This text is unedited and unformatted. It is simply auto-extracted from the PDF online at http://bahai-library.com/browne_literary_history . A LITERARY HISTORY OF PERSIA IN FOUR YOLUMES VOLUME 111 Cambridge University Press Fetter Lane, London qew York Bombay, Calcutta, Madm loranto MacmilIan lolyo Maruzen-Kabushiki-Kaisha All rights reserved H~JL~~GU Add.Z18803 (Grit, AIus.), f. 19 A LITERARY HISTORY OF PERSIA The Tartar Dominion (1265-1502) BY /J0/ EDWARD G~BROWNE M.A., M.B., P.B.&, P.R.C.P. SIR THOMAS ADAMS'S PROFESSOR OF ARABIC AND FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE IN THE UNIVPRSlTY OF CAMBRIDGE CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 19.8 HULAGU Add.118803 (Brit. Mus.), f. 19 A LITERARY ' HISTORY OF PERSIA VOLUMEI11 The Tartar Dominion SIR THOMAS ADAMS'S PROFESSOR OF ARABIC AND FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1928 Firat publithcd under the title of A Hiamr~ af Persian Literature, 1265-1502 1920 Second imprearion (with change of title) 1928 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME TO MY WIFE, TO WHOSE PERSUASION AND ENCOURAGEMENT ITS COMPLETION IS CHIEFLY DUE (Imimt : see pp, I 16--I17.) PREFACE FOURTEEN years have elapsed since the second volume of my Literary History of Persia1, of which the present work is in fact, if not in name and form, a con- tinuation, was published. That the appearance of this continuation, which comprises the period between Sa'di and JBmi, and extends from the death of HGlAgG the Mongol to the rise of the Safawf dynasty (A.D. 1265-1502),has been so long delayed is due to a variety of causes, at one of which, operative for five or six years (A.D. 1907-12), I have hinted in the Preface (p. xx) to my Persian Revolution of 1905-9. While Persia was going through what repeatedly appeared to be her death-agony, it was difficult for anyone who loved her to turn his eyes for long from her present sufferings to her past glories. Often, indeed, I almost abandoned all hope of continuing this work, and that I did at last take up, revise and complete what I had already begun to write was due above all else to the urgency and encouragement of my wife, and of one or two of my old friends and colleagues, amongst whom I would especially mention Dr T. W. Arnold and Mr Guy le Strange. The delay in the production of this volume has not, however, been altogether a matter for regret, since it has enabled me to make use of materials, both printed and manuscript, which would not have been available at an earlier date. In particular it has been my good fortune to acquire 1 Of these two volumes, published by Mr T. Fisher Unwin in the "Library of Literary History,"the full titles are as follows : A Literary History of Persiafrom tke earliesttimes until Firahwsi (pp. xvi +52I), 1902 ; and A Literary History of Persia from Firdawst to Sn'di (pp. xvi+ 568), 1906. In the notes to this volume they are referred to as Lit. Hist. of Persia, voL i or vol. ii. ... vlll PREFACE two very fine collections of Persian and Arabic manu- scripts which have yielded me much valuable material, namely, at the beginning of 1g17l, some sixty manuscripts (besides lithographed and printed books published in Persia) from the Library of the late Sir Albert Houtum-Schindler, and at the beginning of 1920 another forty or fifty manu- scripts of exceptional rarity and antiquity collected in Persia and Mesopotamia by Hzijji 'Abdu'l-Majfd Belshah. So many Persian works of first-class importance still remain unpublished and generally inaccessible save in a few of the great public libraries of Europe that the possession of a good private library is essential to the student of Persian literature who wishes to exte~~tlhis rcscarcllcs into its lcss familiar by-paths. I regret in some ways that I have had to produce this volume independently of its two predecessors, and not in the same series. Several considerations, however, induced me to adopt this course. Of these the principal ones were that I desired to retain full rights as to granting permission for it to be quoted or translated, should such permission be sought; and that I wished to be able to reproduce the original Persian texts on which my translations were based, in the numerous cases where these were not accessible in printed or lithographed editions, in the proper character. For this reason it was necessary to entrust the printing of the book to a press provided with suitable Oriental types, and no author whose work has been produced by the Cambridge University Press will fail to recognize how much he owes to the skill, care, taste and unfailing courtesy of all responsible for its management. I hope that none of my Persian friends will take ex- ception to the title which I have given to this volume, See my notice of this collection in the1.R.A.S. for October 1917, pp. 657-694, entitled The Persian dfanuscrz$ts of the late Sir A26eyt Houfu77z-Schind2er,K.C.I.E. PREFACE ix "A History of Persian Literature under Tartar1 Dominion." I have known Persians whose patriotism has so far outrun their historical judgment as to seek to claim as compatriots not only Timlir but even Chingfz and HGligd, those scourges of mankind, of whom the two last mentioned in particular did more to compass the ruin of Islamic civilization, especially in Persia, than any other human beings. When we read of the shocking devastation wrought by the Mongols through the length and breadth of Central and Western Asia, we are amazed not so much at what perished at their hands as at what survived their depredations, and it says much for the tenacity of the Persian character that it should have been so much less affected by these barbarians than most other peoples with whom they came in contact. The period covered by this volume begins with the high tide of Mongol ascendancy, and ends with the ebb of the succeeding tide of ThrAnian invasion inaugurated by Timhr. Politically, during its whole duration, Thrdn, represented by Tartars, Turks and Turkrndns, lorded it over frin, which, neverthe- less, continued to live its own intellectua1,literary and artistic life, and even to some extent to civilize its invaders. It is my hope and purpose, should circumstances be favourable, to conclude my survey of this spiritual and intellectial life of Persia in one other volume, to be entitled "A History of Persian Literature in Modern Times," covering the last four hundred years, from the rise of the great Safawi dynasty, which restored the ancient boundaries and revived the national spirit of Persia, to the present day. There remains the pleasant duty of expressing my thanks to those of my friends and fellow-students who have most materially helped me in the preparation of this work. Nearly all the proofs were carefully read by two Government of 1 I have yielded to the common usage in adopting this form instead of the more correct "Tatar." The later and less accurate, though more familiar, form "Tartar" owes its origin, as indicated on pp. 6-7 infra, to a popular etymology which would connect it with Tartarus. x PREFACE India Research Students of exceptional learning, ability and industry, Muhammad Shafi', a member of my own College and now Professor of Arabic in the PanjAb University, and, on his departure, by Muhammad Iqbil, a young scholar of great promise. To both of these I owe many valuable emendations, corrections and suggestions. Of the twelve illustrations to this volume four (those facing pp. 8, 66, 74 and 96) have already appeared in the edition of the Ta'l-ihh-i-Ja/zctlz-guskdpublished in 19I 2 by the "E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Trust " (vol. xvi, I, pp. lxxxvii, 147, 154 and 222), and are reproduced here by the kind permission of my fellow trustees. To my old friend Pro- fessor A. V. Williams Jaclison, of Columbia University, and to Messrs Macmillan, his publishers, I am indebted for permission to reproduce the photograph of the Tomb of HAfi? at Shfriz which originally appeared in his Persia, Past andPresent (p. 332), and here appears facing p. 310. The facsimile of JQmi's autograph facing p. 508 of this volume is reproduced from vol. iii (1886) of the CoZZections Scientz&ues de Z'lnstitut des Langzles Orientales du Ministdye des Ajaiyes Btraqzg-~yesd St P~tersbourg:Martu- scrits Persans, compiled with so much judgment by the late Baron Victor Rosen, to whose help and encouragement in the early days of my career I am deeply indebted. The six remaining illustrations, which are new, and, as I think will be generally admitted, of exceptional beauty and interest, were selected for me from manuscripts in the British Museum by my friends Mr A. G. Ellis and Mr Edward Edwards, to whose unfailing erudition and kindness I owe more than I can say. Three of them, the portraits of Sa'di, Hifi? and Shih-rukh, are from Add. 7468 (ff. 19, 34 and # respectively), while the portraits of HlildgG and TimGr are from Add. 18,803, f 19, and Add. 18,801, f 23. The colophon of the beautifully written QUY'&PZ transcribed at Maw~ilin A.H. 710 (A.D. I 310-1I) for ~lj~~tli (Ichudd-banda) and his two ministers Rashidu'd-Din PREFACE -xi Fadlu'llAh and Sa'du'd-Din is from the recently acquired Or. 4945l. All these have been reproduced by Mr R. B. Fleming with his usual taste and skill. Lastly I am indebted to Miss Gertrude Lowthian Bell, whose later devotion to Arabic has caused her services to Persian letters to be unduly forgotten, for permission to reprint in this volume some of her beautiful translations of the odes of HAfiq, together with her fine appreciation of his position as one of thc great poets not only of his own age and country but of the world and of all time. EDWARD G. BROWNE. AjriZ5, 1920. See the first entry in the Descn2tivc List of fit Avabic Manu- scrqts acpuived 6y the Trustees of the British Museunz since 1894, by Mr A. G. Ellis and Mr Edward Edwards (London, 1912). TABLE OF CONTENTS BOOK I CHAP. I. The Mongol 11-khgns of Persia (A.D. 1265-1337) . . ....11. The Historians of the fl-khhnf Period 111. The Poets and Mystics of the fl-khini Peri~d . . BOOK I1 FROM THE BIRTH TO THE DEATH OF T~MT~R-I-LANG, COMMONLY CALLEq TAMERLANE (A.H. 736-807 3 A.D. 1335-1405) .......IV. The Period of Timhr V. The Poets and Writers of the Time of Tfmhr . . BOOK 111 FROM THE DEATH OF T~M~JRTO THE RISE OF THE ~AFAW~DYNASTY (AH. 807-907 =AD.1405-1 502) ....VI. History of the Later Timhrid Period ...VII. Prose Writers of the Later Timdrid Period ....VIII. Poets of the Later Tfmdrid Period. PAGE vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS I. HlilAgd (Phot. by Mr R. B. Fleming) . . Frontis$iece 11. BAthrs court on the Volga . . . Tofacepage 8 111. Colophon of oldest MS. of the Ta'n'kh-i- JaLdn-grcshd. ' . . , :. ,, ,, 66 IV. Enthronement of Ogotiy . . . . $9 2, 74 V. Colophon of Qur'drt transcribed for lhjlytfi, Rashidu'd-Dfn and Sa'du'd-Din. (Phot. by Mr R. B. Fleming) . , . 