Dirham - 'Ilkhan' Hulagu Khan

Hulagu Khan's westward campaign culminated in the sack of Baghdad in 1258 — the destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate after five centuries — and these dirhams were struck during the decade that followed, as the Ilkhanate scrambled to establish administrative legitimacy across conquered Persian and Mesopotamian territories. Early Ilkhanid coinage reflects that institutional uncertainty: Hulagu never formally converted to Islam, and the mint apparatus he inherited was repurposed rather than reformed. The series shows considerable variation in die alignment and flan preparation, a direct consequence of absorbing multiple pre-existing mint operations.