Abaqa, son of Hülegü and grandson of Genghis Khan, ruled the Ilkhanate as a committed Buddhist and consistent ally of the Byzantine Empire and the Crusader states — an arrangement that produced some of the medieval world's stranger diplomatic correspondences. His coinage reflects the Ilkhanate's transitional monetary character: Mongol authority imposed over deeply rooted Persian administrative and mint traditions. The dirhams of his reign were struck across a wide network of mints from Tabriz to Tiflis, and attribution often hinges on subtle calligraphic variants and mint name placement rather than any dramatic design distinction.
Abaqa, son of Hülegü and grandson of Genghis Khan, ruled the Ilkhanate as a committed Buddhist and consistent ally of the Byzantine Empire and the Crusader states — an arrangement that produced some of the medieval world's stranger diplomatic correspondences. His coinage reflects the Ilkhanate's transitional monetary character: Mongol authority imposed over deeply rooted Persian administrative and mint traditions. The dirhams of his reign were struck across a wide network of mints from Tabriz to Tiflis, and attribution often hinges on subtle calligraphic variants and mint name placement rather than any dramatic design distinction.