The Jochid Ulus in Safavid Sources: On the Issue of the Jochid Genealogy

This paper examines the issue of the Jochid genealogy in the Safavid sources with particular attention to the genealogy of Urus Khan, the “Left Hand” ruler of the Jochid Ulus, and reconsiders the nature of their portrayals of the Jochid Ulus. In addition, through the analysis in this paper, I hope to provide some insight into the question of how the Safavid sources perceived the Jochid Ulus and its successor states. Research materials. Muntakhab al-Tawārīkh-i Mu‘īnī, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi, B. 411, Safavid sources, Ghaffārī’s Nusakh-i Jahān-ārā, Ḥaydar Rāzī’s Tārīkh-i Ḥaydarī. Results and novelty of the research. 1) The Safavid historiography was strongly in the tradition of the Timurid historiography. However, among the Timurid sources, it is the Muntakhab al-Tawārīkh-i Mu‘īnī that provides specific descriptions of the Jochid Ulus in the late fourteenth century – a period for which little information is otherwise available. It may therefore be assumed that the Nusakh-i Jahān-ārā, in its account of the Jochid Ulus, drew upon the Muntakhab al-Tawārīkh-i Mu‘īnī, albeit with certain interpretative modifications. 2) The Safavid sources recognized not only the rulers of the “Aq Orda / Left Hand” but also those of the “Kök Orda / Right Hand” (Batuids) as the descendants of Orda. 3) The Safavid sources after Nusakh-i Jahān-ārā have been said to refer to the Muntakhab al-Tawārīkh-i Mu‘īnī, but more accurately they referred to Nusakh-i Jahān-ārā that may have attempted to reasonably interpret the Muntakhab al-Tawārīkh-i Mu‘īnī statement. 4) The Safavid sources were exclusively interested in the eastern successor states to the Jochid Ulus. Among them, the Kazakh Khanate, which ruled the eastern Kipchak steppe, was recognized as having continuity from the Jochid Ulus.