Life
Abaqa was born in February 1234, son of Ilkhanate founder Hulagu Khan. His stepmother was Hulagu's Kerait princess bride, Doquz Khatun. Doquz, a devout Nestorian Christian, was regarded as a spiritual leader of the Mongols, who were generally tolerant of many religions. Abaqa himself was marginally Buddhist, though he was also very sympathetic to Christianity due to his mother's influence. A favored son of Hulagu, he was made governor of Turkestan.
Hulagu died from illness in 1265. Before his death, he had been negotiating with the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos to add a daughter of the Byzantine imperial family to Hulagu's number of wives. Michael VIII had selected his illegitimate daughter Maria Palaiologina, who was dispatched in 1265, accompanied by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Euthymius. Since Hulagu died before she arrived, she was instead married to Hulagu's son, Abaqa. He received her hand in marriage when he was installed as Ilkhan. When Hulagu's wife Doquz Khatun died in 1265 as well, the role of spiritual leader transferred to Maria, who was called "Despina Khatun" by the Mongols.
It was Abaqa who decided on the permanent location for the Ilkhanate capital, Tabriz, which was in the northwestern grasslands that the Mongols preferred.
Abaqa took power four months after the death of his father, and then spent the next several months redistributing fiefs and governorships.
Some of the coins from Abaqa's era display the Christian cross, and bear in Arabic the Christian inscription "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, only one God".
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