Mongols and the Ilkhanate
The devastating 13th-century Mongol invasions and the subsequent Ilkhanate (descendants of Hulagu), who converted to Islam and patronized a revival of Iranian art and culture.
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- Period (Ilkhanate)
- 1256–1335 CE
- Founder
- Hulagu Khan
- Key event
- Fall of Baghdad, end of Abbasid Caliphate (1258)
- Capital
- Tabriz, Maragheh, Soltaniyeh
Detail
The Mongol invasion of Iran began in 1219 CE on the orders of Genghis Khan and brought devastation to the cities of Khorasan—Nishapur, Herat, Balkh, Merv—ranking among the most catastrophic events in Iranian history. In 1256 Genghis's grandson Hulagu Khan crushed the Ismailis of Alamut and then conquered Baghdad, abolishing the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258, and founded the Ilkhanate in Iran. The Ilkhans were initially non-Muslim, but with the conversion of Ghazan Khan in 1295 they embraced Iranian-Islamic culture; his learned vizier, Rashid al-Din Fadlallah, carried out administrative reforms and authored the Jami' al-Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles). Despite the initial destruction, the period saw a flourishing of art, manuscript painting, historiography, and astronomy (the Maragheh observatory). The Ilkhanate collapsed after the death of Abu Sa'id in 1335 for want of a strong successor, and the realm fragmented among local claimants.
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Also appears in
Sources
- Encyclopædia Iranica, "Il-khanids"
- David Morgan, The Mongols (Blackwell)
- The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 5