November 05, Ghazan Khan is born
Ghazan’s accomplishments were in no way restricted to his activities on the battlefield. A man of great intellectual curiosity, he was conversant with such diverse topics as natural history, medicine, astronomy, and chemistry and was also adept in several handicrafts.
“No one surpassed him,” says the Byzantine historian Pachymeres, “in making saddles, bridles, spurs, greaves, and helmets; he could hammer, stitch and polish, and in such occupations employed the hours of his leisure from war.” Besides his native Mongolian, he is said to have had a knowledge of the Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Kashmiri, Tibetan, Chinese, and Frankish (i.e., probably French) languages.
– Encyclopedia Britannica
