Abu al-Qasim Kashani

Abu’l-Qasem Kashani (died after 1324) was a Persian historian from the Abu Tahir family, who was active during the late Ilkhanate era. He is notable for claiming that the vizier of the Ilkhanate, Rashid al-Din Hamadani, had stolen credit for the historical work Jami' al-tawarikh. Although modern scholarship regard Rashid al-Din as the overall author of the work, he is generally considered to have been aided by several assistants, including Kashani.

Kashani's major work is Tarikh-e Oljaytu (History of Öljaitü), covering Öljaitü's reign until his death in 1316. It is there that Kashani makes his allegations against Rashid al-Din. Since Rashid al-Din's account of this ruler in Jami' al-tawarikh is missing, whereas Kashani's work is complete, this gives some credibility to Kashani's claims.

Editions

• Tarikh-e Oljaytu, ed. Mahin Hambly, Tehran 1969

Sources

• Melville, Charles (2008). "Jāmeʿ al-tawāriḵ I. The work". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
• Davud, Seyyed Ali Al-i; Nazerian, Amir Hushang (2008). "Abū al-Qāsim Kāshānī". In Madelung, Wilferd; Daftary, Farhad (eds.). Encyclopaedia Islamica Online. Brill Online. ISSN 1875-9831.
• Jackson, Peter (2017). The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion. Yale University Press. pp. 1–448. ISBN 9780300227284. JSTOR 10.3366/j.ctt1n2tvq0. (registration required)
• Jones, Tobias (2021). "The Objects of Loyalty in the Early Mongol Empire (Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries)". Iran: 1–25. doi:10.1080/05786967.2021.1915701.
• Hope, Michael (2016). Power, Politics, and Tradition in the Mongol Empire and the Īlkhānate of Iran. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198768593.
• Soucek, P. P. (1983). "Abu'l-Qāsem ʿAbdallāh Kāshānī". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume I/4: Abū Manṣūr Heravı̄–Adat. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 362–363. ISBN 978-0-71009-093-5.