ABSTRACT
The period of Il-Khanid rule, indeed much of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was a time of great literary and spiritual activity. JalÇl al-D¥n Rm¥, Sad¥, the Safavid order’s founder, Íaf¥ al-D¥n, the historians Rash¥d al-D¥n and Juwayn¥ are merely among the most widely renowned of this tumultuous period’s luminaries. The D¥wÇn and the retinues of the great and the good became centres of the arts and learning and ministers of state became the patrons of poets and preachers. One of Hülegü’s first acts upon setting up his capital in Maragheh was the construction of an observatory and centre of international learning for his court favourite, KhwÇja Na‚¥r al-D¥n ˝s¥.1133 Both Shams al-D¥n Juwayn¥1134 and his brother A†Ç Malik, were keen benefactors of the arts and actively encouraged and financially supported a number of poets and literary figures during their long years in power at the centre of the early Il-Khanid court. Their children, notably BahÇ al-D¥n, governor of Isfahan, and HÇrn in Anatolia continued this patronage of the arts in the provinces. The establishment of a powerful state centred in Azerbaijan ruled by an essentially benign and supportive administration created a climate of stability which after so many decades of chaos proved very conducive to cultural growth.
