Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T02:51:37.447Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Topkapı Manuscript of the Jāmiᶜ al-Tawārikh (Hazine 1654) from Rashidiya to the Ottoman Court: A Preliminary Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Mohamad Reza Ghiasian
Mohamad Reza Ghiasian*
Affiliation:
University of Bamberg and University of Kashan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The famous Persian version of the Jāmiᶜ al-Tawārikh (Hazine 1654) has never been studied with the care it deserves. Since its transcription was completed a year before Rashid al-Din’s execution, it remained unfinished while approximately seven illustrations were inserted into it, and the locations of other illustrations were left blank. Careful examination of the manuscript reveals that almost all of the empty spaces left for narrative illustrations were painted during the last decades of the fourteenth century. Having decided to improve the quality of the manuscript, the kitābkhāna of Shāhrukh, in the fifteenth century, completed the missing passages of text and restored or overpainted some of its illustrations. The dedicatory inscription of Farhād Khān Qarāmānlu indicates that the manuscript was refurbished again in the Safavid period. The last artistic additions to the manuscript were overpainting an illustration and insertion of two illuminated friezes in the Ottoman Istanbul. This paper, which is a result of close examination of the original manuscript, explains the complicated life history of the book.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , May 2018 , pp. 399 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Association For Iranian Studies, Inc

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author would like to express his sincere gratitude to two anonymous readers who provided penetrating comments on this paper; and also to Professor Charles Melville for his valuable suggestions on an earlier draft.

References

Aga-Oglu, Mehmet. “Preliminary Notes on Some Persian Illustrated MSS. in the Topkapu Sarayi Müzesi: Part I.” Ars Islamica 1, no. 2 (1934): 183–199.Google Scholar
Aga-Oglu, Mehmet. “Some Unknown Mohammadan Illustrated Manuscripts in the Library of the Topkapu Sarayi Müzesi at Istanbul.” Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 34 (1931):330–331. doi: 10.1524/olzg.1931.34.16.165CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ateṣ, Ahmet. Cāmi’ al-tavārīh (Metin) [Compendium of Chronicles (Text)]. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, 1957.Google Scholar
Ben Azzouna, Nourane. “Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍl Allah al-Hamadhānī’s Manuscript Production Project in Tabriz Reconsidered.” In Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th‒15th Century Tabriz, edited by Pfeiffer, Judith, 187–200. Leiden: Brill, 2014.Google Scholar
Blair, Sheila S. A Compendium of Chronicles: Rashid al-Din’s Illustrated History of the World. London: Nour Foundation, 1995.Google Scholar
Blair, Sheila S. “Calligraphers, Illuminators, and Painters in the Ilkhanid Scriptorium.” In Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, edited by Komaroff, Linda, 167–182. Leiden: Brill, 2013.Google Scholar
Blair, Sheila S. “Ilkhanid Architecture and Society: An Analysis of the Endowment Deed of the Rabᶜ-i Rashīdī.” Iran 22 (1984): 67–90. doi: 10.2307/4299737CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blair, Sheila S. “Patterns of Patronage and Production in Ilkhanid Iran: The Case of Rashid al-Din.” In The Court of the Ilkhans 1290‒1340, edited by Raby, Julian and Fitzherbert, Teresa, 39–62. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Blair, Sheila S. Text and Image in Medieval Persian Art. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Blair, Sheila S. “Writing and Illustrating History: Rashīd al-Dīn’s Jamiᶜ al-Tavārīkh.” In Theoretical Approaches to the Transmission and Edition of Oriental Manuscripts, Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Istanbul, March 28‒30, 2001, edited by Pfeiffer, Judith and Kropp, Manfred, 57–66. Beirut: Ergon Verlag, 2007.Google Scholar
