Ghazan

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Ghazan
Khan
Ghazan (center) was raised as a Buddhist but converted to Islam upon accession to the throne.
Reign	1295 - 1304
Full name	Mahmud Ghazan
Born	November 5, 1271
Died	May 11, 1304
Predecessor	Baydu
Successor	Öljeitü
Consort	Kökechin
Father	Arghun
Mother	Quthluq Khatun.

Mahmud Ghazan or Qazaan the Khan of the Tartars (original Mongol name: Ghazan Khan, Mn: Газан, Хасан, Ch:合贊, November 5, 1271 – May 11, 1304), was the seventh ruler of the Mongol empire's Ilkhanate division in Iran from 1295 to 1304. Western chroniclers sometimes referred to him as Casanus or Cassanus.^[1] Ghazan converted Mongol Persia into Islam. He also delivered only major Mongol victory over the Mamluks in 1299, though he did not have sufficient army to hold Syria. According to Britannica, Ghazan was the most prominent of the Ilkhans.

[edit] Childhood

Ghazan was the eldest son of the crown prince Arghun and Qutlugh of the Dorben clan. He was also the nephew of the earlier Ilkhan ruler Gaykhatu, and a cousin of his predecessor Baidu, whom Ghazan toppled.

Ghazan as a child, in the arms of his father Arghun, standing next to Arghun's father Abaqa, mounted on a horse

Ghazan had been baptized and raised a Christian,^[2] along with his brother Oljeitu. When he was born, his father, Arghun, was viceroy in Khorasan for Abaqa Khan.

During his youth, he followed Buddhism, one of the dominant religions in the Mongol empire at that time. From Ghazan's fourth year Abaqa Khan placed him in the Ordo (palace-tent) of his childless khatun Buluqhan.^[3] Ghazan's grandparents had a Chinese Buddhist monk teach him Mongolian and Uighur scripts and Buddhism.^[4] It is said that little Ghazan learned to ride a horse quickly and his grandfather was proud of him. Step-grandmother Bulughan really good tookcare of him.

After the Ilkhan Abaqa’s death Bulughan’s Ordo moved to Khorasan with Ghazan in 1282. His father Arghun was crowned as Ilkhan the next year and Ghazan was left in Khorasan as viceroy.

[edit] Viceroy

In spite of his traditional Mongolian hobby hunting, he liked handicrafts. Ghazan built a major Buddhist temple at Quchan, though he was surrounded by amazing Muslim culture.^[5] Ghazan found his loyal companions such as Qutlughshah of the Manghud, Nurin agha of the Jurkhin, and Sad-ud-Din Savaji Persian there.

Ghazan and his wife at court

In 1289, a notable Oirat noble's son Nawroz rebelled and joined the alliance of Kaidu, the ruler of both the House of Ogedei and the Chagatai Khanate. Ghazan resided for the next 10 years and defended the frontier against the Chagatai Mongols of Central Asia. When Arghun khan was murdered in 1291, Nawroz’s raids and rebellion and famine in Khorasan and Nishapur kept Ghazan from pressing his claim in the capital. Ghazan’s uncle Gaykhatu became new Ilkhan and took over most of Abagha’s wives and properties.^[6]

His principal wife during his lifetime was Kökechin, who had been brought from the Empire of the Great Khan by Marco Polo. She had originally been betrothed to the Ilkhan Arghun, but he died before her arrival, so she instead married Ghazan, his son, when his uncle Gaykhatu was ruling Mongol Persia.^[7] Ghazan refused to introduce paper currency to his province, though he was loyal to the Ilkhan Gaykhatu. Ghazan explained that the weather of Khorasan was too humidity to handle with papers and set printing machines of paper notes on fire. He probably understood that the introduction of paper money would be harsh to customs of the Muslims in North-East Persia.

After Nawroz and Nishapur surrendered in 1294-95, Ghazan was finally free to pursue his claim to the throne of the Ilkhanate and his father's properties. It coincided with the death of Gaykhatu in 1295.

