Juvaynī, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAṭāʾ Malik ibn Muḥammad d. 681/1283

Historian/Governor in Mongol government

Alāʾ al-Dīn ʿAṭāʾ Malik ibn Muḥammad Juvaynī entered the service of the Mongol government in Ḫurāsān in his youth and remained attached to the Mongol government in different capacities for the remainder of his life. He accompanied the Mongol ruler Hulegu on his campaigns against the Ismaili’s in 654/1256 and wrote up the terms of their surrender. Several years later, Hulegu appointed him the Governor of Baghdad, Iraq, and Ḫuzistān, a position he held for nearly twenty years. However, under Hulegu’s son and successor, Abaka, Juvaynī was arrested on two occasions, the second time leading to his imprisonment and torture. In both instances, his position was restored. He recorded the events of his arrest and imprisonment of 680/1281-2 in a work entitled Tasliyat al-iḫwān. In 681/1283, his property was confiscated and another investigation into his administration was opened. When Juvaynī heard this news he died of an apoplectic stroke.

Juvaynī’s most ambitious and well-known work is Tārīḫ-i Jahāngušā-yi Juvaynī, also referred to as Tārīḫ-i Jahāngušāy, which was completed ca. 658/1260.

Works

Tārīḫ-i Jahāngušā-yi Juvaynī     The History of the Conquest of the World by Juvaynī

Completed ca. 658/1260.

Tārīḫ-i Jahāngušā-yi Juvaynī is a history of the Mongols, beginning with the rise of Ghengis Khan and ending with Hulegu’s campaign against the Ismaili’s in 654/1256. Divided into three volumes, Tārīḫ-i Jahāngušā-yi Juvaynī is considered a great authority on the early Mongol period, especially in its detailed accounts of Ghengis Khan’s conquests found no where else.