Having converted to Islam from Judaism by the age of 30 in 1277, Rashid al-Din became the powerful vizier of Ilkhan Ghazan. He was commissioned by Ghazan to write the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh, now considered the most important single source for the history of the Ilkhanate period and the Mongol Empire.[2] He retained his position as a vizier until 1316.
After being charged with poisoning the Ilkhanid king Öljaitü, he was executed in 1318.[2]
Historian Morris Rossabi calls Rashid al-Din "arguably the most distinguished figure in Persia during Mongolian rule".[3] He was a prolific author and established the Rab'-e Rashidi academic foundation in Tabriz.
Authorship of his Letters[edit]
Scholars are in dispute about whether Rashid al-Din's Letters are a forgery or not. According to David Morgan in The Mongols,[10] Alexander Morton has shown them to be a forgery, probably from the Timurid period.[11] One scholar who has attempted to defend the letters' authenticity is Abolala Soudovar.[12]
Fahlavi poems[edit]
There are some fahlavīyāt by him apparently in his native dialect: a hemistich called zabān-e fahlavī (1976, I, p. 290), a quatrain with the appellation bayt-efahlavī, and another hemistich titled zabān-e pahlavī ("Fahlavi language").[13]
