Making Mongol History

Abstract

Making Mongol History 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 seeks to integrate his most famous work, the historical compendium, the Collected Histories (Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh), into two contexts: a developing genre of Persian historical writing and Rashid al-Din’s broader political and intellectual projects. Opening chapters offer 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. Also explored is the complicated relationship between Rashid al-Din’s historical and theological writings, as well as his appropriation of the work of his contemporary historian, ʿAbd Allah Qashani. Their rivalry, as well as other personal alliances and conflicts at the court of the Ilkhans, continue to shape our understanding of Mongol history.