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ABSTRACT
The world history of Rashid al-Din, known as Jamiʿ al-Tavarikh, was written in the fourteenth century primarily to record the history of Chingizid dynasty. However, the book turned out to be one of the most significant projects of the Ilkhanid era such that even now, after six centuries still enthrals its readers. This article attempts to show how Rashid al-Din sought to legitimise the Ilkhanids by applying literary devices, in particular poetry. The article also discusses the importance of poetry as a form of demonstration of power.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Kamola, Making Mongol History. This question is also the centre of his doctoral dissertation: “Rashid al-Din and the Making of History”.
2 Brack, “Mediating Sacred Kingship”.
3 Al-Azmeh, Muslim Kingship, ix.
4 Ibid, 132.
5 Rashid al-Din himself has drawn our attention to the importance of poetry in shaping the cultural memory as well. In his introduction, he indicates that the good name of Maḥmud of Ghazna has remained because of the works of poets such as Firdawsi and ʿUnṣuri. Rashid al-Din, Jamiʿ al-Tavarikh, 32.
6 Thus, in this article, when I refer to JT, I mean the first volume; unless indicated otherwise.
7 Rashid al-Din, JT, 7.
8 The main focus of this article is on the Firdawsian and Pseudo-Firdawsian verses. The rest will be discussed in my forthcoming dissertation.
9 For more on this, see: Brack, “Mediating Sacred Kingship”.
10 For the conversion of Ghazan by a Sufi, Shaikh Ṣadr al-Din Ibrahim, see: Melville, “Padshah-i Islam”; Amitai-Preiss, “Ghazan, Islam, and Mongol Tradition”.
11 For conversion narratives and their importance see: Pfeiffer, “The Canonization of Cultural Memory”.
12 Gnoli, “Farr(ah)”.
13 Faravashi, Karnama-yi Ardashir-i Babakan, 39–40. For more on this, see: Canepa, “Sasanian Rock reliefs”.
14 Xwarrah-i Ohrmazd
15 Airyanąm xvarǝno
16 Kavem xvarǝno
17 Amoozegar, “Farrah, In Niru-yi Jaduyi va Asimani,” 33–5; Matloubkari, Daramadi bar Mabani-yi Mashruʿiyat, 111–3. Some of these farrahs were mentioned in Avesta (see: Yt, XVIII.1 & Yt, XIX.9), others were Mostly Deductions of Zoroastrian Priests.
18 A similar concept of divine mandate can also be attested in the Orkhon inscription (8th century), so we can assume that the concept of divine mandate was totally comprehensible to the Mongols. Additionally, this concept seems to have been abundantly present in pre-Mongol works, such as Chinese sources, to the point that some scholars, such as Igor de Rachewiltz and Peter Jackson, have discussed the possibility that the Mongols got this idea from the Chinese sedentary society with whom they had interacted. See: Rachewiltz, “Some Remarks on the Ideological Foundation,” 24; Jackson, The Mongols and the West, 45. Moreover, the concept of “heavenly mandate” has been also discussed by Jonathan Skaff, where he explains the common features of this ideology with that of Chinese dynasties, in particular, the Sui and Tang. (Skaff, “Ideology and Interstate Competition,” 109–12.)
19 Rashid al-Din, JT, 492.
20 بخت
21 اقبال
22 دولت
23 The quriltai was a formal gathering among the Mongols to consult for important matters at hand, such as succession, war, etc. Chingizid family, imperial son in laws and commanders were usually present in quriltais which included feasting and drinking as well as consultation. (Hodous, “The Quriltai as a Legal Institution,” 88–9). See also: Atwood, “quriltai,” 462–4.
24 I am grateful to my fellow project members, Nicholas Kontovas and Tobias Jones for assisting me in translation of the verses.
25 This verse was originally composed by Azraqi for Ṭughanshah ibn Alp Arslan of the Seljuqs, when he moved to his new palace.
26 In order to avoid confusion, JT’s verses which are discussed in this article, are numbered.
27 Saliba, “The Role of the Astrologer,” 57–8.
28 Rashid al-Din, JT, 1064.
29 Ibid, 1063.
30 Tarjuma-yi Tarikh-i Yamini is a translation of an Arabic history of the Ghaznavids, Tarikh-i ʿUtbi. The translation was carried out by Jurfazqani, a scribe in the court of the Seljuq ruler, Ṭughril ibn Arsalan. For more, see: Daniel, “The Rise and Development,” 116–8.
