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EARLY MONGOL RULE IN THIRTEENTH-CENTURY IRAN For a long period both before and after the Arab conquests of the seventh century, the people of the Iranian plateau and surrounding countries had been living in political and cultural turmoil, interspersed with bouts of stability and development. Despite this, a sense of historical identity and continuity prevailed, albeit tenuously, and it was the so-called catastrophic thirteenth century that finally saw the rebirth of Persia as a central cultural, spiritual and political player on the regional – if not the world – stage. After the traumatic years of anarchy following the collapse of the Great Saljuqs in the latter part of the twelfth century, the 1250s saw the arrival of Hülegü Khan. This study demonstrates that Hülegü Khan was welcomed as a king and a saviour after the depredations of his predecessors, rather than as a conqueror, and that the initial decades of his dynasty’s rule were characterised by a renaissance in the cultural life of the Iranian plateau. Freed from the spiritual and political oppression imposed by Baghdad and fed on a rich diet of Asian cultural, commercial and mercantile influences, Persia, its language, the ‘state’ and culture all prospered. The voice of this unique era of renaissance still echoes in modern Iran and beyond. George Lanespent twenty years living, working and seeking adventure in the Middle East and then later, the Far East. During this time he has been an English teacher, a freelance writer and journalist, and a businessman. He returned to a more concentrated academic life in 1991 when he took up work and studies at SOAS. Since then, he has been primarily concerned with Medieval Islamic History, and with Iran and Central Asia in particular. 1111 2111 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 RUNNING HEAD STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF IRAN AND TURKEY Edited by Carole Hillenbrand University of Edinburgh This series publishes important studies dealing with the history of Iran and Turkey in the period AD 1000–1700. This period is significant because it heralds the advent of large numbers of nomadic Turks from Central Asia into the Islamic world. Their influence was felt particularly strongly in Iran and Turkey, territories which they permanently transformed. The series presents translations of medieval Arabic and Persian texts which chronicle the history of the medieval Turks and Persians, and also publishes scholarly monographs which handle themes of medieval Turkish and Iranian history such as historiography, nomadisation and folk Islam. HISTORY OF THE SELJUQ TURKS The Saljuq-nama of Zahir al-Din Nishpuri Translated by Kenneth Allin Luther Edited by Edmund Bosworth THE ANNALS OF THE SALJUQ TURKS Selections from al-Kamil filenisl-Talenisrikh of Ibn al-Athir D. S. Richards EARLY MONGOL RULE IN THIRTEENTH-CENTURY IRAN A Persian renaissance George Lane 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 EARLY MONGOL RULE IN THIRTEENTH- CENTURY IRAN A Persian renaissance George Lane 1111 2 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 First published 2003 by RoutledgeCurzon 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor and, throughout his whole army, no one could give indication of [the existence of] lying and theft. 16 Nor does he refrain from treating Chinggis Khan’s son and successor, Ögödei Qalenisan, who was generally credited with having shown compassion and great sympathy for his Muslim subjects, with respect and positive treat- ment. For his part Juwayn¥ did in no way attempt to whitewash the effects of the Mongol invasions and he made no attempts to conceal the horrors which his masters rained upon those who were foolish enough to oppose them. Juwayn¥’s history in particular became a major source for the subse- quent historians who were to write about the Mongol years and, regardless of these later writers’ attitude to the subjects of their pens, their view of the historian and Mongol administrator, Juwayn¥, is generally one of the greatest regard. What quickly becomes evident when dealing with the source material which relates to this period of the early Il-Khanate is that not only an assess- ment of the actual material is important but that an assessment of the com- piler of the material and his situation and circumstances is also of crucial significance. A later, perhaps better known historian of the Il-Khanate was the Grand Vizier of Ghazan Khan (1295–1304), Rash¥d al-D¥n (1247–1318), whose remarkable Collection of Histories 17 was commis- sioned by his king to ensure that the glorious history of the Mongols would not fade from men’s memories, demonstrates this point. Though he made extensive use of Juwayn¥’s TÇr¥kh-JahÇn GushÇ, Rash¥d al-D¥n as chief minister and official historian of the