Scientific Relations of the Ilkhanate State (Examples of China, India, and Egypt)

Despite the negative effects of the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century, many countries, geographies, nations, and cultures found the opportunity to come together. This situation also led to the interaction of scientific and cultural elements, which had been limited politically and militarily, with each other. This period of interaction in scientific fields continued during the Ilkhanate, which was established in the Near East as a branch Mongol state after 1256. In addition to their commercial and political relations, the Ilkhanates maintained scientific exchanges with China, India, and Egypt. During the Mongol era, scientific relations were initially established by scholars and mueddibs who sought refuge in these regions to escape the Mongol invasion and received protection. With the arrival of Ilkhan Hülegü in the Near East, the Ilkhanids, also known as the Iranian Mongols, continued their scientific relations by establishing educational institutions, scientific research centers, and patronizing scholars. Scientific relations with the Yuan dynasty in China, the Delhi Turkic Sultanate in India, and the Mamluks in Egypt became a state policy consistently pursued by the Ilkhanate in a scientific sense during this period. In this study, we aim to convey the Ilkhanate's scientific relations with the geographies of China, India, and Egypt.