The political and social transformations of the seventh and eighth centuries AH, particularly the Mongol invasion and the establishment of Ilkhanate rule, led to the movement of scholars and students from Azerbaijan to Baghdad. Despite the damage caused by the fall of the Abbasid caliphate, Baghdad maintained its position as a major scholarly, educational, judicial, and administrative center of the Islamic world, capable of attracting and employing scholarly migrants. This article examines the status of Azerbaijani scholars in Baghdad from the Mongol invasion to the end of the Ilkhanate period and analyzes their role in the continuity and reconstruction of the city’s scholarly and educational life.

Using a historical method and a descriptive analytical approach, this study draws on biographical dictionaries, ṭabaqāt works, and historical reports. The findings show that after arriving in Baghdad, Azerbaijani scholars used its scholarly and educational capacities—especially madrasas, ribāṭs, and master-disciple networks-to consolidate their scholarly and social status. They contributed to teaching, hadith transmission, jurisprudence, legal opinion giving, judicial and administrative offices, madrasa administration, and religious institutions. Accordingly, the migration of Azerbaijani scholars to Baghdad was not merely a consequence of crises caused by the Mongol invasion; rather, it resulted in an active and influential presence in Baghdad’s scholarly and educational structures. The study concludes that the relationship between Azerbaijan and Baghdad in this period was reciprocal: Baghdad provided opportunities for these scholars’ advancement, while they contributed significantly to its scholarly, judicial, and administrative vitality.