Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah (d. 1318), a physician who became chief minister of the Mongol Ilkhans of Iran, compiled the Compendium of Chronicles c.1300 to 1310. He worked from Mongol court informants such as Bolad Chingsang, lost Mongol records and earlier Persian histories, above all Juvaini. The catalogue card names a Tehran 1994 edition, which is not stored here. The pages actually read are E. Blochet's Persian edition of the history of Chinggis Khan's successors (Ogedei to Temur), Leiden and London 1911, with long French notes. It covers the founding of Karakorum, the conquest of north China, the Jochid khans of the Golden Horde and Qubilai's China.
How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
Rashid's usual word for the conquerors is Mughul (Mongol). Tatar is for him one particular steppe tribe, also used as a personal name in the ruling family, and in reported speech it can stand for the Mongol armies as a whole. Blochet's French notes use 'Tartares' and 'Tartarie' in the older European sense.
Why read it
It is the nearest thing to an official Mongol history: stories of Ogedei's new capital at Karakorum, of Qubilai's palace at Shangdu (Xanadu) built on a drained lake, and of how Persian writers used the words Mongol and Tatar.
Watch out
Rashid wrote two to three generations after many of these events and copied Juvaini's anecdotes. The corpus OCR of the Persian is unreadable, so quotes were transcribed from the page images; Blochet's French notes are his own and are labelled as such.
Ogedei throws open the treasury of his new capital
Editorial contextAmong the anecdotes of Ogedei's generosity, Rashid says that while Karakorum (Qara Qorum) was being founded the khan found about twenty thousand silver ingots (balish) piled in the treasury and saw no point in hoarding them. He had it announced that anyone who wanted balish could come and take it. The story assumes a real city with a population of rich and poor, nobles and commoners.
Another story: at the time when he had ordered Qara Qorum to be founded, one day he went into the treasury and saw nearly two tumans [some twenty thousand] of balish [silver ingots]. He said: 'What use to us is hoarding this?' … The people of the city, noble and humble, rich and poor, made for the treasury, and every one of them found a generous share.
Working translation
Original wording
دیکر بوقت آنك قرا قوروم‌را بنیاد فرموده بود روزی بخزانه در آمد و قرب دو تومان بالش دید فرمود که از اذخار این مارا چه فایده … اهل شهر از شریف و وضیع توانکر و درویش روی بخزانه آوردند و هر کسی نصیبی وافر یافتند
Xanadu: a Chinese-style palace built on a drained lake
Editorial contextRashid describes how Qubilai's summer palace near Kaiping-fu was built. On the previous page he says the khan consulted sages and engineers, who chose a lake in a meadow, and that they gathered a local stone burned instead of firewood (coal). Here the lake is filled with rubble and broken brick sealed with molten tin and lead, raised on a platform, and crowned with a palace built 'in the manner of Cathay', inside a marble wall. The builders' style is Chinese, the patron Mongol.
[the lake] with its spring they filled with rubble and broken brick, and melted a great deal of tin and lead over it until it was firm; they raised it the height of a man above the ground and built a platform on top of it … and on top of that platform they built a palace in the Cathay [Chinese] manner, and round that meadow they drew a wall of marble.
Working translation
Original wording
با چشمهٔ آن از حصا و آجرّ خرد کرده پر کردند و قلعی و ارزیز بسیار بر ان کداختند تا محکم شد و بمقدار مرد بالائی از زمین بر آوردند و صفّهٔ بر بالای آن ساختند … و بر سر آن صفّه قرشی بیانك ختای ساخته و پیرامون آن مرغزار از مرمر دیواری کشیده
Rashid never saw Shangdu; he relied on informants from Yuan China. The Persian word qarshi (palace) and the phrase 'Cathay manner' are explained in Blochet's notes.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this Persian text is garbled).
Editorial contextRashid notes that no crops grew around Karakorum because of the fierce cold, and that farming there only began in Ogedei's reign. When a man managed to raise a few radishes and brought them to the khan, Ogedei had them counted and paid him one silver ingot for each. The story shows a steppe capital fed from outside, where a home-grown vegetable was a marvel.
Another: since there is no farming around Qara Qorum because of the extreme cold, they made a start at it in the reign of the Qa'an. A man sowed radishes and a few came up. He brought them to the Qa'an, who ordered them to be counted, leaves and all; they came to a hundred, and he ordered that the man be given a hundred balish.
Working translation
Original wording
دیکر چون در حدود قرا قوروم از افراط سرما زراعت نمی باشد در عهد دولت قاآن آغاز آن کردند شخصی ترب کاشت و چندی حاصل آمد آنرا به بندکی قاآن آورد فرمود تا آنرا برکها بشمارند صد عدد بر آمد فرمود تا اورا صد بالش دادند
Editorial contextWhen a large Mongol army under Chormaghun crossed the Oxus, Sultan Jalal al-Din of Khwarazm, though on bad terms with the caliph and the rulers of Anatolia and Syria, sent envoys to each of them. Rashid writes 'Mughul' (Mongol) in his own voice, but gives the substance of the warning as 'the Tatars are exceedingly numerous'. The same army is Mongol in the narrative and Tatar in the alarm.
He sent an envoy to each of them and gave news of the Mongols' coming; the substance of the message was that the Tatars are exceedingly numerous, and this time more than ever before.
Working translation
Original wording
پیش هریك رسول فرستاد و از حال وصول مغول خبر داد و مضمون پیغام آنك تاتار بغایت بسیارند و این نوبت زیادت از هر بار
Reported speech summarised by Rashid some seventy years later.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this Persian text is garbled).
The fine print
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation of earlier sources plus informant testimony: Ilkhanid vizier writing c.1300-1310 from Mongol court informants (Bolad Chingsang), Mongol records (Altan Debter tradition) and earlier Persian histories (Juvaini); retrospective for pre-1250 events
Research notes
IA item metadata carries the composition date (1307) and a Persian description that actually describes a different, facsimile publication (Jami al-tawarikh with Hafiz-i Abru's Majma al-tawarikh, typeset introduction only); the scanned object itself is the Rawshan and Musavi typeset edition, Alburz 1373 SH. Rashid al-Din's Mongol material depends on Bolad Chingsang and lost Mongol records; his Turkic tribal classification is a court synthesis, not fieldwork.
Resolves L002 (open text of Rashid al-Din) with the Persian original rather than the Boyle English translation. The English pass lead L002 pointed at a lending-only Boyle 1971 copy; Thackston's 1998-99 English translation was not located open-access.
Why it matters
The fullest Persian critical text of the principal Mongol-era history of the Turkic and Mongol peoples: vol. 1 opens with the classified account of the Turkic tribes ('aqwam-i atrak') and their subdivision into those 'now called Mongols'. Foundational for any reading of steppe ethnonyms behind the later European word 'Tartary'.