Ebook: Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth-Century Iran: a Persian Renaissance

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.