Ghazan Khan
Topic: Nomadic Empires: The Mongols · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 2 "An Empire Across Three Continents"
Meaning
Ghazan Khan ruled Il-Khanid Iran from 1295 to 1304. He was the first Il-Khanid ruler to convert to Islam, turning from Buddhism, and other Mongol chiefs slowly followed him. He matters because he shows Mongol rulers adopting settled ways: protecting farmers instead of plundering them.
Example
In the 1290s Ghazan Khan gave a speech drafted by his wazir (chief minister) Rashiduddin. In it he told his Mongol-Turkish commanders not to loot the peasants: "If you insult the peasantry, take their oxen and seed and trample their crops into the ground, what will you do in the future?" The speech sounds so much like a settled ruler that it "would have made Genghis Khan shudder".
Don't confuse with
- Berke: ruler of the Golden Horde (1257–67), who turned his state towards Islam. Ghazan was the first convert among the Il-Khans of Iran, not the first Mongol ruler to move towards Islam.