Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ has been definitively established, but the various authors of the Rasāʾil do seem to reflect the doctrinal position of the Ismāʿīlīyah, a radical Shīʿī Muslim sect influenced by Manichaeism and Neoplatonism, which preached an esoteric interpretation of the Qurʾān open only to initiates. The Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ, like all other Islāmic philosophers, attempted to naturalize Greek philosophy in a way of their own. They chose to follow a fairly orthodox Neoplatonic position and admitted Hermetic, Gnostic, astrological, and occult sciences on a large scale in the belief that their absorption of ancient wisdom enabled them to fathom the esoteric meaning of revelation.

According to the Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ, individual human souls emanate from the universal soul and rejoin it after death; the universal soul in its turn will be united with God on the day of the Last Judgment. The Rasāʾil are thus intended to purify the soul of misconceptions and lead it to a clear view of the essence of reality, which in turn will provide for happiness in the next life. To accomplish this enlightenment, the Rasāʾil are structured theoretically to lead the soul from concrete to abstract knowledge. There is also an important summary of the whole encyclopaedia, ar-Risālah al-jāmiʿah.


The Brethren of Purity see Ikhwan al-Safa‘, al-
The Brethren of Sincerity see Ikhwan al-Safa‘, al-


‘Ikrima
‘Ikrima (643-723).  Successor and one of the main transmitters of the traditional interpretation of the Qur‘an, attributed to Ibn ‘Abbas.


Ilat
Ilat (in singular form, Il).  Turco-Persian term denoting nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes. 
Il see Ilat


Ildenizids
Ildenizids (Eldiguzids).  Line of Turkish slave commanders who governed most of northwestern Persia and Azerbaijan (r.1150- 1225).  They were patrons of poets and scholars.
Eldiguzids see Ildenizids


Ildeniz, Shams al-Din
Ildeniz, Shams al-Din (Shams al-Din Ildeniz) (Eldiguz) (d. 1175/1176).  Qipcaq (Kipchak) Turk who, by 1146, made himself the virtually independent ruler of Azerbaijan and founded the dynasty of the Ildenizids.

Shams al-Din Ildeniz was an atabeg of Azerbaijan and founder of the dynasty of Atabegs of Azerbaijan, which held sway over Arran (Azerbaijan), Azerbaijan (Iran), and most of northwestern Persia from the second half of the 12th century to the early decades of the 13th.

A Kipchak by origin, Shams al-Din Ildeniz was formerly a freedman of Seljuk sultan Mahmud’s (1118-1131) vizier Kamal Din al-Simirumi and attained to the post of governor of Arran under Sultan Masud (1134-1152). His raise as the most powerful peripheral amirs of the Seljukid empire was aided by the necessity of having a large army against the frequent incursions from the neighboring kingdom of Georgia. He made himself virtually independent ruler of Azerbaijan by 1146. His marriage with the widow of the late Sultan Tughril II (1131-1134; Masud’s brother and predecessor) afforded him to intervene in the dynastic strife which erupted upon Masud’s death in 1152. He succeeded, in 1160, in deposing Sulayman Shah and installing his stepson Arslan ibn Tughril (1160-1175) as sultan. Conferred with the rank of atabek, Ildeniz now became a chief protector of the sultan’s authority. Ildeniz then arranged a marriage between his son Pahlawan and the daughter of Inanch, amir of Rayy, in order to secure the allegiance of this powerful dynast. Later Inanch allied himself with the amirs of Fars and Qazvin and attempted to depose Arslan in favor of his brother Muhammad. Ildeniz met the renegades on a battlefield and won a victory, but Inanch escaped to Rayy. Ildeniz then marched to Isfahan and forced the atabek of Fars, Zangi, into submission. Soon he proceeded northward to recover the city of Dvin from the Georgian attack in 1162. A coalition of Muslim rulers led by Ildeniz defeated the Georgian king Giorgi III and forced him to withdraw into his possessions. Back at Hamadan, he had to deal with another invasion – this time by the Khwarezmians who planned to annex Khurasan. The Khwarezminas avoided the confrontation and retreated in the face of the advancing army of Ildeniz. Their ally Inanch was murdered at the request of Ildeniz in 1169. It was not, however, until the death of the Khwarazmshah Il-Arslan in 1172, when the threats on this sector were finally eliminated.

