Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth-Century Iran: A Persian Renaissance (Routledge Studies in the History of Iran and Turkey)

An account of the re-emergence of Persia as a world player and the reassertion of its cultural, political and spiritual links with Turkic Lands, this book opposes the way in which, for too long, the whole period of Mongol domination of Iran has been viewed from a negative standpoint. Though arguably the initial irruption of the Mongols brought little comfort to those in its path, this is not the case with the second 'invasion' of the Chinggisids. This study demonstrates that Hülegü Khan was welcomed as a king and a saviour after the depredations of his predecessors, rather than as a conqueror, and that the initial decades of his dynasty's rule were characterised by a renaissance in the cultural life of the Iranian plateau.;Book Cover -- Title -- Contents -- List of illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Transliteration -- The sources -- Divine punishment or God's secret intent? -- Baghdad and its aftermath -- The uneasy borders -- Abaqa Khan and the west -- Berke Khan and the north -- Baraq Khan and the east -- The provinces -- Kirman -- Shiraz -- Herat -- The Juwayns -- Poets, Sufis and Qalandars -- Return of a king -- Appendix: maps -- Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index. For a long period both before and after the Arab conquests of the seventh-century, the people of the Iranian plateau and surrounding countries had been living in political and cultural turmoil interspersed with temporal islands of stability and development. A sense of historical identity and continuity had, however, tenuously prevailed, and it was the so-called catastrophic thirteenth century that finally saw the rebirth of Persia as a central cultural, spiritual and political player on the regional, if not the world, stage. After the traumatic years of anarchy following the collapse of the Great Saljuqs in the latter part of the twelfth century, the 1250s saw the arrival of Hulega Khan. This study demonstrated that Hulega Khan was welcomed as a king and a saviour from the depredations of his predecessors, rather than a conqueror, and that the initial decades of his rule were characterised by a renaissance in the cultural life of the Iranian plateau. Freed from the spiritual and political oppression from Baghdad and fed by a rich influx of cultural, commercial and mercantile influences from Asia, Persia, its languages, the 'state' and culture prospered.; The voice of this unique era of renaissance echoes still in the modern state or Iran and beyond

An account of the re-emergence of Persia as a world player and the reassertion of its cultural, political and spiritual links with Turkic Lands, this book opposes the way in which, for too long, the whole period of Mongol domination of Iran has been viewed from a negative standpoint. Though arguably the initial irruption of the Mongols brought little comfort to those in its path, this is not the case with the second 'invasion' of the Chinggisids. This study demonstrates that Hülegü Khan was welcomed as a king and a saviour after the depredations of his predecessors, rather than as a conqueror, and that the initial decades of his dynasty's rule were characterised by a renaissance in the cultural life of the Iranian plateau.