Persian World Histories in the Mongol Era: The Compilation and Transmission of Rashid al-Din's Jami al-Tavarikh

by Tomoko Masuya (Editor), Osamu Otsuka (Editor), Masatomo Kawamoto (Editor)

Overview

This collection of essays brings together codicological, historiographical and art-historical studies of Medieval Persian history manuscripts. The main subject is Rashīd al-Dīn’s Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh (Compendium of Chronicles). Considered the first ‘world history’, it was originally written in Persian in the early fourteenth century, when vast areas of the Eurasian continent were under Mongol rule. There is also a particular focus on Persian manuscripts preserved in India, which have heretofore been largely ignored. Though developed and sophisticated, Japanese studies on the Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh remain mostly unknown outside of Japan due to the language barrier. In this volume, Japanese scholars offer their East Asian perspective on this and other West Asian histories for the first time in English, using not only Persian but also Chinese and Sanskrit sources.

Through a comparative analysis of a number of manuscripts, the volume tackles various questions concerning the production of texts during the Ilkhanid and Timurid periods. It reveals valuable clues regarding the sources used in historical writings, the process of writing, revising and illustrating the manuscripts, and the production of copies and recensions in the Persianate realms under Mongol rule.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399552349
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	11/30/2025
Series:	The Islamicate East: New Approaches to Texts and History
Pages:	472
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Tomoko Masuya is Professor of Islamic Art History at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at The University of Tokyo. Her research covers Islamic art produced in the vast area from Islamic Spain to Central Asia. She is the author of several books in Japanese and numerous book chapters and articles in both Japanese and English, most recently 'Archaeological Sources: The Ilkhanate' in Biran & Hodong (eds), The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire, vol. 2 (Cambridge UniversityPress, 2023).

Osamu Otsuka is Associate Professor of Asian and African History at The University of Tokyo. He is the author of numerous books, chapter and articles in Japanese and English, including a jointly authored chapter, The Dustur a'l-Munajjimin as a Source of Early Ismaili History', in Orthmann & Schmidl (eds), Sciences in the City of Fortune: The Dustur al-Munajjimin and Its World (EB-Verlag, 2017) and articles in Journal of Persianate Studies, Studia Iranica, The Journal of Oriental Researchers and Bulletin of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan.

Masatomo Kawamoto is Professor of West Asian History at Nara University. His numerous publications include articles in Bulletin of the Society for Western and Southern Asiatic Studies, The Journal of Oriental Researches, Orient and Bulletin of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Plates
Notes on Contributors
Note on Transliterations and Abbreviations
Acknowledgements


Introduction Part 1: East Asian Approach to the Texts and Illustrations of the Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh
Tomoko Masuya, Osamu Otsuka and Masatomo Kawamoto

Introduction Part 2: Studies in Japan on the Manuscripts of the Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh
Nobuhiro Uno

1. History of the Transmission and Reception of the Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh:
From the History of the Mongols to the History of the World
Osamu Otsuka

2. A Systematic Classification of Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh Volume One Manuscripts According to Text Characteristics
Nobuhiro Uno

3. Tracing the Lineage of the Rampur Manuscript, A Copy of ‘History of the Mongols’ (Volume One of the Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh)
Nobuhiro Uno

4. Reconstructing the Illustrative Programme of Volume One (‘History of the Mongols’) of the Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh from a Comparison of Codicological Versions
Masatomo Kawamoto

5. The Significance of the Rampur Manuscript of the Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh:
Chronology of Illustrations and Influences on Other Manuscripts
Tomoko Masuya

6. The Ceremonial Axe and the Timekeeper Bird in the ‘Yuan Palace Illustration’ of a Manuscript of the Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh
Koichi Matsuda

7. Where an Angel Hears from the Buddha: Analysing the Ilkhanid Translations of the Devatāsūtra
Satoshi Ogura

8. Tārīkh-i Banākatī Reconsidered: Beyond Rashīd al-Dīn-centrism
Osamu Otsuka

9. Classification of Rawżāt al-jannāt fī awṣāf madīnat Harāt Manuscripts and Discovery of Text Unpublished in Critical Editions
Masaki Sugiyama

Appendix 1: Annotated List of Manuscripts of Rashīd al-Dīn’s Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh (Osamu Otsuka)
Appendix 2: Correspondence Chart for Appendix 1, Shiraiwa 2000, Kamola 2019a
Appendix 3: Annotated List of Manuscripts of Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s Replacement Volume of the Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh (Osamu Otsuka)
Appendix 4: Correspondence Chart for Appendix 3, Shiraiwa 2000, Kamola 2019a
Appendix 5: Critical Editions and Translations of Rashīd al-Dīn’s Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh Referenced in This Volume
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

This is an interesting collection of papers produced by Japanese scholars on the medieval historiography of Iran that will help to make their long tradition in Persian studies better known in the west. The papers deal with a good range of topics, centring the analysis on the works of Rashid al-Din but including also some very useful comparisons with authors such as Banakati. The core of the text is based on the Rampur corpus of manuscripts of the Jāmiʿ al-tavārīkh and focuses on aspects of manuscript studies, art history and history.

Bruno De Nicola