CH. I]                 CHARACTER OF GHAzAN                      45

learning, enriched in some directions though impoverished
in others, was once more honoured and encouraged. Nor
were material improvements, tending greatly to benefit
the hitherto oppressed subjects of the Il-khans, wanting.
Ghazan was at all times stern and often cruel, but he had
far higher ideals of his duties towards his subjects than
any of his predecessors, and he adopted practical means to
give effect to these ideals. "Be sure," he says\ "that God
has elevated me to be a ruler, and has confided his people
to me in order that I may rule them with equity. He has
imposed on me the duty of doing justice, of punishing the
guilty according to their crimes. He would have me most
severe with those who hold the highest rank. A ruler
ought especially to punish the faults of those most highly
placed, in order to strike the multitude by example." ..An
account of the reforms which ^he effected in the collection
of taxes, the prevention of extortion, the repression of the
jdle and baneful extravagances of the dominant Mongols,"
the restoration of confidence and security where the lack of
these had previously reduced prosperous towns to ruined
and deserted hamlets, and withal the restoration of the
finances of the country to a sound and healthy condition
would be out of place here, especially as the matter is fully
discussed by Howorth in his great history (loc. cit., pp. 487-
530). The institution of the new Era, called Il-khani or^
Ghazam, which began opt Rajab 13, 701 (March 14, 1302),
was also dictated, at any rate in part, by a desire to put
an end to sundry irregularities which had crept into the
finance. To Ghazan's credit must also be set his efforts to
suppress or at least minimize prostitution, and the example
he himself gave of a morality far higher than that generally
prevalent amongst his countrymen at that time.

Previous Mongol sovereigns had, in accordance with the
^,, /,            custom of their nation, always taken measures

(jhazan s mauso-                                                          '             ^

leum and charit- to have the  place of their burial  concealed.
a e en owments  Qj^^^an, on the Other hand, specified the place

1 Howorth, loc. cit., p. 491.