ABSTRACT
The previous study of numismatic material has focused on the founding and development of the Mongol state in Greater Iran over approximately 100 years and concludes in 709 H/1309 AD. Around the turn of the eighth century, the state began to exhibit its most remarkable cultural and economic heights; but a similar study of its remaining twenty-five years would require another substantial collection of photographs and a detailed analysis of raw data from thousands of coins. The existence of so much coinage as well as many mints indicates that the government had finally succeeded in monetizing most of its activities and the economy. The achievement required an invasive administration, which meant that in spite of the limited number of Mongols, they had not remained a small, tight group at the top, skimming off the fruits of victory. Instead, they had penetrated and developed the existing apparatus, thereby affecting every aspect of life including literature, science, mathematics, art, architecture and most certainly commerce. The political stability they had brought created a flourishing empire that still provides few clues to its quick collapse in 736 H/1336 AD. Once the ruling family left the scene, a model remained that few ensuing states managed to emulate. For those later regimes, the Mongols in Greater Iran bequeathed two important features. First, they had turned the relatively limited vision of its inhabitants away from the west. Previously, Iranians had drawn much of their religion, philosophy, artistic expressions and most of their cultural contacts from major interactions with the Mediterranean world. During the Mongol period, they faced eastwards as well, expanding their concepts and roles immeasurably. Second, the Mongols united the territory. Earlier, much of Iran had been divided into various small and large polities that had allowed people to waste energy on local interests and control of petty areas. The Mongols managed to divert much of that focus away from clans to individuals; people joined a commonwealth rather than protested against the rulers or each other. Unity and an expanded perspective had emerged from the Mongols’ practical responses to political challenges as well as long-term goals of power and prosperity. Therefore, the structural organization and economic progress of the state are some of the previously unrecognized points that the foregoing study has revealed.
