Ilkhanid Books, Images, and Workshops: Manuscript and Object Production, 1256 to 1335

From Hülegü’s establishment of Ilkhanid rule in 1256 to the breakup of the dynasty’s power after Abu Saʿid’s death in 1335, rulers and wealthy officials supported books and crafted objects across Iran, Iraq, and connected territories. Tabriz became a major center of courtly and intellectual activity, while ceramic production and other forms of skilled work also depended on established urban centers. Manuscripts, tiles, vessels, and metal objects show how patronage organized labor and materials, and how artists adapted particular visual models rather than following a single, uniform style.

Illustrated histories presented Mongol rule within a wider account of the past. The Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, offered stories of Iran’s legendary and historical rulers. Decorated ceramics furnished buildings and supplied vessels, while metalwork served writing, lighting and other uses. Patrons chose materials and subjects that connected practical functions with visible status.

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Patrons and institutions behind book production

Ilkhanid book production was not confined to a single royal workshop. Tabriz was especially prominent, with activity also associated with places such as Maragha, Shiraz, and Baghdad. One major center was the Rabʿ-e Rashidi precinct near Tabriz, founded by the vizier and author Rashid al-Din. Its buildings included a mosque, hospital, library, and classrooms. Accounts describe a workforce of more than 300 people across the complex, not 300 painters or scribes alone.

Rashid al-Din’s waqf, an endowment assigning income to specified purposes, provided continuing support for scholarly and manuscript work. Its instructions called for Arabic and Persian copies of his Jami’ al-tawarikh, or Compendium of Chronicles, to be distributed to cities and schools. The endowed project extended book production beyond the immediate needs of the patron’s household.

Making an illustrated book required several kinds of work. Text had to be researched and copied by scribes; space and layout had to accommodate images; painters added illustrations and decoration; and the sheets were ultimately assembled and bound. These tasks depended on coordination among people with different skills. Ilkhanid bookmaking treated calligraphy, illustration, decoration, and binding as parts of a finished object, rather than as unrelated additions.

Historical writing and illustrated authority

The Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh, or Compendium of Chronicles, illustrates the scale and purpose of this patronage. Rashid al-Din began a history of the Mongols at the command of Ghazan, who ruled from 1295 to 1304. Ghazan’s successor Öljaitü asked him to extend the work into a history of a much wider range of peoples and events. Compiled in the early fourteenth century, the work drew on written and oral accounts and covered Mongol history alongside histories of other regions, including China, India, and Europe.

The project had a political purpose as well as a scholarly one. It recorded Mongol origins and rule at a time when the ruling elite had become more closely involved with settled Persianate society. Its broad scope also placed Mongol history within a larger account of the past. The text was a collective undertaking under Rashid al-Din’s direction, even though his role as author and editor was central.

Surviving early copies show that text and image were planned together. Pages of the Arabic version include horizontal illustrations set within the written area, often painted with ink outlines and transparent washes of color. Some images use silver for highlights, much of which has darkened through oxidation. Scenes include rulers, battles, and religious narratives. An illustration of the birth of Muhammad, for example, adapts a composition associated with Christian images of the Nativity. Such choices show artists reworking recognizable visual models for a new subject, not simply combining traditions without distinction.

Landscape and figure painting also reveal specific exchanges. Some scenes use dark outlines, light washes, and landscape arrangements associated with Chinese painting, while other compositions show reference to Christian or Byzantine models. The artists did not use one consistent approach in every image. Differences among surviving paintings point to multiple hands and working phases, even where copies followed shared conventions.

The Shahnameh and late Ilkhanid patronage

The Great Mongol Shahnameh was an ambitious illustrated copy of Ferdowsi’s Persian epic. Ferdowsi completed the poem around 1010; the surviving Ilkhanid manuscript was made roughly three centuries later, in the 1330s. Its paintings made scenes of kingship, war and mourning newly visible in a richly worked book.