Il-Khanate, had access to a vast wealth of material from Mongol and Chinese sources as well as from the rich libraries of the domains under his own control. He wrote in a straight- forward, unadorned Persian and it is this plain factual presentation of his subject matter, in such glaring contrast to other Persian writers of the time, that has lent his work such authority and given his interpretation of events their general acceptance by so many subsequent historians. A great deal of his history concerns his own time and the administrative reforms of his 1111 2 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 THE SOURCES 5 master Ghazan Khan which he had been instrumental in formulating. Ghazan was the Il-Khan who made Islam the official religion of the Mongols of Persia and ended the so-called interregnum 18 of infidel rule in Persia. Rash¥d al-D¥n details at great length the ambitious programmes of reform that his sovereign, the PÇdishÇh of Islam, would implement in order to put to an end the grave injustices, the widespread anarchy and corrup- tion, and the chronic economic plight of the country that existed on his ascension of the Il-Khanate throne. Edicts, proclamations and legal rulings are given verbatim and, of course, since it was Rash¥d al-D¥n himself who was responsible for drawing up, planning and implementing these laws these documents are undoubtedly the genuine articles. On the basis of these histories with their unique documentary contents and unembellished style, the picture of Ghazan that emerged and has persisted is that of the king who saved Persia from barbarian rule, re-established Islam in its rightful place in the life of the country, and lifted the exploitative, wealth draining and destructive taxation practices of Mongol oppression. However, as David Morgan has pointed out, 19 Rash¥d al-D¥n’s relationship with his mas- ter has rarely been taken into account when assessing the JÇmiasper al-TavÇr¥kh and it is also overlooked that Rash¥d al-D¥n was a politician and was very consciously writing for future generations and that it was very much his own role in history that he was committing to universal memory. With these points taken into account traditional views of the years preceding Ghazan Khan must surely be carefully re-examined. Since Rash¥d al-D¥n provided the basis for many of the works of contemporary and later historians his bias has infiltrated the writings and interpretations of many of the subse- quent scholars of Mongol rule in Persia, inside and outside the country. One very positive influence that Rash¥d al-D¥n passed on was a universality of vision obvious in such writers as Ab SulaymÇn BanÇkat¥ 20 of Transoxiana who was a poet-laureate from 1301–2 for Ghazan Khan. Whereas many Persian historians neither had interest in, nor wrote about, other cultures, religions or histories not directly associated with Islam or Persian history, writers such as BanÇkat¥ inspired by Rash¥d al-D¥n and the Mongol court of Persia recorded information concerning Europeans, Jews, Chinese, Indians, Mongols and others. This same universality is found in that other intellectual giant of the age, ‘the Supreme MawlÇnÇ, the Teacher of Man- kind, the Sultan of Philosophers, the Most Excellent of the Moderns, the KhwÇja Na‚¥r al-D¥n ˝s¥ (may God envelop him in his mercy)’ 21 especially in the introduction to his Z¥j al-Ilkhan¥. 22 It is the lack of archival evidence that makes the assessment of the writers and compilers of the histories of this time so important. The gaps left in the story of the Il-Khanate were filled most notably by two other court officials, namely asperAbdallÇh ibn Fa˝lallÇh of Shiraz or Wa‚‚Çf-i Óa˝rat (Court Panegyrist), a contemporary of Rash¥d al-D¥n, and Ab al-Qasem Abdollah QÇshÇn¥, probably a researcher in Rash¥d al-D¥n’s employ. 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 THE SOURCES 6 Wa‚‚Çf’s history, TÇr¥kh-i Wa‚‚Çf, 23 was intended as a continuation of Juwayn¥’s TÇr¥kh-i JahÇn GushÇ, and it was submitted with its author by the chief minister, Rash¥d al-D¥n, to Sultan Öljeitü in Sultaniyya on June 1, 1312. Wa‚‚Çf was a collector of government revenue and a protégé of the Grand Vizier and unfortunately for the modern reader, an indispensable source for the period. ‘Unfortunately’ because ‘the highly artificial charac- ter and tedious redundance of [his chronicle’s] style’ 24 makes for painfully laborious reading, a view almost universally shared by modern scholars. To the great relief of many, an abridged version of Wa‚‚Çf is now available. 25 QÇshÇn¥ was also a contemporary of Rash¥d al-D¥n and in fact after the Grand Vizier’s execution in 1318 he claimed authorship of the great states- man’s histories. 