IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
CATHAY UNDER THE MONGOLS.
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He was a physician by profession, and, in that capacity appa- rently, passed a considerable part of his life at the court of Abaka
Khan and his immediate successors. All treated him with dis- tinction, but he came into no great prominence before the acces-
sion sion of Ghazan Khan in 1295. The Wazir, Sadr-ud-din, was an
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old friend of Rashid's, but mischief-making embittered the
minister against the latter, and eventually (1298) the Khan taking Rashid's part violently, caused Sadr-ud-din to be executed. Rashid himself was then named Wazir of the Persian empire in
conjunction with Saad-ud-din. Oljaitu, the brother and successor f
of Ghazan, maintained both ministers in office, but they disagreed, b
and a succession of quarrels between them ended in Rashid's de- nouncing his colleague, and causing him to be put to death. This
recurring fatality to Rashid's rivals and colleagues tends to raise p
serious doubts as to the high character claimed for him, and to
abate our pity for his own catastrophe. He did not get on better
with Saad's successor, one Ali Shah Jabal6n, though selected by
himself. Rashid kept his ground till the death of Oljaitu, but on the succession of Abu Said (1317) his enemy succeeded in prejudicing the, king against him, and he was displaced. Such confusion ensued that the old statesman had soon to be recalled, but he speedily fell again. He was now accused of having caused the death of Oljaitu by a potion administered by the hands of his own son Ibrahim, who had been the Khan's chief butler. A doctor's quarrel (spreti injuria dicti) aided the conspirators. For one of the chief physicians declared that Oljaitu's death was attributable to a purgative urged upon him by Rashid strongly against the legitimate opinion of the physician. He and his son, a noble youth of sixteen, were condemned. Ibrahim was killed before his father's eyes, and then the old man was hewn in two. His head was borne through the streets of Tabriz, and proclaimed as that of a blaspheming Jew, the property of his family was confiscated, and the Raba' Rashidi, a quarter which he had built, was given up to pillage. This was in 1318. The colleague who had brought destruction on Rashid survived in power for six years, and died in his bed. Abu Said then had to confess that affairs had never gone well since the removal of Rashid, and that he had sorely erred in listening to the calumniators. As some amends to his
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