Uljaytu — born Nicholas at his Christian baptism, then Buddhist, then Sunni, then finally Twelver Shia — converted to Shi'ism around 1309–1310, a decision that sent shockwaves through the Ilkhanate's religious establishment and triggered the production of a revised coinage series. Type A dirhams predate that rupture, struck during the earlier Sunni phase of his reign before the theological pivot forced a wholesale redesign of the monetary program.
Uljaytu — born Nicholas at his Christian baptism, then Buddhist, then Sunni, then finally Twelver Shia — converted to Shi'ism around 1309–1310, a decision that sent shockwaves through the Ilkhanate's religious establishment and triggered the production of a revised coinage series. Type A dirhams predate that rupture, struck during the earlier Sunni phase of his reign before the theological pivot forced a wholesale redesign of the monetary program.