31 Juvaini, Tarikh-i Jahangusha, vol.2, 99.
32 Rashid al-Din, JT, 421.
33 Ibid., 316.
34 Firdawsi, Shahnama, vol.4, 52.
35 Rashid al-Din, Tarikh-i Salaṭin-i Khvarazm, 12.
36 Prods Oktor Skjaervo, “Jamŝid”.
37 The terminology which was used in the Shahnama indicating Jamshid’s loss of fortune is also intriguing: به جمشید بر تیره گون گشت روز/ همی کاست آن فر گیتی فروز . Similar to the fourth studied verse of JT, Firdawsi also applies the word ruz (time) as well as far here. Firdawsi, Shahnama, vol.1, 45.
38 The figure of Jamshid is also attested in the section regarding Ghazan’s ascension in Tarikh-i Vaṣṣaf. See: Vaṣṣaf, Tarikh-i Vaṣṣaf, 324.
39 Rashid al-Din, JT, 28. On the astrological level, the sun is in the fourth sphere orbiting around the earth. In Persian literature, it became more than just a heavenly body, but a symbol for a powerful ruler. This connection is also depicted in artistic production offered to kings, governors and other important officials. For more on this, see: Carboni, Following the Stars, 9.
40 Rashid al-Din, JT, 5.
41 Due to the limited space of this article, I will only focus on Firdawsi’s verses and his imitations. The other verses will be analysed in my dissertation.
42 Firdawsi, Shahnama, vol.5, 227. The verse is in the beginning of the story of Isfandiyar’s seven trials when he chooses the dangerous path over the easy but long one.
43 Rashid al-Din, JT, 19. The verse is included in the section on the conquest of Diyarbakr by the Mongols.
44 Firdawsi, Shahnama, vol.3, 165.
45 Rashid al-Din, JT, 1011.
46 For example, see: Firdawsi, Shahnama, vol.7, 123 & 132.
47 For more on these epic stories see: Safa, Ḥimasa-sarayi dar Iran.
48 van Zutphen, “Faramarz’s Expedition to Qannuj and Khargah,” 76.
49 For more on the versified epic stories of the Mongol period, see: Melville, “Between Firdausi and Rashid al-Din,” 45–56.
50 Mustawfi, Ẓafarnama, 7.
51 This characteristic is mostly limited to Persian poetry, though examples of it can be attested in Turkic poetry after the 13th century as well, which may have been the result of the influence of Persian poetry. (Shafiei Kadkani, Musiqi-yi Shiʿr, 123–5.)
52 Firdawsi, Shahnama, vol.2, 186.
53 Rashid al-Din, JT, 875.
54 For more on various styles of Persian poetry and their characteristics, see: Shamisa, Sabkshinasi-yi Shiʿr.
55 Ravandi, Raḥat al-Ṣudur, 28.
56 Shafiei Kadkani, Ṣuvar-i Khiyal, 261.
57 See: Jahedjah and Rezaei, “Dayira-yi Vajigan,” 47–62.
58 Rashid al-Din, JT, 885.
59 Rashid al-Din may or may not have accessed these sources, but these sources shaped the understanding of the time of the field of balaghat.
60 For more on the field of eloquence, see: de Bruijn, “Balāḡat”; de Bruijn, “Badīʿ”.
61 For more on this see: Chalisova, “Ḥadāʾeq al-Siḥr”.
62 See: Homayi, Funun-i Balaghat; Shamisa, Bayan; Shamisa, Nigahi Taza bi Badiʿ.
63 de Bruijn, “Bayān (1)”.
64 Raduyani, Tarjuman al-Balagha, 44; Vaṭvaṭ, Ḥadaʾiq al-Siḥr, 42; Razi, Al-Mu’jam, 318.
65 Brogen and Smith Richmond, “Simile,” 1306.
66 Tashbih-i ṣariḥ
67 See: Martin, “Metaphor,” 863–870.
68 See: Bahti and Mann, “Trope,” 1463–4.
69 Rashid al-Din, JT, 423. The first line is originally from the Shahnama (Firdawsi, Shahnama, vol.5, 323).
70 Rashid al-Din, JT, 164.
71 The same verse is discussed before (verse number 5) in the section on fortune.
72 Teskey, “Allegory,” 37.
73 Raduyani, Tarjuman al-Balagha, 83; Vaṭvaṭ, Ḥadaʾiq al-Siḥr, 55–6; Razi, Al-Muʾjam, 339–40.
74 For more on parables and allegorical stories in Persian, see: de Bruijn, “Fiction I: Traditional Forms”.
75 Rashid al-Din, JT, 1067. The verse is picked from the Shahnama (Firdawsa, Shahnama, vol.2, 128.)
76 Sirous Shamisa, an Iranian scholar who has conducted extensive research on Persian eloquence, has included a type of tashbih in his classification which comes close to what I mean here. He calls it tashbih-i tamsil, and it refers to a type of tashbih when mushabbahun bih (the second side of tashbih) is a proverb, anecdote, or a story. The only difficulty in drawing a direct equivalency between this concept and the one I put forth here is that, though similar to what I propose here, tashbih-i tamsil is still formed based on the normal structure of tashbih. In other words, it possesses mushabbah (the first side), mushabbahun bih (the second side), vajh-i shabah (the factor of similarity, common ground), and adat-i tashbih (the word or the phrase used to indicate resemblance). In JT’s verses, the text is constructed in such a way that the readers would deduce this comparison on their own. See: Shamisa, Bayan, 104–5.
