Then, of course, there was religion. The Mongols’ initial laissez-faire attitude toward religious dogma seems refreshing when set against the bigotry of the crusading age—and one modern scholar has even argued that it set such a fine historical example that the principle of religious freedom enshrined in the west in general and the U.S. Constitution in particular had its origins in the philosophy of Genghis Khan.47 But alongside that, the Mongols also made sweeping changes to the religious composition of Eurasia. By converting to Islam, the Mongol rulers of the Ilkhanate, Chagatai khanate, and
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