The work “Zubdat al-Fikra” serves as a valuable historical source for studying the relations between the Ilkhanate and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, the wars between Khans Berke and Hulagu, as well as the transformations in the political structure of the Islamic world.

The aim of the study is to analyze the information contained in this work concerning the life and reign of Hulagu Ilkhan in the 1260s and to determine its historical and source-critical significance. The article examines Hulagu’s political actions after the capture of Baghdad, the restoration of the Abbasid Caliphate, the enthronement of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and Berke Khan’s conversion to Islam. Particular attention is given to the content and stylistic features of these events as presented in Arabic sources within a comparative framework.

For the first time, fragments of “Zubdat al-Fikra” that had not previously been introduced into academic circulation have been translated and analyzed from both textological and source-critical perspectives. These materials make it possible to clarify the chronology of Hulagu’s era and to reinterpret his political and ideological connections with Mamluk Egypt, the Ulus of Jochi, and the broader Islamic world.

The methodological basis of the study consists of external and internal source criticism, textual comparison, and historical reconstruction. The results obtained allow for a new assessment of the political history of the Ilkhanate in the second half of the 13th century and a reevaluation of Hulagu’s place in the history of Islamic civilization.