Everything about Oljeitu totally explained
Öljaitü,
Oljeitu 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
Oljeitu was baptised as a
Christian and received the name
Nicholas after
Pope Nicholas IV. In his youth he at first converted to
Buddhism but then to
Sunni Islam together with his brother Ghazan. He changed his first name to the Islamic name
Muhammad.
After succeeding his brother, Oljeitu was greatly under the influence of
Shi'a theologians
Al-Hilli and
Maitham Al Bahrani. Upon Al-Hilli's death, Oljeitu transferred his teacher's remains from
Baghdad to a domed shrine he built in
Soltaniyeh. He eventually 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'd 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). According to
Marco Polo, Tabriz was specialized in the production of gold and silk, and Western merchants could purchase precious stones in quantities.
Military alliance
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,
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:
He also explained that internal conflicts between the Mongols were now over:
Franco-Mongol alliance, or at least attempts towards such an alliance, hadn't ceased, even though the Khans had converted to Islam.
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"). 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". Relations were quite warm: in 1307, the Pope named
John of Montecorvino the first Archbishop of
Khanbalik and Patriarch of the Orient.
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). A corps of Frank
mangonel specialists is known to have accompanied the Ilkhanid army in the conquest of
Herat in 1307.
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.
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, and died soon after in a hunting accident.
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.
Further Information
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