7 'Ala ad-Din 'Ata-Malik Juvaini (ca. 1226-83) was in an excellent position to obtain information about various parts of the Mongol empire and particularly about the Caucasus.
His great-grandfather had been an advisor
to the Khwarazm Shah Tekish, and other relatives had served the
Saljuqs in Iran [Juvaini, The History of the World-Conquerer,
J.A, Boyle, trans., vol. I (Manchester, 1958) p. Xv. His grandfather
was the sahib-divan or Minister of Finance for the Khwarazm
Shahs Muhammad Jalal al -Din, and had died during the latter's
siege of Xlat' on the northern shore of Lake Van (ibid.
p. xvi), Juvaini's own father, Baha ad-Din, became the Minister
of Finance for Chingiz-Khan's successor, Ogedei, and during the
absence of his immediate superior, the emir Arghun (ca. 1246 )
Baha ad Din acted as Arghun's deputy over a large area including
Georgia and Armenia (ibid, p. xviii). Juvaini himself became
an important official of the empire. Twice during his youth he
had visited the Mongol capital of Qara-Qorum, commencing his history
of the Mongols conquests on one such visit (ca. 1252-53) (ibid.
pp. xviii-xx). He had been with the Il-Khan Huleg in 1256 at the
taking of the Assassins' stronghold Alamut, and was responsible
for saving part of its celebrated library (ibid p. xxi),
He had accompanied Hulegu during the sack of Baghdad (1258), and
the next year was appointed governor of Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia,
and Khuzistan by him (ibid, p. xxii). Around 1282, Juvaini
attended a Mongol quriltai (or assembly) held in the Ala-Taq
pastures, northeast of Lake Van (ibid. p. xxiv) He died
the following year in Mughan or Arran in Azarbaijan (ibid.
p. xxv). Juvaini's influential brother Shams ad-Din, who had served
as Minister of Finance under Khans Hulegu and Abaqa, was the husband
of Xoshak', daughter of Awak Zak'arean-Mxargrceli (ibid.
p. xvi; KC, p. 251). Consequently, both through his own work and
through family connections, Juvaini was privy to
information unavailable to other
historians. For some unknown reason Juvaini's history terminates
more than twenty years before the author's death, with the year
1260.
8 Rashid al-Din (b. 1247 in Hamadan)
was a Jewish convert to Islam who served as physician to the-Il-Khan
Abaqa (1265-81), possibly the steward to the Il-Khan Geikhatu
(1291-95), and as financial advisor to Abaqa's grandson, Ghazan
(1295-1304) [Rashid al-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan,
J. A. Boyle, trans. (New York, 1971) pp.3-4 ]. He was commissioned
by the latter to write a history of the Mongols and their conquests,
which he completed during the reign of Oljeitu (1307-16). This
work, the Complete Collection of Histories (Jami' al-Tawarikh)
was at the time of completion (ca, 1307) of monumental size.
Unfortunately all sections have not survived or been discovered
(ibid, pp. 6-13;also A. Z. V. Togan, "Still Missing
Works of Rashid al-Din", Central Asiatic Journal #9
(1964) pp. 113-22), Two portions of the surviving encyclopedia,
volumes II and III, are of great importance for the study of the
Il-Khanate. Volume II is an account of the successors of Chingiz-Khan
while volume III describes the Il-Khans of Iran. In his narration
down to the reign of Mongke (1251-59), Juvaini was Rashid al-Din's
main source, however, he also utilized numerous now-lost Far Eastern
and other sources. The Jami' al-Tawarikh is perhaps the
single most comprehensive Persian source on the Mongol period.[J.
A. Boyle, "Juvaini and Rashid al-Din as Sources on the History
of the Mongols", in Historians of the Middle East,
B. Lewis, ed, (New York, 1962) pp. 133-37. In an article entitled
"The Collection of Annals of Rashid-ad-Din and Its Armenian
Sources [Rashid- ad-Dini Taregrut' nneri zhoghovacun ev nra
haykakan aghbyurnere]" , PBH #2 (1965) pp. 81-94] L.