99 3, 78 VI. Mongol siege of a Chinese town . . 3, 2, 96 VII. TfmGr-i-Lang (Tamerlane). hot. by Mr R B. Fleming) . . . . -. ,, ,, 180 VIII. HBfiz and Abfi Ishiq. (Phot. by Mr R. B. Fleming) . . . . . . 93 9, 274 f IX. The Hgfiziyya or Tomb of HAfiz . . s J, 310 X. ShPh-rukh. (Phot. by Mr R. B. Fleming) ,, ,, 382 XI. Sa'dl. (Phot. by Mr R. B. Fleming) . r, rr 484 XII. JPmfsautograph . . . . . ,, 3, 508 - ADDENDA p. 311, 1. 11. The date given is evidently wrong, for Karfm KhLn reigned from A.H. 1163-1 193 (A.D. 1750-1779). pp. 41I, 1. 16, and 412,l. 26.. One of the two dates (A.D. 1472 and 1474) here given is wrong, but I do not know which. BOOK I. THE MONGOL f~-KHANSOF PERSIA, FROM THE DEATH OF H~LAG~TO THE EXTINCTION OF THE DYNASTY (A.H. 663-737 =A.D. 1265-1337). CHAPTER I. THE MONGOL IL-KHANS OF PERSIA. Although to the student every period in the history of every nation is more or less interesting, or could be made Great epochs in SO with sufficient knowledge, sympathy and Persianhistoryl imagination, there are in the history of most and their con- neaion peoples certain momentous epochs of upheaval World-history and reconstruction about which it behoves every educated person to know something. Of such epochs Persia, for geographical and ethnological reasons, has had her full share. A glance at the map will suffice to remind the reader that this ancient, civilized and homogeneous land, occupying the whole space between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, forms, as it were, a bridge between Europe and Asia .. Minor on the one hand and Central and Eastern Asia on the other, across which bridge from the earliest times have passed the invading hosts of the West or the East on their respective paths of conquest. The chief moments at which Persian history thus merges in World-history are as follows : (I) The Persian invasion of Greece by the Achaemenian kings in the fifth century before Christ. Enumeration or (2) Alexander's invasion of Persia on his seven of these way to India in the fourth century before Christ, ~pochs resulting in the overthrow of the Achaemenian dynasty and the extinction of Persia as a Great Power for five centuries and a half. (3) The restoration of the Persian Empire by the House of S5sA.n in the third, and their often successfulwars with the Romans in the fourth and following centuries after Christ. (4) The Arab invasion of the seventh century after Christ, which formed part of that extraordinary religious revival of a people hitherto accounted as naught, which in 4 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I the course of a few years carried the standards of Isl5m from the heart of desert Arabia to Spain in the West and the Oxus and Indus in the East. (5) The Mongol or Tartar invasion of the thirteenth century, which profoundly affected the greater part of Asia and South-eastern Europe, and which may be truly described as one of the most dreadful calamities which ever befel the human race. (6) The second Tartar invasion of Tamerlane (Tinzzi;,- . i-Lazg or "Limping TimGr") in the latter part of the four- teenth century. (7) The Turco-Persian Wars of the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries, which gave Persia at that time so great at1 importance in the eyes of Europe as a potential check on Turkish ambitions, and caused her friendship to be so eagerly sought after by the chief Western nations. Of these seven great epochs in Persian history the fourth and fifth are the most important and have had the greatest The and and most profound influence. In all points save Mongol illya-one, however, the Arab and Mongol invasions sions of Persia compared and were utterly dissimilar. The Arabs came from contrasted the South-west, the Tartars from the North- east; the Arabs were inspired by a fiery religious enthusiasm, the Tartars by mere brutish lust of conquest, bloodshed and rapine; the Arabs brought a new civilization and order to replace those which they had destroyed, the Tartars brought mere terror and devastation. In a word, the Tartars were cunning, ruthless and bloodthirsty marauders, while the Arabs were, as even their Spanish foes were fain to admit, "Knights.. .and gentlemen, albeit Moors." The one point of resemblance between the two was the scorn which their scanty equipment and insignificant ap- pearance aroused in their well-armed and richly-equipped antagonists before they had tasted of their quality. This point is well brought out in that charming Arabic history the Icitdbu'l-Fakhd, whose author wrote about A.D. 1300, some fifty years after the Tartars had sacked BaghdAd and CH. I] EFFECTS OF MONGOL INVASION 5 destroyed the Caliphate. After describing the Arab inva- sion of Persia and the merriment of the Persian satraps and officers at the tattered scabbards, slender lances and small horses of the Arabs, he relates, d propos of this, the account1 given to him by one of those who "marched out to meet the Tartars on the Western side of Baghdid on the occasion of its supreme catastrophe in the year 656/1258," and tells how to meet one of their splendidly appointed champions in single combat there rode forth from the Mongol ranks "a man mounted on a horse resembling a donkey, havin? in his hand a spear like a spindle, and wearing neither uniform nor armour, so that .all who saw him were moved to laughter." "Yet ere the day was done," he concludes, "theirs was the victory, and they inflicted on us a great defeat, which was the Key of Evil, and after which , there befell us what befell us." It is almost impossible to exaggerate either the historical importance or the horror of this great irruption of barbarians Terrihle charac- out of Mongolia, Turkist6n and Transoxiana in ter and lasting the first half of the thirteenth century. Amongst effects the its results were the destruction of the Arabian Mongol invasion Caliphate and disruption of the Muhammadan Empire, rhe creation of the modern political divisions of Western Asia, the driving into Asia Minor and subsequently into Europe of the Ottoman Turks, the stunting and bar- barizing of Russia, and indirectly the Renaissance. As regards the terror universally inspired by the atrocious deeds of the Tartars, d'Ohsson in his admirable Histoire des Mongols observes2that we should be tempted to charge the Oriental historians with exaggeration, were it not that their statements are entirely confirmed by the independent testimony of Western historians as to the precisely similar proceedings of the Tartars in South-eastern Europe, where 1 For the full translation of this passage see Lit.Hist. of Persia, vol. i, pp. 197-8. Vo1. i, p. vii: 'I On croirait que l'histoire a exagdrd leurs atrocit&, si les annales de tous les pays n'dtaient d'accord sur ce point." 6 THE MONGOL f~-KHANS(A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I they ravaged not only Russia, Poland and Hungary, but penetrated to Silesia, Moravia and Dalmatia, and at the fatal battle of Liegnitz (April g, 1241)defeated an army of 30,000 Germans, Austrians, Hungarians and Poles com- manded by Henry the Pious, Duke of Silesia. Already two years before this date the terror which they inspired even in Western Europe was so great that the contempo- rary chronicler Matthew Paris, writing at St Albans, records under the year A.D. 1238 that for fear of the Mongols the fishermen of Gothland and Friesland dared not cross the North Sea to take part in the herrint-fishing at Yar- mouth, and that consequently herrings were so cheap and abundant in England that year that forty or fifty were sold for a piece of silver, even at places far from the coast. In the same year an envoy from the Isma'ilis or Assassins of Alam6t by the Caspian Sea came to France and England ~ to crave help against those terrible foes by whom they were annihilated twenty years later. He met with little encouragement, however, for the Bishop of Winchester, having heard his appeal, replied : "Let these dogs devour each other and be utterly wiped out, and then we shall see, founded on their ruins, the Universal Catholic Church, and then shall truly be one shepherd and one flock !" The accounts given by Ibnu'l-Athir, Ybqdt and other contemporary Muhammadan historians of the Mongol in- vasion have been cited in part in a previous Ivlatthcw Paris cited volume1 and need not be repeated here, but it is instructive to compare them with what Matthew Paris says about those terrible Tatars, who, for reasons which he indicates, through a popular etymology connecting them with the infernal regions, became known in Europe as "Tartars." Under the year A.D. 1240 he writes of them as follows2: "That the joys of mortal man be not enduring, nor 1 Lit. Hist. of Per-sia,vol. ii, pp. 426 et sqg. 2 Vo1. iv, pp. 76-78, cited in the Introductory Note to vol. iv of the Second Series of the Hakluyt Society's publications (London, 1900). I,.-. B:~~: t?i ." s- @'- EL, .~ T,k.p:,..: &l. " b*??,*.