Biography
Arghun was born to Abaqa Khan and his Christian princess wife, Haimash Khatun. Arghun himself had multiple wives, and his mother-in-law Bulughan Khatun raised Arghun's two sons Ghazan (whose birth mother was Qutlugh) and Öljeitü (whose birth mother was Uruk Khatun), both of whom later succeeded him and eventually converted to Islam. Arghun had Öljeitü baptized as a Christian at birth, and gave him the name "Nicholas" after Pope Nicholas IV. According to the Dominican missionary Ricoldo of Montecroce, he was "a man given to the worst of villainy, but for all that a friend of the Christians".
One of the sisters of Arghun, Oljalh, was married to the Georgian prince Wakhtang III.
Arghun was a Buddhist, but as did most Turco-Mongols, he showed great tolerance for all faiths, even allowing Muslims to be judged under Koranic law. His grand vizier and minister of finance, Sa'ad al-Dawla, was a Jew. Sa'ad was effective in restoring order to the Ilkhanate's government, in part by aggressively denouncing the abuses of the Mongol military leaders.
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