Rab'-e Rashidi

38°04′45″N 46°19′46″E / 38.07917°N 46.32944°E / 38.07917; 46.32944

Rab'-e Rashidi (Persian: رَبع رشیدی) is the site of a historic building complex including a school and a workshop for producing books that was constructed in the early 14th century during the reign of Ghazan, a ruler of the Ilkhanid dynasty, in the northeastern part of the city of Tabriz, Iran. Other buildings later replaced these, and the site is now ruined, but it is the original complex that gives the site its fame. It was founded and richly endowed by Rashid al-Din Hamadani, the chief minister of Ghazan Khan.^[1] Rashid al-Din sought to gather the most famous intellectuals of his time in fields of philosophy, science and medicine. The establishment began to decline after the execution of Rashid al-Din in 1318, though his son Ghiyas al-Din ibn Rashid al-Din led a revival in the 1330s until his own murder in 1336.

The foundation document of the complex survives, dated August 1307, and gives a detailed picture of how the complex was supposed to function. There are later appendices, and the site may well have been functioning before 1307. There was provision for over 100 employees, about a quarter of them labourers and the rest skilled professionals, as well as 220 slaves. There was also provision for salaried students. In addition to all these the complex held a workshop for the production of books, where the early manuscripts of the Jami' al-tawarikh, and in the 1330s probably the Great Mongol Shahnameh, were produced.^[2]

The site had fallen into ruin when Shah Abbas chose it for a fort, including the governor's palace. By the end of the 17th century these buildings, too, were in ruins, as a traveller reported.^[3] Only a small part of the ruined establishment remains standing, with most of its remaining structures perhaps underground. Archaeologists continue to excavate and study the large complex.^[4]

Today, the historical elements of the buildings of the Rab'-e Rashidi can no longer be identified. All that remains are some masonry bases of the fortifications that were built either during the 14th century or by Shah Abbas in the 17th century. The most prominent of the masonry bases still extant has a rectangular projection, possibly the foundation for an astrological observatory that is mentioned in Rashid al-Din's writings. Also found on the site were mosaic fragments that may date from Rashid al-Din's time up until the Safavid period.