Classical and South Asian Islam: Essays in Honour of Yohanan Friedmann

On 10-11 December 2006, the European Forum in cooperation with the Nehemia Levtzion Center for Islamic Studies at the Hebrew University, and with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, held an international conference on “Islam in Europe: Eurabia or European Islam”. This publication is the outcome of that conference.

The Mongols had a profound effect on the regions that they ruled in the eastern Muslim world, from the first Mongol invasion in 1219 through the breakup of the Ilkhanate in 1335 and the various, short-lived successor states. The influence of their rule – positive as well as negative – on the peoples of Iran and the neighboring countries can be seen in such diverse areas as demography, economics, art and other types of material culture, intellectual and religious life, military affairs, government, etc. This book brings together a series of studies that deal with some of these aspects in the state established around 1260 by Hülegü, grandson of Chinggis Khan: the development of the land-tenure system; the title ilkhan; the use of Arabic sources for the history of the Ilkhanate; the eventual conversion of the Mongols to Islam; and – most prominently – the ongoing war with the Mamluk Sultanate to the west.