- Bolad
Bolad Chyang Sang or Bolad chyansan (Chancellor Bolad)(d.1312) was a
Mongol minister inIlkhanate , envoy ofKublai Khan and ahistorian .Bolad was born in educated mongol family and he studied
chinese quickly [Christopher P. Atwood-Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire; see: Bolad...] . He was sent toPersia soon afterArghun enthroned in 1285. He gave imperial seal,yarlik (зарлиг) and crown toIlkhan . Bolad could not return toYuan Dynasty due to the conflict betweenKaidu and Kublai. Arghun appointed him a commander inKhurasan and gave him a rank of chyansang.Bolad suggested
Gaykhatu , who was extravagant, to issuepaper money Chao in 1295. But the Ilkhan's efforts faded away as people were devouted to muslim custom.Ghazan became Ilkhan in 1295. He respected Bolad and made him a general of atumen which was consisted of mongol-tatar slave boys. It is claimed that Bolad helpedRashid al-Din to writeUniversal History because he knewmongolian history very well.Bolad died in 1312 and he was still respected by
Oljeitu and called as Bolad agha (Bolad the elder) at the time.Even today
Chinese people remember him as a cultural bridge between East and West, however, he was a Mongol.Reference:
*A COMPENDIUM OF CHRONICLES: Rashid al-Din's Illustrated History of the World (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, VOL XXVII)
ISBN -10: 019727627X*Rene Grousset - The Empire of Steppes: A History Central Asia,
ISBN -10: 0813513049 Rutgers University Press (January 1988)
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