The Mongol invasion introduced radical change in the evolution of the Muslim societies, in particular in the East of the Islamic world. Mongol and post-Mongol periods, extending roughly from the 7th/13th to the 10th/16th centuries, are marked by an intense search for a new stable socio-political configuration, which would ensure cohesion and survival of the Muslim community. A new socio-political configuration required a new basis of legitimisation, i.e. a new conception of religious authority. My presentation will focus on the evolution of the mystical and messianic pattern of religious authority in Timurid Iran, on its roots in the esoteric Shi’i and Sufi currents, and on its possible influence on the actual construction of the new socio-political configuration of the Muslim world, which eventually took the form of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires. I will analyze and compare three movements with distinct doctrinal lines: the Nizari Ismailis (with reference to the Rawda-yi taslim attributed to Nasir al-Din Tusi) on the Shi’i side, the Kubrawis (with reference to the works of Najm al-Din Kubra, Nur al-Din al-Isfarayini, Ala al-Dawla Simnani, and the thinkers associated with the Kubrawi circles, such as Sa’d al-Din Hammu’i and Aziz-i Nasafi) on the Sufi side, and the Hurufis (mainly with reference to the Jawidan-nama-yi kabir of Fadlallah Astarabadi), as an example of Sufi/Shi’i eclecticism with a strong messianic component that developed in early Timurid Iran. I will argue that the spectacular rise of messianism in Iran during the late Mongol and Timurid periods had its roots in the dramatic doctrinal evolution --, in particular concerning the issue of relationship between prophecy (nubuwwa) and sainthood (walaya) --, which took place simultaneously in Sufi and Shi’i circles in the period immediately preceding the Mongol invasion. I will further cite some examples from the Jawidan-nama-yi kabir , which show how the messianic leaders of Timurid times combined the Sunni and Shi’i intellectual heritage, apparently in an attempt at creating a doctrine acceptable by all major factions and leading to the unification of the Muslim community, and with an ecumenical dimension extended to Jews and Christians. This messianic perspective, later associated with the idea of charismatic kingship, arguably played a central role in the legitimisation of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal rules.