26 It is probable that QÇshÇn¥ might have been employed by Rash¥d al-D¥n as a research assistant and might well have had a hand in the compilation of the Collection of Histories but as the editor of QÇshÇn¥’s TÇr¥kh-i Öljeitü, Mahin Hambly, concludes, ‘the contrast in styles between [the two histories] makes it highly improbable that the same hand could have written both.’ 27 QÇshÇn¥’s work lacks the professionalism of the other great Persian histories of the Il-Khanid period. It has no literary pretensions, it has been compiled rather haphazardly and contains a number of inaccu- racies but it remains an invaluable source of information about the month by month workings of Öljeitü’s court and after the torture of wading through the hyperbole and obscure allusions of Wa‚‚Çf it is a relief to read plain, factual Persian. A crop of excellent histories were written after the Il-Khanid period yet they remain valuable sources since they had access to material no longer extant and their attitudes towards this period of pagan rule can be indica- tive of the consensus of contemporary opinion. ÓÇfiΩ Abr (d.1430), asperAbd al-RazzÇq of Samarqand (d.1463), and Fa‚¥ª¥ of KhwÇf (b.1375–6) have all made invaluable contributions to the understanding of the Mongol period. Mention should also be made of a much later source, KhwÇndam¥r, a court historian who served under the Safavids and had access to much more material than is available today. KhwÇndam¥r’s 28 (1475–1535) inter- pretation of the events of two centuries before his own time is important and revealing in that the Safavid dynasty traced its roots back to the patronage of the Il-Khans and the official retrospective attitude to that period of infidel rule in Persia should reveal something of the consensus of opinion that developed during the reign and after the demise of the Mongol Persian kings. Even though ShÇh Ismaasperil, the first Safavid Shah (r.1501–24), sought legitimacy through claimed descent from the Shilenisites holy family, 29 the legacy of the Central Asian steppes and of Mongol rule in Persia was still very much evident in the Safavid court and administration. Another government official whose works have proved valuable is ÓamdallÇh Mustawf¥ of Qazvin whose Select History or TÇr¥kh-i Guz¥da was finished in 1330 and whose very revealing geographical work, Nazhat 1111 2 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 THE SOURCES 7 al-Qulb was completed a few years later after the death of the last Il-Khan (d.1335). He also composed a history of the Mongols in verse in the style of the ShÇhnÇmeh of Ferdowsi, the afarnÇmah. This neglected work though based largely on Rash¥d al-D¥n’s work provides details, comments, descriptions and insights found nowhere else. 30 Mustawf¥ had been appointed the superintendent of finances of Qazvin, Abhar, Zanjan and Tarumayn by Rash¥d al-D¥n whom he considered his mentor and his geographical survey the Nazhat al-Qulb has proved a mine of informa- tion for economic and demographic data relating to medieval Persia with scholars such as Le Strange basing his study, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate 31 on the book and more recently A. K. S. Lambton making valu- able use of its information for her classic and essential studies of the period, Landlord and Peasant in Persia 32 and Continuity and Change. 33 An earlier financial adviser of considerable reputation, the enigmatic figure of the philosopher/vizier KhwÇja Na‚¥r al-D¥n ˝s¥ (1201–74) described variously as a ‘double-dyed traitor’ 34 and as ‘the most perfect and wisest man in the world’. 35 held a prominent position in both Hülegü’s and Abaqa’s courts and though most of his considerable literary output was devoted to theology, philosophy, astrology and the sciences he also wrote a factual, unembellished account of the fall of Baghdad (1258) 36 in which he took part and a memorandum on finance 37 presumably written as part of his duties as overseer of waqfs or religious endowments. As mentioned above, the introductory passage to a manuscript of KhwÇja Na‚¥r al-D¥n ˝s¥’s astrological tables reveals something of the cosmopolitan company in which he mixed in Maragheh. 38 Apart from the great histories written from within the Il-Khanid court a number of other histories and commentaries have survived which cast more light on this period and the men who shaped, charted and also recorded the events. The cities and provinces of Yazd, Shiraz, Kirman, ShabÇnkÇra, Mazandaran and S¥stÇn all have local histories of differing qualities and detail which contain a great deal of information inaccessible elsewhere. 39 Local histories such as the TÇr¥kh-nÇmeh-ye HarÇt 40 written c.1320 which charts the turbulent history of the city from the invasion of Chinggis Khan, provide different perspectives on the great events of the day and their effects on the affairs of the provinces. Again these histories must be judged in the context of the time and place of their composition. Sayf¥, the author