Boyle, John Andrew. “Rashīd al-Dīn: The First World Historian.” Iran 9 (1971): 19–26. doi: 10.2307/4300435CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browne, Edward G. “Suggestions for a Complete Edition of the Jami‘u’t-Tawarikh of Rashidu’d-Din Fadlu’llah.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (Jan. 1908): 17–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Çağman, Filiz, and Tanındı, Zeren. “Remarks on Some Manuscripts from the Topkapi Palace Treasury in the Context of Ottoman‒Safavid Relations.” Muqarnas 13 (1996): 132–148. doi: 10.2307/1523256Google Scholar
Canby, Sheila R. Shah ᶜAbbas: The Remaking of Iran. London: The British Museum Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1848-1853. London: British Museum, 1868. No. Eg. 1500.Google Scholar
Monshi, Eskandar Beg. History of Shah ᶜAbbas the Great (Tārīk_-e ᶜ-e īk_-ē-ye ᶜ-ye ¯k_¯). Vol. 2, translated by Savory, Roger M. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Ettinghausen, Richard. “An Illuminated Manuscript of Hāfiz-i Abrū in Istanbul. Part I.” Kunst des Orients 2 (Oct. 1955): 30–44.Google Scholar
Fazāʾili, Habibullāh. Atlas-i Khat: Tahqiq dar Khutut-i Islami [The Atlas of Calligraphy: A Research on Islamic Calligraphy]. Isfahan: Mashᶜal, 1362/1983‒84.Google Scholar
Fitzherbert, Teresa. “Portrait of a Lost Leader: Jalal al-Din Khwarazmshah and Juvaini.” In The Court of the Ilkhans 1290‒1340, edited by Raby, Julian and Fitzherbert, Teresa, 63–77. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Ghiasian, Mohamad Reza. “The ‘Historical Style’ of Painting for Shahrukh and Its Revival in the Dispersed Manuscript of Majmaᶜ al-Tawarikh.” Iranian Studies 48, no. 6 (2015): 871–903. doi: 10.1080/00210862.2014.920221CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, Basil. “An Unknown Fragment of the Jāmiᶜ al-tawārīkh in the Asiatic Society of Bengal.” Ars Orientalis 1 (1954): 65–75.Google Scholar
Gray, Basil. “History of Miniature Painting: The Fourteenth Century.” In The Arts of the Book in Central Asia 14th‒16th Centuries. Paris: Unesco, 1979.Google Scholar
Gray, Basil. The World History of Rashid al-Din: A Study of the Royal Asiatic Society Manuscript. London: Faber & Faber, 1978.Google Scholar
Gutmann, Joseph. “Abraham in the Fire of the Chaldeans: A Jewish Legend in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Art.” In Sacred Images: Studies in Jewish Art from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, no. XII, 341–356. Northampton: Variorum Reprints, 1989.Google Scholar
Hillenbrand, Robert. “Holy Figures Portrayed in the Edinburgh Fragment of Rashīd al-Dīn’s World History.” Iranian Studies (published online: August 22, 2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2017.1359816CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffmann, Birgitt. “The Gates of Piety and Charity: Rašīd al-Dīn Faḍl Allāh as Founder of Pious Endowments.” In L’Iran Face à la Domination Mongole, edited by Aigle, Denise, 189–202. Téhéran: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1997.Google Scholar
Holter, Kurt. “Die Islamischen Miniaturhandschriften vor 1350” [The Islamic Illustrated Manuscripts before 1350]. Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen 54 (Jan.–Feb. 1937): 1–34.Google Scholar
Inal, Güner. “The Fourteenth-Century Miniatures of the Jamiᶜ al-Tavarikh in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, Hazine Library, No. 1653.” PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1965.Google Scholar
Inal, Güner. “Miniatures in Historical Manuscripts from the Time of Shahrukh in the Topkapi Palace Museum.” In Timurid Art and Culture: Iran and Central Asia in the Fifteenth Century, edited by Golombek, Lisa and Subtelny, Maria, 103–115. Leiden: Brill, 1992.Google Scholar
Inal, Güner. “Some Miniatures of the Jamiᶜ al-Tavarikh in Istanbul, Topkapi Museum, Hazine Library No. 1654.” Ars Orientalis 5 (1963): 163–175.Google Scholar
İpşiroğlu, M. Ş. Das Bild im Islam: Ein Verbot und seine Folgen [The Image in Islam: A Prohibition and Its Consequences]. Wien: Verlag Anton Schroll, 1971.Google Scholar
Jahn, Karl. Die Chinageschichte des Rašīd ad-Dīn [Rashid al-Din's History of China]. Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1971.Google Scholar
