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Rashid : it was whispered that he was a Arghun Khan, 1284-91. father of Ghazan, with
Jew. The Mongols, who were generally with two of his wives and family ; from the
free from racial or religious prejudice, manuscript of Rashid al-Din.
did indeed employ able Jews in their govern­ From The Mangols by E.D. Phillips; Thames &
ment, and the result was a growth of anti- Hudson- 1969
Semitic feeling in many parts of their Empire.
Rashid was probably of Jewish ancestry, but regime collapsed within twenty years of his
personally he was throughout his life a devout death.
Muslim. He seems to have antagonized many The vengeance of his enemies pursued
groups, including members of his own medical him beyond the grave. His suburb in Sultaniya
profession. Soon after the young Aby Sa’id’s was pillaged and partly destroyed ; his property
accession, the Vizier’s enemies struck. He was was confiscated, his pious foundations were
dismissed from office, reinstated, dismissed robbed of their endowments ; the copying of his
again and accused of peculation and treason, manuscripts ceased, and eighty years after his
and one of his medical rivals charged him with death his bones were disinterred and re-buried
having poisoned Oljeitu. After a mock trial, he in the Jewish cemetery in Tabriz. He is said
was condemned to death (July 1318) and execu­ to have written a Universal Geography to
ted in Mongol fashion by being hewn in two. match his Universal History, but either it was
His head was paraded through the streets of never begun or was destroyed : no trace of it
Tabriz, the old capital, by a mob shouting. ‘This exists. No complete manuscript of his History
is the head of a blaspheming Jew ! He was has come down to us, and in those extant, the
over seventy, and one of his sons died with him. various sections of the vast work are arranged
Abu Sa’id grew up bitterly to regret the in different ways. This largely explains the
fate of old statesman. Il-Khan Persia never long neglect of Rashid in his own country and
found another minister of his calibre, and the in the West. As far back as 1908 the great
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