Fals - 'Ilkhan' Abaqa Khan

Abaqa, the second Ilkhan, ruled a realm that remained officially subordinate to the Great Khan in Khanbaliq while operating in practice as an independent dynasty. A committed Buddhist who nonetheless maintained close alliances with Christian powers — including repeated diplomatic overtures to the papacy and the courts of Europe for a joint Crusade against the Mamluks — he never converted to Islam, which made his copper coinage a political anomaly in an overwhelmingly Muslim monetary zone. The fals denomination had deep roots in Abbasid fiscal practice, and the Ilkhans inherited it without ideological enthusiasm.

Album 2131.5 covers a loosely defined type; individual specimens frequently diverge in die alignment and module.