Chobanids

The Chobanids, or Chupanids, were a Mongol dynasty descended from the Suldus clan that rose to power in fourteenth-century Persia. They first served the Ilkhans, but after the collapse of the Ilkhanate they took de facto control of its western lands, ruling Azerbaijan, Arrān, parts of Asia Minor, Mesopotamia and west-central Persia from their base at Tabriz. Amir Chupan, the family's founder, served three successive Ilkhans from Ghazan Mahmud onward and married several members of the line of Hulagu Khan, but his influence provoked a noble conspiracy in 1319 and eventually led Abu Sa'id to remove him; he fled to Herat in 1327 and was executed by the Kartids. The family recovered through his grandson Hasan Kucek, who rallied the Chobanids, defeated the Jalayirids in 1338 and set up a Chobanid realm around Tabriz, placing Sati Beg, sister of Abu Sa'id, on the Ilkhanid throne as a figurehead. His brother Malik Ashraf later seized power and ruled with great cruelty. The dynasty's dominance ended in 1357, when Jani Beg, khan of the Golden Horde, invaded Azerbaijan and took Tabriz.