The manuscript’s original colophon, the completion statement that could identify a scribe, date or patron, has not survived. Scholars have proposed courtly patrons including Abu Sa’id and Rashid al-Din’s son Ghiyas al-Din. The attribution remains debated. Its scale and elaborate paintings nevertheless show the resources invested in late Ilkhanid book production.

The surviving paintings vary in technique and composition. Some use ink lines and colored washes, while others have opaque color. Chinese-derived landscape forms appear alongside compositions that draw on Christian imagery; one scene of mourners, for instance, recalls Christian depictions of lamentation. The original manuscript has been dispersed, and its surviving leaves no longer preserve the complete book’s arrangement. Their variety nevertheless shows that Ilkhanid-era painting was experimental as well as connected to existing traditions.

Ceramics, glazes, and architectural surfaces

Ceramic production relied on specialized knowledge of clay bodies, glazes, pigments, and firing. Kashan had been an important center before the Mongol conquests. Production there declined sharply during the disruptions of the early thirteenth century, and dated examples show renewed activity by the 1260s. Abu’l Qasim al-Kashani, a potter whose family had worked in the trade, described ceramic materials and methods in a treatise written in 1301. His account preserves practical knowledge of past and contemporary production.

Stonepaste, also called fritware, combined silica, white clay and glass frit. The prepared mixture produced a pale body suited to painted decoration. Lajvardina wares used a deep blue glazed ground, with colours and gold applied over it and fixed in another firing. Separate operations for shaping, glazing and decoration required careful control of materials and heat.

Potters applied decoration over the glazed surface, using colors such as white, red, and black, and sometimes cut pieces of gold leaf. The decoration was fixed through further firing. Many pieces favor dense foliage and geometric patterns; some include birds or other figures. Both vessels and tiles were made in this style. Tiles at the Ilkhanid palace of Takht-i Sulayman include phoenix and dragon designs, showing how motifs associated with Chinese visual culture could be adapted for architectural decoration.

Sultanabad ware is the conventional name for several groups of decorated ceramics found around the modern city of Arak. The vessels include underglaze-painted designs of plants, birds and other animals. Their shared label brings together varied forms and surfaces, while the exact locations of production remain debated.

Metalwork for religious and courtly settings

A small brass pen-box dated 1281–1282 from western Iran was inlaid with silver and gold. Its lid carries zodiac and planetary figures, while fighting horsemen decorate the base. The maker placed his signature beneath the clasp. Compartments originally held ink and sand pots, connecting its elaborate decoration with the tools used to write and dry ink.

Fourteenth-century metal objects display a range of forms and decoration, including basins, boxes, incense burners, and candlesticks. Scholars have associated some groups of objects with Tabriz and Shiraz, drawing on their inscriptions and decorative styles; these associations do not necessarily identify every object’s actual workshop. A bronze candlestick dated 1309 and found at a mausoleum in Bastam has silver inlay with vegetal designs and calligraphy. Its non-figural decoration suits its religious setting, while its form served the practical purpose of holding a light.

Patronage beyond the Ilkhanid period

Manuscripts made under the Ilkhans continued to attract attention after the dynasty’s political power ended. Timurid rulers, including Shahrukh in the fifteenth century, owned and renewed copies of the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh; some received additional illustrations or text. These later interventions belong to Timurid patronage, not to the original Ilkhanid production. The distinction matters because a surviving manuscript may preserve several historical layers: its first text and paintings, later additions, and changes made to the physical book long after its creation.

Ilkhanid books and objects were therefore products of particular patrons, institutions, materials, and uses. The Rabʿ-e Rashidi’s planned copying program, the varied hands visible in illustrated histories, the technical choices of potters, and the different functions of metal objects all point to organized but diverse production. Their visual exchanges can be traced in specific choices of landscape, composition, motif, and technique, rather than reduced to a single label for cultural mixture.

For the wider setting, see The Ilkhanate: Mongol Rule, Government and Society in Iran.