[edit] Reign

[edit] Conversion to Islam

Ghazan annexed power from Baydu in 1295 with the help of the prominent Muslim Mongol amir Nawruz,^[8] who persuaded Ghazan to convert to Sunni Islam, as a condition for the latter's military support in toppling Baidu.^[9] When he converted, Ghazan changed his first name to the Arab name Mahmud, and Islam gained popularity within Mongol territories. However, various sources stated that even with Ghazan's conversion to Islam, he still practiced Mongol Shamanism at large and worshipped Tengri. Because he honored his ancestors' worship of heaven as a kind of proto-Islamic monotheism.^[10] The Yassa code remained in place and Mongol Shamans were allowed to remain in the Ilkhanate. The shamans remained politically influential throughout the reign of both Ghazan and Oljeitu, but ancient Mongol traditions eventually went into decline after the demise of Oljeitu.^[11]

Ghazan was a man of high culture, with numerous hobbies including linguistics, agro-techniques, painting, chemistry and dispension. He spoke numerous languages, including Chinese, Arabic and "Frank" (probably Latin) as well as his own native language Mongolian.^[12] Numerous Europeans are known to have worked for Ghazan, such as Isol the Pisan or Buscarello de Ghizolfi, often in high positions. Hundreds such Western adventurers entered into the service of Mongol rulers.^[13]

Ghazan relegated Taghachar, who joined him during Ghazan's conflict with Baydu, to Anatolia. But Ghazan discretely murdered Taghachar because he was too unreliable person who often deserted his former masters.

[edit] Temporary persecution of other faiths

Double silver dirham of Ghazan.^[14]
Obv: Legend in Arabic: ﻢﻠﺳﻭ ﻪﻴﻠﻋ ﻰﻠﺻ ﻪﻠﻟﺍﻝﻮﺳﺭ ﺪﻤﺤﻣ ﻪﻠﻟﺍﻻﺍﻪﻟﺍﻻ/ ﺰﻳﺮﺒﺗ ﺏﺮﺿ/ ... ﻊﺒﺳ ﺔﻨﺳ ﻰﻓ Lailahe illallah Muhammed resulullah salli aleyhe. Duribe Tebriz fi sene xxx: "There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is His Prophet/ Minted in Tabriz in xxx"
Rev: Legend in Uyghur (except for "Ghazan Mahmud" in Arabic): Tengri-yin Küchündür. Ghazan Mahmud. Ghasanu Deledkegülügsen: "By the strength of the Heaven/ Ghazan Mahmud/ Coin struck for Ghazan".
Tabriz mint. 4.0 gr (0.26 g). Silver.

According to the history of Mar Yaballaha, Nawruz issued an edict according to which:

"The churches shall be uprooted, and the altars overturned, and the celebration of the Eucharist shall cease, and the hymns of praise, and the sounds of calls to prayer shall be abolished; and the heads of the Chrsitians, and the heads of the congregations of the Jews, and the great men among them shall be killed".^[15]

According to Mar Yaballaha, the Patriarch of the Church of the East, Nawrūz loyalists destroyed Buddhist temples (Pagodas had been built in Tabriz and Sultaniye, and numerous monks had immigrated from Sin-Kiang, Tibet or China) and chased Buddhists out of Ilkhan dominion or converted them to Islam, a move from which Iranian Buddhism never recovered.^[16] The Christians were also severely affected. The cathedral of Maragha, the Mongol capital, was looted. Churches in Tabriz and Hamadan were also destroyed.

Ghazan soon however put a stop to these exactions by issuing an edict exempting the Christians from the jizya and stated that "none of them shall abandon his faith, that the Catholicus shall live in the state to which he hath been accustomed".^[17] Mar Yaballaha was reestablished in his functions in 1296, signaling a return to previous policies.^[18] Ghazan also saw political necessity of respecting the religion of his Georgian and Armenian client kings.

Ghazan eliminated the partisans of Nawrūz for treason in May 1297. He then marched against Nawrūz, then commander of the army of Khorassan, in 1297, and vanquished him near Nishapur. Nawrūz took refuge at the court of the malik of Herat, in northern Afghanistan, but the latter actually betrayed him and delivered him to Ghazan, who had him executed immediately on August 13.^[19]

Ghazan thereafter attempted to control the situation.^[20] The following year he nominated Rashid al-Din, a Jew converted to Islam, as prime minister, a post he would hold continuously between 1298 to 1318.^[19] Despite his conversion, due to his cultural roots, Ghazan also encouraged the original archaic Mongol culture to flourish. He tolerated the Shiites as well.

