Abu al-Qasim Kashani

Abu al-Qasim Kashani (; died after 1324) was a Persian historian from the Abu Taher 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 regards 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.

List of works

Zobdat al-tawārīḵ ('The Quintessence of History'), 1303, dedicated to the Il-khan, a history of the Islamic world down to the siege of Baghdad; mostly unpublished. Tārīḵ-e Olǰāytū, 1325, an account of the Il-khan's reign. ʿArāʾes al-ǰawāher wa nafāʾes al-aṭāʾeb, a work on mineralogy, gemmology and perfumery, to which is appended a short treatise on ceramics.

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