Öljaitü
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Öljaitü, Oljeitu, Olcayto or Uljeitu, also known as Muhammad Khodabandeh, (Persian محمد خدابنده - اولجایتو, khodābandeh from Persian meaning the "man of God") (b. 1280 - December 16, 1316, in Soltaniyeh, near Qazvin), was the eighth Ilkhanid dynasty ruler in Iran from 1304 to 1316.

He was the son of the Ilkhan ruler Arghun and his wife Buluqhan Khatun, brother and successor of Mahmud Ghazan, and great-grandson of the Ilkhanate founder Hulagu.

Islamic conversion

The mausoleum of Öljaitü in Soltaniyeh.

Oljeitu was baptised as a Christian and received the name Nicholas after Pope Nicholas IV.¹ In his youth he at first converted to Buddhism but then to Sunni Islam together with his brother Ghazan.² He changed his first name to the Islamic name Muhammad. Some of his relatives and companions gave him a nickname of Khutabanda. Rashid al-Din wrote that he adopted the name Oljeitu following Oljeitu Temur Khagan enthroned in Khanbalik. But some muslim source mentions that it rained when he was born, and delighted mongols called him mongolian name Oljeitu (Өлзийт), meaning auspicious.

After succeeding his brother, Oljeitu was greatly under the influence of Shi'a theologians Al-Hilli and Maitham Al Bahrani³. Upon Al-Hilli's death, Oljeitu transferred his teacher's remains from Baghdad to a domed shrine he built in Soltaniyeh. Later, alienated by the factional strife between the Hanafis and the Shafis, Oljeitu changed his sect to Shi'a Islam in 1310, believing it to be the true version of Islam.

In 1309, Oljeitu founded a Dar al-Sayyedah ("Sayyed's lodge") in Shiraz and endowed it with an income of 10,000 Dinars a year.

Upon his death, Oljeitu was succeeded by his son Abu Sa'id.Oljeitu's magnificent tomb in Soltaniyeh remains the best known monument of Ilkhanid Persia.

Relations with Europe

Trade contacts

Trading contacts with European powers were intense during the reign of Oljeitu. The Genoese had first appear in the capital of Tabriz in 1280, and they had a Consul in residence by 1304. Oljeitu also gave full trading rights to the Venetians through a treaty in 1306 (another such treaty with his son Abu Said was signed in 1320).⁴ According to Marco Polo, Tabriz was specialized in the production of gold and silk, and Western merchants could purchase precious stones in quantities.⁴

Military alliance

See also: Franco-Mongol alliance

Mongol soldiers at the time of Öljaitü, in Jami al-Tawarikh by Rashid al-Din, 1305-1306.

After his predecessor Arghun, Oljeitu continued diplomatic overtures with the West, and re-stated Mongol hopes for an alliance between the Christian nations of Europe and the Mongols against the Mamluks, even though Oljeitu himself had converted to Islam.

1305 embassy

In April 1305, he sent a Mongol embassy led by Buscarello de Ghizolfi to the French king Philip IV of France,⁵ Pope Clement V, and Edward I of England. The letter to Philip IV, the only one to have survived, describes the virtues of concord between the Mongols and the Franks:

Letter of Oljeitu to Philippe le Bel, 1305. The huge roll measures 302x50 cm.

Translation of Oljeitu's message by Buscarello de Ghizolfi, on the back of the letter (visible here).

"We, Sultan Oljaitu. We speak. We, who by the strength of the Sky, rose to the throne (...), we, descendant of Genghis Khan (...). In truth, there cannot be anything better than concord. If anybody was not in concord with either you or ourselves, then we would defend ourselves together. Let the Sky decide!"

—Extract from the letter of Oljeitu to Philip the Fair. French national archives.⁶

He also explained that internal conflicts between the Mongols were now over:

"Now all of us, Timur Khagan, Tchapar, Toctoga, Togba and ourselves, main descendants of Gengis-Khan, all of us, descendants and brothers, are reconciled through the inspiration and the help of God. So that, from Nangkiyan (China) in the Orient, to Lake Dala our people is united and the roads are open."

—Extract from the letter of Oljeitu to Philip the Fair. French national archives.⁷

This message reassured European nations that the Franco-Mongol alliance, or at least attempts towards such an alliance, had not ceased, even though the Khans had converted to Islam.⁸

1307 embassy

Another embassy was sent to the West in 1307, led by Tommaso Ugi di Siena, an Italian described as Oljeitu's ildüchi ("Sword-bearer").⁹ This embassy encouraged Pope Clement V to speak in 1307 of the strong possibility that the Mongols could remit the Holy Land to the Christians, and to declare that the Mongol embassy from Oljeitu "cheered him like spiritual sustenance".¹⁰ Relations were quite warm: in 1307, the Pope named John of Montecorvino the first Archbishop of Khanbalik and Patriarch of the Orient.¹¹

European nations accordingly prepared a crusade, but were delayed. A memorandum drafted by the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallers Guillaume de Villaret about military plans for a Crusade envisaged a Mongol invasion of Syria as a preliminary to a Western intervention (1307/8).¹² A corps of Frank mangonel specialists is known to have accompanied the Ilkhanid army in the conquest of Herat in 1307.¹³ Mongols besieged the castle in Gilan so long. Epidimic and lack of food supply forced Gilans to submit to them. He punished Kartids in Herat as well.

Military operation of 1308

Byzantine Emperor Andronicus II gave a daughter in marriage to Oljeitu and asked ilkhan's assistance against growing power of Ottomans. In 1305, Oljeitu promised his father in law 40,000 men, and in 1308 dispatched 30,000 men to recover many Byzantine towns in Bithynia and Ilkhanid army crushed a detachment of Osman I.¹⁴

1313 embassy

On April 4, 1312, a Crusade was promulgated by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne. Another embassy was sent by Oljeitu to the West and to Edward II in 1313.¹⁵ That same year, the French king Philippe le Bel "took the cross", making the vow to go on a Crusade in the Levant, thus responding to Clement V's call for a Crusade. He was however warned against leaving by Enguerrand de Marigny,¹⁶ and died soon after in a hunting accident.¹⁷

Oljeitu finally launched a last campaign against the Mamluks (1312-13), in which he was unsuccessful. A final settlement with the Mamluks would only be found when Oljeitu's son signed the Treaty of Aleppo with the Mamluks in 1322.

Notes

References

• Atwood, Christopher P. (2004). The Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire. Facts on File, Inc. ISBN 0-8160-4671-9.
• (ISBN 0-295-98391-4) page 87
• Foltz, Richard (2000). "Religions of the Silk Road : overland trade and cultural exchange from antiquity to the fifteenth century". New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-23338-8.
• Jackson, Peter, The Mongols and the West, Pearson Education Ltd, ISBN 0582368960
• Roux, Jean-Paul, Histoire de l'Empire Mongol, Fayard, ISBN 2213031649