The religious and political attitudes of Ilkhans towards the Ilkhanid's coins (1253-1355)

With the beginning of the Ilkhanid era, the Iranian bureaucracy restored the traditions and bygone methods. The Ilkhanid coins demonstrated the socio-political and religio-economic developments in aforementioned era. Ibaqa -who was a Buddhist trained by his mother Du Quz Khatun- was interested in Christianity. He married Maryam -The Roman Emperor's daughter- and his tendency was increased towards Christianity. Although he was enemies with the Egyptians and Golden Camp Muslims and fought against them, his coins had the sign of the "Lion and Sun" and the slogan of "No god unless Allah, and Muhammad is his Messenger". These slogans indicate that he wanted to attract Iranians toward his aims. On the other hand, the effect of Iranian bureaucracy can be seen on aforementioned coins. The sign of phoenix on the coins of Ilkhanids and the sign of the Cross actually are indication of influence of Chinese Buddhists and Christianity respectively. In addition, the coins of Ghazan and Uljayto had the Islamic and Shiite mottos. This study tries to evaluate the political, economy and religious conditions of Ilkhanids era according to the coins of mentioned dynasty.