Making Mongol History

Explores Rashid al-Din’s impact on seven centuries of historical writing

• A narrative of early Ilkhanid history accessible to students and useful to scholars
• A new approach to the biography of one of the most influential figures in medieval Islamic history
• Includes appendices describing the structure, sources and illustrative programs of the Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh and cataloguing all known manuscripts of the work
• Shows the relationship between early modern Persian and modern European structures of knowledge about the Mongol world

This book examines the life and work of Rashid al-Din Tabib (d. 1318), the most powerful statesman working for the Mongol Ilkhans in the Middle East. It begins with an overview of administrative history and historiography in the early Ilkhanate, culminating with Rashid al-Din’s Blessed History of Ghazan, the indispensable source for Mongol and Ilkhanid history. Later chapters lay out the results of the most comprehensive study to date of the manuscripts of Rashid al-Din’s historical writing. The complicated relationship between Rashid al-Din’s historical and theological writings is also explored, as well as his appropriation of the work of his contemporary historian, `Abd Allah Qashani.