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Jami' al-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), c. 1307–1314 CE

The Jami' al-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) of Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah, commissioned by the Ilkhanid vizier for Ghazan Khan and Öljaitü. The earliest extensively illustrated Persian historiographic manuscript, produced at Tabriz. Surviving copies at the Edinburgh University Library, Royal Asiatic Society (London), and the Khalili Collection.

Scholarly Significance

Anchor the Ilkhanid Persian manuscript tradition with the Jami al-tawarikh — the earliest extensively illustrated Persian historical manuscript and the foundational work of the Persian miniature painting tradition.

Notes

  • ·Rashid al-Din was the Grand Vizier (wazir) of the Ilkhanid Empire under Ghazan Khan (r.1295–1304) and Öljaitü (r.1304–1316). He compiled the Jami' al-tawarikh as a universal history from creation to his own time, covering Mongol, Islamic, Chinese, Jewish, Indian, and European histories.
  • ·The manuscript workshop at Rashid al-Din's Rab'-i Rashidi quarter in Tabriz produced multiple copies simultaneously — an early instance of organized manuscript production on a near-industrial scale.
  • ·The illustrations introduce Chinese visual conventions into the Persian pictorial tradition: Chinese-style landscape elements (cloud formations, spiky rock forms), Chinese spatial organisation, and East Asian figure-drawing conventions absorbed via the Mongol Pax Mongolica.
  • ·This synthesis of Chinese and Persian pictorial languages at the Ilkhanid court is the foundational event of the Persian miniature painting tradition, which developed through the Jalayirid, Timurid, and Safavid courts.
  • ·Rashid al-Din was executed in 1318 by Öljaitü's successor Abu Said; his Rab'-i Rashidi complex was destroyed.
  • ·The Edinburgh copy is regarded as one of the earliest preserved and most important Islamic manuscripts for the history of art.