-c... CH. I] MONGOL CHARACTERISTICS 7 worldly happiness long lasting without lamentations, in this same year a detestable nation of Satan, to wit the countless army of Tartars, broke loose from its mountain- environed home, and, piercing the solid rocks (of the Cau- casus) poured forth like devils from the Tartarus, so that they are rightly called 'Tartars' or 'Tartarians.' Swarming like locusts over the face of the earth, they have brought terrible devastation to the eastern parts (of Europe), laying them waste with fire and carnage. After having passed through the land of the Saracens, they have razed cities, cut down forests, overthrown fortresses, pulled up vines, destroyed gardens, killed townspeople and peasants. If perchance they have spared any suppliants,they have forced them, reduced to the lowest condition of slavery, to fight in the foremost ranks against their own neighbours. Those who have feigned to fight, or have hidden in the hope of escaping, have been followed up by' the Tartars and butchered. If any have fought bravely for them and con- quered, they have got no thanks for reward ; and so they have misused their captives as they have their mares. For they are inhuman and beastly, rather monsters than men, thirsting for and drinking blood, tearing and devouring the flesh of dogs and men, dressed in ox-hides, armed with plates of iron, short and stout, thickset, strong, invincible, indefatigable, their backs unprotected, their breasts covered with armour; drinking with delight the pure blood of their flocks,with big, strong horses, which eat branches and even trees, and which they have to mount by the help of three steps on account of the shortness of their thighs. They are ~ithouthuman laws, know no comforts, are more ferocious than lions or bears, have boats made of ox-hides which ten or twelve of them own in common; they are able to swim or manage a boat, so that they can cross the largest and swiftest rivers without let or hindrance, drinking turbid and muddy water when blood fails them (as a beverage). They have one-edged swords and daggers, are wonderful archers, spare neither age, nor sex, nor condition. h he^ know no 8 THE MONGOL f~-KHANS(A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I other language but their own, which no one else knows; for until now there has been no access to them, nor did they go forth (from their own country); so that there could be no knowledge of their customs or persons through the common intercourse of men. They wander about with their flocks and their wives, who are taught to fight like men. And so they come with the swiftness of lightning to the confines of Christendom, ravaging and slaughtering, striking everyone with terror and incomparable horror. It was for this that the Saracens sought to ally themselves with the Christians, hoping to be able to resist these monsters with their combined forces." So far from such alliance talring place, however, it was not long before the ecclesiastical and temporal rulers of EarlyEuropean Christendom conceived the idea of malting use envoysto the of the Tartars to crush Islbm, and so end in Mongol capital their favour once and for all the secular struggle of which the Crusades were the chief manifestation. Com- munications were opened up between Western Europe and the remote and inhospitable Tartar capital of Qaraqorum; letters and envoys began to pass to and fro; and devoted friars lilre John of Pian de Carpine and Williarn of Rubruclc did not shrink from braving the dangers and hardships of that long and dreary road, or the arrogance and exactions of the Mongols, in the discharge of the missioils confided to them. The former, bearing a letter from the Pope dated March g, 1245,returned to Lyons in the autumn of 1247 after an absence of two years and a half, and delivered to the Pope the written answer of the Mongol Emperor ICuy15k Khbn. The latter accomplished his journey in the years 1253-5 and spent about eight months (January- ~u~ust,1254)at the camp and capital of MangG Khbn, by whom he was several times received in audience. Both have left narratives of their adventurous and arduous journeys which the Hakluyt Society has rendered easily accessible to English readers: and of which that of Friar Second Series, vol. iv, London, 1900, translated and edited by W. W. Rockhill. lCitli, thc ginndson i-4 ! From an old MS. of the ; ~n*1~zi'u't-T(zsan'rikhin the' Bibliothbque Nationale d $-i 5 holds Court on the CH. I] MONGOL RELATIONS WITH EUROPE 9 William of Rubruck especially is of engrossing interest and great value. These give us a very vivid picture of the Tartar Court and its ceremonies, the splendour of the presents offered to the Emperor by the numerous envoys of foreign nations and subject peoples, the gluttonous eating and drinking which prevailed (and which, as we shall see, also characterized the Court of Tfm6r 150 years later), and the extraordinary afflux of foreigners, amongst whom were included, besides almost every Asiatic nation, Russians, Georgians, Hungarians, Ruthenians and even Frenchmen. Some of these had spent ten, twenty, or even thirty years amongst the Mongols, were conversant with their language, and were able and willing to inform the missionaries "most fully of all things" without much questioning, and to act as interpreters1. The language question, as affecting the answer to the Pope's letter, presented, however, some diffi- culties. The Mongols enquired "whether there were any persons with the Lord Pope who understood the written languages of the Ruthenians, or Saracens, or Tartars," but Friar John advised that the letter should be written in Tartar and carefully translated and explained to them, so that they might make a Latin translation to take back with the original. The Mongol Emperor wished to send envoys of his own to Europe in the company of Friar Jphn, who, however, discountenanced this plan for five reasons, of which the first three were: (I) that he feared lest, seeing the wars and dissensions of the Christians, the Tartars might be further encouraged to attack them; (2)that they might act as spies; (3) that some harm might befall them in Europe "as our people are for the most part arrogant and hasty," and "it is the custom of the Tartars never to make peace with those who have killed their envoys till they have wreaked vengeance upon them." So Friar John and his 1 M. Leon Cahun in his Introduction d ZJHisloire de PAsic, p. 353, n. 2 ad calc., puts forward the ingenious suggestion that the German Dolwzetsch is derived from the Turco-Mongol Tilmdj, both words meaning 'I Interpreter." 10 THE MONGOL f~-KHANS(A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I companions came at last to Kieff on their homeward journey, and were there "congratulated as though they had risen from the dead, and so also throughout Russia, Poland and Bohemia." The history of the diplomatic missions1 which passed between Europe and Tartary in the thirteenth and four- Diplomatic re- teenth centuries has been admirably illustrated lations or the by Abel-RCmusat in his two classical Mdhzoi?-es Mongols with Europe sur Zes RLlationspolititipues des Princes Chrdtiens, et particuZi2it'l,enze7~tks Rois de France, avec Zes Empereurs Mongols. Fac-similes are here given, with printed texts and in some cases Latin or French trans- lations, of nine Mongol letters conveyed by different envoys at different periods to the Frcnch Court. The originals of these, measuring in some cases more than six feet in length, may still be seen in tlie Archives in Paris. The arrogance of their tone is very noticeable; still more so the occurrence in the Latin version of a letter to the Pope from BachG NliyAn of a very ominous and characteristic phrase which is also noticed by the contemporary Persian historian Juwayni. "Si vultis super terram vestram, aquam et patrimonium sedere," runs the letter, "oportet ut, tu Papa, in propri2 person2 ad nos venias, et ad eum qui faciem totius terrae continet accedas. Et si tu przceptum Dei stabile et illius qui faciem totius terrae continet non audieris, iZZud nos nescinzzls Dezds scit2." SOJuwayni says3that, unlike other great rulers and conquerors, they never indulged in violent and wordy threats when demanding submission or sur- render, but "as their utmost warning used to write but this much: 'If they do not submit and obey, what do we Know [what 7nayhappen]?the Etelvzal God Knows' !"As to what would inevitably happen if the Tartars were resisted (and Published in the Mbnoires de Z'Acnddmie RoyaZe des Znsut$tions et Belles-Lettm in 1821 and 1822,v01. vi, p. 396 and vol. vii, p. 335. See pp. 421-2 of the second memoir mentioned above. 3 Ta'n%h-i-]~zhdn-gu~k&(" E.J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series, vol. xvi, I, 1912) Part I, p. IS, 1. 11. CH. I] MONGOL ENVOYS TO ENGLAND 11 often even if they were not resisted) men were not long left in doubt. "Wherever there was a king, or local ruler, or city warden who ventured to oppose, him they annihi- lated, together with his family and his clan, kinsmen and strangers alike, to such a degree that, without exaggera- tion, not a hundred persons were left where there had been a hundred thousand. The proof of this assertion is the ac- count of the happenings in the various towns, each of which has been duly recorded in its proper time and place1." Whether any such letters exist in the records of this country I do not know, but in 1307, shortly after the death of Edward I (to whom they had been accredited), two Mongol ambassadors, whose names are given as Mamlakh and T6mAn" came to NorthamptonMongol envoys "isit Edward 11 and carried back with them an answer from atNorthamptonin 1307 Edward 11 written in Latin and dated Oc- tober 16, 1307. The principal object of this and previous missions was to effect an alliance between the Mongols and the European nations against the Mu- hammadans, especially the Egyptians. To attain this end the wily Mongols constantly represented themselves as dis- posed to embrace the Christian religion, a deceitful pretence which the more readily succeeded because of the belief pre- valent in Europe that there existed somewhere in Central or "Prester John" Eastern Asia a great Christian emperor ca!led "Prester John," generally identified with Ung KhAn the ruler of the Karits (or KerA'its), a people akin to the Mongols, with whom at the beginning of his career Chingiz KhAn stood in close relations, and who had been converted to Christianity by Nestorian missionariess. But as a matter of fact IslAm had been the official religion of 1 Juwayni, 09. cit., p. 17. 2 Called elsewhere "Thomas Ildaci " or "Iouldoutchi " (Yoldlichi). 