Upon the death of Ghazan, the Mongol governor of the Ilkhanid ulus, he was succeeded by his brother Oljeitu. He initially adopted the Christian faith and changed his name to Nicholas, in honor of Pope Nicholas IV. He later became a Buddhist, and finally a Muslim. As a Muslim, he was first a Hanafi, then a Shafi’ite, then a Shi’ite, and finally, in his final days, a Sunni.