H. Babayan attempted (unsuccessfully) to prove that Rashid had
utilized Armenian sources in Persian translation. He offered
no convincing proof of the assertion. Such an important official
as Rashid was in an excellent position to utilize diverse sources
of information on Armenia, especially archival material. He himself
owned large estates in the Caucasus and Asia Minor, Finally, as
Boyle writes: "The administration of the state [during 0ljeitu's
reign] had become almost a private monopoly of his family: of
his fourteen sons, eight were governors of provinces, including
the whole of western Iran, Georgia, Iraq, and the greater part
of what is now Turkey"(Successors, p. 4). As a result
of the successful intrigues of jealous courtiers, Rashid al-Din
was brutally executed in 1317. Volume II of his History
dealing with Chingiz' successors down to Ghazan has been translated
in part by J. A. Boyle. Volume III was translated into Russian
by A. K. Arends and issued in 1946, Rashid-ad-Din, Sbornik
letopisei, t. III, (Moscow-Leningrad, 1946). For other translations,
full or partial see the bibliography in Boyle's Successors,
pp. 333-38.
9 The History of the Saljuqs
by Ibn Bibi, a Persian living in Rum embraces the period 1192-1282
and describes major events in Asia Minor and Cilicia. Almost
nothing is known about the author, albeit judging from the fact
that his father had been a secretary at the court of the Khwarazm
Shah Jalal al-Din, and his mother a noted astronomer. Ibn Bibi
probably received a fine education. After the defeat of Jalal
al-Din by the Mongols in 1231, his family sought refuge with Melik
Ashraf in Damascus. At the invitation of the sultan of Rum 'Ala'
al-Din, the family moved to Konya where they settled. He gives
most of his attention to the deeds of 'Ala' al-Din Kai-Qubad I,which
are described in a florid oriental style and are heavily influenced
by the legendary exploits of heroes in the Shahname. A
later unknown individual made a summary of the History in
which he attempted to eliminate the wearisome mythological allusions.
The French translation of this abridged version was published
by Houtsma in 1902 [Histoire des Seldjoucides d'Asie Mineure
d'apres l'Abrege du Seldjoukname d'Ibn Bibi (Paris, 1902)],
and a German translation of the critical edition of the same abridged
text was issued by Herbert Duda in 1959 [Die Seltschukengeschichte
des Ibn Bibi Munksaard (Kopehhagen, 1959)]. Those portions
of History bearing on Armenia and Cilicia were translated
into Armenian by P. Ter-Poghosean and appeared in HA (1960).
11 Ibn al-Athir, one of the world's
greatest chroniclers, was born in 1160 and educated in Mosul.
After completing his education, he travelled on missions for the
prince of Mosul, to Syria and the Levant. Eventually he retired
to devote himself to study, His Complete Chronology begins
with Creation and ends in the year 1231. [C. Huart, A History
of Arabic Literature (New York, 1903) p. 206]. The Complete
Chronology was published in its entirety by Tornberg at
Leyden in 1851-76 in fourteen volumes.
Unfortunately, no complete translation exists, although some
extracts in French translation were published in Recueil des
historiens des Croisades: Hist. Orient, II, 1887, and M.Defremery
has translated those passages concerning the Caucasus ["Fragments
de Geographes et d'Historiens arabes et persans inedit",
JA, 4th ser. #13 (1848), #14(1849)].
11 Bar Hebraeus (also known as Ibn al-'Ibri
and Gregory Abu'l Faraj) was born into a Jewish family in the
city of Melitene/Malatya on the Euphrates in 1225/26. As a child
he studied Syriac, Arabic and probably Hebrew, and subsequently
philosophy, theology, and medicine [The Chron- ography of Gregory
Abu'l-Faraj (Bar Hebraeus), E. A. Wallis Budge, trans. (London,
1932 ; repr. 1976) pp. xv-xvi]. In 1244 the Mongol general Shawer
who had ravaged the Melitene/Malatya area employed the services
of Bar Hebraeus' father, a physician. The family travelled with
the Mongols to Xarberd and thence to Antioch where Gregory at
age 17 became a Syrian Monophysite Christian(Jacobite). After
several years of study, Bar Hebraeus was ordained bishop of one
of the dioceses of Melitene/Malatya, ca. 1247, a position he occupied
for some six or seven years (Budge, p. xvii). Thereafter he was
appointed to the diocese of Aleppo, and,
in 1264 he became Maphrian of the East,
being ordained at Sis in Cilicia in the presence of the Armenian
royal house and heads of the Jacobite and Armenian Churches (ibid.
pp. xviii-xix). He then visited Abaqa-Khan, Huilegu's son, and
was confirmed in his new position(ibid. p. xxi). During
the next decade Bar Hebraeus was actively involved in quelling
the numerous disputes which plagued his Church, and he frequently
travelled between Cilicia, Maragheh in Azarbaijan and Melitene/Malatya
(ibid. pp. xxi-xxiv). In 1281 Bar Hebraeus participated
in the ordination of an Uighur monk, Yahbh-Allaha, to the catholicosate
of the Jacobite Church. The next year he visited Ahmad-Khan and
received new and greater authority. Upon his death in 1286, it
was ordered by catholicos Yahbh-Allaha that the bazar of Maragheh
be closed, and Bar Hebraeus was buried in that city with a large
number of Armenians, Nestorians, Greeks and Jacobites participating
in the services (ibid. p. xxx).