77 On the Hephthalites and their relationship with the Sasanians, see: Rezakhani, Reorienting the Sasanians.
78 Juvaini, Tarikh-i Jahangusha, 2–3. For more on the author’s life, see the editor’s introduction as well as: Lane, “Jovayni, ʿAlāʾ al-Din”.
79 There is, though, an appendix on the conquest of Baghdad, written by Khvaja Naṣir al-Din Ṭusi, at the end of some of Tarikh-i Jahangusha’s manuscripts. This account can be found in Qazvini’s edition as well, 280–92.
80 For more on Juvaini’s style see: Bahar, Sabkshinasi-yi nasr, vol.3, 53–94; For more on nasr-i fanni, see: Shamisa, Sabkshinasi-yi nasr, 91–131, 178–188.
81 To know more about the verses and their poets see the annotations of Mohammad Qazvini on Tarikh-i Jahangusha. For the numbers see: Askari, The Medieval reception of the Shāhnāma, 344–8; Alavizadeh, Saket, and Radmehr, “Naqsh-i Abyat-i Shahnama,” 99.
82 Askari, The Medieval reception of the Shāhnāma, 40–68.
83 For comparing the Shahnama verses in Tarikh-i Jahangusha and their recording forms in various editions of the Shahnama, see: Sajjadi, “Shahnama dar Tarikh-i Jahangusha,” 241–60; to know more about Juvaini’s alterations to the Shahnama verses and his purpose, see: Melikian-Chirvani, “Le Livre des Rois,” 54–74.
84 Juvaini, Tarikh-i Jahangusha, vol.1, 143.
85 Modifying verses to suit a particular purpose was not an innovation of Juvaini but was a common practice among scholars, especially from the Seljuq era onwards. Early examples of this practice can be found in Raḥat al-Ṣudur, a dynastic history of the Seljuqs, written by Ravandi in the early years of the 13th century (for this see: Meisami, “Ravandi’s Raḥat al-Ṣudur,” 198–9; and “Ravandi, Niżami, and the Rhetoric of History” by the same author). This method continued to be practiced in later periods as well. An illuminating instance of which is a Timurid history, Żafarnama, written by ʿAli Yazdi where the author applies the Shahnama verses, sometimes with modification, to make allegories between the Shahnama kings and those of the Timurids (see: Melville, “ʿAli Yazdi and the Shahname”).
86 Sharafi, Zindigi, Zamana va Tarikhnigari-yi Vaṣṣaf, 23–5.
87 To know more about the book’s presentation, see: Vaṣṣaf, Tarikh-i Vaṣṣaf, 405–8.
88 Ibid, 4–6.
89 Ibid, 544.
90 For more on his style, see: Hajiannezhad, Tarikh-i Vaṣsaf, xxv–xxxvii; Sharafi, Zindigi Zamana va Tarikhnigari-yi Vaṣṣaf, 45–53.
91 For more on these verses and their origin, see: Kardgar, “Shahnama dar Tarikh-i Vaṣsaf,” 125.
92 Vaṣṣaf, Tarikh-i Vaṣṣaf, 411.
93 Although I have only concentrated on poetry and its role in legitimizing the Ilkhanids, poetry is only a small arena that links the Ilkhanids to the Shahnama and the ancient Iranian kings. The same link can also be drawn out from paintings and manuscript production as well. The Ilkhanid era was accompanied by a profusion of Shahnama manuscripts, many of which include images. Furthermore, some manuscripts of JT contain images as well where ancient Iranian kings were portrayed with features usually attributed to Turko-Mongol rulers. Art historians such as Carole Hillenbrand, Robert Hillenbrand, Sheila Blair, Oleg Grabar, and David Rice have explored this subject. For more on this, see: Rice, The Illustrations; Hillenbrands, “Ancient Iranian Kings”; Blair, “Illustrating History”; Grabar and Blair, Epic Images. Architecture was also another arena where this link to ancient Iran can be understood. Abaqa’s palace, Takht-i Sulayman was built on the ruins of a Sasanian fire temple decorated by tileworks on which Shahnama verses were engraved alongside pictures of Sasanian kings. For more on this, see: O’Kane, “Persian Poetry on Ilkhanid Art”.
94 Meisami, “History as Literature”.