ABSTRACT
During the early decades of Mongol domination of the Iranian plateau, the main threats to the consolidation of their power and their rule came from without rather than from within. Hülegü’s advance had generally been welcomed, his rule apparently anticipated with enthusiasm, and opposition minimal and passive. The advance westward had slowed and eventually halted as Hülegü had consolidated his hold over his kingdom following the fall of Baghdad. The defeat of his forces at Ayn JÇlt had defined and established the broad battle lines. As a direct result of this defining battle, the Mamluks of Egypt confronting their pagan ‘brothers’ from across the western marches, and the Il-Khans’ relationship with the Christians of the region and to a lesser extent the European powers became an issue for the rest of the century. To the north the rivalry with their cousins of the Golden Horde, the bitter dispute over the prized steppe lands of Azerbaijan, and, for the first time, the introduction of outside foreign allies into the Mongol polity hastened the collapse of Chinggisid unity. To the east this split was merely confirmed and intensified as rivalries, ideological, political and cultural, rent the Great Empire irrevocably apart.