3 This identification is explicitly made byAbdl-Faraj Bar-Hebraeus (Beyrout ed. of 1890,p. 394). See also d90hss?n's Hist. des Mongols, vol. i, pp. 48-9 and 52-3 with the footnotes. Ung or Ong Khd~was converted by popular etymology into Yokhnatz=]ohnn. / , 12 THE MONGOL f~-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I the Mongol rulers of Persia for at least ten vears before ----the above-mentioned ambassadors obtained audience of Edward 11. The contemporary Oriental histories of the Morlgols are singularly full and good', and include in Arabic Ibnu Excellence and 'I-Athir's great chronicle, which comes down =bundance of to the year 6281123I ; Shihhbu'd-Din NasA'i's materials for Mongol history very full biogr'aphy of his master JalAlu'd-Din Mankobirni, the gallant Prince of Khwirazm who maintained so heroic and protracted a struggle against the destroyers of his house and his empire; the Christian Abu'l-Faraj Bar-Hebraeus, whose Arabic history (for he wrote a fuller chronicle in Syriac) cornes down to 68311284, two years before his dcatli; and Ydqi~tthe geographer, most of which have been discussed and quoted in a previous volume. Of the three chief Persian sources, the Tn'dkk-i- Jakk~r-gushd of Juwayni, the Ta'?,fM-i-Was~nxand 'the Jctmi'u't-Taw&dkk, a good deal will be said in the next chapter, but one may be permitted to express regret that the last-mentioned history, one of the most original, ex- tensive and valuable existing in the Persian language, still remains for the most part unpublished and almost inac- cessiblea. Of the three best-known European histories of the Mongols, and of the point of view represented by each, European his-something must needs be said here. First there tories of the is Baron d'ohsson's admirable Histoire des Mon- Mongols gals, depuis Tchinguiz Khanjuspu'd Timoar Bey (I) d'Ohsson ou Tamerlans, a monument of clear exposition based on profound research. While recognizing, as every 1 They are admirably enumerated and described by d'ohsson, op. cit., vol. i, pp. x-lxvi. I have discussed the materials available for a complete text of this importantwork in an article published in the J.R.A. S.for 1908,vol. XI, pp. 17-37, entitled Sug~e~tioionsfol-n conzplete edition of the Jgmi'u't- Tawhrikh of Rashidz2d-Dtn Fa&Zu'ZZdh. 3 Published in four volumes at the Hague and Amsterdam, 1834-5. CH. I] HISTORIANS OF THE MONGOLS student of the subject must recognize, the immense im- portance and far-reaching effects of the Mongol conquests, he finds this people utterly detestable: "their government," he says, "was the triumph of depravity: all that was noble and honourable was abased; while the most corrupt per- sons, taking service under these ferocious masters, obtained, as the price of their vile devotion, wealth, honours, and the power to oppress their countrymen. The history of the Mongols, stamped by their savagery, presents therefore only hideous pictures; but, closely connected as it is to that of several empires, it is necessary for the proper understanding of the great events of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries1." Next in point of time is Sir Henry Howorth's great History of the Mongols in four large volumes2. His view of the Tartars differs somewhat from . > (2) Sir Henry Howorth dl Ohsson's, for he sees in them "one of those hardy, brawny races, cradled amidst want and hard circumstances, in whose blood there is a good mix- ture of iron, which are sent periodically to destroy the luxurious and the wealthy, to lay in ashes the arts and culture which only grow under the shelter of wealth and easy circumstances, and to convert into a desert the para- dise which man has painfully cultivated. Like the pestilence and the famine the Mongols were essentially an engine of destruction ; and if it be a painful, harassing story to read, it is nevertheless a necessary one if we are to understand the great course of human progress3." After enumerating other luxurious and civilized peoples who have been simi- larly renovated by the like drastic methods, he asserts that this "was so to a large extent, with the victims of the Mongol arms ; their prosperity was hollow and pretentious, 1 Ob.laud., vol. i, pp. vii-viii. 2 Published in London 1876-1888 and divided into three parts, of \vhich part z forms vols. ii and iii. Part 3 (vol. iv) deals with the Mongols of Persia. 3 0;b.laud., part I, p. X. , 14 THE MONGOL f~-KHANS(A.D. 1265-1337) [BKI their grandeur very largely but outward glitter, and the diseased body needed a sharp remedy; the apoplexy that was impending could probably only be staved off by much blood-letting, the demoralized cities must be sown with salt and their inhabitants inoculated with fresh streams of vigorous blood from the uncontaminated desert1." With more justice he insists on the wonderful bringing together of the most remote peoples of the East and West which was the most important constructive effect of the Mongol conquest, and concludes : "I have no doubt myself.. .that the art of printing, the mariner's compass, firearms, and a great many details of social life, were not discovered in Europe, but imported by Ineans of Mongol influence from the furthest East." The third book which demands notice, chiefly on account of its influence in Turkey in generating the Yetii T~Y~B, (3) Leon Cahun or Pan-Turanian movement, of which it is not yet possible exactly to appraise the political importance, is M. Leon Cahun's I~ztroductiond Z'Histoire de Z'Asie: Turcs et MongoZs, des Origines d 1405~.This writer goes very much further than Howorth in his admi- ration of the Mongols and the various kindred Turkish peoples who formed the bulk of their following. A note of admiration characterizes his description of their military virtues3, their "culte du drapeau, la glorificatioll du nom turc, puis mongo4 le chauvinisme4"; their political com- binations against the Sdsdnian Persians: and later against the Islamic influences of which Persia was the centre ;their courage, hardihood, discipline, hospitality, lack of religious fanaticism, and firm administration. This book, though diffuse, is suggestive, and is in any case worth reading because of its influence on certain chauvinistic circles in Turkey, as is a historical romance about the Mongols by 03.laud, p. I I. Paris, 1896. Oj. laud., p. ix. 4 16id., p. 79. 16id., pp. 111-118. CH. I] THE "PAN-TURANIAN " MOVEMENT 15 the same author, translated into English under the title of The Yeai The BlueBangzer. Of the YeBiTdrdn movement Tzfyd*~ I have spoken briefly elsewhere1, and this is "New Tura- ,,ianB1M~~~-hardly the place to discuss it more fully, though ment it has perhaps a greater significance than I was at that time disposed to think. On the literary side it aims at preferring Turkish to Arabic and Persian words, idioms and vehicles of expression, and at combating Arabic and Persian influences and traditions ; while on the political side it dreams of amalgamating in one State all the Turkish and kindred peoples west and east of the Caspian Sea (in- cluding the Mongols on the one hand and the Bulgarians on the other), and of creating a great Turkish or Turanian Empire more or less coextensive with that of Chingiz Khdn. The ideas of this school were chiefly embodied in a fort- nightly publication entitled Turk Yurdu (the "Turkish Hearth ") inaugurated in December, 191I. It is not, however, with the Mongol Empire as a whole, but with Persia under Mongol dominion that we are here State of Persia chiefly concerned, nor is it necessary to record under the on-in detail the history of the Mongol 1-khdns who gola succeeded HGldgG, which can be read in full in the pages of d'Ohsson and Howorth. Considering what Persia suffered at the hands of the Tartars, it is wonderful how much good literature was produced during this period. Generally speaking the South of Persia, lyingRelative immu- nity ofsouth apart from the main track of conquest to the Persia West, suffered much less than the North, West and Centre. Isfahdn suffered a massacre in which one famous poet at least perishedg, but ShirAz, owing to the timely and prudent submission of its rulek, escaped almost scatheless, a fact to which Sa'df ingeniously alludes in the 1 The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, p. xxxix. An interesting article on this subject, written, I understand, by Mr Arnold Toynbee, also appeared in the Tilnes for Jan. 3, 5 and 7, 1918. 2 See Lit. Hist. of Persia, vol. ii, pp. 541-2. x8 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I drawing towards its close, but we hear of him once again five Last days and years later, in 66g/1270-I, when he was called in death Na~lru to treat A bAqA, who had been gored by awild COW d-Din of T(ls on one of his hunting expeditions. The wound suppuratedand an abscess formedwhich none of the fl-khdn's other medical advisers dared to open. Na~iru'd-Dinsuc- cessfully performed the operation. He died in the following year at the age of seventy-five. Bar-Hebraeus gives him a brief but laudatory notice in his MzdKhtasaru'd-DuwaZ1, describing him as "theKeeper of the Observatory at MarAgha and a man of vast learning in all branches of philosophy." "Under his control," he continues, "were all the religious endowments in all the lands under Mongol rule. He com- posed rnaly worlts on logic, tlie natural sciences and meta- physics, and on Euclid and the Ahnagest. He also wrote a Persian work on Ethics2 of the utmost possible merit wherein he collected all the diGta of Plato and Aristotle on practical Philosophy, confirming the opinions of the ancients and solving the doubts of the moderns and the criticisms advanced by them in their writings." AbAqd was thirty-one years of age when he became ruler of Persia,and whether orno there was any truth in the rumour that he was actually baptised into the Christian Abdqd favours Church at the desire of his bride Despina, the ' the Christians natural daughter of Michael Palaeologus3, he consistently favoured the Christians, and, indeed, appears to have owed his elevation to the throne to their influence, exercised through Doquz Khithn, the widow of his father and predecessor HhlAgh, who survived her husband about a year, and who never failed to befriend her co-religionists in every possible way4. Abiiq6's diplomatic relations with 1 Beyrout ed. of A.D. 1890, pp. 500-1. Le. the well-known AKkZdq-i-Ndsiri, one of the three Persian works on this subject which are most read even at the present day. See Lit. Hi~t.ofPersia, vol. ii, pp. 220, 456, 485. See Howorth, oj. cit., pt. 3, p. 223. 