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Folios from the Jami' al-tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles)

Ghazan Khan (r. 1295–1304) commissioned his vizier Rashid al-Din to write a history of the Mongols. During the reign of Öljeitü (r. 1304–16), this text was expanded into the Jami^c al-tavarikh, or Compendium of Chronicles. The text initially comprised three volumes. The first, written for Ghazan, was an account of the Mongol rulers beginning with Genghis Khan. The second volume covered Öljeitü's life up to the time of writing (1310) as well as the history of the Eurasian peoples. The third, a geography, has not survived. The text was written in Persian and translated into Arabic and perhaps also into Mongolian and Chaghatay Turkish in the atelier at the Rab^c-i Rashidi (Rashid's quarter) in the capital Tabriz. It was stipulated that two copies of the work, in Arabic and Persian, be transcribed every year and distributed in the kingdom.

The paintings draw upon a wide range of sources, including pre-Mongol Persian and Arabic texts, Chinese handscrolls and woodblock illustrations, and Byzantine religious and historical manuscripts.

Related

Cited Works of Art or Images (2)

• 
• 

Timelines (3)

• China, 1000–1400 A.D.
• Iran, 1000–1400 A.D.
• Iraq, 1000–1400 A.D.

Primary Thematic Essays (2)

• The Art of the Book in the Ilkhanid Period
• The Legacy of Genghis Khan

Other Thematic Essays (17)

• A New Visual Language Transmitted Across Asia
• Amulets and Talismans from the Islamic World
• The Art of the Book in the Middle Ages
• The Art of the Ilkhanid Period (1256–1353)
• The Arts of the Book in the Islamic World, 1600–1800
• Courtly Art of the Ilkhanids
• Folios from the Great Mongol Shahnama (Book of Kings)
• Jain Manuscript Painting
• Jain Sculpture
• Jewish Art in Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium
• List of Rulers of the Islamic World
• The Mantiq al–Tayr of 1487
• Medicine in the Middle Ages
• The Mongolian Tent in the Ilkhanid Period
• The Religious Arts under the Ilkhanids
• Takht–i Sulayman and Tile Work in the Ilkhanid Period
• Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368)

Maps (2)

• West Asia, 1000–1400 a.d.
• World, 1000–1400 a.d.

Index Terms (6)

Art Movement/Style

• Ilkhanid Art in the Islamic Medieval Period
• Yuan Dynasty of China

Geography/Place

• Iran
• Islamic World

Object

• Book Manuscript
• Islamic Manuscript

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Today only two early-fourteenth-century Persian copies of the Compendium and part of one Arabic copy survive. The fragments of the Arabic copy are dispersed between the Edinburgh University Library (151 folios) and the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London (59 folios). These 210 pages comprise about the second half of the second volume, narrating the history of the ancient Iranian and Arabian rulers, the prophet Muhammad and the caliphs, the Jews, the rulers of Iran and Asia Minor, the Franks (i.e., the Europeans), the Indians, and the Chinese. Interspersed are 110 illustrations and 80 small portraits of Chinese emperors and their attendants.

The paintings are typically narrow and horizontal in format. They draw upon a wide range of sources, including pre-Mongol Persian and Arabic texts, Chinese handscrolls and woodblock illustrations, and Byzantine religious and historical manuscripts. The artists, under pressure to produce at least two copies of this voluminous text each year, would have relied heavily on standard compositions; however, they transformed existing models to create new compositions that would be influential in the development of Ilkhanid painting. In nearly all these paintings, non-Mongols are recast with characteristic Mongol features and costumes, thereby in a sense uniting all of world history with that of the Mongols.

The editor of the text, Rashid al-Din (1247–1318), was learned not only in history but also in theology, philosophy, and science. He was the son of a Jewish apothecary from Hamadan in western Iran and converted to Islam around the age of thirty. Rashid al-Din enjoyed a long career in the Ilkhanid court, starting as physician to Abakha (r. 1265–82) and rising to become associate vizier and, later, a powerful vizier under Geikhatu, Ghazan, and Öljeitü. Rashid al-Din met his end as a result of court intrigue: he was executed in July 1318, accused of having poisoned Öljeitü. Fortunately, parts of his great work survived the subsequent plunder of his estate.

Stefano Carboni Department of Islamic Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Qamar Adamjee Department of Islamic Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation

Carboni, Stefano, and Qamar Adamjee. "Folios from the Jami' al-tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/khan8/hd_khan8.htm (October 2003)

Further Reading

Allen, Terry. "Byzantine Sources for the Jami' al-tawarikh of Rashid al-Din." Ars Orientalis 15 (1985), pp. 121–36.

Blair, Sheila. A Compendium of Chronicles: Rashid al-Din's Illustrated History of the World. London: Nour Foundation, 1995.

Carboni, Stefano, and Komaroff, Linda, eds. The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002.

Related exhibitions and online features

Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions)

The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353

New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia

Peaceful Conquerors: Jain Manuscript Painting