Patterns of Patronage and Production in the Ilkhanid Iran, the Case of Rashid al-Din

The career of the Ilkhanid vizier and historian Rashided- Din Fazl-ul-llah Hamadani illustrates the nature of taste and artistic production in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Rashid-ed-Din makes a better model of patronage than an Ilkhanid ruler’s. Much of what is commonly called Ilkhanid architecture or painting was underwritten not by Mongols or their noyan, but by native Iranian counsellors who guided the Mongols pretensions and inspired their tastes. We have plenty of first-hand information about Rashid-ed-Din; especially the Endowment Deed for the Rab-‘e Rashidi, the history written by and illustrated for him, Jāme‘ ot-tawārikh, as well as several other manuscripts he commissioned. Rashid-ed-Din patronage illustrates two forms that became prominent in their period: the tomb complex and the illustrated manuscript. Like other members of the court, Rashid-ed-Din used his wealth to finance architectural projects in the form of pious tax-shelter foundation; including Soltāniyeh, Yazd, Bastām, Hamadan, and the Rab-‘e Rashidi in Tabriz. The latter was destroyed after the death of its founder, but we can get some idea about it from the illustrations in Ilkhanid manuscripts. The model of patronage established by the highest members of the Ilkhanid court in north-western Iran was copied by other notables elsewhere in Iran in the same and the following generation. Via Rashid-ed-Din’s eldest son, Ghiyāss-ed-Din Mohammad, the manuscript patronage was passed to the next generation. By 1340 AD then, the types of artistic work ordered by Rashid-ed-Din in Tabriz at the beginning of the century – the tomb complex – were still commissioned but the scale of patronage had diminished considerably and the audience had become local, or even private.