The arrival of Hülegü in Iran during the mid-1250s was not a simple military campaign but the migration of at least part of his entourage. Women accompanied the expedition to the Middle East and settled in Iran in successive waves of migration. In this new land, they became a minority within a majority population that was not only Muslim but had been ruled solely by Muslim rulers for 600 years until the arrival of the Mongols. Furthermore, the territory comprised both nomadic and sedentary populations that were integrated in a more balanced way than in Central Asia or Russia. It was different from China, too, in terms of wealth, urban development and population size. The dynasty started by Hülegü (d. 1265) belonged to the line of Tolui and Sorghaghtani Beki, probably the branch of the royal family least supportive of the nomadic model of extractive production, because of its exposure to and interaction with sedentary populations in its appanages. Furthermore, the division of the Mongol Empire into four khanates in the conquered territories (China, Russia, Iran and Central Asia) after 1260 propitiated different relationships between the Mongols and the native populations in each of these territories.

This division also affected the development of women's rule in each of these uluses. In China, women occasionally assumed the position of empress regent on behalf of their sons in similar terms to the Qarakhitai and the Mongols during the united empire. In Russia and Central Asia, beyond the two examples mentioned in the previous chapter, the institution of female regency was not maintained beyond the 1250s as happened in Yuan China. In particular, the Ilkhanate presents an interesting case in the evolution of the political status of Mongol women in the Mongol Empire. In her doctoral dissertation, Karin Quade-Reutter discussed the differences between the recognition of political authority and the actual political influence in the affairs of the state held by Turco-Mongol women in Ilkhanid Iran. Although one is reluctant to fully commit to the Weberian framework applied to the political thought and practice of the Mongol Empire done by Quade-Reutter, her discussion on the notions of ‘power’ (Macht), ‘rule’ (Herrschaft), ‘authority’ (Autorität) and ‘violence’ (Gewalt) help to clarify what exactly we are talking about when analysing the role of women in the political life of the Ilkhanate.