By the time of his death around 1175-6, Ildeniz was arguably the undisputed de facto master of many parts of the already fragmentized Great Seljukid Empire, centered on Iraq. He was buried at Hamadan, at a madrasa which he had founded.

Shams al-Din Ildeniz see Ildeniz, Shams al-Din
Eldiguz see Ildeniz, Shams al-Din


Ilek-Khans
Ilek-Khans (Qarakhanids) (Karakhanids). Turkish dynasty which ruled in both Western Turkestan (Transoxiana) and in Eastern Turkestan (Kashgharia or Sinkiang), from the tenth to the early thirteenth centuries.  The Ilek-Khans gradually assimilated themselves to the Perso-Islamic cultural and governmental traditions and were patrons of scholars and literary men.

Qarakhanid Dynasty, also spelled Karakhanid, also called Ilek Khanid, was a Turkic dynasty (999–1211) that ruled in Transoxania in Central Asia.

The Qarakhanids, who belonged to the Qarluq tribal confederation, became prominent during the 9th century. With the disintegration of the Iranian Sāmānid dynasty, the Qarakhanids took over the Sāmānid territories in Transoxania. In 999 Hārūn (or Ḥasan) Bughra Khān, grandson of the paramount tribal chief of the Qarluq confederation, occupied Bukhara, the Sāmānid capital. The Sāmānid domains were split up between the Ghaznavids, who gained Khorāsān and Afghanistan, and the Qarakhanids, who received Transoxania. The Oxus River thus became the boundary between the two rival empires. During this period the Qarakhanids were converted to Islām.

Early in the 11th century the unity of the Qarakhanid dynasty was fractured by constant internal warfare. In 1041 Muḥammad ʿAyn ad-Dawlah (reigned 1041–52) took over the administration of the western branch of the family, centered at Bukhara. At the end of the 11th century, the Qarakhanids were forced to accept Seljuq suzerainty. With a decline in Seljuq power, the Qarakhanids in 1140 fell under domination of the rival Turkic Karakitai confederation, centered in northern China. ʿUthmān (reigned 1204–11) briefly re-established the independence of the dynasty, but in 1211 the Qarakhanids were defeated by the Khwārezm-Shāh ʿAlāʾ ad-Dīn Muḥammad and the dynasty was extinguished.

Qarakhanids see Ilek-Khans
Karakhanids see Ilek-Khans


Ileri, Jelal Nuri
Ileri, Jelal Nuri (Jelal Nuri Ileri) (Celal Nuri Ileri) (1877-1938).  Turkish modernist, writer, publicist and journalist.  He wrote about the legal system, the emancipation of women, the causes of Ottoman decline, the alphabet and language reform and reform in Islam.

Jelal Nuri Ileri see Ileri, Jelal Nuri
Celal Nuri Ileri  see Ileri, Jelal Nuri


Ilghazi I, Najm al-Din
Ilghazi I, Najm al-Din (Najm al-Din Ilghazi I) (Najm ad-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq) (d. November 8, 1122).  Saljuq ruler and founder of the Mardin and Mayyafariqin branch of the Artuqid dynasty.  He ruled from 1104 to 1122.

Najm ad-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq was the Turkish Artukid ruler of Mardin from 1104 to 1122.

His father Artuk was the founder of the Artukid dynasty, and was appointed governor of Jerusalem by the Seljuk emir Tutush. When Artuk died, Ilghazi and his brother Sökmen succeeded him as governors of Jerusalem. In 1096, Ilghazi allied with Duqaq of Damascus and Yaghi-Siyan of Antioch against Radwan of Aleppo. Duqaq and Radwan were fighting for control of Syria after the death of Tutush. Ilghazi and Dukak eventually quarrelled and Ilghazi was imprisoned, leading to the capture of Jerusalem by his brother Sökmen, but Ilgazi recovered the city when he was released. He held it until the city was captured by the Fatimid vizier of Egypt, al-Afdal Shahanshah, in 1098. After this, he sought to make a name for himself in the Jezirah, where his brothers had also established themselves. He then entered the service of the Seljuk Sultan Mahmud I, who granted him Hulwan and made him shihna of Baghdad, an office which oversaw the affairs of the caliph on behalf of the sultan.

