The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate, is established as a khanate that forms the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire, ruled by the Mongol House of Hulagu.
It is founded in the thirteenth century and is based primarily in Iran as well as neighboring territories, such as present-day Azerbaijan and the central and eastern parts of present-day Turkey.
The Ilkhanate is originally based on the campaigns of Genghis Khan in the Khwarazmian Empire in 1219–24 and is founded by Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan.
With the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire after 1259 it becomes a functionally separate khanate.
At its greatest extent, the state expands into territories that today comprise most of Iran, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, western Afghanistan, and southwestern Pakistan.
Later Ilkhanate rulers, beginning with Ghazan in 1295, convert from Shamanism and Buddhism to Shia Islam.
