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.