Ilghazi was dismissed as shihna in 1104 and became leader of the Artukid family after the death of Sökmen that year. This was disputed by Sökmen's son Ibrahim, but Ilghazi took Mardin from him in 1108. As head of the Artukids he made no lasting alliances and frequently switched sides, allying with both fellow Muslims and Christian crusaders whenever he saw fit. In 1110, he participated in an unsuccessful siege of Edessa. In 1114, he and his nephew Balak (future emir of Aleppo) defeated the Seljuk governor of Mosul, Aksungur al-Bursuki, and captured Mas'ud, son of the Seljuk sultan. In 1115, Ilghazi besieged Hims, but was captured briefly by its governor Khir-Khan. Later that year, Roger of Antioch, Baldwin I of Jerusalem, Pons of Tripoli, and Baldwin II of Edessa defended Antioch against the Seljuk general Bursuk (not to be confused with al-Bursuki), with the aid of Ilghazi, Toghtekin of Damascus, and Lulu of Aleppo, all enemies of Bursuk. These two armies did not come to battle, although Bursuk was later defeated by Roger at the Battle of Sarmin.

Ilghazi gained control of Aleppo after the assassination of Lulu in 1117. In 1118, he took control of Mayyafiriqin and pacified the surrounding countryside. In 1119, Ilghazi defeated and killed Roger at the Battle of Ager Sanguinis. Ibn al-Qalanisi describes the victory as "one of the finest of victories, and such plenitude of divine aid was never granted to Islam in all its past ages." The Antiochene towns of Atharib, Zerdana, Sarmin, Ma'arrat al-Nu'man and Kafr Tab fell to his army. Il Ghazi, however, was unable to extract full profit from his victory. His prolonged drunkenness deprived his army of leadership, and left the Turkmen free to scatter after plunder.

Baldwin II (Baldwin II of Jerusalem) soon arrived to drive Ilghazi back, inflicting heavy losses on the Turks in the hard-fought Battle of Hab on August 14, 1119. The next year Ilghazi took Nisibin, and then pillaged the County of Edessa before turning north towards Armenia. In 1121, he made peace with the crusaders, and with supposedly up to 250 000 - 350 000 troops, including men led by his son-in-law Sadaqah and Sultan Malik of Ganja, he invaded Georgia. David IV of Georgia met him at the Battle of Didgori and Ilghazi was defeated. According to Matthew of Edessa 400 000 Turks were killed, though there were not even that many at the battle. Among the various leaders, only Ilghazi and his son-in-law Dubais escaped.

In 1122, Ilghazi and Balak defeated Joscelin I of Edessa and took him prisoner, but Ilghazi died in November of that year at Diyarbekir. He was buried at Mayyafariqin (Silvan today). Balak succeeded him in Aleppo and his sons Sulaiman and Timurtash succeeded him in Mardin.

Ilghazi married first Farkhunda Khatun, the daughter of Radwan of Aleppo, but he never actually met her and the marriage was never consummated. He then married the daughter of Toghtekin of Damascus and had the following children:

    * Ayaz
    * Guhar Khatun, married Dubais
    * al-Bazm
    * Shams ad-Daula Sulaiman
    * Safra Khatun, married Husam ad-Din Qurti ibn Toghlan Arslan
    * Yumna Khatun, married Sa'd ad-Daula Il-aldi of Amid
    * al-Sa'id Husam ad-Din Timurtash

He also had a son, Umar, by a concubine, and Nasr, by a slave; another possible son was named Kirzil.



Najm al-Din Ilghazi I see Ilghazi I, Najm al-Din
Najm ad-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq see Ilghazi I, Najm al-Din


Ilghazi II, Qutb al-Din
Ilghazi II, Qutb al-Din (Qutb al-Din Ilghazi II).  Member of the Artuqid dynasty in Mardin and Mayyafariqin (r.1171-1184).


