The Place of Sufism in the Spiritual Life of the Golden Horde and Hulaguid Rulers

Objective: The disclosure of the nature of the relations of the Turkic-Mongol khans with the Sufi sheikhs and the reason for the establishment of these relations. Research materials: The Persian and Arabic sources, with the compositions of Ruzbikhan Khunji Isfaqani, al-Qashani, Hamd Allah Qazvini, Vassaf, Fadl Allah Rashid al-Din, and Ismail b. Bazzaz in particular being carefully compared in their modern translations. Results and novelty of the research: As a result of the analysis of sources, the author revealed the most important episodes in the spiritual life of the Hulaguid and the Golden Horde’s Turkic-Mongol khans. It becomes clear that Mongol power not only provoked an unprecedented rise of Sufism, but was itself an active participant in this process. It is obvious that despite the ethnic environment and native religion, the Turkic-Mongols, who subdued territories in the Middle East and Central Asia, were definitely inclined to Sufism. The matter is not only apparent in the centralized politics of empire which reflected on the administrative-political rule of uluses, but also in the spiritual views of the representatives of the Ruling House. During the research, the author also considered issues of political situations in the context of which certain episodes from the life of the Mongol khans took place. Meticulous study of the sources gave the opportunity of finding numerous interesting facts from the history of Mongol rule.