Jahn, Karl. Die Frankengeschichte des Rašīd ad-Dīn [Rashid al-Din's History of the Franks]. Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1977.Google Scholar
Jahn, Karl. Die Geschichte der Kinder Israels des Rašīd ad-Dīn [Rashid al-Din's History of the Children of Israel]. Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1973.Google Scholar
Jahn, Karl. Die Geschichte der Oġuzen des Rašīd ad-Dīn [Rashid al-Din’s History of Ughuz Turks]. Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1969.Google Scholar
Jahn, Karl. Rashīd-al-Dīn’s History of India: Collected Essays with Facsimiles and Indices. London: The Hague, 1965.Google Scholar
Kadoi, Yuka. Islamic Chinoiserie: The Art of Mongol Iran. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Kamada, Yumiko. “A Taste for Intricacy: An Illustrated Manuscript of Mantiq al-Tayr in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Orient: Reports of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan XLV (2010): 129‒175.Google Scholar
Karatay, Fehmi Edhem. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi Farsça Yazmalar Kataloğu [Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts at the Topkapı Palace Museum]. İstanbul: Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, 1961.Google Scholar
Key Nejad, Mohammad Ali, and Oskuyi, Azita Balali. Bāz Āfarini-yi Rabᶜ-i Rashidi bar Asās-i Mutun-i Tārikhi [Imaginary Recreation of Rab-e-Rashidi Based on Historical Text (Vaqf Nameh)]. Tehran: Matn, 1390/2012.Google Scholar
Massignon, Louis. “Les sept dormants d’Ephèse (Ahl-al-kahf) en Islam et en Chrétienté” [The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus (Ahl-al-kahf) in Islam and Christianity]. Recueil documentaire et iconographique, Revue des Études Islamique (1954): 59–112.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. “Farhād Khan Qaramānlū.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. IX, ed. Yarshater, Ehsan, 258–260. New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Melville, Charles. “The Illustration of History in Persian Manuscripts.” Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies (Published online: January 22, 2018), https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2018.1426193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melville, Charles. “The Itineraries of Shāhrukh b. Timur (1405‒47).” In Turko-Mongol Rulers, Cities and City Life, ed. Durand-Guédy, David, 285–315. Leiden: Brill, 2013.Google Scholar
Melville, Charles. “Jāmeᶜ al-Tawārīḵ.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. 14, edited by Yarshater, Ehsan, 462–468. New York: Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, 2008.Google Scholar
Melville, Charles. “Rashīd al-Dīn and the Shāhnāmeh.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 26, no. 1‒2 (Jan. 2016): 201–214. doi: 10.1017/S1356186315000693CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melville, Charles. “The Royal Image in Mongol Iran.” In Every Inch a King: Comparative Studies on Kings and Kingship in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, edited by Mitchell, Lynette and Melville, Charles, 343–369. Leiden: Brill, 2013.Google Scholar
Milstein, Rachel. “The Iconography of Moses in Islamic Art.” Jewish Art 12‒13 (1986‒87): 199–212.Google Scholar
Milstein, Rachel. “The Manuscripts, the Texts, and the Illustration Cycles.” In Stories of the Prophets: Illustrated Manuscripts of Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ, by Milstein, Rachel, Rührdanz, Karin and Schmitz, Barbara, 1–24. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1999.Google Scholar
Rice, David Talbot. The Illustrations to the “World History” of Rashīd al-Dīn. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University, 1976.Google Scholar
Richard, Francis. Catalogue des Manuscrits Persans, Tome II, le Supplément Persan, Première Partie [Catalog of Persian Manuscripts, Volume II, the Persian Supplement, Part One]. Roma: Istituto per l’Oriente C. A. Nallino, 2013.Google Scholar
Richard, Francis. Splendeurs Persanes: Manuscrits du XIIe au XVIIe Siècle [Persian Splendor: Manuscripts from the XII to XVII Century]. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1997.Google Scholar