Qutb al-Din Ilghazi II see Ilghazi II, Qutb al-Din


Ilkhanids
Ilkhanids (Il-Khanids).  Mongolian dynasty in Persia, Iraq, parts of Syria, eastern Anatolia, and the Caucausus during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (c.1256-1355). Their main capitals were Tabriz, and from 1307 Sultaniya.  Hulagu (r. 1252-1265), a grandson of Jenghiz Khan, conquered Iran in 1256 on behalf of his brother, the Great Khan Mongke, and launched the Mongol attack on Baghdad in 1258.  He assumed the title Ilkhan (“subordinate or peaceful khan”) in recognition of the leadership aspirations of the Great Khan of the Mongols.  In 1260, he was defeated by the Mamelukes, under Sultan Baybars at Ain Jalut (in Palestine), hindering the expansion westward.  Hulagu’s son, Abaqa (r. 1265-1282), consolidated his authority via the battle against the Mamelukes and subdued the Caucasus, after a political alliance with Christian Europe failed. During the short-lasting governments that followed, the economic and financial systems went into decline.  Under Khan Ghazan (r. 1295-1304), who made Islam the state religion, and his brother, Uljaitu (Oljeytu Khudabanda) (r. 1304-1316), who converted to Shi‘ism in 1310, the empire experienced its political and cultural zenith.  The last Ilkhanid, Abu Said (Abu Sa‘id) (r. 1316-1335), a Sunnite, declared peace with the Mamelukes (1323), restored Mongol sovereignty over Anatolia, and successfully advanced into the Caucasus.  After this, the empire broke up into different dominions, which developed separately.

The Il-Khanids showed a tendency toward Buddhism and Christianity, Nestorianism in particular, and were tolerant of the Shi‘a until Arghun (r.1284-1291) embraced Sunni Islam, which set the seal on the fusion of Mongols and Turks in Persia.  Oljeytu Khudabanda, however, embraced Shi‘ism in 1310 but his son and successor Abu Sa‘id (r.1316-1335) reverted to Sunni Islam.  The period of Il-Khanid rule was economically and politically difficult but rich in cultural achievements. 

The Mongols conquered the northeastern Islamic world in the 1220s.  In 1251, Genghis Khan’s grandson, Great Khan Mongke, gave the vice-regency of Southwest Asia to his brother Hulegu and sent him to complete its subjugation.  In 1256 and 1257, Hulegu destroyed the strongholds of the Isma‘ili sect that had plagued the leaders of Sunni Islam.  In 1258, his troops took Baghdad and killed the Abbasid caliph.

Hulegu reigned from 1256 to 1265.  During his rule he established the boundaries and many of the policies of the Ilkhanid realm.  Hulegu’s forces tried to attack Syria, but in 1260 the Mamelukes defeated them at the battle of Ain Jalut.  Despite numerous campaigns, the Ilkhans were never able to gain control over Syria.  Their territories thus reached their full extent, bounded by the Euphrates in the west, the Caucasus Mountains to the north, and the Oxus and the Punjab Rivers in the east.  Having destroyed the powers within the center of the realm, Hulegu left local dynasties intact within the Ilkhanid borderlands, demanding tribute and interfering occasionally in their affairs.

The Ilkhans maintained unfriendly relations with their neighbors, including the Mongol states to the north.  The Mamelukes, who threatened the Ilkhans in the west, soon found a useful ally in the khans of the Golden Horde, who declared war on the Ilkhans in 1262.  Their attack failed, but the Caucasian frontier remained contested throughout the Ilkhanid period.  In 1270, the Chagatai khans of Central Asia invaded Khurasan.  This was the first of many such invasions.  Since the Mamelukes also threatened the crusader states of the Levant, Hulegu sent envoys to the Western powers suggesting a joint campaign. The European rulers were eager to cooperate, and over the next forty years the Europeans and Ilkhans repeatedly discussed campaigns but never actually coordinated one.

Hulegu’s son Abaqa (r.1265-1282) continued his father’s policies, strengthening the European alliance and again attempting the conquest of Syria.  Abaqa’s death 1282 from excessive drinking, a common problem among the Ilkhans, began the first of several succession struggles.  He was succeeded by his brother Teguder (Ahmad), the first Muslim Ilkhan, but in 1284 Abaqa’s son Arghun seized power.  Arghun (r.1284-1291) suffered from the rebellion of one of his greatest Mongol commanders, and from this time internal discord remained an almost constant problem for the Ilkhans.  The next ruler, Abaqa’s son Geikhatu (r.1291-1295), is best remembered for his debauchery and his disastrous experiment with paper currency -- known from China -- which he introduced briefly in 1294 to alleviate his financial straits.  In 1295, Geikhatu’s cousin Beidu deposed him, to be overthrown the same year by Arghun’s son Ghazan. 