4 Ibid, p. 218. She belonged to the Christian tribe of KerA'it (or CH.I] ABAQA KHAN (A.D. 1265-1282) I9 the Popes and Christian kings of Europe are, however, in all probability to be ascribed rather to political than religious motives. He was in correspondence with Clement IV, who wrote him a letter from Viterbo in I 267; Gregory X in 1274; and Nicolas 111, who in 1278 sent to him and to his over- lord the great Qhbildy (" Kubla ") KhAn an embassy of five Franciscan monks. One of his embassies even penetrated as far as England and was apparently received by Edward I, but the records of it seem to be scanty or hon-existent1. The political object of these negotiations was to arrange for a combined attack on the still unsubdued Muslims of Egypt and Syria, the natural and deadly foes of the Mongols; and the inducement held out to the Christians was the possession of the Holy Land for which they had so long striven. Fortunately for the Muhammadans, IslAm possessed in the Mamlhk SulfAn Baybars,called al-Malik a?-ZAhir, a doughty champion well qualified to meet the double peril which menaced his faith and his country. Already in 1260, before he was elected king, he had driven Hhldgh's Mongols out of Ghaza and routed them at 'Ayn JAlht, driven back the Crusaders in Syria, and broken the power of the Syrian branch of the Assassins ; and in April, 1277,he inflicted on the Mongols another great defeat at Abulustayn, leaving nearly 7000 of them dead on the field of battlea. When Abdqd subsequently visited the battle-field, he was deeply moved, even to tears, by the numbers of the Mongol slain. Karit) and was the granddaughter of their ruler ong or Wang Khhn, the original of the "Prester John" of mediaeval legend. Rar-Hebraeus in recording her death (09.cit., p. 497) describes her as ''great in her judgement and wisdom." See Howorth, 09.laud, pp. 278-281, and on the whole subject Abel-Rimusat's classical Mkmoires sur les RLlations ;6olitiques des Princes CArktiens...avec Zes EEmpereursMong-02sin the Mhn. de PAcad. Xoyale des Insm@tionset Belles-Lettres, vols. vi and vii, pp. 396 and 335 respectively. See Lit. Hist. of Persia, vol. ii, p. 446 ; S. Lane-Poole's admirable little History of Egy#t, pp. 262 and 270 ;and Howorth, oj. cit. pp. 257-9. : !' :: t !i (I Ir I ;;. i L :!: 4, i I ,, [ 1; i5,.I. : El .1;'I' I/ : fi ;I )I i , ,. , 20 -THE MONGOL f~-KHANS(A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I Bitter hatred subsisted during all this period between the Mongol fl-khAns and the Egyptian MamlGks, and no more dangerous or damaging charge could be preferred against a subject of the former than an accusation of being in com- munication with the latter. Every Muslim subject of the Mongols must needs walk very warily if he would avoid such deadly suspicion, and, as we shall see hereafter, the favourite method of ruining a hated rival was to denounce him to the Mongol government as having relations with Egypt. From our present point of view we are less concerned with the Mongol rulers and generals than with the Persian functionaries whom they found indispensable in Juwaynf the civil service (like the Arabs in earlier times),family and amongstwhomwereincluded men of remark- able talents. Conspicuous amongst these was the Juwayni family, notably Shamsu'd-Din Muhammad the Jd+ib- Biwdt, his brother 'Ald'u'd-Din 'At5 Malik, and his son Bahd'u'd-Din. The Jdbib-Diwd7t7s grandfather, also en- titled Shamsu'd-Din, but distinguished by the epithets BZLZZLY~("the Great") and &Iziy-di~,h("the long-haired"), had been Prime Minister to Qutbu'd-Din KhwdrazmshAh, while his father, Bahgu'd-Din, had held the office of Mustawpl-MamdZiK (approximately equiialent to Chan- cellor of the Exchequer). He himself had held the office of Prime Minister for ten years under HGldgG KhAn, and was continued in this position by AbbqA. His brother, 'Alb'u'd-Din is chiefly interesting to us as one of the finest historians whom Persia ever produced, and in this capacity he will be considered in the next chapter; but he was also a great administrator, and was for twenty-four years gover- nor of Baghdddl. His son BahA'u'd-Din was governor of Persian 'Irdq and Firs, while another soil Sharafu'd-Din 1 He was appointed by H61Pg6 in 65711259, one year after the capture of the city by the Mongols. See the Introduction to Mirzi Mul~aminad'sedition of the Ta'rihh-i-mdn-pshd in the "E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series, vol. xvi, I (~grz),pp. xxviii. CH.I] THE JUWAYNf FAMILY 21 HArhn was a poet and a patron of poets1. A full and critical account of this talented family, based on researches equally extensive and minute, is given by MirzA Muhammad of Qazwin, one of the finest and most critical Persian scholars whom I ever met, in his Introduction to the Ta'rikh-i- Iahcin-gz~shci(vol. i, pp. xix-xcii), to which the reader may refer for much detailed information which considerations of space render it impossible to reproduce here. The Juwayni family, alike in their love of literature and learning, their princely generosity, their administrative capacity, and their tragic fate, irresistibly recall to one's mind another great Persian family of statesmen, the celebrated House of Barmak or Barmecides of "the Golden Prime of good I-Iaroun Alrascl~id".~'Their influence was great and wide- spread; their connection with literature, both as writers and as patrons of poets and men of learning, extensive; and the jealousy of less fortunate rivals which embittered their lives and finally brought about their destruction commen- surate with the power and high positions which they so long enjoyed. The first to die of those mentioned above, and one of the few who was fortunate enough to die a Dcath and char-natural death, was BahA'u'd-Din, son of the acter of Bahfi'u $@ib-Diwdn and governor of Persian 'IrAq. 'd-Din Juwayni His death took place in 67811279 at the early age of thirty. He was a terribly stern governor, who inspired the utmost terror in the hearts of his subjects, and whose ferocity went so far that he caused his little son, and he a favourite child, to be put to death by his executioner because in play he had caught hold of his beard. The historian Wa&f gives many other instances of his implac- able sternness,of which a selectionwill be found in Howorth's History of the Mongols3; but it is fair to add that under his 1 His DZwdn is very rare, but there is a MS. (Or. 3647) in the British Museum. See Rieu's Pers. Sul/pL Cat., No. 254, pp. 166-7. a Cf. Mirz5 Muhammad's Introduction to the jahdn-gushd, p. 4. 3 Pt. 3, pp. 221-2, and the Ta'rikh-i-Was$& (Bombay lith.), pp. 60 et segq. 22 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I stern administration the utmost security prevailed in the provinces which he administered, while he eagerly cultivated the society of poets, scholars and artists. His father the Sdhi6-Diwdn mourned his death in the following verse: "Muhammad's son! Thy slave is Heaven high ; One hair of thee the Age's Mart might buy; Thy Sire's support wert thou : bereft of thee His back is bent as brow o'er beauty's eye." The following verse was composed by IIindfishAh to com- memorate the date of his death : '>$jju&LaS &;)Isk &I -Lo 'db51 d9H d>d-44 CjQb J> "On the eve of Saturday the seventeenth of Sha'bbn's month In the year three score and eighteen and six hundiedfrom the Flight' From the world BahPu'd-Din, that great waztr, in I~fahin Fled. Ah, when on such another ruler shall Time's eyes alight?" This was the first of the misfortunes which befel the Juwayni family, and which were largely due to their un- Misfortunes grateful protegd Majdu'l-Mulk of Yazd, whose or Juwaynf ambition led him to calumniate both the .@bib- family Dizudn and his brother 'Algu'l-Mulk 'At5 Malik. While still subordinate to the $ci/zib-DLwd~z, blajdu '1-Mulk addressed to him the following quatrain : CH. I] ABAQA KHAN (A.D. 1265-1282) 'I I said, 'I'll ever in thy service be, Intrigues of Not come iike larch and go like willow tree '1 : hfajdu'l-Mulk He who despairs is bold and sharp of tongue ; Cause me not, Friend, thus desperate to be !" By traducing the Jdhib-Dtwdn to AbAqd,he finally induced that monarch to associate him in the government with his rival, and this dual control gave rise to endless friction and recriminations. On one occasion he sent another quatrain to the ,sd&ib-Diwdnas follows : "Into the Ocean of thy grief I'll dive, And either drown, or pearls to gather strive ; 'Tis hard to fight with thee, yet fight 1 will, And die red-throated, or red-cheeked survive?" To this the $d$ib-Dtwdlz sent the following answer : &'Sinceto the King complaints thou canst not bear Much anguish to consume shall be thy share. Through this design on which thou hast embarked Thy face and neck alike shall crimson wear." 1 I suppose the writer's meaning is, that he wishes to be a permanent and honoured associate of the minister, not liable to reprimand, humili- ation or dismissal, coming in erect as the larch or cypress, and going out after some rebuff bowed down with humiliation like the weeping willow. 2 Die red-throated," d.e. by decapitation. "Red-cheeked') or &'red- faced" means "honoured," the opposite of "black-faced." ) 24 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I Ultimately Majdu'l-Mulk succeeded in arousing AbAqP's suspicions against the Jd4ib-DLwkz's brother, 'AlA'u'l-Mulk 'At&Malik-i-Juwayni,mhowas arrested,paradedDisgrace and punishment of through the streets of BaghdAd, tortured, and 'AraMalik-i-forced to pay large sums of money which heJuwaynf was alleged to have misappropriated. Matters might have gone yet worse with him had not AbAqP's sudden death on April I, 1282, put an end to his persecution and Release of 'At& brought about his release from prison, while Malik and death soon afterwards his enemy Majdu'l-Mulk fell a of Majdu'l-Mulk victim to the popular fury, and was torn in pieces by the mob, his dismembered limbs being publicly exhibited in the chief cities of Persia. On this well-merited punishlnent of the old and inveterate foe of his fanlily 'AfA Malik-i-Juwayni composed the following quatrain : "For some brief days thy guile did mischief wreak; Position, wealth and increase thou didst seek: Now every limb of thine a land hath ta'en : Thou'st over-run the kingdom in a week !" 