The subject of Ghazan Khan’s succession to the throne of Persia is an unusually interesting one.  He was a Moghul chief of the line of Chengiz Khan, and, holding Persia in tributary dependence for his sovereign master the Khakan, was at the head of one hundred thousand tried Tartar warriors.  Persia was then Mohammedan, and the proposal was made to him to join the new faith, and become the King-elect of an independent Iran.  He consulted his commanders, and then decided to enter Islam and become King.  His apostasy was followed by the instant conversion of his hundred thousand men, who, with the true spirit of Tartar soldiers, followed their leader into the pale of Islam, and soon became the active supporters of the faith which they had so suddenly embraced.  We can imagine the triumphant joy of the proselytizing priests as they passed down the crowded ranks of the time-hardened, weather-proof warrior sons of the bow and spear, who on June 17, 1265, paraded at Firozkoh, where the Tartar host was then encamped, to repeat the Mohammedan confession of faith.  To them the learning of the Arabic words must have been the severest exercise they had ever been called upon to practise, and it is easy to think of the muttered swearing among the puzzled veterans that what was good enough for their leader was good enough for them, and that they were ready to do as he had done, without further talk or ceremony.  Islam was then most actively aggressive, extending by the argument of smooth speech or sharp sword, as occasion demanded, and the Moullas must have regarded with enthusiastic pride the glorious reinforcement they had brought to its armies by the consecration of such a splendid warrior host to the service of their Church.

Ghazan Khan was the first of this race of kings from the line of Chengiz who threw off all allegiance to Tartary by directing that the name of the monarch of that empire should not in future be put on the Persian coins.  On the coins which he struck, the Mohammedan creed, ’There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His Prophet,’ was inscribed instead of the name and titles of the Khakan.  He had not the courage of his heart’s desire to strike his wife’s name on the coins, as Jehangir did, but he was differently placed, in that, as a fresh convert and a new King by the favour of Islam, he felt himself unable to put aside the priests who had bribed him with a crown.  Malcolm, in remarking on Ghazan Khan’s accession to the throne of Persia, says that Henry IV. of France similarly changed his creed to secure the crown.

Ghazan Khan reigned about the middle of the thirteenth century, and was known in Europe for his supposed readiness to assist in re-establishing the Christians in the Holy Land.  He was deemed a wise and just Prince, and it is believed that his policy led him to seek the aid of the States of Europe in order to improve the position and condition of himself and his kingdom.  It is said that Pope Boniface VIII