THE JAMI'U-T-TAWARIKH RASHIDI was completed in A.H. 710 -A.D. 1310. The author Fazlu-llah Rashid, or Rashídu-d dín ibn 'Imádu-d daula Abú-l Khair ibn Muwáfiku-d daula,1 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 1 [D'Ohsson says that he was also called Rashidu-d daulat and Rashidu-l hakk wau-d dín. Hist. des Mongols xxxiii.] 2 [The biographical portion of this article is, for the most part, taken from Mr. Morley's Notice of the Author, in Vol. VI. of the Journal of the R. As. Soc.] VOL. III. 1 admits that no sovereign ever lavished upon a subject such enormous sums as he had received from Uljáítú Khán. Rashidu-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 Rashidu-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'id, 'Alí Sháh so far succeeded in prejudicing the Sultan against the old minister1 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 1 Mod. Univ. Hist., iv. 401. 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 Rashídí, a suburb which he had built at an enormous expense, was given up to pillage, His eldest son, Ghiyásu-d dín, was subsequently raised to the same dignities as his father, and met with an equally tragical death. "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 Azarbáíján, was given by Tímúr Lang to his son Mírán Shah. 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." 2 "Almost all those who had conspired to ruin Rashídu-d dín perished in the course of the following year. 'Ali 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." xliv.) 1 This is the age assigned by M. Quatremère (Coll. Orientale, Tom. I. p. but these must have been lunar years, if he was born in A.D. 1247.-HammerPurgstall says, Rashidu-d din was 80 years old when he died. (Geschichte der Ilchane, Vol. ii. p. 260.) Háji Khalfa gives 717 as the year of his death, but Sadik has it right. 2 ["This calumny was probably grounded upon the particular attention he had paid to the history and customs of the Jews." Morley.] Rashidu-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 Risalatu-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-Tawárikh, 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 Tabriz. It is true that the author of the Tárikh-i Wassრaffirms, 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 Jami'u-t Tawarikh, 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 Tárikh-i Gházání, after the Prince by whose orders it was composed, and to whom it was dedicated. [The value of the Jámi'u-t Tawarikh is unquestionable, but Rashidu-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 |