User:Mvandenbout/Jami' al-tawarikh

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Much of the illustration for the various copies of the Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh was done at the Rab-al Rashidi university complex, though they were also done elsewhere in the Mongol empire. The illustrations in this text are part of the artistic tradition of Persian miniatures and the medium of the numerous Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh manuscripts vary slightly, with most of the miniatures being made using ink, watercolor, and occasionally silver. The images within, designed to correspond to its texts, depict historical and religious events, courtly scenes, and authority figures spanning nationalities and ethnicities. Because of Rashid al-Din’s mandate for an Arabic and Persian version of the text to be produced every year there was an adopted standard style for the illustrations, giving characters Mongol countenance and dress, that made the differentiation between key figures difficult.

An illustration from the Jami’ al-tawarikh of Rashid al-Din located in the Khalili collections depicting the Bodhi tree (far right) where the Buddha achieved enlightenment.

Stylistic Influences

Elements of the illustrations are influenced by Chinese painting techniques; most notably, the use of dark outlines and transparent washes, in contrast to the opaque watercolor style which would later become characteristic of Persian painting. The rendition of the landscape echoes conventions of Chinese painting under the Yuan dynasty, as seen in handscrolls and woodblock illustration. The illustrations also reflect late Byzantine influence in the elongation and gesture of the figures. Illustrators of the Jami al-tawarikh likely used Byzantine illustrations as references for some of the scenes depicted in the first section of the non-Mongol history of the world, about Adam and the patriarchs.

An illustration from the Jami’ al-tawarikh of Rashid al-Din located in the Khalili collections depicting Jacob (fourth from left), his three sons, and his two wives. The composition may have been based on an old testament illustration of Abraham and three angels.

Hazines 1653 & 1654

Hazine 1653 (MS H 1653), made in 1314, includes later additions on the Timurid era for Sultan Shah Rukh. The full collection, known as the Majmu'ah, contains Bal'ami's version of Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari's chronicle, the Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh, and Nizam al-Din Shami's biography of Timur. These portions of the Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh cover most of the history of Muhammad and the Caliphate, plus the post-caliphate dynasties of the Ghaznavids, Seljuks, Khwarazmshahs, Is'mailis, and the Turks. MS H 1653 contains 68 paintings in the Ilkhanid style.

Hazine 1654 (MS H 1654), a fragmentary piece of the second volume of the Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh is the most complete surviving example of the Persian transcriptions made in Rab'-e Rashidi.The illustrations in this version of the text are made up of direct copies of illustrations from MS H 1653 and emulate illustrations from the Arabic Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh. The manuscript was left unfinished by the Ilkhanids after the inscription's completion in 1317, with only seven illustrations having been added to the beginning and other pages having blank spaces left for illustrations. A selection of the illustrations would be completed at the end of the fourteenth century. MS H 1654 later came into the ownership, along with the Arabic and other Persian versions, of the Timurid ruler Shahrukh, whose royal library both refurbished and added illustrations to the Hazine 1654.

While increasingly simplified, the illustrations from the MS H 1654 are significant in that they display an increase in production under Ilkhanid and Timurid workshops and help modern scholars fill in the gaps from fragmentary manuscripts made earlier that cover non-Islamic histories. Mongol, Shahrukh, and Timurid styles are exemplified among these depictions of Ughuz Turks and Chinese, Jewish, Frankish, and Indian history.