Richard, Francis. “Un des Peintres du Manuscrit Supplément Persan 1113 de l’Histoire des Mongols de Rašīd al-Dīn Identifié.” [One of the Painters of the Manuscript Supp. Persan 1113 from the History of the Mongols of Rašīd al-Dīn Identified]. In L’Iran Face à la Domination Mongole, edited by Aigle, Denise, 307–320. Téhéran: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1997.Google Scholar
Rieu, Charles. Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum. Vol. 1. London: British Museum, 1879.Google Scholar
Rizvi, Kishwar. “Sites of Pilgrimage and Objects of Devotion.” In Shah ᶜAbbas: The Remaking of Iran, edited by Canby, Sheila R., 98–115. London: The British Museum Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Robinson, B. W. “Rashid al-Din’s World History: The Significance of the Miniatures.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2 (1980): 212–222. doi: 10.1017/S0035869X00136743CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roemer, Hans Robert. “The Successors of Tīmūr.” In The Timurid and Safavid Periods. Vol. 6 of The Cambridge History of Iran, edited by Jackson, Peter and Lockhart, Lawrence, 98‒146. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Rührdanz, Karin. “Illustrationen zu Rašīd al-Dīns Taʾrīḫ-i Mubārak-i Ġāzānī in den Berliner Diez-Alben” [Illustrations to Rašīd al-Dīn's Ta'rīḫ-i Mubārak-i Ġāzānī in the Diez Albums]. In L’Iran Face à la Domination Mongole, edited by Aigle, Denise, 295–307. Téhéran: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1997.Google Scholar
Saxl, Fritz, and Meier, Hans. Verzeichnis Astrologischer und Mythologischer Illustrierter Handschriften des Lateinischen Mittelalters [Directory of Astrological and Mythological Illustrated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages]. Edited by Bober, Harry. 4 vols. Vol. III, 143–146. London: Warburg Institute, 1916‒66.Google Scholar
Shani, Raya Y. “Noah’s Ark and the Ship of Faith in Persian Painting: From the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth-Century.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 27 (2002): 127–203.Google Scholar
Schimmel, Annemarie. Calligraphy and Islamic Culture. London: I. B. Tauris, 1990.Google Scholar
Soucek, Priscilla P., and Çağman, Filiz. “A Royal Manuscript and Its Transformation: The Life of a Book.” In The Book in the Islamic World: The Written Word and Communication in the Middle East, edited by Atiyeh, George N., 179–208. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Stchoukine, Ivan. Les Peintures des Manuscrits de la “Khamseh” de Niẓāmī au Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi d’Istanbul [The Manuscript Paintings of the “Khamseh” of Niẓāmī at the Topkapi Palace Museum of Istanbul]. Paris: Geuthner, 1977.Google Scholar
Stchoukine, Ivan. Les Peintures des Manuscrits Tîmûrides [The Paintings of the Timurid Manuscripts]. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1954.Google Scholar
Swietochowski, Marie. “The Historical Background and Illustrative Character of the Metropolitan Museum’s Mantiq al-Tayr of 1483.” In Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, edited by Ettinghausen, Richard, 39–72. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972.Google Scholar
Tanındı, Zeren. “Additions to Illustrated Manuscripts in Ottoman Workshops.” Muqarnas 17 (2000): 147–161. doi: 10.1163/22118993-90000011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thackston, Wheeler M. “Translator’s Preface.” In Rashiduddin Fazlullah’s Jamiᶜu’t-tawarikh, A Compendium of Chronicles: A History of the Mongols. Translated by Thackston, Wheeler M. 3 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998‒99.Google Scholar
Togan, A. Zeki Velidi. Oğuz Destanı: Reşideddin Oğuznâmesi, Tercüme ve Tahlili [The Epic of Ughuz: Rashid al-Din’s History of Ughuz, Translation and Analysis]. İstanbul: Ahmet Sait Matbaası, 1972.Google Scholar
Wright, Elaine. The Look of the Book: Manuscript Production in Shiraz, 1303‒1425. Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2012.Google Scholar

A correction has been issued for this article:

Erratum