The intellectual legacy of Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlallāh Hamadānī (d. 718/1318) extends beyond works he authored to encompass the Rabʿ-i Rashīdī complex, a multifaceted institution he founded near Tabriz in the early 14th century. This institution, which functioned as an intellectual hub, comprised numerous components, including two significant libraries, Dār al-maṣāḥif wa kutub al-ḥadīth and Kitābkhāna/Bayt al-kutub, which also housed their own ateliers for book production. Following Rashīd al-Dīn’s tragic death, both libraries, along with the rest of the complex, were looted. After centuries of quietude, researchers have identified some manuscripts from one of these libraries, Kitābkhāna, on the basis of a distinctive seal designed by Rashīd al-Dīn. This study expands the current corpus of manuscripts bearing this seal through a newly identified example. In the study, along with the manuscript bearing the seal, the other manuscripts constituting the corpus were subjected to thematic classification. Furthermore, the manuscript at the center of the study was contextualized within a historical-geographical framework through the provenance evidence it contains. The study employs a methodological framework frequently used to reconstruct historical libraries through the analysis of provenance evidence, such as ownership statements and seal impressions. This research contributes to understanding Rashīd al-Dīn’s intellectual legacy through the study of his own manuscripts, while simultaneously shedding light on processes of knowledge transmission in the medieval Islamic world.
Alpaslan FENER (Thu,) studied this question.
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