'Afti Malik, however, did not long survive his foe, for he too Death of died in the spring of 1283. Malik-i-Juwa~ni In one curious particular connected with in A.D. 1283 AbAqP's death all the historians agree. He had, in the usual Mongol fashion, been drinking deeply with his favourites and boon-companions. Feeling uneasy, he had Death of Abiq5. withdrawn from them for a moment into the palace garden when he suddenlv cried out that- a large black bird was threatening him, and ordered some ofhis servants to shoot itwith arrows. The servants hastened to him in answer to his call, but no bird was to be seen, and CH. I] AHMAD TAKUDAR (A.D. 1282-1284) 25 while they were still searching for it, AbAqi fell down in a swoon from which' he never awoke1. A few other events of AbbqA's reign merit a brief men- tion. The Assassins, in spite of all they had suffer~dat Renewed the hands of the Mongols, so far recovered activityof themselves as to attempt the life of 'Atti Malik- Assassins i-Juwaynf in 67011271-2, while four years later, in 67411275-6, they actually succeeded, under the leader- ship of the son of their last Grand Master Ruknu'd-Din KhurshAh, in regaining possession of Alamht, though they Internecine were shortly afterwards subdued and destroyed wars of Mon-by AbiqA. Internecine wars between various go1 princes Mongol princes began to be prevalent in AbAqA's reign, as, for instance, that between YGshmGt and NogAy at Aq-s6 in 66311264-5, the year of AbAqd's ac- cession, and that between AbAqti and Nikhdar'the son of Chaghatiy in 66711268-9. Further turmoil was caused by the repeated raids of the Nikhdaris, and by the revolt of RCVOI~ of Buriq BurAq in KhurAsAn. The defeat of the latter by AbAqA's troops was due almost entirely to the valour of Subuttiy, in allusion to which a contemporary poet says : '~;~.J>J~LWLS~!~+~ "'Gainst the army of thy love not one could stand save only I, As against Buritq of all AbPqL's captains SubutAy." On the death of AbAqA two rival candidates appeared on the scene, his brother Takhdar2(who, on his conversion 1 Abu'l-Faraj Bar-Hebraeus (Beyrout ed. of 1890, p. 505) says that this happened at HamadLn in the house of a Persian named BihnPm who gave abanquet in AbPqit's honour. He does not explicitly mention the black bird, but says that AbiqL "began to see phantoms in the air." 2 This name is sometimes given as Nik6dar or Nigfidar, but the Armenian form Tongudar given by Haithon seems decisive. See Howorth, oj. cit., pp. 310-1 I. , 28 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BKI Din, MawlAnd Shamsu'd-Din, MawlAnA HumAmu'd-Dhl and those other great divines whom time and the circum- stances do not permit me to mention by name, that they may know that we have severed all ties and so departed. Let them assist me with their prayers1!" He also addressed the following farewell letter and testament to his sonsa: "Salvation and greeting to my sons and dear ones, may God Almighty preserve them ! Let them know that I en- trust them to God, Mighty and Glorious is He: His letter tohissons verily God doth not suffer that which is en- trusted to Him to sustain loss. It was in my mind that perhaps a meeting might be possible, whereat my last wishes might be coln~nunicatedorally, but my days are ended, and my business is now with the world to come. Do not fall short in the care of my children; incite them to study, and on no account suffer them to have aught to do with the service of the State; let them rather be content with that which God Most High hath assigned to them. If my son AtAbek and his mother wish to return home, they have my permission so to do. Let Nawrhz, Masr6d and their mother remain with BulqAn KhAthn, and should she grant them estates, let them ac- cept them and be content therewith. Whither can my chief wife go from Tabriz? Let her then remain there near the grave of me and my brothers. If they can, let them make their dwelling in the monastery of Shaykh Fakhru'd-Din and repair thither. Mhmina hath received little satisfaction from us: if she wishes to marry again, let her do so. Let Farrukh and his mother remain with AtAbek. Let them leave ZakariyyA with the crown 1ands.and other estates which I have given over to Amir BhqB Let them petition [on his behalf]: if some land should be granted to him, well and good: if not, let him rest content. May the Almighty' To'yfkk-i-WwdA p. 141. The text of this is given in the Mzg'Ir~zalof Fa~ibiof IChwSf, ff. 468b-469aof the MS. belonging to the Gibb Trustees. CH. I] FATE OF THE JUWAYNf FAMILY 29 Creator have mercy upon us, and bless all of them. At this hour my mind is fixed on the Divine Presence, and I can write no more than this. Deal kindly with all, bond and free, and forget us not on the nights when you remember the absent." The SLi&ib-Dfwrtndid not perish alone. Four of his sons, YahyA, Faraju'lldh, Mas'Gd and AtAbek, were put to death soon after him, and a little later another son, HArhn. "Two brothers and seven sons," according to the Ta'rikh-i-Wa;~a~l,constituted the sacrifice demanded by Mongol ferocity, ever ready to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, and little disposed to leave alive poten- tial avengers. Added to these losses were the deaths in the years immediately preceding of 'Ald'u'l-Mulk 'AfA Malik-i- Juwayni and Bahb'u'd-Dfn, already mentioned, so that in the course of five or six years this great family of states- men was practically effaced from the page of history. Fasihi, in his Mujlnal (f. 469), quotes the two following quatrains composed by the Sdkib-Diwdn in his last mo- ments : 'ip4~64 4JP~*> GI 'iP J> G~!A3+ 'J>3 ~~:jjl&w& 'iP J>GlgsJ4 a34 &I ''0 Hand of Fate, which doth my heart's steps stay, My heart submits to thy desire to slay: With all my heart I offer thee my life ; For this throughout my life my heart did pray." OJ'A J> &G '- OJ rw 4, Lk '&*& &&jirlcZs Look, thou who caused'st life's bright lamp to die, Two hundred worlds thou seest extinguished lie, Yet do the slain eternal life attain, And those in chief who are by heathens slain." 1 P. 142. 30 THE MONGOL f~-KHANS(A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I His death was universally lamented, even in towns like Shiriz where he was known only by his charities and good works, and which he had never visited. Amongst the verses composed on his death are the following: "The Night in grief hath dyed her cloak, and Morn, Heaving cold sighs, appears wit11 collar torn : The Sun's1 departure stains the sky with gore : The Moon is veiled, the locks of Venus shorn." -'>jjlgrii db #..A-135 d>>*3(;iL &+ 3b "That minister whose head o'ertopped the skies Hath earned, in truth, of martyrdom the prize ; The .?d4ib-Diwdn,who for thirty years Hath kept the world secure from hurts and fears. 0 cruel heavens such a life to ban ! 0 cruel earth, to slay so great a man !" There were, however, others who regarded the sdfiib- Dizwdn's fate as well deserved, on account of the part he had ~layedin respect to his unlucky predecessor Majdu'l-Mulk. This point of view is represented in the following verses, cited in the Ta'rikh-z-Gzdda : Shamsu'd-Din, "the Sun of Religion," was the Jd&ib-Diwdn'~ name, to which allusion is here made. CH. I] ARGH~NKHAN (A.D. 1284-1291) 31 'A99 dbj> jA 91 & '~~>>)ob9>>JL*r)>jlh 'pj 4&+ 3jbj 15 >>I> A 'jl++ If& &>j>3 "Since Majdu'l-Mulk,by God-sent destiny, A martyr .in Naw Shahr's plain did die, By the Jd&ib-Di~wdnMuhammad's spite, Who ruled the land with unrestricted might, Two years, two months, two weeks went by, and lo, Fate bade him drain in turn the cup of woe. Beware how in this world thou workest harm ; Fate's scales hold equal weight of bane and balm I " A violent death was, however, the common end of those whowere rash enough to act as ministers to Mongol sovereigns. Thus Jaldlu'd-Din Simndni, who succeeded the $dbib-Dfwda,was executed in August, 1289; Sa'du'd-Dawla, who succeeded him, was put to death at the end of February, 1291; Sadru'd-Din Khdlidf, who acted as minister to Gay- khAt6, suffered the same fate in May, I 298 ; and Rashidu'd- Din Fadlu'llAh, the most accomplished of all, was executed in July, 1318. ArghGn reigned over Persia for nearly seven years (August, 1284-May, 1291). The embassies which he sent to Europe, and especially that of 1287-1288, of . Sa'du'd-Daw'a,which one of the envoys, Rabban Sawrnd, hasthcJewishwasfr left us an account in Syriacl, mark a revival of Abdq6s policy, which had been reversed by Ahmad TakGdar. During the latter part of ArghCn's reign Sa'du'd-Dawla the Jew was his all-powerful minister. This man, originally a physician, was detested by the Muslims, who ascribed to him the most sinister designs against Islbm. He was originally a native of Abhar, and afterwards practised medicine at BaghdAd. He was recommended to ArghGn by some of his co-religionists, and, according to the Ta'- rikh-i-Wa&y, gained the esteem and confidence of that prince not only by his knowledge of the Mongol and 1 See that most interestingbook Histoire de Marjabalaha Il/...et ~ZLmoifteRabbrtn qauma...traduit du Syriapue et annotke $ar 1.-B. Chnbot (Paris, 1895). a p. 236. 32 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BKI Turkish languages, but also by the skilful manner in which he played on ArghGn's avarice by the schemes for re- plenishing the treasury which he unfolded. In the realiza- tion of these schemes in Baghddd he showed such ability that he was entrusted by ArghGn with the financial control of the whole kingdom. His co-religionists, hitherto despised and repressed, began to benefit by his ever-increasing power, and to fill many offices of state; so much so that a con- temporary poet of BaghdAd wrote as followsl: "The Jews of this our time a rank attain To which the heavens might aspire in vain. Theirs is dominion, wealth to them doth cling, To them belong both councillor and king. 0 people, hear my words of counsel true : Turn Jews, for heaven itself hat11 turned a Jew ! Yet wait, and ye shall hear their torment's cry, And see them fall and perish presently." Sa'du'd-Dawla's boldness and open hostility to Isldm increased with his power, until he not only induced ArghGn to exclude the Muslims from all high civil and military posts2,hut endeavoured to compass the destruction of their religion. To this end he sought to persuade ArghGn that the prophetic function had passed from the Arabs to the Mongols, who were divinely commissioned to chastise the disobedient and degenerate followers of Muhammad, and proposed to turn the Ka'ba into an idol-temple. He began to prepare a fleet at Baghddd to attack Mecca, and sent his co-religionist KhwAja Najibu'd-Din ICahl~Alinto Irr OI J JJOPJ JJO* I >,$I ,&I &b 'UI a6.4I. .