Most early Ilkhans were Buddhist or Christian and often favored their Christian and Jewish subjects at the expense of the Muslims.  Ghazan (r.1295-1304), however, converted to Islam and reinstated it as the official religion, a move accompanied by unusual manifestations of religious hostility.  At Ghazan’s accession, the fiscal administration and the economy were in chaos.  He reorganized the currency, the tax structure, and the system of military support.  These reforms did much to restore prosperity, and by Ghazan’s death in 1304 Ilkhanid rule approximated the traditional patterns of Islamic government.

Ghazan’s brother and successor, Oljeitu (r.1304-1316), attempted to expand Ilkhanid power within Southwest Asia.  He annexed what is now southern Afghanistan but failed to conquer Gilan, on the southern Caspian littoral.  At Oljeitu’s death, the throne passed to his eleven year old son, Abu Sa‘id (r.1317-1335).  Much of the power within the realm now fell to Mongol commanders.  Although the Ilkhans were still able to protect their borders, internal order was lost.  With the death of Abu Sa‘id in 1335, the line of Hulegu became extinct.  For a few years, khan from other lines held the throne with the help of regional powers, but by the 1350s Ilkhanid rule had ended.

In administering their territories, the Ilkhans depended heavily on Southwest Asian bureaucrats, most of whom spoke Persian.  These viziers held great power and wealth and became deeply involved in court politics.  There was constant ministerial in-fighting that often resulted in personal disgrace.  Almost all Ilkhanid viziers died by execution.

Although the Mongols came into Southwest Asia as foreigners and destroyed several of its major cultural centers, the khans and their viziers actively promoted Islamic culture and spent unprecedented sums of money on building projects and patronage of the arts and sciences.  Of particular interest are Il-Khanid architecture, ceramics, metalwork and textiles. 

The Il-Khanids opened the Islamic world to outside influence, importing scholars, artists, and scribes from India, China, and Europe.  Chinese influence was particularly prevalent and proved highly fruitful in the realm of art.  It was at this time that Persian miniature painting first developed, based partly on Chinese models.  Their art reflects Far Eastern influence in miniature painting and in the use of new iconographic themes of Chinese derivation, such as the lotus, the phoenix and square Kufic script, which was probably inspired by Chinese seal characters.

Historical writing also flourished, and two Ilkhanid viziers, Ata Malik Juwaini and Rashid al-Din, are among the greatest Persian historians.

The severe economic depression of the Ilkhanid period has often been ascribed to the ravages of the Mongol conquests and the exploitative administration of the early Ilkhans.  Scholars have now shown that this decline had begun before the Mongol invasion.  While the Mongols accelerated the decline of agriculture and of urban population, they cannot be seen as the only cause of these trends.

Mongol rule brought a major change in political and religious life.  Before 1258, local Islamic dynasties had sought legitimation through their relationship to the caliphate.  By destroying this institution, the Ilkhans strengthened the concept of individual dynastic legitimacy, thus preparing the ground for the later regional empires of Southwest Asia.  With the end of the caliphate and of Isma‘ili power, moderate Twelver Shi‘ism gained greater popularity and acceptance. 

During the Mongol period, Iran was perhaps the greatest cultural and scientific center of the Islamic world, and Persian began its long ascendancy as the language of high culture.  Many scholars seek the origins of modern Iran in the Ilkhanid period, when for the first time Iran was controlled nominally by one ruler, separately from most Arab regions of the Islamic world.

The rulers of the Ilkhans were:

House of Hulagu (1256-1335)

    * Hulagu Khan (1256–1265)
    * Abaqa Khan (1265–1282)
    * Ahmad Tegüder (1282–1284)
    * Arghun (1284–1291)
    * Gaykhatu (1291–1295)
    * Baydu (1295)
    * Mahmud Ghazan (1295–1304)
    * Muhammad Khodabandeh (Oljeitu) (1304–1316)
    * Abu Sa'id Bahadur (1316–1335)

After the Ilkhanate, the regional states established during the disintegration of the Ilkhanate raised their own candidates as claimants.

