Rashid al-Din
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Rashid al-Din Tabib also Rashid ad-Din Fadhlullah Hamadani (1247 - 1318), was a Persian physician, writer and historian, who wrote an enormous Islamic history volume, the Jami al-Tawarikh, in the Persian language.
He was the Grand Vezier at the 13th and 14th century Ilkhanid court. Rashid al-Din was born into a Jewish family and converted to Islam sometime around the age of 30. He served as a vizier and physician throughout his life.
The Jami al-Tawarikh was commissioned by Mahmud Ghazan, begun as a history of the Mongols and their dynasty and then expanded to include the entire history since the time of Adam to Rashid al-Din's time. The time of its completion is believed to be between 1307 to 1316, during the reign of the Mohammad Khodabandeh, (also known as Uljeitu).
Rashid al-Din had access to information from a now-lost Mongol chronicle for the period of Genghis Khan (the Altan Debter= Golden Book), and historians find by comparison with material that survives in Chinese sources that he made good use of the source[citation needed]. His treatment of the Ilkhanid period is seems to be biased, as he himself was a high official, yet it is still seen as the most valuable written source for the dynasty.
The work was at the time of completion, circa 1307, of monumental size. Unfortunately all sections have not survived or been discovered. Portions of the Jami al-Tawarikh survive in lavishly illustrated manuscripts, some produced during the lifetime and perhaps under the direction of Rashid al-Din.
Two portions of the surviving encyclopedia, volumes II and III, are of great importance for the study of the Il-Khanate. Volume II is an account of the successors of Genghis Khan while volume III describes the Il-Khans of Iran. In his narration down to the reign of Möngke (1251-59), Juvayni was Rashid al-Din's main source; however, he also utilized numerous now-lost Far Eastern and other sources. The Jami' al-Tawarikh is perhaps the single most comprehensive Persian source on the Mongol period.
This mixing of cultures and religions, the product of the geographical extension of the Mongol Empire, is reflected in the historical works of Rashid al-Din. They deal with all the peoples with whom the Mongols came into contact and for the first time treat history on a universal scale. His works, in effect, provided a history of the whole world of that era.[1]
Rashid al-Din also collected all of his compositions into a single volume, entitled Jami' al-Tasanif al-Rashidi ("The Collected Works of Rashid"), complete with maps and illustrations. He even had some of his shorter works, on medicine and government, translated into Chinese. Anyone who wished was given access to his works and encouraged to copy them. In order to facilitate this, he set aside a fund to pay for the annual transcription of two complete manuscripts of his works, one in Arabic and one in Persian.
Under this system he had copies made lent them to friends, and urged them to transcribe them and return the originals. He had Arabic translations made of those works he composed in Persian, and Persian translations of works composed in Arabic. When the translations had been prepared, he deposited them in the mosque library of the Rab'i-Rashidi.[2]
In the year 1312, however, things began to go badly. His colleague, Sa'd al-Dawla, fell from power and was replaced by Ali Shah, who soon began intriguing to bring down Rashid al-Din. Then, in 1314, Mohammad khodabandeh died and power passed to his son, Abu Sa'id. Young and inexperienced, Abu Sa'id sided with 'Ali Shah and on July 18, 1317, Rashid al-Din, at the age of 70, was put to death on the obviously trumped-up charge of having poisoned Ghazan Khan.
His property was confiscated and - even worse from the standpoint of both art and history - Rab' i-Rashidi, with its scriptorium and its precious copies, was turned over to the Mongol soldiery. Only two fragments of the Jami' al-Tawarikh have survived, one of them the manuscript sold at Sotheby's in 1980.[3]
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- List of Iranian scientists and scholars
- Ghiyathu'd-Din, or Ghiyathu'd-Din bin(ibn, ben) Rashid'ud-Din Fad‘lu'llah
