Ancient & Classical Texts Codexery

Jami' al-tawarikh

First world history, produced in the Mongol Ilkhanate.

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Jami' al-tawarikh is a work of literature and history produced in the Mongol Ilkhanate, written by Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247–1318 AD) at the start of the 14th century.[1] Due to its extensive subject matter, the Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh has been described as "the first world history".[2] The Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh surveys world history from China to Europe, with a particular emphasis on Mongol history.[3]

What happened

The work was intended to be produced as two new copies each year, one in Persian and one in Arabic, for distribution to schools and cities.[3] Only portions of this Arabic copy have survived, divided between the University of Edinburgh and the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art.[4] The portion in the Khalili Collection, MSS 727, contains 59 folios, 35 of them illustrated.[5] The manuscript was brought to Western attention by William Morley, who discovered it in 1841 while cataloguing the Royal Asiatic Society collection.[6]

Il-Khan Ghazan originally commissioned the text because he wanted the Mongols to preserve the memory of their nomadic origins.[7] Rashid al-Din established a whole district at the Rab'-e Rashidi university in Tabriz for the purpose of creating the history.[8] Following Rashid al-Din's execution in 1318, the Rab-i-Rashidi district was looted, but the copy being made at that time survived, likely in Tabriz.[9] The oldest surviving copy is an Arabic manuscript from the early 1300s.[4]

What the cited sources add

The same source reports that the work is generally considered a collective effort, partly carried out by research assistants.[2] Melville describes the second volume as the first attempt to write a universal history, an achievement not aspired to again in subsequent centuries.[2] The Smith blog describes the Jami' al-Tawarikh manuscript as demonstrating a profound fusion of techniques and marking the birth of a new style within Persian painting.[10] The most significant Arabic version, dated 714/1314-15, is currently split between the Khalili Collection and Edinburgh University Library.[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Jami' al-tawarikh" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Inal. p. 163.; Melville, "JĀMEʿ AL-TAWĀRIḴ", Columbia University (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Melville, "JĀMEʿ AL-TAWĀRIḴ", Columbia University. facts only, no text reused. iranicaonline.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Jami' al-tawarikh" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Carey. p. 158 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Jami' al-tawarikh" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Folios from the Jami' al-tavarikh", Timeline of Art History, October 2003 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Jami' al-tawarikh" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Blair. p. 34.; Khalili, "The Art of Peace: Eight collections, one vision", Penguin Random House, 2023, p. 160–161, 242 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Jami' al-tawarikh" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Blair, "A compendium of chronicles: Rashid al-Din's illustrated history of the world", Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press, 1995 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Jami' al-tawarikh" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Carey, "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture", Lorenz Books, 2010, p. 158; Blair and Bloom, 3 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Jami' al-tawarikh" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Carey, "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture", Lorenz Books, 2010, p. 158 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Jami' al-tawarikh" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Blair. pp. 31–32. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Smith, "The World History of Rashid al-Din, 1314. A Masterpiece of Islamic Painting", libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk, 14 July 2014. facts only, no text reused. libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk
  11. Foundation, "JĀMEʿ al-TAWĀRIḴ ii. Illustrations", iranicaonline.org, 2010-05-25. facts only, no text reused. iranicaonline.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Jami' al-tawarikh (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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