[edit] Ibn Taymiyyah

Ghazan's interaction with Sheikh ul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah is especially noteworthy. Ibn Taymiyyah went with a delegation of ulamaa, to talk to Mahmud Ghazan in order to stop his attacks on the Muslims. Not one of them dared to say anything to him except Ibn Taymiyyah who said: "You claim that you are Muslim and you have with you Muezzins, Muftis, Imams and Shaykh but you invaded us and reached our country (modern day Syria) for what? While your father and you grandfather, Hulagu were non-believers, they did not attack and they kept their promise. But you promised and broke your promise."^[21]

[edit] Relationship with the Great Khans and lesser khans of the Mongol Empire

Seal of Mahmud Ghazan, over the last two lines of his 1302 letter to Pope Boniface VIII. The seal, in Chinese script, reads "Seal certifying the authority of his Royal Highness to establish a country and govern its people". Vatican Archives.^[22]

Ghazan omitted the name of the Great Khan and inscribed his own name upon his coins in Iran and Anatolia. But he minted coins with trational Mongolian formula "Struck by the Ilkhan Ghazan in the name of Khagan" in Georgia. Because he wanted to secure his claim on Caucasus with the help of the Great Khans of the Yuan Dynasty.^[23] He still used Great Khan's Chinese seal that declares him to be a wang (prince) below the Great Khan.^[24] Ghazan made Bolad, the ambassador of the Great Khan Kublai, commander of a military unit of redeemed Mongol slave boys.

He eased the troubles with the Golden Horde, but the Ogedeids and Chagataids in Central Asia posed serious threat to the Ilkhanate and his overlord and ally Great Khan in China. When Ghazan was crowned, Chagatai Khan Duwa invaded Khorasan in 1295. Ghazan sent two of his relatives against the army of Chagatai Khanate but they deserted. Although, the traitors were captured and executed, some of notable Mongol nobles began to leave his side. Baltu of the Jalayir and Sulemish of the Oirat revolted against the Ilkhan's rule in Turkey in 1296 and 1299. Sulemish welcomed the Mamluks to Anatolia and postponed Ghazan's plan to invade Syria, though two Mongol rebels were defeated by Ghazan. A large group of the Oirats fled Syria, defeating the contingent sent by Ghazan in 1299. Ghazan may discriminated non-Muslim Oirats. Along with those rebellions, invasions of the Neguderis of the Chagatai Khanate caused difficulties to Ghazan's military operations in Syria.

Ghazan disliked the intervention in internal affairs of other Mongol Khanates of the Mongol Empire. When Nogai and Tokhta, the khan of the Jochids, asked him military supports against each other, he refused twice. This action increased Ghazan's reputation among Tokhta and his Mongols of the Golden Horde, however, Tokhta demanded Transcaucasus once. Tokhta exchanged presents and envoys with Ghazan regularly. Ghazan also well received Nogai's wife and young son after her husband's defeat in 1299.

Ghazan well maintained his strong ties with the Great Khan of the Yuan and the Golden Horde. In 1296 Temur Khan, the successor of the Great Khan Kublai, dispatched Baiju, the military commander, to Mongol Persia, the western region of the Mongol Empire.^[25] Ghazan was so impressed with Baiju's abilities. Five years later Ghazan sent his Mongolian and Persian retainers to collect income from Hulegu's appanages in China. They presented tribute to Khagan Temur and inspected properties granted to Hulegu in North China. Ghazan's envoys were involved in cultural exchange across Mongol Eurasia.^[26] Ghazan called upon other Mongol Khans to unite their will under the Khagan Temur. Kaidu's enemy Bayan Khan of the White Horde strongly supported his appeal.

