Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2012
Abstract
In this paper I wish to illuminate the life of historian and author Rashīd al-Dīn Fadhl-allāh Hamadānī, a Jewish vizier during the rule of the Mongol Ilkhans in Iran. By gaining a better grasp of the man’s personal biography, I hope to give insight into his life’s most notable work: the Jami al-Tawarikh, or the Compendium of Chronicles (ca. 1305-06), the first comprehensive world history of its kind ever produced and Rashid al-Din’s greatest contribution to Ilkhanid literary space. It serves as our best source for understanding the Pax Mongolica of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that embraced Iran, and the Mongol understanding of their world and their place in history at that time. Its styles and motifs reflect the multicultural fusion of the Mongol dynasty, where eastern influences blended with a revived Persian aesthetic.
Recommended Citation
Jackson, Sienna Z., "The Life and Works of Rashīd al-Dīn: Jewish Vizier in the Mongol Ilkhanid Court" (2012). Pepperdine University, Featured Research. Paper 35.
https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/sturesearch/35
Included in
International and Area Studies Commons, Islamic World and Near East History Commons, Medieval History Commons