Bayan al-haqa?iq

Rashid al-Din Hamadani (d. 718/1319) came from a Jewish family in Hamadan. His grandfather had been a courtier of Hulagu Khan (r. 1256-65) while his father was a court pharmacist. Rashid al-Din converted to Islam when he was about 30 years old. Trained as a physician, he started his career under the Il-khanid Abaqa Khan (r. 1265-82), rising to the rank of vizier under Ghazan (r. 1295-1304), Oljeitu (r. 1304-16) and Abu Sa?id Bahadur Khan (r. 1316-35), who had him executed for murdering his father in 718/1319. Rashid al-Din was also an historian and as such he is best known for his monumental Jami? al-tawarikh, the earliest attempt at writing a world history and a major source of information on the emergence and organisation of the Mongol empire. The present work is a collection of his essays on various subjects, from theology to Qur?an interpretation and from the perception of colours to medicine and ethics.