[edit] Conflict with Mamluk Egypt

Mongol operations in the Levant, 1299 - 1300

Even though Ghazan was a Muslim, he attempted to conquer Muslim lands of Syria. He was also one of a long line of Mongol leaders who engaged in diplomatic communications with the Europeans in attempts to form a Franco-Mongol alliance against their common enemy, primarily the Egyptian Mamluks. He already had the use of forces from Christian vassal countries such as Cilician Armenia and Georgia. The plan was to coordinate actions between Ghazan's forces, the Christian military orders, and the aristocracy of Cyprus, to defeat the Muslims, after which Jerusalem would be returned to the Christians.^[27]

[edit] Campaign of winter 1299-1300

In October 1299, Ghazan marched with his forces towards Syria and invited the Christians to join him.^[28] His forces took the city of Aleppo, and were there joined by King Hethum II of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, whose forces included some Templars and Hospitallers, and who participated in the rest of the offensive.^[29] The Mongols and their allies defeated the Mamluks in the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar, on December 23 or 24, 1299.^[30] Ghazan's personal courage led the Mongols to crush the Mamluks.^[31] One group of Mongols then split off from Ghazan's army, and pursued the retreating Mamluk troops as far as Gaza,^[32] pushing them back to Egypt. The bulk of Ghazan's forces then proceeded on to Damascus, which surrendered somewhere between December 30, 1299, and January 6, 1300, though its Citadel resisted.^[30][33][34] Ghazan then retreated most of his forces in February, probably because their horses needed fodder. He promised to return in the winter of 1300-1301 to attack Egypt.^[35]

In the meantime the remaining forces of the Mongols, about 10,000 horsemen under the Mongol general Mulay, briefly ruled over Syria and engaged in raids as far south as Jerusalem and Gaza,^[36] before retreating in February.^[37]

In July 1300, the Crusaders formed a small fleet of sixteen galleys with some smaller vessels, to raid the coast, and Ghazan's ambassador traveled with them.^[38][39]

[edit] Reform

Gold coin under Ghazan, Shiraz, Iran, AH 700, 1301 CE.

In addition to his religious deep impact on Persia, Ghazan unified measures, coinage and weights in the Ilkhanate. Ghazan ordered a new census in Persia to define the Dynasty's fiscal policy. He began to reuse wilderness or abandoned lands to raise corps. And Mongol soldiers were given iqtas by the Ilkhanid court. Ghazan strongly supported the introduction of Eastern Asian crops in Persia. We are told that Ghazan planted crops in person. Ghazan improved the yam, constructing hostels, hospitals, schools and posts. Envoys from the court received a per diem stipend, and those of the nobility traveled at their own expense. Ghazan ordered only envoys bearing urgent military intelligence to use the staffed postal relay service.

Ghazan reformed the issuance of jarliqs, creating set forms and graded seals, ordering that all jarliqs be kept on file at court and canceling jarliqs older than 30 years and old paizas. He fashioned new paizas into two ranks, contained the names of the bearer son them to prevent them from being transferred and were to be turned in at the end of the official’s term.

Ghazan introduced a unified bi-metallic currency including Ghazani dinars to Persia. Ghazan organized purchases of raw materials and payment to artisans. He decided to purchase most weapons on the open market and replaced traditional Mongol policy on craftsmen in the Ilkhanate.

Several new guards units, mostly Mongols, were created by Ghazan for his army center. However, he restricted new guards’ political significance. Seeing Mongol commoners selling their children into slavery as damaging to both the manpower and the prestige of the Mongol army, the Ilkhan budgeted funds to redeem Mongol slave boys. Ghazan made Bolad commander of a military unit of redeemed Mongol slave boys. Ghazan was worried that the now-Islamic Mongols might loose sight of their ancestral traditions and commissioned Rashid al-Din to produced a comprehensive history, the Jami al-Tawarikh, of the people.

[edit] The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War

[edit] Campaign of winter 1300-1301

In late 1300, the Crusaders attempted to establish a base at the small island of Ruad, from which raids were launched on Tortosa, while awaiting the arrival of the Mongols. However, Ghazan's forces were delayed, and the Crusader forces ended up returning to Cyprus, leaving a garrison on Ruad, which was besieged and captured by Mamluks by 1303 (see Siege of Ruad).

In February 1301, the Mongols did arrive with a force of 60,000, but could do little else than engage in some raids around Syria. Kutlushah (Qutlugh-Shah for the Mongols, Cotelesse in Frank sources) stationed 20,000 horsemen in the Jordan valley to protect Damas, where a Mongol governor was stationed.^[40] Soon however, they had to withdraw.

