The Mongol Il-Khanids • 135would seek him in Ethiopia. Driven by this strange combination of hope
and fear, the popes of this era sent missions to make contact with the Mon¬
gol empires, open trade with them, and if possible, convert them. The Ro¬
man church had little at the time to offer the Mongols, but some did adopt
a form of Christianity already common in Iraq, Persia, and Central Asia—
namely, Nestorianism. The Mongols also allied themselves with Georgians,
Armenians, and other Middle Eastern Christians during their assault on
Islam. The late thirteenth century was the last golden age for such Christian
sects as the Nestorians and the Jacobites (Syrian Monophysites). Later, their
political power and level of learning declined, and most of the world forgot
about them.
Most of the early Il-Khanids preferred Buddhism, with which the Mon¬
gols had long been familiar. Buddhist temples were erected in many Persian
towns, and saffron-robed priests seemed as numerous as turbaned ulama.
But the Il-Khanids tolerated all faiths and did not try to convert Muslims,
clearly the majority of their subjects. In time, tribal Mongols intermarried
with Turkish or Persian Muslims, adopted their language, and then took on
their religion. The death in 1294 of Qubilai Khan ("Kubla Khan" in Cole¬
ridge's poem) severed the remaining ties between the Il-Khanids and the
great Mongol Empire, which was now becoming just one more "Chinese"
dynasty. A year later, a new Il-Khanid ruler, Ghazan Khan (r. 1295-1304),
formally embraced Islam. Persian Buddhism, an exotic growth, soon shriv¬
eled and died.
Ghazan and his successors converted temples into mosques and repaired
much of the damage done to Persia by their ancestors. Ghazan's successors
proved to be weaker, and conflicts broke out between Sunni and Shi'i fac¬
tions. By 1360 Il-Khanid rule had fragmented and vanished.
Effects of Il-Khanid Rule on Persia
The Mongol era was not so tragic a chapter in Persia's history as we might
imagine from the massacres and destruction caused by Jenghiz Khan and
Hulegu. Even before they became Muslims, the Il-Khanids encouraged
and supported architects, artists, poets, and scholars. Some of the great
mosques, such as those of Yazd and Kerman, date from the Il-Khanid
period. Many of the monuments of Mongol architecture, however, have
not survived the ravages of time, earthquakes, and later invaders. Several
of the Il-Khanids commissioned great new complexes, with mosques,
public baths, bazaars, hostels for travelers and Sufi mystics, schools, li¬
braries, hospitals, and monumental tombs for themselves, in or near
Tabriz. One remnant is the eight-sided tomb of Ghazan's successor, Oljeitu