New Projects of Faith and Power, 1304–1312

Oljeitu Sultan (1304-1316) continued his predecessor’s pattern of commissioning histories and building programs to demonstrate his legitimacy. This included a new history of the world, which Rashid al-Din completed in 1307. Rashid al-Din also produced a series of theological collections that established an image of Oljeitu as a divinely sanctioned sovereign. These projects drew Oljeitu and Rashid al-Din into a cycle of patronage and production, which allowed Rashid al-Din to fund a series of charitable and intellectual institutions, further cementing his own historical legacy. This chapter outlines these products of the reign of Oljeitu, showing how they established a new format of kingship for subsequent Persianate courts. It also illuminates the role that ʿAbd Allah Qashani played in writing the material included in Rashid al-Din’s world history.

Mongols in a Muslim World, 1218–1280

The conquest of the Middle East by the family of Chinggis Khan between 1220 and 1260 was a major disruption in the lives of the native population. It also created conflict among branches of the Mongol royal family, who competed over the resources of the region. This chapter traces the contours of that conflict, as the descendants of Chinggis Khan’s sons Jochi and Tolui vied for prominence over the eastern Islamic world. In the end, Tolui’s son Hulegu secured command of the region for himself. In this, he was aided by a group of Persian-speaking administrators, who took the first steps to integrate their new patrons into the local political landscape through a series of building projects in Northern Iran.

Epilogue Rashid al-Din at the Court of Shahrokh

A century after Rashid al-Din’s death, his works experienced a period of heightened interest at the court of the Timurid ruler Shahrokh (1405-1447). Shahrokh’s court librarian, Hafez-e Abru (d. 1430) was involved in collecting, preserving, and correcting early copies of Rashid al-Din’s Collected Histories (Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh), and he used Rashid al-Din’s collection as a model for his own historical writing. This epilogue traces the basic contours of Hafez-e Abru’s use of Rashid al-Din’s work and shows that, were it not for the world of Hafez-e Abru, our reception of the Collected Histories would look very different than it does.

Creating the Image of Rashid al-Din, 1312–1335

Rashid al-Din fell from royal favour and was executed in 1318. This chapter traces the period of his decline and the years immediately following his death to show how contemporary historians responded to his enormous historical impact. The works of Wassaf, Qashani, and Hamd Allah Mustaufi reveal three images of Rashid al-Din that have persisted through modern scholarship, but each of these men was impacted by personal circumstances to produce a particular portrait of Rashid al-Din. This chapter contrasts accounts of specific events in the year 1312 as presented by Wassaf and Qashani to show how they created two visions of Rashid al-Din’s activity at court. Hamd Allah Mustaufi created a posthumous portrait of Rashid al-Din as a noble civil servant that became a standard source for later writers.

Remaking Mongol History, 1307–1313

After his experience compiling a world history and composing various theological works, Rashid al-Din returned to the Blessed History of Ghazan and applied new ideas to the text and to its presentation. These included new ways to represent genealogical relationships, the inclusion of a series of illustrations, and a new imperative about the reproduction and preservation of the text. This chapter traces these changes, as well as a series of textual additions and modifications made to the dynastic history. Some of these modifications were the work of Rashid al-Din himself, while others were the product of early copyists and editors leaving their mark on the historical record. This chapter reconstructs the order of these modifications and demonstrates their impact on the historical record.

Mongol Dynastic History, 1302–1304

The Blessed History of Ghazan (Tarikh-i Mubarak-i Ghazani) marked the culmination of several decades of historical writing that worked to integrate the Mongol ilkhans into historical and cultural patterns indigenous to the Middle East, but it was one of the first works produced under direct Ilkhanid patronage. This chapter surveys the historical writing of the early Ilkhanate before focusing on a series of works commissioned by Ghazan Khan (1295-1304) during the latter years of his reign. Of these, Rashid al-Din’s Blessed History provides the most concise, streamlined narrative, with the most compelling argument for the ilkhans’ legitimacy in the region. This chapter shows that to be a conscious production by Rashid al-Din for his Mongol patrons.

The Likely Course of an Unlikely Life, 1248–1302

Rashid al-Din Tabib (d. 1318) was born into a Jewish medical family and raised between waves of Mongol conquest in Iran. By 1297, he rose to the highest level of administration in the new Mongol state. This chapter traces the first half century of Rashid al-Din’s life through the societies in which it unfolded. These include the Jewish community of Hamadan, the Ismaʿili fortresses of northern Iran, and ultimately the new concentration of professional and political elites at the Mongol court. Rashid al-Din’s family struck a close alliance with a particular branch of the Mongol ruling family. When one member of that family, Ghazan Khan (1295-1304) came to the throne, Rashid al-Din was situated to assume a position of authority.