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.
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.