12 Budge, p. xvii.
13 ibid. pp. xviii-xix.
14 The great value of Bar Hebraeus'
Chronography was recognized during the author's own lifetime
(Budge, pp.xxviii- xxix) when "foremost men among the Arabs
asked him to turn the Chronography which he had composed
in Syriac into the Saracenic (Arabic) language so that they also
might read and enjoy it. To this the Maphrian agreed and straightway
he began to turn the [book into Arabic] in noble and exceedingly
eloquent language". A Latin translation of Bar Hebraeus'
Arabic translation was published in 1663 by Pococke. The Syriac
text of the Chronography published by Bedjan in 1890 was
translated English by E. A. Wallis Budge in 1932.
15 A bu'l Fida, the Arab historian
and geographer was descended from the line of Saladin's father.
Born in Damscus in 1273, he received a military and literary
education, participating in a series of campaigns and wars. In
1310, the sultan Malik Nasr granted him the rule of Hamat, for
his services against the sultan's adversaries Baibars and the
Mongols. He died in 1333 after ruling Hamat for twenty years [C.
Huart, op.cit., pp. 337-38].
16 Arabakan aghbyurnere Hayastani
ev harevan erkrneri masin [Arabic Sources on Armenia and Neighboring
Countries], H. T'. Nalbandyan, trans, Erevan, 1965) p. 211.
Nalbandyan's Armenian translation of those portions relevant to
Armenia and surrounding areas is found in Arabakan.., pp.
212-50, notes pp. 251-91. Standard French translations are by
Reinaud (Paris, 1848) and S. Guyard (Paris, 1883).
17 Yaqut was born in 1178 into a Greek
family of Asia Minor. Taken captive as a youth, he was sold in
Baghdad to a Muslim merchant who saw to his education. He was
sent on business for his master to numerous places. After his
manumission in 1199, Yaqut visited Syria, Oman, Egypt, Tabriz,
Aleppo and Mosul. In 1215 he travelled to Khurasan and eventually
to India. He was in Balkh when he heard of the Mongol conquests
of Khiva and Bukhara. In 1220 he fled to Mosul where, in 1224
he completed his geographical work. He died in 1229 [EI vol. 42
p. 1153, "Yakut al-Rumi"; Arabakan" , p.
5].
18 Qazvini's family, from the time of
his great-grandfather, had held hereditarily the position of Mustawfi
of Iran. Qazvini himself was trained in office-work relating to
the taxation of the provinces, and served under the great historian
and official Rashid al-Din [ G. Le Strange,
Mesopotamia and Persia under the
Mongols in the Fourteenth Century A.D.
(London, 1903) p 5]. Le Strange's translation of Qazvini's treatise
is The Geographical Part of the Nuzhat-al-Qulub of Hamd-Allah
Mustawfi of Qazvin (London, 1919). Book III of the Nuzhat-al-Qulub
provides priceless information about Azarbaijan, Mughan and Arran,
Shirvan, Gurjistan (Georgia), Rum and Armenia. District by district,
city by city the author usually explains what revenue had accrued
from a given area both in his own day, and in past times as well,
providing a vivid picture of the general decline of the Il-Khanid
state in the 14th century. In addition, Qazvini commented on the
ruined condition of numerous cities and towns, the relative size
and the trade of surviving cities, their noted religious sanctuaries,
the types of crops grown in the countryside, and much more.
19 W.W. Rockhill, The Journey of
William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World 1253-55
(London, 1900).
20 EI, new ed., vol. III, "Ibn
Battuta" p. 735. On the dating of Battuta's excursion inland
see H. A. R. Gibb, The Travels of Ibn Battuta, vol. 2
(Cambridge, 1962) pp. 533-35.
21 The Bondadage and Travels of Johann
Schiltberger, J. B. TeIfer, trans.(London 1879).
22 Clavijo, Embassy to Tamerlane
1403~1406, G. Le Strange, trans. (Lodon, 1928)..