WI: Mongol Caliphate?

I'm envisioning a scenario where Abaqa Khan, in the same vain as his relatives within Yuan China, decides to adopt a presitgious title local to the populace of the Ilkhanate to help calm the numerous civil insurrections that faced his early reign.

Thus on the day of his coronation, he is proclaimed Caliph of the newly established Mongol Caliphate, while also converting to Islam in the process.

What are the immediate political effects of this move?
 
Impossible. Further the people would not accept such a caliph whilst the Abbasids remain.

Can't have an Abbasid Caliphate if you have no Abbasids left alive. Just have the Mongols work hard to murder every single member of the family and force whoever's left (daughter or whatever) to marry the Ilkhan or his son.
 
Impossible. Further the people would not accept such a caliph whilst the Abbasids remain.

But Baghdad was sacked and it's populace decimated - hadn't that done enough to extinguish the legitimacy of the Abassids if a pretender tried to usurp the throne.
Hell, the Mongols held a vast majority of Abbasid lands..

Ilkhanate_in_1256–1353.PNG


Given this, I think the people would've accepted the usurpation, especially if the Khan's conversion seemed sincere
 
Can't have an Abbasid Caliphate if you have no Abbasids left alive. Just have the Mongols work hard to murder every single member of the family and force whoever's left (daughter or whatever) to marry the Ilkhan or his son.

That still does not give them a title to rule by. No caliph can be a non Arabic speaking Barbarian (to them). For all the Romanophiles, this is tantamount to giving the throne of Rome with all of its titles to the Negusa of Ethiopia or worse, a Germanic Barbarian within a few decades. It makes no sense.

Further, there is a reason Timur never took the title... He knew if he did, he would quickly become embattled and would take up responsibilities he did not wish to have.
 
But Baghdad was sacked and it's populace decimated - hadn't that done enough to extinguish the legitimacy of the Abassids if a pretender tried to usurp the throne.
Hell, the Mongols held a vast majority of Abbasid lands..

Ilkhanate_in_1256–1353.PNG


Given this, I think the people would've accepted the usurpation, especially if the Khan's conversion seemed sincere

No, legitimacy is not based solely on the sword. We are not speaking of some Turkic tribe on the fringes. Also, I seriously do not have time to indulge myself with this speech.
 
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