THE JÁMI'U-T-TAWÁRÍKH RASHÍDÍ was completed in A.H. 710 —A.D. 1310. The author Fazlu-llah Rashíd, or Rashídu-d dín ibn 'Imádu-d daula Abú-l Khair ibn Muwáfiku-d daula,* was born in A.H. 645—A.D. 1247, in the city of Hamadán.* His practice of the medical art brought him into notice at the court of the Mongol Sultáns of Persia. He passed part of his life in the service of Abáká Khán, the Tartar king of Persia, and one of the descendants of Húlákú Khán. At a subsequent period, Gházán Khán, who was a friend to literature and the sciences, and who appreciated the merits of Rashídu-d dín at their proper value, appointed him to the post of Wazír in A.H. 697—A.D. 1297, in conjunction with Sa'du-d dín. Rashídu-d dín was maintained in his office by Uljáítú, surnamed Khudá-banda, the brother and successor of Gházán Khán, and was treated by him with great consideration and rewarded with the utmost liberality. The author himself admits that no sovereign ever lavished upon a subject such enormous sums as he had received from Uljáítú Khán.
Rashídu-d dín and his successive colleagues did not manage to conduct the administration with unanimity; but this seems to have arisen less from any infirmity of our author's temper than from the envy and malice which actuated his enemies. In his first rupture with Sa'du-d dín he was compelled, in self-defence, to denounce him, and to cause him to be put to death. 'Alí Sháh Jabalán, a person of low origin, who had managed by his talents and intrigues to raise himself into consideration, was appointed Sa'du-d dín's successor at Rashídu-d dín's request, but with him he had shortly so serious a misunderstanding, that the Sultán was compelled to divide their jurisdiction, assigning the care of the Western provinces to 'Alí Sháh, and the Eastern to Rashídu-d dín.
Notwithstanding this arrangement, the two Wazírs continued
at enmity, and shortly after the death of Uljáítú, who was succeeded
by his son Abú Sa'íd, 'Alí Sháh so far succeeded in prejudicing
the Sultan against the old minister*
that he was, after
many years' faithful service, removed from the Wazárat in A.H.
717—A.D. 1317. A short time afterwards he was recalled, in
order to remedy the mal-administration which was occasioned by
his absence, but it was not long before he again lost favour at
court, and was accused of causing the death of his patron Uljáítú
Khán. It was charged against him that he had recommended a
purgative medicine to be administered to the deceased chief, in
opposition to the advice of another physician, and that under its
effects the king had expired. Rashídu-d dín was condemned to
death, and his family were, after the usual Asiatic fashion, involved
in his destruction. His son Ibráhím, the chief butler,
who was only sixteen years old, and by whose hands the potion
was said to have been given to the chief, was put to death before
the eyes of his parent, who was immediately afterwards cloven in
twain by the executioner. Rashídu-d dín was 73 years*
old
when he died, and his death occurred in A.H. 718—A.D. 1318.
His head was borne through the streets of Tabríz, and proclaimed
by the public crier as the head of a Jew, his children
and relatives had their property confiscated, and the Rab'a Rash-
“The body of the murdered Wazír was buried near the mosque which he had constructed in Tabríz, but it was not destined to repose quietly in its last asylum. Nearly a century after his death, the government of Tabríz, together with that of the whole province of Ázarbáíján, was given by Tímúr Lang to his son Mírán Sháh. The young prince, naturally of a mild disposition, had become partially deranged, in consequence of an injury of the head occasioned by a fall from his horse, and one day, during a temporary access of madness, he caused the bones of Rashídu-d dín to be exhumed, and they were finally deposited in the cemetery of the Jews,—a renewal of the insult offered by his enemies during his life and at the time of his death, in order to render his name odious amongst Musulmáns.”*
“Almost all those who had conspired to ruin Rashídu-d dín perished in the course of the following year. 'Alí Sháh, the one most deserving of punishment, alone survived to enjoy the fruits of his crime. He continued by his address to maintain his high honours and the favour of his master for the space of six years, when he died, being the only Wazír, since the establishment of the Mongol monarchy, who had not met with a violent death.”
