Muhammad ibn Ali Rawandi ( fa, محمد بن علی راوندی; died after 1207), was a Persian historian who wrote the '' Rahat al-sudur wa ayat al-surur'' during the fall of the

Great Seljuk Empire The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turko-Persian, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total area of from Anatolia and the Levant in the west to t ...

and the subsequent invasion by the Kharwarzmian empire. The only source that gives details about Rawandi's life is his own book. He was from a scholarly family from Rawand near

Kashan Kashan ( fa, ; Qashan; Cassan; also romanized as Kāshān) is a city in the northern part of Isfahan province, Iran. At the 2017 census, its population was 396,987 in 90,828 families. Some etymologists argue that the city name comes from ...

, and studied

Hanafi The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named a ...

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh. The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and e ...

Hamadan Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') (Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ham ...

from 1174 to 1184. As a calligrapher, Rawandi was brought to court to craft a ''

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...

'' for Toghrul III and gained the sultan's favor. After Toghrul's incarceration, Rawandi gained the patronage of Shihab al-Din al-Kashani, who urged him to write the ''Rahat al-sudur''. Rawandi had intended to dedicate his book to Süleymanshah II, but dedicated it to

Kaykhusraw I Kaykhusraw I ( 1ca, كَیخُسرو or Ghiyāth ad-Dīn Kaykhusraw ibn Kilij Arslān; fa, غياث الدين كيخسرو بن قلج ارسلان), the eleventh and youngest son of Kilij Arslan II, was Seljuk Sultan of Rûm. He succeeded his ...

, following the latter's accession as

Sultan of Rum fa, سلجوقیان روم () , status = , government_type = Hereditary monarchyTriarchy (1249–1254)Diarchy (1257–1262) , year_start = 1077 , year_end = 1308 , p1 = By ...

. Later the ''Rahat al-sudur'' was translated into Turkish during the reign of

Murad II Murad II ( ota, مراد ثانى, Murād-ı sānī, tr, II. Murad, 16 June 1404 – 3 February 1451) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1421 to 1444 and again from 1446 to 1451. Murad II's reign was a period of important economic deve ...

. Rawandi died after 1207.

Modern era

In 1921, the ''Rahat al-sudur'' was published by

Muhammad Iqbal Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philos ...

(died 1938). It was recognized by Iqbal, Edward G. Browne and Mirza Muhammad Qazwini as a source in other texts, namely ''

Jami' al-tawarikh The ''Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh'' ( Persian/Arabic: , ) is a work of literature and history, produced in the Mongol Ilkhanate. Written by Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247–1318 AD) at the start of the 14th century, the breadth of coverage of the work ...

'' of

Rashid al-Din Hamadani Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb ( fa, رشیدالدین طبیب;‎ 1247–1318; also known as Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlullāh Hamadānī, fa, links=no, رشیدالدین فضل‌الله همدانی) was a statesman, historian and physician in Ilk ...

(died 1318), '' Rawdat al-safa'' of

Mirkhvand Muhammad ibn Khvandshah ibn Mahmud, more commonly known as Mirkhvand ( fa, میرخواند, also transliterated as Mirkhwand; 1433/34 – 1498), was a Persian historian active during the reign of the Timurid ruler Sultan Husayn Bayqara (). He i ...

(died 1498) and ''

Tarikh-i guzida The ''Tarikh-i guzida'' (also spelled ''Tarikh-e Gozideh'' ( fa, تاریخ گزیده, "Excerpt history"), is a compendium of Islamic history from the creation of the world until 1329, written by Hamdallah Mustawfi and finished in 1330.''E.J. Bri ...

'' of

Hamdallah Mustawfi Hamdallah Mustawfi Qazvini ( fa, حمدالله مستوفى قزوینی, Ḥamdallāh Mustawfī Qazvīnī; 1281 – after 1339/40) was a Persian official, historian, geographer and poet. He lived during the last era of the Mongol Ilkhanate, a ...

(died after 1339/40).

References

Sources

* * * * * {{authority control 12th-century calligraphers 12th-century Iranian historians Scholars from the Seljuk Empire Historians from the Sultanate of Rum Calligraphers of the medieval Islamic world