ČĪN TĪMŪR

 

ČĪN TĪMŪR (Čin Temür; d. 633/1235-36), the first governor of Khorasan and Māzandarān on behalf of the Mongols. According to Jovaynī (II, p. 218), he was a Qarakhitayan; Rašīd-al-Dīn (Jāmeʿ al-tawārīḵ, Moscow, I, p. 313) ascribes him to the Öngüt (Ūnkūt), though elsewhere (Jāmeʿ al-tawārīḵ II, ed. Blochet, p. 37; II/1, ed. Alizade, p. 105) he reproduces Jovaynī’s version. Čin Temür first appears in attendance on Čengīz Khan’s eldest son Joči (Jūjī), who in 616/1219 sent him on an embassy to Jand. Here he parried threats to his life by guaranteeing the citizens immunity from attack but on rejoining Joči persuaded him to invest the town (Jovaynī, I, pp. 68-69). In 618/1221 Ürgeṇč (Ūrganj), the capital of Ḵᵛārazm, fell to a Mongol army that included a contingent sent from Jand by Joči, and the prince appointed Čin Temür as its tribute commissioner (basqaq). Subse­quently, when Čormaḡun (Jūrmāḡūn, Čormāḡūn) was sent to Persia by the new great khan, Ögedei (Ūkatāy), in 626/1229, Čin Temür was among those ordered to join and assist him. It appears from statements of Rašīd-al-­Dīn (I, pp. 313-14, 315) that he came to Persia as associate (nöker, nowkār, nowkar) of the general *Nosal (Nūsāl), or *Baysal, and possibly therefore in a “civil” rather than a military capacity, though Jovaynī tells us that he reduced a number of localities in northern Khorasan. Čin Temür’s action in dispatching a force under Kül-bolad (Kolbolād, Kolbolāt) to expel from Khorasan the rebel Choresmian general, Qarāča (Qarāja), brought him into conflict with Dayir/Tayir (Ṭāyer) Bahādor, who had been entrusted by Ögedei with this task and whose claim to the governorship of Khorasan and Māzandarān was upheld by Čormaḡun. Ignoring the latter’s summons, Čin Temür appealed to the great khan; and, since the deputation he sent in 630/1232­-33 was the first from the lands west of the Oxus to include subordinate princes, Ögedei was readily won over and confirmed him as governor of Khorasan and Māzandarān (Jovaynī, II, p. 222; Rašīd-al-Dīn, ed. Blochet, p. 38). Not long afterward, Čin Temür appointed as his financial adviser (ṣāḥeb[-e] dīvān) Bahāʾ-al-Dīn Jovaynī, the fa­ther of the historian, and sent him to Mongolia on another mission, headed by the future governor Körgüz (Kūrgūz). Before the party returned, however, Čin Temür had died, in 633/1235-36, and was succeeded by *Nosal.

Čin Temür appears as a vigorous administrator who burdened the newly subjected native population with financial exactions, and Jovaynī (II, p. 269) contrasts his rule unfavorably even with the preceding chaos. Nevertheless the same chronicler speaks highly of his success in pacifying Khorasan and thereby preventing a devastating punitive campaign by Dayir. According to Rašīd-al-Dīn (Moscow, I, p. 314), he left numerous sons in Ḵᵛārazm; the eldest of them, Edgü Temür (Edkū Tīmūr), shortly made an unsuccessful attempt to claim his father’s position in opposition to Körgüz (Jovaynī, II, pp. 230-37).

 

Bibliography:

J. A. Boyle, “Dynastic and Political History of the Il-Khans,” in Camb. Hist. Iran V, pp. 336­-37.

ʿA. Eqbāl, Tārīḵ-emofaṣṣal-e Īrān az estīlā-ye Moḡol tā eʿlān-e Mašrūṭīyat I. Az ḥamla-ye Čangīz tā taškīl-e dawlat-e Tīmūrī, Tehran, 1341 Š./1962, pp. 34, 166-69.

Jovaynī, ed. Qazvīnī, I, pp. 68-69; II, pp. 218-24, 268-­70; tr. Boyle, pp. 88-89, 482-88, 532-34.

Rašīd-al-Dīn, Jāmeʿ al-tawārīḵ, I, Moscow, pp. 313-16; tr. A. A. Khetagurov, Sbornik letopiseĭ I/1, Moscow and Leningrad, 1952, pp. 141-42; II, ed. E. Blochet, Leiden and London, 1912, GMS 18, i, pp. 37-40; II/1, ed. A. A. Alizade, Moscow, 1980, pp. 105-13; tr. J. A. Boyle as The Successors of Gengis Khan, London and New York, 1971, pp. 51-53.

Sayf b. Moḥammad b. Yaʿqūb Heravī, Tārīḵ-nāma-ye Herāt, ed. M. L. Ṣeddīqī, Calcutta, 1362/1944; repr. Tehran, 1352 Š./1973, pp. 92-93.

Spuler, Mongolen4, pp. 35-36.

(Peter Jackson)

Originally Published: December 15, 1991

Last Updated: October 20, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. V, Fasc. 6, p. 567