House of Ariq Böke

    * Arpa Ke'ün (1335–1336)

House of Hulagu (1336-1357)

    * Musa (1336–1337) (puppet of 'Ali Padshah of Baghdad)
    * Muhammad (1336–1338) (Jalayirid puppet)
    * Sati Beg (1338–1339) (Chobanid puppet)
    * Sulayman (1339–1343) (Chobanid puppet, recognized by the Sarbadars 1341–1343)
    * Jahan Temur (1339–1340) (Jalayirid puppet)
    * Anushirwan (1343–1356) (Chobanid puppet)
    * Ghazan II (1356–1357) (known only from coinage)

House of Qasar

Claimants from eastern Persia (Khurasan):

    * Togha Temür (c. 1338–1353) (recognized by the Kartids 1338–1349; by the Jalayirids 1338–1339, 1340–1344; by the Sarbadars 1338–1341, 1344, 1353)
    * Luqman (1353–1388) (son of Togha Temür and the protege of Timur)

Il-Khanids  see Ilkhanids
"Subordinate Khans" see Ilkhanids
"Peaceful Khans" see Ilkhanids


‘Ilmi Bownderi
‘Ilmi Bownderi (Elmi Bonderi) (b. c. 1908 - d. probably c. 1938). Somali oral poet.  His many love poems gained him a wide reputation in northwestern Somaliland.  According to popular tradition, he died of love for a woman he could not marry.  Rejected by the woman’s relatives as too poor, he had gone away to earn money and upon his return found her married.  During the illness which preceded his death, he recited many poems which those around him learned by heart and passed on to others.  His poems are characterized by a majestic power of diction and by images drawn from the history of Somali clans and Islamic tradition.  Some have been written down by private collectors.
Bownderi, 'Ilmi  see ‘Ilmi Bownderi
Elmi Bonderi see ‘Ilmi Bownderi
Bonderi, Elmi see ‘Ilmi Bownderi


Iltutmish
Iltutmish (Shams ud-Din Iltutmish) (Shams al-Din Iltutmish ibn Elam Khan) (Shams-ud-din Iltutmish) (Shams al-Din Iltutmish) (Altamash) (d. April 29, 1236).  Greatest of the Mu‘izzi or Slave Kings in Northern India (r. 1211- 1236).  He laid the foundations of Muslim rule in India.

Iltutmish was a Mameluke sultan who consolidated Turkish rule in North India.  He organized the governing class, the army, the iqta land-revenue assignment system, and the currency of the sultanate.  A great builder and patron of arts, he enhanced the glory of Delhi and made it his capital.  Iltutmish was an intensely religious Muslim and obtained an investiture from the caliph in the year 1229. 

Of Ilbari Turkish lineage, Iltutmish was, in boyhood, sold into slavery at Bukhara.  In 1192, Aibak bought Iltutmish at Delhi.  Iltutmish married Aibak’s daughter and had a meteoric career.  He became the head of Aibak’s bodyguard detail; amir-i shikar, amir of Gwalior; and upon Aibak’s death in 1210, sultan of Delhi.  During the Khokar campaign, Muizuddin manumitted Iltutmish.  Iltutmish led expeditions into Rajasthan and eastern India but avoided conflict with the Mongols in the northwest.  His tomb is near the Qutb Minar.

Iltutmish was the third and greatest Delhi sultan of the so-called Slave dynasty. Iltutmish was sold into slavery but married the daughter of his master, Quṭb al-Dīn Aibak, whom he succeeded in 1211. He strengthened and expanded the Muslim empire in northern India and moved the capital to Delhi, where he built the great victory tower, the Quṭb Mīnār.

