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Troppau. composed about 1260, which is little he proudly asserts that ‘Up to the present
more than a list of popes and emperors, to which there has never been composed at any other
his attention may have been drawn by one of time a work which offers a general history of
the many Dominican missionaries then in the peoples of the globe and details of the
Persia. For the Mongol conquests had opened different races of humanity. There does not
Asia to European penetration on a scale never exist in any country a book which displays the
before known ; the new Franciscan and Domin­ succession of the history of the different coun­
ican Orders of Friars were conspicuous for their tries of the world’. He explains his method of
missionary zeal ; the popes founded episcopal research and writing: 'I can testify that I spared
sees all oyer the Mongaol Empire, and in no cilort and took every precaution to find out
Rashid’s lifetime an Italian Franciscan, John of the real truth and to aviod writing anything
Monte Corvino, was appointed Archbishop of that was either false or based on hearsay. I
Peking and a Dominican friar Bishop of collected, without changing anything, all that
Sultaniya, a new capital city founded by the genuine monuments of the peoples con­
Oljeitu in 1313. Moreover, the Il-khans had tained, the most trustworthy traditions ami data
recently entered into diplomatic relations with which were brought to me by learned scholars
the kingdoms of Western Europe, with the aim from those countries. I studied the works of
of building a Christian-Mongol alliance against historians and genealogists. I established the
the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt, who had halted orthography of the names of each people and
the Mongol advance towards the Mediterranean, each tribe. I arranged my material in sys­
and a number of Western embassies turned up tematic order, which no one did before me, and
in Persia, including one from Edward I of which I believe should make my work intelli­
England headed by Geoffrey of Langley. In gible to all my readers.’ To ensure the pre­
his caoacitv as Grand Vizier, Rashid would servation and circulation of his History, he had
received these European ambassadors and no it translated from Persian into Arabic, the
doubt he questioned them closely about con­ lingua franca of the Muslim world, arranged for
ditions in the Christian lands of the West, how fresh copies to be made every year, and placed
they were governed, what was the position of them in the libraries of the leading cities of
the Pope, and what changes had occurred there Persia. The transcription, binding, maps and
recently. illustrations cost him 60,000 dinars, an enormous
The second volume, the Universal History, sum for those days.
was finished in 1310 ; a supplement covering the Alas for his hopes ! No historian was un-
reign of Oljeitu was added on the latter’s death luckier than Rashid, or came to a more tragic
in 1316, and the entire work received the title of end. Oljeitu, who like Ghazan had always
Jami’-al-Tawarikh- the Collection of Histories. patronized and protected him, died in 1316, and
Rashid was justifiably proud of his achievement' his son Anu Sa’id, who succeeded him, was an
he knew quite well what he was doing, and it inexperienced boy of thirteen. Rashid had
was not in his nature to be modest or diffident. made many enemies. His Wealth power,
He was recording inpermanent literary form influence and perhaps arrogance excited jealousy
one of the tremendous events in world history. and hatred : he was a kind of Persian Wolsey.
‘What event has ever been more memorable,’ he When Oljeitu founded the new capital of
asks in his preface, ‘than the beginning cf the Sultaniya, his Grand Vizier built a whole
dynasty of Genghis Khan, who subjugated a suburb there, complete with mosque, college,
great number of the kingdoms of the world, hospital and a thousand houses ; it was called
conquered and destroyed a host of unruly Rub’i Rashidiya, ‘Rashid’s Quarter’. The
peoples ? ’ In words that echo Herodotus, he Mongol nobility disliked him : a ruling class of
declares that he wrote so that ‘the memory of conquerors is always quick to suspect disloyalty
the extraordinary events which have marked on the part of its native servants. One recalls
the coming of the Mongol dynasty should not the fate of Boethius under Theodoric the Goth.
effated or obliterated by the hand of time’, and A ‘smear’ campaign was launched against
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