>I, *d4.i I 0, . or. . Oar n , .OP J,O .OP r I & 1 3 'e2$q JWI1-17 2P .: n>n.a #3ZJ& Y( *(i >I, 6sJ-&I 91i.1 4 s .,I. 1 See Howorth, oj. cit.,p. 345. 2 Cited from the Ta'l-fik-i-Wn~sCtf,p. 247. -. I/ CH.I] ANTI-JEWISH POEMS 35 'I&& +&I +JdlUi3 J rr 0, O r0r J # OP: I ,.I $7' j;i I,+LI 16. I JrOd rJO11Jr) 00 0 DJ 20 (ir'WI j-?ulA~Idb eJu,U 17 3. 0 -0 J.. Z'4; . d;i;.. i;G,L,.,# A,QI 18 O... bl r. J>.&I-# >b 'a' 0 I %u!19 I "His Name we praise who rules the firmament ! These apish Jews are done away and shent. z I11 luck hath whelmed the Fortune of their State' ; Throughout the lands they're shamed and desolate. 3 God hath dispersed their dominant accord, And they are melted by the burnished sword. 4 How long they ruled in fact, though not in name, And, sins committing, now are put to shame. 1 Sa'du'd-DawZa means the "Fortune," or "Good Luck of the State." There is an antithesis between Su'4 which applies to the fortu- nate influence of the auspicious planets, and Nabs, the maleficent influence of the unlucky planets. 36 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I 5 God made them wail in woe right speedily, After that in their days they laughed with glee. 6 Grim captains made them drink Death's cup of ill, Until their skulls the blood-bathed streets did fill, 7 And from their dwellings seized the wealth they'd gained, And their well-guarded women's rooms profaned. 8 0 wretched dupes of error and despair, At length the trap hath caught you in its snare ! 9 Vile, carrion birds, behold, in open ground The nets of ruin compass you around ! 10 0 foulest race who e'er on earth did thrive, And hatefulest of those who still survive, I I The Calf you served in place of God ;and lo, Vain, vain are all your goings to and fro ! 12 They doomed to death your 'Cleanser1' and thereby '. A host of sinful souls did purify, 13 What time they gathered round his head upraised Midst dust and stench, and on its features gazed. 14 God sped the soul of him who was their chief To hell, whose mirk is dark despair and grief. . 15 In molten torments they were prisonCd, In trailing chains they to their doom were led. 16 Take warning, from this doom without reprieve ; Recite the verse: "How nzany did they have2!" 17 TughQchAr,prince fulfilled with strength and zeal, Hath caused the pillars of their power to reel. 18 His flashing falchion on their flesh did feed, And none would hold him guilty for the deed. 19 Our Shaykh's prediction found fulfilment there, What time he saw them rob him of his share ; zo That holy man, our lord Jamblu'd-Din3, Aided by God, endowed with angel's mien, 21 Devoted, walking ever in the way Of Hirn the fishes in their seas obey. 22 I penned this satire, hoping to attain The Eternal Gardens' lake-encompassed plain, 23 And to refute that poet's words untrue Who said, 'Turn Jews, for Heaven hath turned a Jew.'" 1 This word MzdhadAWib (" Purifier ") probably forms part of some such title as d~tdhadhdAiBt~'d-Uawlnborne by one of the victims. '$ Hoze, many gardens andJou~ztai?zs...didthey have Behindthenz!" Qur'an, xliv, 24. 3 Perhaps JamAlu'd-Din Muhammad ibn Sulaymdn an-Naqib al- Maqdisi (d. 698/1zg8-9) is meant. CH. I] PAPER CURRENCY RIOTS . 37 Arghiin was succeeded by his brother GaykhitG, whose coronation did not take place till July 22,1291, four months Accession of and a half after his predecessor's death. During Gaykhitfi this interval, in spite of the fact that Tughichir (A.D. "9'-and other chiefs of the Mongols had hastened to '295) appoint governors in the different provinces, anarchy was rampant, and Afrisiyhb, of the House of Hazirasp, which had ruled over Luristin since the middle of the twelfth century, broke out in an abortive revolt and . for a while held Isfahin. GaykhitG, whom the author of the @abf6u's-Siyar describes as "the most generous of the children of MGllgii," chose Sadru'd-Din Ahmad Khilidi of Zanjin, Dissolute and better known as Sadr-i-Jahdtz, as his prime character minister. Both the monarch and his minister GaykhdtCl were disposed to extravagance and prodigality, and the former at any rate to the pleasures of the table and other less reputable enjoyments. Thus it soon happened that the treasury was empty, and, money being urgently Introduction or required, Sadr-i-Jahdn determined to introduce paper money the chao, or paper money, which was current in (chao) theChineseEmpire. To this end establishments for manufacturing the chao were erected in all the principal towns, and stringent laws were enacted to restrict the use of the precious metals as far as possible. Full descriptions of the projected paper money are preserved to us in the Ta'rtkh- i-Wa;;dp and other histories of the period. The notes consisted of oblong rectangular pieces of paper inscribed with some words in Chinese, over which stood the Muham- madan profession of faith, "There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Apostle of God," in Arabic. Lower down was the scribe's or designer's name, and the value of the note (which varied from half a dirham to ten dtndrs) inscribed in a circle. A further inscription ran as follows: "The King 38 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 126591337) [BK I of the world issued this auspicious chno in the year A.II. 693 [A.D. 12941. Anyone altering or defacing the same shall be put to death, together with his wife and children, and his property shall be forfeited to the exchequer." Proclamations were also sent to Shiriz and other towns explaining the advantages of the new currency, answering imaginary objec- tions against it, and declaring that: "If in the world this cliao gains currency, Immortal shall the Empire's glory be," and that poverty and distress would entirely disappear. One ingenious provision in the laws affecting the chno was that notes worn and torn by circulation were to be returned to the chno-khdna, or Mint, and new notes, less by ten per cent. than the amount thus refunded, were to be given to the person so returning them. The issue of the chao in Tabriz was fixed for the month of Dhu'l-Qa'da, 693 (Sept.-Oct., 1294). In three days the bazaars of Tabriz were closed and business Unpopularity of the was practically at a standstill, for no one would accept the chao, and gold and silver had been withdrawn from circulation. The popular rage was largely directed against 'Izzu'd-Din Muzaffar, who had been in- strumental in introducing the hated paper money, and such verses as the following were composed about him: 'I Pride of the Faith', Protection of the Land, Would that thy being from the world were banned I ,This is the meaning of 'lzzu'd-Din. CH. I] BAYDO (APRIGOCTOBER, 129j) 39 Hence Muslim, Guebre and Jew first magnify God, and declare His Power and Unity ; Then, humbly praying, bow them in the dust, And thus invoke the JudgeAll-wise and Just :- 'Lord, send him not victorious', we pray : Cause all his schemes and plans to go astray!'" Similar disturbances broke out at ShirAz and in other cities, and, yielding to the representations of the Mongol nobles and others, GaykhAtG finally consented The cAao is withdrawn to recall the obnoxious chao and abolish the paper currency which had intensified instead of ameliorating the financial crisis. Shortly after this untoward experiment, GaykhAth, in one of those drunken orgies which were habitual to him, grossly insulted his cousin BaydG, a grandsonGaykhdtfi insults his of HGlAgG, and caused him to be beaten by one cousin Baydti of his retainers. Next morning, when he came to his senses, he repented of his action, and endeavoured to conciliate BaydG by means of gifts and honours. Raydh, for reasons of expediency, concealed his resentment for the time, but soon afterwards, encouraged by certain disaffected Mongol nobles, he openly revolted against GaykhAth, who, betrayed by his general TughichAr, was taken prisoner and put to death at MGqAn, on Thursday, 6 JumAda 11, 694 (April 23, 1295). BaydC was crowned soon after this at Hamadin, and after celebrating his accession in the usual drunken fashion of the Mongols: proceeded to appoint Tughb- Rayd"April-act., A.D. 12gj) chircommander-in-chief,dismiss thelatepremier Sadr-i-Jahdn, and replace him by Jamblu'd-Din Dastajirdini. He did not, however, long enjoy the high position which he had gained, for six months after his 1 "Victorious" is the meaning of Mu~afa~. a flabt6u1s-Siyar(Bombay lithographed ed. of 1857),vol. iii, pt. I, p. 81. 40 THE MONGOL fL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I accession he was overcome by GI~Bziin,the son of his cousin Arghlin, and, in the words of Khw6ndamir1, "quaffed a full cup of that draught which he had caused GaykhPt6 to taste." The accession of GhAz6t1, the great-grandson of H61dg6, marks the definitetriumph of IslAm over Mongolheathenism, and the beginning of the reconstruction of Per- Ghdzdn (A.D. 1295-1304) sian independence. He was born on December 4, 127I, and was therefore not twenty-four years of age when he assumed the reins of government. At the youthful age ofseven he accompanied his grandfatherAbAqd on his hunting expeditions, and at the age of ten his father Argh6n made him governor of IiT '+L), for the first gives 300+ I i-5 +600+200+2+50+4+5=1167, and the second 60+1+10+5+600+1+g0+1+80+200 + 10+ 50 +50 +4 +5 = I 167. Since in the Muhammadan, as in the Jewish view, words giving the same numerical equivalent are in some sense identical, the King's name, Khar-banda, is shown to be equivalent to Sdya-i-Khd;-i- Afaytnatzda, the "Special Shadow (i.e. Protection) of the Creator." According to DawlatshAhl (an author on whose uncritical statements no reliance whatever can be placed), "when, on the death of ArghGn Khdn, GhAzAn Khfin be- came king, 61jAyt6 Khdn fled from him, and for some years wandered with the ass-herds in the district of Kirmfin and Hurmuz, on which account he was called Khar-balzda, 'the Ass-herd.' But others say that this is not so, but that the I , parents of a very beautiful child give him an ugly name, so that the evil eye may not affect him, and that on this account he was called Khar-banda2." t P. 217 of my edition.1 2 For another explanation see the Travels of Ibn BatCta (ed.r i Defrhery and Sanguinetti),vol. ii, p. 115. 