Name one of the four major Mongol khanates, besides the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate.

• A. Chagatai Khanate
• B. Yuan Dynasty
• C. Abbasid Caliphate
• D. Mughal Empire

Answer: (A)

When the Mongol Empire split after Genghis Khan’s era, its lands were divided into four major regional polities called khanates. One of these was the Chagatai Khanate, named for Genghis’s son Chagatai, which controlled Central Asia—roughly the area of modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and surrounding regions. It endured as a distinct Mongol realm for centuries, even as the other parts of the empire evolved into separate states like the Yuan Dynasty in China. So, the Chagatai Khanate fits as one of the four major Mongol khanates besides the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate. The Abbasid Caliphate predates the Mongols, and the Mughal Empire in India arose later from Timurid and Mongol lineages rather than as one of the original khanates.