The mourning for his death throughout Persia was uni­versal, and appears to have been sincere, for he had restored Gházán's character Islám to the position it occupied before the in­vasion of Chingíz Khán, repressed paganism, and reduced chaos to order. In spite of his severity, he was merciful compared to his predecessors, and had the reputation of disliking to shed blood save when he deemed it expedient or necessary. He was, moreover, a generous patron of science and literature and a liberal benefactor of the pious and the poor. Though ill-favoured and of mean and insignificant appearance, he was brave, assiduous in all things, and gifted with unusually wide in­terests and keen intelligence. He was devoted alike to His interest in science arts and crafts and to the natural sciences, especially to architecture on the one hand, and to astronomy, chemistry, mineralogy, metal­lurgy and botany on the other. He was extraordinarily well versed in the history and genealogy of the Mongols, and, besides Mongolian, his native tongue, was more or His linguistic attainments less conversant with Persian, Arabic, Chinese, Tibetan, Kashmírí, and, it is said, Latin. Some­thing also he knew more than his predecessors of the lands and peoples of the West, a knowledge chiefly derived from the numerous envoys of different nations who sought his capital in Ádharbayján, and reflected, as Howorth remarks (p. 487), in the work of the great his­torian Rashídu'd-Dín, who acted as his prime minister during the latter portion of his reign, and who was aware, for instance, that the Scotch paid tribute to the English and that there were no snakes in Ireland. * Amongst the envoys who visited Gházán's court were represented the Chinese, the Indians, the Egyptians, the Spaniards (by Solivero of Barcelona), the English (by Geoffrey de Langley), and many other nations.

Gházán was also well grounded in Islám, the faith of his adoption, and showed a marked predilection for the Gházán's parti­ality for the Shí'ite doctrine Shí'ite form of that religion. * How he enriched Karbalá we have already seen, and the shrine of the eighth Imám 'Alí ar-Riḍá at Mash-had also benefited by his charity. How far he was influenced in his conversion by sincere conviction and how much by political expediency is a matter open to discussion, but his conversion was in any case a blessing for Persia. A harsh government is always an evil thing for those subject to its sway; more evil if it be administered by a foreign, domi­nant caste; most evil if the administrators be also of an alien religion hostile to, or unsympathetic towards, the faith of their subjects. The Mongol dominion had hitherto been of this last and cruellest type; by Gházán's conversion it was ameliorated at once to the second, which again pre­pared the way for a return to the first. “When Gházán became a Muhammadan,” says Howorth (p. 486), “he defi­nitely broke off his allegiance to the Supreme Khán in the furthest East. Hitherto the Íl-kháns had been mere feudatories of the Kháqán of Mongolia and China. They were now to become independent, and it is natural that the formulae on the coins should accordingly be changed.” Henceforth Shamans and Buddhist monks could no longer domineer over the Muslim 'ulamá; their monasteries and temples gave place to colleges and mosques. Muslim learning, enriched in some directions though impoverished in others, was once more honoured and encouraged. Nor were material improvements, tending greatly to benefit the hitherto oppressed subjects of the Íl-kháns, wanting. Gházán was at all times stern and often cruel, but he had far higher ideals of his duties towards his subjects than any of his predecessors, and he adopted practical means to give effect to these ideals. “Be sure,” he says, * “that God has elevated me to be a ruler, and has confided his people to me in order that I may rule them with equity. He has imposed on me the duty of doing justice, of punishing the guilty according to their crimes. He would have me most severe with those who hold the highest rank. A ruler ought especially to punish the faults of those most highly placed, in order to strike the multitude by example.” An account of the reforms which he effected in the collection of taxes, the prevention of extortion, the repression of the idle and baneful extravagances of the dominant Mongols, the restoration of confidence and security where the lack of these had previously reduced prosperous towns to ruined and deserted hamlets, and withal the restoration of the finances of the country to a sound and healthy condition would be out of place here, especially as the matter is fully discussed by Howorth in his great history (loc. cit., pp. 487-530). The institution of the new Era, called Íl-khání or Gházání, which began on Rajab 13, 701 (March 14, 1302), was also dictated, at any rate in part, by a desire to put an end to sundry irregularities which had crept into the finance. To Gházán's credit must also be set his efforts to suppress or at least minimize prostitution, and the example he himself gave of a morality far higher than that generally prevalent amongst his countrymen at that time.

Previous Mongol sovereigns had, in accordance with the Gházán's mauso­leum and charit­able endowments custom of their nation, always taken measures to have the place of their burial concealed. Gházán, on the other hand, specified the place where he should be buried, and spent large sums in erecting and endowing round about his mausoleum a monastery for dervishes, colleges for the Sháfi'í and Ḥanafí sects, a hospital, a library, an observatory, a philosophical academy, a residence for sayyids, a fountain, and other public build­ings. Annual endowments amounting to over a hundred túmáns, or a million pieces of money, were provided for the maintenance of these establishments, and every possible precaution was taken to secure these revenues to their ori­ginal use. Round about the mausoleum and its dependent buildings grew up the suburb of Gházániyya, which soon rivalled Tabríz itself in size and surpassed it in beauty.