<text in Arabic script omitted>

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Since Majdu'l-Mulk, by God-sent destiny,
A martyr in Naw Shahr's plain did die,
By the Ṣáḥib-Díwán Muḥammad'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!”

A violent death was, however, the common end of those who were rash enough to act as ministers to Mongol sovereigns. Thus Jalálu'd-Dín Simnání, who succeeded the Ṣáḥib-Díwán, was executed in August, 1289; Sa'du'd-Dawla, who succeeded him, was put to death at the end of February, 1291; Ṣadru'd-Dín Khálidí, who acted as minister to Gay-khátú, suffered the same fate in May, 1298; and Rashídu'd-Dín Faḍlu'lláh, the most accomplished of all, was executed in July, 1318.

Arghún reigned over Persia for nearly seven years (August, 1284-May, 1291). The embassies which he sent to Sa'du'd-Dawla, the Jewish wazír Europe, and especially that of 1287-1288, of which one of the envoys, Rabban Ṣawmá, has left us an account in Syriac, * mark a revival of Abáqá's policy, which had been reversed by Aḥmad Takúdar. During the latter part of Arghún'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 Islám. He was originally a native of Abhar, and afterwards practised medicine at Baghdád. He was recommended to Arghún by some of his co-religionists, and, according to the Ta'-ríkh-i-Waṣṣáf , * gained the esteem and confidence of that prince not only by his knowledge of the Mongol and Turkish languages, but also by the skilful manner in which he played on Arghún's avarice by the schemes for re­plenishing the treasury which he unfolded. In the realiza­tion of these schemes in Baghdád he showed such ability that he was entrusted by Arghún 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 con­temporary poet of Baghdád wrote as follows:*

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“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.
O people, hear my words of counsel true:
Turn Jews, for heaven itself hath 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 Islám increased with his power, until he not only induced Arghún to exclude the Muslims from all high civil and military posts, * but endeavoured to compass the destruction of their religion. To this end he sought to persuade Arghún that the prophetic function had passed from the Arabs to the Mongols, who were divinely commissioned to chastise the disobedient and degenerate followers of Muḥammad, and proposed to turn the Ka'ba into an idol-temple. He began to prepare a fleet at Baghdád to attack Mecca, and sent his co-religionist Khwája Najíbu'd-Dín Kaḥḥál into Khurásán with a black list of some two hundred notable and influential Muslims whose death he desired to compass. A similar but shorter list, containing the names of seventeen notable divines and theologians of Shíráz, was also prepared for him. “It is related,” says the author of the Ta'ríkh-i-Waṣṣáf, “that when Arghún Khán first ascended the royal throne he greatly disliked bloodshed, so that one day, during the pro­gress of a banquet, he looked at the number of sheep slain, and, moved by excessive compassion, said, ‘Hardness of heart and a cruel disposition alone can prompt man to sacrifice so many innocent beasts for the pleasures of the table.’ Yet this minister (Sa'du'd-Dawla) so constantly applauded evil and represented wrong as right, urging that to clear the garden of empire from the thorns of disaffection, and to purify the wells of endeavour from the impurity of suspects was required alike by prudence and discretion…, that finally, through his evil promptings and misleading counsels, the Íl-khán's heart became as eager to kill the innocent as are the infidel glances of the fair ones of Khutan, so that on the least suspicion or the slightest fault he would destroy a hundred souls. Such is the effect produced by intercourse with an evil companion and the society of wicked persons.”*

But just when Sa'du'd-Dawla's influence was at its highest and his schemes were approaching maturity, Arghún Arghún's last illness fell grievously sick at Tabríz. The minister, realizing that he would certainly not long sur­vive his master, became a prey to the most acute and overpowering distress: he was unremitting in his atten­dance, and also, with the view of propitiating Heaven, gave away vast sums of money in charity, thirty thousand dínárs being distributed in Baghdád and ten thousand amongst the poor of Shíráz. He also liberated many captives and renewed or extended many benefactions. Some of the Mongol priests declared that the execution of Qaránqay, Húlájú, Júshkab and other Mongol princes had brought this sickness on Arghún; others that he had been bewitched by one of his wives. Sulṭán Ídájí, who was alleged to have instigated the former deed, was sacrificed in expiation, and also Júsh-kab's niece Túqjáq, who was suspected of the ensorcelment of the king; but naught availed to stay the progress of his malady, and towards the end of February, 1291, his condition was so critical that none were allowed to approach him save Júshí and Sa'du'd-Dawla. The latter secretly sent mes­sengers to Gházán, bidding him be ready to claim the throne so soon as Arghún should have breathed his last, but nothing could now avail to save him from his foes, and he was put to death a few days before his master expired, on March 9, 1291.*

The death of Sa'du'd-Dawla was the signal for a general persecution of the Jews, who were plundered and in many Persecution of the Jews cases slain. In Baghdád alone more than a hundred of their chief men were killed. The collapse of the Jewish ascendancy was celebrated by Zaynu'd-Dín 'Alí b. Ṣá'id the preacher in the following Arabic qaṣída, * composed in the same metre and rhyme as that quoted on p. 32 supra:

<text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>

¹ “His Name we praise who rules the firmament!
These apish Jews are done away and shent.

Ill luck hath whelmed the Fortune of their State¹; *
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.

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 O 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 O foulest race who e'er on earth did thrive,
And hatefulest of those who still survive,

¹¹ The Calf you served in place of God; and lo,
Vain, vain are all your goings to and fro!

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 prisonéd,
In trailing chains they to their doom were led.