Bottle with a Sprinkler Top
Iran or Afghanistan (Khorasan)
Second half of 12th century
Cast brass alloy inlaid with silver; H. 6 in. (15.4 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Purchase, Friends of Islamic
Art Gifts, and Louis E. and Theresa S. Seley Purchase Fund
for Islamic Art, 1998 (1998.234)
Genghis Khan's second son Chaghadai (r. 1227–1242) was
given as his inheritance land to the east of Mongolia, an
area called Transoxiana (the name used in Western sources
that call what is now known as the Amu Darya, the Oxus River)
and Turkestan and that included a large part of the Silk Route
and the cities of Bukhara, Samarkand, and Kashgar. Later conquests
brought parts of Afghanistan under their control.
Mongol leaders within the Chaghadai khanate vied with each
other for territory and power. They also fought and engaged
in political maneuvers against their Mongol relatives in China.
Although the Chaghadai khanate was subordinate to the Great
Khan in China, several Chaghadai khans rebelled against this
inferior position and sought to assert their independence.
