124 chapter three
the main agents in this new development in persian trade were again
the genoese, who until the collapse of the mongol state in 1335 con-
tinued to form the central pillar of the last two ilkhans’ trade policies.
their exceptional status was doubtless due to the prestige genoa enjoyed
among ruling circles as a naval power,283 and no less to the republic’s
earlier unparalleled contributions to the ilkhan arghun’s grandiose dip-
lomatic, military and commercial projects.284 despite the failure of the
armed war against the mamluk sultanate in 1288–1290, the alliance forged
in this struggle lasted until the chinggisid dynasty lost power in persia,
with a few inevitable coolings-off but with no lasting breaks. Whether at
the military or commercial level, the partnership was based from start to
finish on the common interests of these two powers and on the comple-
mentary means which they contributed to the grandiose joint enterprise.
it is unfortunately impossible to give any but the vaguest of answers
to the question of what concrete form ilkhanid policy toward the geno-
ese may have taken, since not only are sources generally scarce but the
principal document is missing, the charter of privilege whereby a head of
state regulates the activity of foreign merchants in his country. there can
be no doubt that some such accord existed, but the written record has
either been lost, or—more likely—never actually existed, and there was
only ever a simple verbal agreement.285
setting aside such formal aspects, the presence of a genoese colony in
tabriz in 1304 with their consul raffo pallavicini286 attests to the existence
of some legal framework for genoese merchants trading in the ilkhanate.
moyenne très forte de 1854 livres.” there is also proof from an ilkhanid source on trade in
the first-mentioned period; the persian chronicler mirkhond claims that trade rose to an
unusual level in the reign of Öljeitü (spuler, Mongolen, p. 358).
283 as grand vezir to the ilkhan ghazan, rashīd al-dīn describes genoa in an exag-
gerated fashion that probably reflects the republic’s official line: “her lord possesses 200
galleys, each with 300 warriors. all the frankish merchants who desire to reach egypt,
syria, the maghreb, Byzantium and tabriz, begin their journey in this port” (rashīd al-dīn/
Jahn, p. 51).
284 see chapter 3.2.
285 such verbal agreements seem to have been a speciality of the genoese, as encoun-
tered for instance in their relations with the sultan of cairo (labib, Handelsgeschichte,
p. 75), with the khans of sarai and with the emperors of trebizond (Karpov, Impero, p. 143
and above, p. 184 note 165).
286 Brătianu, Recherches, p. 187, spuler, Mongolen, p. 436, petech, “marchands,” p. 565;
heyd, Histoire, ii, p. 130, plausibly enough claims that the genoese also installed their
consuls in other persian cities, such as sultaniye, but provides no source for this.