Rashid al-Din Extended Biography
Rashid al-DinExtended BiographyYou may wish to share this biography with students, or just to read it for your own information.The Mongol Empire brought much of Eurasia under its control in the twelfth century, under the Khan Temujin (Chinggis Khan) and his successors. Even those territories it did not control were tied into a trading system that it dominated. Merchants flowed into the empire from India, China, Europe, Persia and Mesopotamia, North Africa, and beyond. With them came ideas, beliefs, and art. This rich tapestry of people and beliefs was difficult to rule, but also provided the backbone of the Mongol strategy of rule: allowing and even sponsoring diversity among their populations.In 1263, a new Khan, Qubilai, came to power. But by this time the vast empire had split into four independent Mongol khanates: The Chagadai of Central Asia, the Golden Horde in the northwest, the Great Khanate in China, and the Ilkhanate centered in Persia.The Ilkhans, rulers of Persia and surrounding areas, ruled over a diverse population, most of whom were Muslim, but that also included Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians. The Ilkhan Ghazan (who ruled from 1295 to 1304) was a Mongol ruler who converted to Islam. He constructed a capital at Tabriz, which became a center of learning, and filled it with palaces, mosques, caravanserais (places for traders), and public buildings. From Tabriz, he ruled over a highly successful state.The chief architect of Ghazan’s success was Rashid al-Din. Born Jewish, he became a doctor and converted to Islam. He rose through the ranks of the government, becoming wealthy. Eventually, he governed almost half of the Ilkhanate. He even built a small town, Rab‘-I Rashidi, that he filled with artists and intellectuals. But most importantly, he directed the writing, illustration, and publication of the Jami’ al-tawarikh, a book that told the history of the world as if everything had logically led to the rule of the Ilkhan Ghazan. This book was particularly Muslim in its design and contents, although it featured ideas and art from many different regions.Ghazan epitomized the Mongol strategy of ruling by gathering and sponsoring people from different regions “in these days when, thank God, all corners of the earth are under our rule and that of Chinggis Khan’s illustrious family, philosophers, astronomers, scholars, and historians of all religions and nations—Cathay and Machin [North and South China], India and Kashmir, Tibetans, Uighurs, and other nations of Turks, Arabs, and Franks [Europeans]—are gathered in droves at our glorious court.”1 At the same time, the book—and Ghazan’s rule—showed a particular sense of the Ilkhans as protectors of the Muslim faith. Somehow, the two ideas could co-exist, although not always easily.After Ghazan’s death, his successor put Rashid al-Din to death and confiscated all of his property. However, Rashid al-Din’s Jami’ al-tawarikh remains one of the most important sources for understanding the history of Mongol rule in Eurasia.1 Rashīd al-Dīn Ţabīb, Rashiduddin Fazlullah’s Jami‘u’‚t-tawarikh = Compendium of chronicles, trans. W. M. Thackston (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998), I, 6.
Rashid al-Din - Extended Biography2SourcesBlair, Sheila. A compendium of chronicles: Rashid al-Din's illustrated history of the world. London: Nour Foundation in association with Oxford University Press, 1995.Rashīd al-Dīn Ţabīb. Rashiduddin Fazlullah’s Jami‘u’‚t-tawarikh = Compendium of chronicles. Translated by W. M. Thackston. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998.