Dirham - 'Ilkhan' Abaqa Khan

Abaqa, son of Hülegü, ruled the Ilkhanate as a committed ally of Byzantium and the Crusader states against the Mamluk Sultanate — a strategic alignment that made his court one of the more unusual diplomatic nodes of the 13th century. He corresponded directly with multiple popes and sent delegations to the Council of Lyon in 1274 seeking a coordinated military campaign that never materialized. The Mongol coinage of his reign reflects the administrative consolidation his father began after the sack of Baghdad in 1258, with mints operating across former Abbasid territory now reminted under Ilkhanid authority.