Mahmud Yalawach

Mahmud Yalawatsch (* before 1218, † 1254 ) was a powerful governor and minister of Genghis Khan and his three successors. He officiated in Central Asia and North China and was next to Yelü Chutsai (1189-1243) one of the leading figures in the emerging administration of the Mongol Empire.

Life

Mahmud Yalawatsch came from Khorezm . He first appeared in 1218 as an ambassador in the service of the Mongol rulers. The historian Barthold assumed that he was identical to Mahmud Beg, a vizier of the last legitimate khaan of the Kara-Kitai , Yelü Zhilugu (Chih-lu-ku, r. 1178-1211) and consequently in the internal dissolution of this state into the Services of the Mongols entered. In 1229 he was made governor for the sedentary population of Central Asia by Ögedei Khan , as a counterpart to Yelü Chutsai, who was responsible for northern China.

He tried to organize an orderly tax collection (instead of looting), to rebuild the urban centers and villages devastated by the Mongol storm, and to repair the irrigation systems. A particular concern of his was a tax reform, through which the rural population should be relieved of arbitrary taxation of the Mongolian princes.

When the Tarabi uprising was suppressed in Bukhara (1238-1241), he was transferred to China and replaced by his son Masud Beg (d. 1289), who continued his policy. The reason apparently lay in repeated friction with Prince Chagatai and his advisors. Most recently he opposed a planned massacre of the urban population of Bukhara.

In China, he quickly encountered reservations from his Chinese subordinates, had to contend with their intrigues and was deposed. Under the Töregenes government (ruled 1241-1246) he was replaced by Abd al-Rahman and he fled to Prince Goden , Töregenes son, who protected him from his mother's hostility. The new Great Khan Gujuk reinstated him in his office in China, and so did Gujuk's successor Möngke Khan (1251).

Under Möngke Khan , the tax system developed by Mahmud Yalawatsch in the 1230s was introduced in all Mongolian regions and served as the basis for collecting taxes from all khanates. In China, however, Mahmud Yalawatsch's administration was still unpopular: he was viewed as dishonest, impolite, dominant and shameless and his tax demands were judged to be too high. Prince Kubilai stood behind the protest and prevailed: taxes were reduced and Mahmud's authority over Kubilai's administration was undermined.

According to Mahmud Yalawatsch, Jamal Qarshi (chronicler from Kashgar, early 14th century) died in Beijing in the spring of 1254.

literature

• Igor de Rachewiltz, Hok-lam Chan, Hsiao Ch'i-ch'ing, Peter W. Geier a. a .: In the Service of the Khan - Personalities of the Early Mongol-Yüan Period , Wiesbaden 1993