Anushiravan

Born: Unknown Died: c. 1356 Reigned: 1344-1356 Khanate: Ilkhanate (fragmentation) Title: Ilkhan

Overview

Anushiravan was the penultimate nominal Ilkhan, a Chingisid pretender who maintained the title in the Baghdad region for over a decade in the mid-fourteenth century with the backing of the Jalayirid dynasty. He was named for the great Sasanian Persian emperor Khosrow I (Anushiravan), whose legendary reputation for justice made the name an aspirational choice — ironic given that the Ilkhan who bore it governed nothing but a symbolic claim. His long nominal tenure as a Jalayirid client represents the fading afterglow of Ilkhanate legitimacy before it disappeared entirely.

Rise to Power

Anushiravan was installed around 1344 by Hasan-i Buzurg, the founder of the Jalayirid dynasty, who controlled Baghdad and wished to maintain the appearance of Ilkhanate legitimacy for his own political purposes. As the most powerful successor-state ruler in Iraq, Hasan found that a nominal Ilkhan gave his authority a recognized dynastic framework. Anushiravan provided this service for over a decade.

Rule and Achievements

Anushiravan's nominal reign was entirely subordinate to Jalayirid authority:

• He provided the Jalayirid rulers with Ilkhanate legitimacy — coins issued in his name, decrees bearing his title — while Hasan-i Buzurg and his successors governed in practice
• He had no independent military force, no independent revenue, and no capacity for independent political action
• He witnessed the continued growth of the Jalayirid state and its competition with other Persian successor dynasties
• He appears in historical sources primarily in the context of Jalayirid history rather than as an independent actor
• He is the longest-serving of the phantom Ilkhans, his nominal reign spanning over a decade

His death around 1356 brought Luqman to the title for the last brief chapter of the Ilkhanate's nominal existence.

Legacy

Anushiravan's decade-long nominal rule is evidence of the extraordinary durability of the Ilkhanate brand as a source of political legitimacy. Even thirty years after Abu Sa'id's death, the Jalayirid rulers found it useful to maintain a nominal Ilkhan. When Anushiravan died and was succeeded by Luqman for the final year or two of the phantom Ilkhanate, the title was so emptied of content that even the Jalayirids quickly abandoned the pretense. Anushiravan is the last substantial holder of the Ilkhan title.