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Iran / Mongolia: Seal of the Ilkhan Ghazan (r.1295-1304) in a 1302 letter to Pope Boniface VIII.

Iran / Mongolia: Seal of the Ilkhan Ghazan (r.1295-1304) in a 1302 letter to Pope Boniface VIII.

Mahmud Ghazan (1271–1304) was the seventh ruler of the Mongol Empire's Ilkhanate division in modern-day Iran from 1295 to 1304. He was the son of Arghun and Quthluq Khatun, continuing a line of rulers who were direct descendants of Genghis Khan. Considered the most prominent of the Ilkhans, he is best known for making a political conversion to Islam in 1295 when he took the throne, marking a turning point for the dominant religion of Mongols in Central Asia. His principal wife was Kokechin, a Mongol princess sent by Kublai Khan, and escorted from the Mongol capital to the Ilkhanate by Marco Polo.

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