ABSTRACT
The Chinggisids’ impact on the history of the Middle East was profound and long lasting, despite the relatively short period that they ruled. Cities like Balkh and Tus in Khurasan were erased from the map in the initial onslaught, although both of these places re-emerged as important shrine centers in the later years of Mongol rule. The Mongol conquest of Baghdad and overthrow of the caliphate in 1258 put an end to this pattern of sacralizing kingship in the Middle East. The Abbasid Caliphate did not go away; an Abbasid caliph soon reemerged in Cairo in 1261. Military elites seeking to uphold Chinggisid tradition often expressed this tradition with reference to the yasa of Chinggis Khan. The persistence of messianism as part of a political framework in the post-Mongol period is evidenced by its appearance in the legitimizing ideology of 16th-century Islamic dynasties.