[edit] Campaign of winter 1301-1302

Plans for combined operations with the Crusaders were again made for the following winter offensive, and in late 1301, Ghazan asked the Pope to send troops, priests, peasants, in order to make the Holy Land a Frank state again.^[40] But again, Ghazan did not appear with his own troops. He wrote again to the Pope in 1302, and his ambassadors also visited the court of Charles II of Anjou. When the Mongol envoys returned to Persia after April 27, 1303, they were accompanied by Gualterius de Lavendel, as ambassador of Charles II to Ghazan.^[41]

[edit] Campaign of winter 1302-1303

Ghazan ordering the King of Armenia Hethum II to accompany Kutlushka on the 1303 attack on Damascus.^[42]

In 1303, the Mongols appeared in great strength (about 80,000) together with the Armenians after repelling the raiders of Chagatai noyan Qutlugh Khwaja. Ruad having been lost, Crusader forces from Cyprus were deprived of the possibility to make contact with Mongol troops in 1303, and only conducted naval attacks on the Syrian coast, raiding Damour, south of Beyrout.^[43]

However Mongol forces with their Armenian allies were defeated at Homs on March 30, 1303,^{[citation needed]} and at the decisive Battle of Marj al-Saffar‎, south of Damascus, in April 1303.^[44] It is considered to be the last major Mongol invasion of Syria.^[45]

Also in 1303, Ghazan had again sent a letter to Edward I, in the person of Buscarello de Ghizolfi, reinterating Hulagu's promise that they would give Jerusalem to the Franks in exchange for help against the Mamluks.^[46]

Ghazan died on May 10, 1304, and Crusader dreams of a rapid reconquest of the Holy Land were destroyed. In his final illness, Ghazan nominated his brother Oljeitu, who continued the adoption of Islam, as his successor because he had no surviving son. After Oljeitu's death, Ghazan's legacy was succeeded by his nephew Abu Sa'id and niece Sati Beg.

[edit] Western influence

“No one surpassed him,” says the Byzantine historian Pachymeres, “in making saddles, bridles, spurs, greaves and helmets; he could hammer, stitch and polish, and in such occupations employed the hours of his leisure from war.”^[47]

According to historian Peter Jackson, the 14th century saw such a vogue of Mongol things in the West that many new-born children in Italy were named after Mongol rulers, including Ghazan: names such as Can Grande ("Great Khan"), Alaone (Hulagu), Argone (Arghun) or Cassano (Ghazan) are recorded with a high frequency.^[48]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ghazan

[edit] Ancient sources

• Adh-Dhababi, Record of the Destruction of Damascus by the Mongols in 1299-1301 Translated by Joseph Somogyi. From: Ignace Goldziher Memorial Volume, Part 1, Online (English translation).
• Le Templier de Tyr (circa 1300). Chronicle du Templier de Tyr, Online (Original French).

[edit] Modern sources

• Amitai, Reuven (1987). "Mongol Raids into Palestine (AD 1260 and 1300)". JRAS: 236–255. 
• Barber, Malcolm (2001). The Trial of the Templars (2nd edition ed.). University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 978-0-521-67236-8. 
• Encyclopedia Iranica, Article on Franco-Persian relations
• Foltz, Richard (2000). "Religions of the Silk Road : overland trade and cultural exchange from antiquity to the fifteenth century". New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-23338-8.
• Demurger, Alain (2007) (in French). Jacques de Molay. Editions Payot&Rivages. ISBN 2228902357. 
• Jackson, Peter (2005). The Mongols and the West: 1221-1410. Longman. ISBN 978-0582368965. 
• Michaud, Yahia (Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies) (2002) (in French). Ibn Taymiyya, Textes Spirituels I-XVI. "Le Musulman", Oxford-Le Chebec. 
• Nicolle, David (2001). The Crusades. Essential Histories. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-179-4. 
• Richard, Jean (1996). Histoire des Croisades. Fayard. ISBN 2-213-59787-1. 
• Runciman, Steven (1987 (first published in 1952-1954)). A history of the Crusades 3. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780140137057. 
• Schein, Sylvia (October 1979). "Gesta Dei per Mongolos 1300. The Genesis of a Non-Event". The English Historical Review 94 (373): 805–819. doi:10.1093/ehr/XCIV.CCCLXXIII.805. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-8266(197910)94:373%3C805:GDPM1T%3E2.0.CO;2-8. 
• Tyerman, Christopher (2006). God's War: A New History of the Crusades. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674023870. 
• Histoire de l'Empire Mongol, Jean-Paul Roux