Rashídu-d dín was endowed with a wonderful degree of ability and industry. “Few men, even of those who have devoted their lives to research, could hope to attain the knowledge acquired by him; and when we recollect that from his youth upwards he was involved in the intrigues and tumults of the court, and that he bore the principal weight of the administration of an immense empire under three successive Sultáns, we cannot but feel the highest respect for his talents. Besides medicine, together with those sciences which are immediately connected with it, he had cultivated with success agriculture, architecture, and metaphysics, and had rendered himself conversant with the most abstruse points of Musulmán controversy and doctrine. He was also an accomplished linguist, being acquainted with the Persian, Arabic, Mongolian, Turkish, and Hebrew languages, and, as it seems from his works, with the Chinese also. Amongst his great natural powers, we may reckon as the most important, the talent of writing with extreme facility; this is attested by the voluminous extent of his works, and by a passage in one of his writings, in which he asserts that he composed three of his greatest works, viz.: the Kitábu-t tauzíhát, the Miftáhu-t tafásír, and the Risálatu-s Sultáníat, in the short space of eleven months, and this not by giving up his whole time to his literary labours, but in the midst of the cares of government, and without reckoning numerous other treatises on various intricate subjects, which were written by him during the same period,” such as a book on Rural Economy, and works on Theology, Medicine, and Musulmán Theology.
“It was not till somewhat late in life that Rashídu-d dín turned his thoughts to authorship, and until his master, Gházán Khán, ordered him to compose a history of the Mongols, he had not ventured to commit the results of his learning and meditations to the judgment of the world.” This history occupies the first volume of the Jámi'u-t-Tawáríkh, and has received the highest commendations from European scholars.
“The work was on the point of completion when Gházán Khán died, A.H. 703—A.D. 1303. Uljáítú Khán, his successor, not only approved of the plan which our author had followed, and the manner in which he had executed his task, but enjoined him to complete it, and to add thereto a general account of all the people known to the Mongols, and a description of all the countries of the globe. Rashídu-d dín undertook this laborious work, and a few years sufficed for its accomplishment, for we find that in A.H. 710—A.D. 1310, the entire history was written, bound, and deposited in the mosque constructed by the author at Tabríz. It is true that the author of the Táríkh-i Wassáf affirms, that Rashídu-d dín continued his work till A.H. 712, but this, probably, only applies to that portion of it which gives the history of Uljáítú. Haidar Rází, in his General History, says, that the portion relating to India was completed in A.H. 703, the period when our author received orders to commence his researches.” Still it is evident that he copied from Wassáf, who wrote upon his Indian history down to 710 A.H.
The entire work, when completed, received from its author the title of Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh, or “Collection of Histories,” a very appropriate name, for it is not a general consecutive history, but consists of several independent works, arranged and bound up together in different order according to the fancy of the copyist. Thus the first volume is often considered as a history by itself, and as such is called the Táríkh-i Gházání, after the Prince by whose orders it was composed, and to whom it was dedicated.
[The value of the Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh is unquestionable, but
Rashídu-d dín must be ranked as a compiler, or copyist, rather
than among historians. He borrows by wholesale from his predecessors,
appropriating their productions, with all their errors,
and without any critical examination or judgment of his own.
It is to his credit, however, that he fairly and openly acknowledges
the sources from which he has borrowed; and he occasionally
makes additions which may be his own, or which may have
been derived from other unknown sources. For the geographical
account of India*
he is avowedly indebted to Bírúní, though
he adds some passages in continuation.*
In his account of
the Ghaznivides “he follows 'Utbí implicitly as far as the Yamíní
extends, taking out not only the facts, but giving a literal
translation even to the images and similes.” He makes no attempt
to improve or supplement that work, his account of the Ghazni-