Berke's Choice: Faith and Feud in the Mongol West

In this episode, Lucas and Luna take a close look at a moment when the Mongol Empire's westward expansion hit a wall. After the sack of Baghdad in 1258, Hulegu's Ilkhanate looked unstoppable, but his cousin Berke, Khan of the Golden Horde, had other ideas. Berke was a Muslim, something that set him apart in a family still mostly Tengri, and he was furious about the destruction of the Abbasid capital and the killing of the caliph. The clash between these two Mongol armies at the Battle of Ain Jalut (with the Mamluks) and the subsequent civil war between the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate redrew the map of the Middle East. We dig into Berke's conversion, the complex politics of the Jochid and Toluid lines, and how a religious rift within one family helped split an empire. Lucas and Luna also touch on the strange alliance between the Golden Horde and the Mamluks, and what it meant for the future of the steppe and the Islamic world. #BerkeKhan #GoldenHorde #Ilkhanate #MongolEmpire #BattleOfAinJalut #Hulegu #Mamluk #Islam #Tengri #Baghdad1258 #Jochid #Toluid #Kurultai #CentralAsia #History #FexingoHistory #MongolCivilWar #AbbasidCaliphate Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo