Despite the existence of some general overviews, the institution of theMongol tribunals has not been studied in a satisfactory way. A great deal ofdetails are unclear and the functioning of the whole legal procedure isshrouded in obscurity. The present paper makes an attempt to elucidate anaspect of the historical development of this Turco-Mongolian institution inIlkhanid Iran, one of the Chingisid uluses, namely what were thepreconditions and prescriptions of being appointed to the rank of a Mongoljudge? The focal point will be the three charters of appointment (or yarliksamples) presented by Muḥammad ibn Hindūshāh Nakhchivānī (ca. 679/1280 –after 768/1366), in his Dastūr al-kātib fī tacyīn al-marātib(“Guidelines of the Secretary for Defining the Echelons”), a manual ofIlkhanid and Jalayirid administration, accomplished in the 1360s.

The Chronology of Ancient Nations mirrors both al-Birunithe polymath and Mongol Iran in its wide calendrical, geographical andhistorical horizons. The pictorial programme highlights multi-ethnicity,Iranian national sentiment and religion: orthodox and heretical Islam,Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Christianity (Annunciation and Baptism). 1

This paper explores some different, interrelated versions of the history ofthe Pīshdādiyān, the earliest dynasty represented in the Shāhnāmeh, especially the recently edited text of Rashīdal-Dīn's Jāmi‘al-tawārīkh. This is compared with Bal‘amī’sPersian version of the History of al-Ṭabari and Qāḍī Baiḍāwī’s Niẓām al-tawārīkh, of which the latter is shown to provide much thecloser basis for Rashīd al-Dīn's work — especially when confronted with themanuscripts of the Jāmi‘al-tawārīkh contemporary with thelife of Rashīd al-Dīn. Comparison with both the early Arabic and Persianwitnesses of the work suggests that the printed edition does not representRashīd al-Dīn's original text, but later reworkings of his chronicle — suchas that by the fifteenth-century historian, Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū — which draw moredirectly on the Shāhnāmeh. In so far as there isdiscernible subtext to Rashīd al-Dīn's coverage of these earliest periods ofIranian monarchical history, it is more to emphasise the didactic message ofthe Shāhnāmeh and the justice and constructive achievementsof the first kings, than to follow Firdausī’s narrative. Despite the potencyof idea of the Shāhnāmeh as expressing Persian kinglytraditions, it is suggested that perhaps it was only after the time ofRashīd al-Dīn and the Islamisation of the Mongol rulers that historiansappreciated and emulated the literary and narrative aspects of the text fortheir own sake.

This article investigates the history of the Mongol period as seen from theprovinces, looking not only through the historian's lens of writtendocuments but also through the art historian's gaze on art and architecture.It focuses on the town of Warāmīn and its multiple shrines and shows howbuildings and their furnishings, notable the extensive revetment in signedand dated lustre tiles, can be rich sources for writing history.

The biography of the Nestorian patriarch Mār Yaḇalāhā III and of his teacherRabban Ṣawmā is a well-known book, arguably the most interesting historicalwork in Syriac, and an important source for the history of the Ilkhanate andits relations with Western Europe.

In recent years the image of the Mongols has undergone a steady change. Thisshift reflects a growing interest in the development of the ChinggisidEmpire and its assimilation of the peoples and cultures that it absorbed andconversely the absorption, not always voluntarily, of things Mongol by thesedentary cultures which acted as the Mongols’ hosts. It was not onlymilitary technology, cuisine, medicine, art, and the practicalities andinstruments for enhancing the quality of life and commerce which wereexchanged but the intellectual ideas and ideals which underpinned the lifestyles of those who were encountered. Chinggis Khan famously aspired toprovide his wives and children with the fineries of life and the best theworld had to offer. But it was not just the material world that he aspiredto but also the intellectual luxuries of scholarship and learning.Throughout the Chinggisid Chronicles there are references to wise men andlearned advisors who were consulted on the great decisions but also notinfrequently there are references to debates often described in languagemore reminiscent of jousting tournaments or duels than intellectualexchange. These learned debates, usually between clerics of rival faiths,were staged by various princes in courts throughout the empire for sport andentertainment. Their popularity highlights aspects of theregimes’character.

This paper will consider the nature of these debates and the traditions fromwhere they might have emerged and at the same time it will consider the roleof ‘wise men’ in Chinggisid society.

Pre-modern historians of the Persianate world have primarily been used bymodern historians as sources of factual information and rarely to gaininsight into the means, methods and world-views of the historiansthemselves. The 15th C Persian historian Mīrkhwānd is a case inpoint despite the fact that his extensive discussion on the utility ofhistory lends itself well to an historiographical assessment. While hisunderstanding of the purpose of history may differ in some aspects for themodern discipline, his concerns and application were not as distinctive aswe might like to think.