Buqa

Who was Buqa?

Buqa was a Mongol lord and chancellor who was instrumental in sweeping Arghun to power as the fourth Il-Khan of Iran in 1284 and became his chief minister and advisor, succeeding Shams ad-Din Juvayni whom Arghun had executed. Buqa is from the Jalayir clan of the Mongolians.

Aided by his brother Aruq, Buqa embarked on a reform that revolutionized the monetary and fiscal structure of the empire. The Great Khan Kublai Khan rewarded Buqa the title of chingsang for his loyalty to the Ilkhan Arghun in 1284.

Initially, he was allowed to exercise wide powers, but his arrogance and excesses soon raised him many enemies. Perceiving that he had lost the khan’s favour, Buqa organized a conspiracy in which several of the Il-Khanate lords and Arghun’s vassal king Demetre II of Georgia were implicated. The group was penetrated by the khan’s agents and the plot was soon revealed. Buqa was arrested and put to death on January 16, 1289. He was succeeded as vizier by a Jewish physician Sa’d al-Daula of Abhar.