Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb (;‎ 1247–1318; also known as Rašīd al-Dīn Fażl-Allāh Hamadānī or Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlullāh Hamadānī, i.e. "of Hamadan", ) was a statesman, historian, and physician in Ilkhanate Iran.
Having converted to Islam from Judaism by the age of 30 in 1277, Rashid al-Din became the powerful vizier of Ilkhan Ghazan. He was commissioned by Ghazan to write the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh, now considered the most important single source for the history of the Ilkhanate period and the Mongol Empire. He was a prolific author and established the Rab'-e Rashidi academic foundation in Tabriz.
Biography
thumb|[[Genghis Khan (center) at the coronation of his son Ögedei, illustration by Rashid al-Din, early 14th century]]
thumb|Mongol soldiers in the [[Jami' al-tawarikh|Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh of Rashid al-Din, BnF. MS. Supplément Persan 1113. 1430-1434 AD.]]
Rashid al-Din was born in 1247 into an Iranian Jewish family from Hamadan province. His grandfather had been a courtier to the founder of the Ilkhanate, Hulagu Khan, and Rashid al-Din's father was an apothecary at the court. He converted to Islam around the age of thirty.
Rashid was trained as a physician and started service under Hulagu's son, Abaqa Khan. He rose to become the Grand Vizier of the Ilkhanid court at Soltaniyeh, near Qazvin. He served as vizier and physician under the Ilkhans Ghazan and Öljaitü before falling to court intrigues during the reign of Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, whose ministers had him killed at the age of seventy. His son, Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad, briefly served as vizier after him.
Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh
The Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh "Compendium of Chronicles" was commissioned by Ghazan and initially was a history of the Mongols and their dynasty, but gradually expanded to include the entire history since Adam to Rashid al-Din's time.
Rashid was assisted by Bolad, a Mongol nobleman who was the emissary of the Great Khan to the Ilkhanid court. Bolad provided him with much background about the Mongols.
The Compendium was completed between 1307 and 1316, during the reign of Öljaitü.
Calligraphy workshop: Rab' i-Rashidi
The work was executed at the elaborate scriptorium Rab'-e Rashidi at Qazvin, where a large team of calligraphers and illustrators were employed to produce lavishly illustrated books. These books could also be copied, while preserving accuracy, using a printing process imported from China.
thumb|[[Hulagu Khan with his Eastern Christian wife, Doquz Khatun. Hulagu conquered Muslim Syria, in collaboration with Christian forces from Cilician Armenia, Georgia, and Antioch. From Rashid al-Din's work.]]
The work was at the time of completion, , of monumental size. Several sections have not survived or been discovered. Portions of the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh survive in lavishly illustrated manuscripts, believed to have been produced during Rashid's lifetime and perhaps under his direct supervision at the Rab'-e Rashidi workshop.
Historiographical significance
Volumes I and II of the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh have survived and are of great importance for the study of the Ilkhanate. Volume I "contains the history of the Turkish and Mongol tribes, including their tribal legends, genealogies, myths and the history of the Mongol conquests from the time of Genghis Khan to the end of the reign of Ghazan Khan", while volume II describes "the history of all the peoples with whom the Mongols had fought or with whom they had exchanged embassies".
Buddhist-Islamic Discourse
In the work Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh presents Buddhism in twenty chapters, making it the most extensive and well-informed presentation of Buddhism in any Muslim source. For this endeavour he spoke to Buddhists, visited Buddhist temples, saw statues and witnessed rituals. He was mostly drawing from Tantric Buddhism as it had the closest proximity in Iran. He reports on basic Buddhist doctrines such as the Wheel of Life. He notes down how the Buddha visited the Six Realms of Existence and how he learnt that even within heavenly realms (deva) suffering exists. He goes on to describe the heavenly realms and the eight hell realms (naraka). To describe the heavenly realm in Buddhism he explains it terms of the Garden of Eden. Furthermore he records that the generous and kind are born in rich families, while those who ridicule others are born full of infirmities. The extensive accounts of hell and heaven might have taken place through their similarities to Islamic depictions of these realms, especially Muhammad's famous journey to these realms. These similarities could point to infleunces between Buddhism and Islam in their depictions of heaven and hell. Other similarities are found in the terms Rashid al-Nadin used for concepts. One example being how he calls the Buddhist demon Mara "Iblis". When Iblis/Mara sends down his daughters to tempt the Buddha, those demons are called huris, the beautiful maidens of Islamic lore. Another Buddhist doctrine he describes in Islamic reference is nirvana. He compares it to Sufi conceptualisations.
Book transmission: printing and translation
thumb|left|[[Military of the Mongol Empire#Cavalry|Mongol cavalry pursuing their enemy]]
thumb|[[Ghazan on his horse. Rashid al-Din, Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh.]]
Rashid al-Din also collected all of his compositions into a single volume, entitled Jami' al-Tasanif al-Rashidi ("The Collected Works of Rashid"), complete with maps and illustrations. He even had some of his shorter works, on medicine and government, translated into Chinese. Anyone who wished was given access to his works and encouraged to copy them. In order to facilitate this, he set aside a fund to pay for the annual transcription of two complete manuscripts of his works, one in Arabic and one in Persian.
The printing process used at the workshop has been described by Rashid al-Din, and bears very strong resemblance to the processes used in the large printing ventures in China under Feng Dao (932–953):