From Political Hostility to Artistic Exchange: A Comparative Study of the Visual Cultures of Mamluk Egypt and Ilkhanid Iran in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries A.H.

Introduction: Relations between the Mamluks of Egypt and the Ilkhanids of Iran in the seventh and eighth centuries A.H. have generally been interpreted through the lenses of military hostility and ideological rivalry. Historical and artistic evidence, however, indicates that networks of cultural exchange and the circulation of visual forms remained active alongside political confrontation. This study seeks to explain the mechanisms through which such forms were transmitted and reconfigured within the Mamluk discourse of authority. Its central question is how selected components of the visual culture of Ilkhanid Iran entered Mamluk artistic production at a time when official Mamluk discourse emphatically differentiated itself from the Mongols.Research Method: This qualitative study employs a historical-analytical method and a comparative approach. Its evidence derives from two categories of sources: historical texts, used to reconstruct the political context and channels of contact; and selected works of art, comprising courtly metalwork, luxury Qur’an manuscripts, and monumental architecture. The works are analyzed in terms of the organization of visual elements, compositional structure, and symbolic function.Findings: The findings show that sustained artistic exchange between Ilkhanid Iran and Mamluk Egypt was enabled by networks of interaction operating within a broader context of political hostility. Trade, diplomatic gift exchange after the peace of ۷۲۳ A.H., and the mobility of craftsmen and Sufis facilitated the circulation of visual forms and technical knowledge. What reached Cairo was not limited to discrete motifs; compositional strategies, workshop practices, and modes of displaying magnificence also circulated across political boundaries.Conclusion: The coexistence of political hostility and artistic exchange resulted from the operation of two distinct but simultaneous logics: confrontation at the level of legitimizing discourse and continued connectivity at the level of exchange networks and cultural production. Art thus became a field in which legitimacy could be reformulated and authority visually asserted within a context of political rivalry.

کلیدواژه ها:

Mamluks ، Ilkhanids ، Visual Culture ، Artistic Exchange ، Courtly Metalwork ، Luxury Qur’an Manuscripts ، Monumental Architecture