The Effect of Foreign Relations of Ilkhanate on Religious Identification in Iran

The Mongol attack on Iran had implications for politics and society, and one of them was the change in the religious identity of the Sunni community. With the establishment of Ilkhanate rule in Iran, they entered into a challenge with their other Sunni neighbors and created a new discourse in the field of foreign relations with them. The main question is how the new discourse affected the Sunni community's religious identity in Iran. The defeat of the Mongols from the Mamluks of Egypt, the loss of the land of Sham, and the establishment of the remnants of the Abbasid Caliphate in Cairo turned Egypt into the most important regional rival of the Mongol Ilkhanates. This competition was formed in a new geographical and political context in which the Mongols played a prominent role in establishing their borders. Iran was also at the center of this regional competition and almost alone among its allied rivals. Meanwhile, the Ilkhans' relations with the Mamluks were more sensitive due to their support for the remnants of the Abbasid caliphate. They were more tense compared to their other Muslim neighbors, such as Elus Jochi and Elus Joghtai. This political isolation of the Ilkhans, along with a different view of the Abbasid caliphate based in Cairo compared to the same neighbors, made it very difficult for the Ilkhans to gain legitimacy in the non-Muslim period and even in the Muslim period and paved the way for entering a new religious discourse based on De-Abbasidization and creation of a different identity among the Sunnis of Iran