Dirham - 'Ilkhan' Hulagu Khan

Hulagu Khan's western campaign destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258 — the sack of Baghdad ended five centuries of caliphal authority and killed Caliph Al-Musta'sim, reputedly by wrapping him in felt so that royal blood would not touch the ground. The early Ilkhanate coinage issued under Hulagu reflects this transitional chaos: no unified mint policy existed yet, and issues vary considerably across minting centers in Persia and the Jazira.

Hulagu himself was a shamanist with a Christian wife and Buddhist leanings, which left early Ilkhanid coins notably free of the Islamic formulae that would dominate later in the dynasty under Ghazan Khan's conversion in 1295.