A wise and patient statesman who was trained as a trusted administrator under his predecessors Muʿizz al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Sām and Quṭb al-Dīn, Iltutmish was faced upon his accession not only with the deterioration of Muslim rule but also with the claim of Tāj al-Dīn Yildoiz, the Ghazna ruler, to succession to all of Muʿizz al-Dīn’s conquests and with the attempts by the Hindus to recover portions of their lost territory. In 1215, he captured Yildoiz, who died in prison. In 1225, he forced the unruly Bengali governor to acknowledge the authority of Delhi, and shortly thereafter he consolidated again the Muslim holdings. Iltutmish was able to preserve his kingdom against the ravages of the Mongol invasions that coincided with his reign, and he succeeded in building an administrative machinery for the empire. He sought out 11th-century Islamic classics on the art of government; and the Ādāb al-Muluk (“Conduct of the Kings”), the first Indo-Muslim classic on the art of government and warfare, was written for him. He was tolerant of the Hindus despite the urgings of his advisers, and he built up the waterworks, mosques, and amenities at Delhi to make it for the first time a fitting seat of government. His reign and his advisers, especially the vizier Junaydī, were praised by contemporaries.

Iltutmish’s eldest son died before he did, and his other sons were incompetent. He gave an excellent education to his daughter Raziyya (Raziyyat al-Dīn) and desired that she should succeed him. His wishes were offensive to the administrative Council of Forty, Iltutmish’s personal slaves who served as his advisers. Raziyya did succeed briefly to the throne, but her appointment of an African to an important position was considered insulting to the council, which shortly thereafter brought about her downfall. This marked the beginning of the decline of the line of Iltutmish.



Shams al-Din Iltutmish ibn Elam Khan see Iltutmish
Shams ud-Din Iltutmish see Iltutmish
Shams al-Din Iltutmish see Iltutmish
Altamash see Iltutmish


Ilyas Shahi
Ilyas Shahi.  Refers to a dynasty of India.  Shaking Tughluq authority in Bengal, Sultan Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah founded the Ilyas Shahi dynasty in 1342.  His son, Sikander Shah (r.1357-1389), consolidated the dynasty’s authority.  The less effectual rule of his successors, however, allowed a Hindu minister, Raja Ganesh, to seize power in 1417.  Ilyas Shahi rule was restored in 1437 and lasted until 1487.  The longest lived independent Bengal sultanate, the Ilyas Shahis were able administrators particularly noted for their architectural patronage, especially of the enormous Adina Mosque in Pandua, their first capital. 

The Ilyas dynasty or Iliyas dynasty or Iliyas Shahi dynasty was the first independent ruling dynasty in late medieval Bengal, which ruled from the 14th century to the 15th century. The dynasty was founded by Ilyas Shah (1342–1358), who achieved the political unity of Bengal. Shams-ud-Din Ilyas made Pandua his capital but in 1453 Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud shifted it to Lakhnauti.

In 1415, The Ilyas Shahi dynasty was overthrown by Raja Ganesha. He was succeeded by his son Jadu or Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Shah (after conversion to Islam). He was succeeded by his son, Shams-ud-Din Ahmad Shah. He was killed by his nobles in 1436. After his death, the rule of Ilyas Shahi dynasty was restored by Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah, a descendant of Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah, who ascended the throne in 1437. In 1487, the last ruler of this dynasty Jalal-ud-Din Fath Shah was killed by his Habshi commander of the palace guards, Sultan Shahzada, who ascended the throne under the title, Barbak Shah. Thus the Ilyas Shahi dynasty rule over Bengal ended.

The Ilyas Shahi rulers were:

   1. Shams-ud-Din Ilyas Shah (r.1342-1358)
   2. Sikandar Shah (r.1358–1390).
   3. Ghiyas-ud-din Azam Shah (r.1390–1410 or 1396?)
   4. Saif-ud-din Hamza Shah (r.1410–1412 or 1396–1405?)
   5. Shihab-ud-din Bayazid Shah (r.1412–1414 or 1405–1415?)
   6. Ala-ud-din Firuz Shah (r.1414-1415)
   7. Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah (r.1437-1459) (restored)
   8. Rukn-ud-Din Barbak Shah (r.1459-1474)
   9. Shams-ud-Din Yusuf Shah (r.1474-1481)
  10. Sikandar Shah II (r.1481)
  11. Jalal-ud-Din Fath Shah (r.1481-1487)


Iliyas see Ilyas Shahi.
Iliyas Shahi see Ilyas Shahi.

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