48 THE MONGOL IL-KHANS (A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I Even before uljAyt6 was crowned, it was deemed expe- dient to get rid of his cousin Alafrank as a possible claimant to the throne, and he, as well as the generalAlafraqk is put to death HarqadAq, was accord,ingly assassinated by three Mongol officers. UljAytG's first act was to confirm the laws of his predecessor Ghbzbn, and to ordain the strict observance of the Shnri'nt, or Canon Law of IslAm ; and he appointed Rashidu'd-Din the historian and physician, and Sa'du'd-Din of SAwa as joint Chancellors of the Exchequer, with absolute authority over his Persian as opposed to his Mongolian subjects. ,He visited the cele- brated observatory of Marbgha, and installed A~ilu'd-Din, the son of the eminent Naziru'd-Din of TGs (who, as already mentioned, had died in 1272-3), as Astronomer-royal1. Abfi Sa'id, the son and successor of uljbyt6, was born in the year of the latter's accession, and in the same year was de- posed ShAh JahAn, the last sovereign of the Qarb-Khitb'i dynasty of KirmAn. In the same year was founded the royal city of SultAniyya2, near Zanjin, which Sultdniyya founded soon assumed the most majestic proportions. Now it is an almost uninhabited ruin, conspicu- ous only for its magnificent though dilapidated mosque; but the name of the royal founder is still remembered in the following doggerel, which I heard from an old man who accompanied me round the mosque when I visited it in November, 1887: 'b& J+ cjb &I '66 & ' 6~;? 16be "0 Sh5h IChud5-banda,worker of injustice,two fowls for one village !" The last line is Turkish, but I have never been able to ascertain to what it alludes. 1 The death of Asilu'd-Din is recorded in the Mzq>?talofFa~ihiunder theyearA.H.714(~.D.I 314-1 5). Abu'l-FarajBar-Hebraeusgivesthedate of Na~iru'd-Din'sdeath as 675/1276-7(Beyrout ed. of 18g0,pp.500-501). Ta'7ibh-i-Wa~;(tf,pp. 477-8. The author gives a long poem by himself on this event, at the end of which he mentions "the day of AnirLn in the month of Farwardin in the year A.H.710" as the date when his poem was completed (March-April, A.D.1311). CH. I] TSLJAYTTS'S EMBASSIES . 49 Two months after ChjAytGJs succession he received em- bassies from three of the Mongol rulers (of whom Tfm6r Ambassadors QA'An, Emperor of China, was the most im- received and portant) to announce the truce which had just desp?tched by u~j~~tfi been concluded between them. Three months later arriyed an embassy from TGqtAy, and shortly afterwards UljAytG despatched ambassadors to Egypt, to assure SulfAn NA$r of his friendly disposition. He was also in correspondence with Philip le Bel, Edward the Second, and Pope Clement V. The bearer of the fl- khAn's letters to and from these potentates was Thomas Ildouchil, who, as d'Ohsson observes (vol. iv, pp. 590-8), evidently concealed from the European courts to which he was accredited the fact that his master 61jAytG had em- braced IslAm; for the letters on both sides are extant, and both Edward I1 (in a letter dated Nov. 30, 1307) and Pope Clement VJin a letter dated March I, 1308) assume explicitly that UljiytG would help them in extirpating what they describe as "the abominable sect of Mahomet." 61jbyt6, meanwhile, was preoccupied with devising some test whereby he might prove the sincerity of the numerous Jews who at this time desired to profess IslAm. This was finally effected by the learning of Rashidu'd-Din, who, as his history shows, was thoroughly conversant with Jewish tradition and doctrine, and was even accused by his ene- mies of being a Jew, or of regarding Judaism with undue favour. The intending proselyte was bidden to partake of camel's flesh seethed in milk, and the sincerity of his con- version was judged by his readiness to eat this doubly- unlawful food. It was about this time also (April 14, 1306) that the aforesaid RashiduJd-Din presented the finished portion of his great historical work, the ]ctmi'u't- Tawkrikk to uljAytd. The chief wars of fJljdyt6's reign were the conquest of GilAn in the early summer of 1307 and the Wars capture of Herit in the latter part of the same 1 Cf. p. I I SUJ~M, and n. 2 ad calc. 50 THE MONGOL f~-KHANS(A.D. 1265-1337) [BK I year. In both campaigns a gallant resistance was made, and success was not achieved by the Mongols without serious losses. In the defence of HerAt especially the most con- spicuous courage and resource were shown by the GhGri captain, Muhammad Sdm, to whose charge the city had Executions been entrusted by Fakhru'd-Din Kurt. He was, however, ultimately taken by treachery and put to death. Amongst other notable persons who suffered death in 6ljdytG's reign were M6sA the Kurd, who claimed to be the Mahdi or appointed Saviour of Isldm; Sa'du'd-Din, the associate and later the rival of Rashidu'd- Din, who was executed on a charge of peculation from the treasury; and Tziju'd-Din Awaji, xn extreme Shi'ite, who Tl'a tli to his doctrines. But what thehad tried to convert CJ 'y unfortunate Tdju'd-Din failed to accomplish nevertheless was brought about by other means. I?ljAyt6 be- 61jiyt$sreli- gious views longed to the Hanafi sect, the doctors of which, relying on the royal favour, waxed arrogant, until the King was induced by his minister Rashidu'd- Din to incline to the ShAfi'i doctrine. Thereupon violent disputes took place in I?ljAytGJspresence between the repre- sentatives of these two Sunni schools, who, in the heat of controversy, bro3ght against each other such abominable accusations that Uljbytli was greatly annoyed with both, and even the Mongol nobles, who were by no means squeamish, professed disgust, and began to ask whether it was for this that they had abandoned the faith of their ancestors, to which they now called on 61jbytli to return. The fl-khAn was further alarmed by a violent thunder-storm by which . he was overtaken about this time, and which, according to the Mongols and their bakshis or priests (who, expelled by GhAzbn, would appear to have returned to Persia under his successor, unless, as d'Ohsson implies, they were brought back ad koc) was a signal of the Divine displeasure'. For some time he was distracted with doubt, until at length he was persuaded by the Amfr Taramtdz to follow GhAzAn's DIOhsson,vol. iv, pp. 536-541. f' CH. I]I example and adopt the Shi'ite creed. This he ultimately didl, aiter he had visited 'Ali's tomb and there seen a vision which convinced him that the homage of the faithful was due, I after the Prophet, to 'Ali ibn Abi Tdlib and his descendants. i 61jAyt6 conducted one campaign against Syria, of which I I the chief event was the siege of Rahbat, which, however, the Mongols were obliged to raise when the town i Campaign a- gainst Syria was reduced to the last extremity on account of the heat and the scarcity of provisions. As the result of dissensions between the brothers of the house of Qatrida who ruled Mecca alternately according to the fortune of war, 6ljdytli's name was for a while substituted in public prayer in the Holy City for that of the Egyptian Sultan NAsir. 61jbytli died at SulfAniyya from the sequelae of an attack of gout on December 16, 1316, at the comparatively early qeath of age of thirty-five. He is described as "virtuous, u,jiytc,in liberal, not readily influenced by calumny ; but, A D. 1316 like all Mongol princes, addicted to spirituous drinks, and chiefly occupied with his pleasures." His funeral obsequies were celebrated with great pomp, and he was mourned by his subjects for eight days. He had twelve wives, who bore him six sons and three daughters, but five of the former and one of the latter died in childhood. His surviving son, Ab6 Sa'id, succeeded him; his two surviving daughters were married to the Amir ChlibAn, and one of them, SAti Beg, subsequently held for a short time the position of queen in the year 1339. AB~JSA'ID (A.D. 1317-1334). L Abli Sa'id, who was in Mizandarin at the time of his father's death, was crowned in April, 13 17,being then under Reign of AbG thirteen years of age. The Amfr Ch6bAn was Sa'id (AD.1317 made Amf~u'Z-Unzard,while 'Mi-sh5h was asso- -1334) ciated with Rashidu'd-Din Fadlu'llAh in the The inscription on one of his coins affords proof of this. See .d'Ohsson,vol. iv, p. 541 ad cak 4-2 52 THEMONGOL f~-KHANS (A.D.1265-1337) [BKI wazirate. Between these two ministers there existed a great rivalry, and it soon became evident that one or other must succumb. The victim was Rashfdu'd-Din, whose greater scrupulousi~essand honour placed him at a disad- vantage. By the intrigues of his rival he was deposed in October, 1317, and the death of the powerful Amir Savinj in January, 1318, deprived him of his chief protector. The Amir ChiibAn was anxious to reinstate him in office, but though he pleaded his advanced age and desired only to be allowed to live out the remainder of his life in peace and retirement, his rival 'Ali-shAh took alarm, renewed his in- trigues, and succeeded in persuading AbG Sa'id that Rashidu 'd-Din and his youthful and comely sofl KhwAja Ibrdhim were guilty of poisoning the late ruler UljAytG. Both were condemned to death and executed on July 18, Execution of 1318, Rashidu'd-Din being then over seventy and his son in years of age. His body was outraged, his houses A.D. 1318 and possessions plundered, and his relatives and connections subjected to all sorts of persecution. More will presently be said of his character, learning, charity and literary achievements. About a month after this sad event (August, 13I 8) began the rebellion of Yasswur, whose ambition led him to covet Rebellions the province of KhurAsAn. He succeeded in compassing the death of YasP'G1, and, having made himself master of KhurAsAn, invaded and ravaged MAzandarAn, but retired before AbG Sa'id's general, Amir Husayn into the Garm-sir, or hot region bordering on the Persian Gulf. About the same time a formidable conspiracy of Mongol captains, such as Iranchinl, TGqmAq and Isen- bGqA was formed against ChGbAn, but the latt,er, supported by Ab6 Sa'id, utterly defeated them near UjAn in June, I 319,and those of the rebel leaders who did not perish in the battle were put to death with every circumstance of 1 Or Irinjin, the nephew of Doquz I