Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-Tawarikh (The Collection of Histories), Arabic, Tabriz, Iran, 714 A.H. (1314 A.D.). This work, the greatest oriental treasure of Edinburgh University Library, was collected by Colonel John Baillie (1772-1833) and donated in 1876. One of the supreme masterpieces of Persian book painting, it is one of the most important medieval manuscripts from either West or East. Written by the historian and vizier to the Ilkhanid court, Rashid al-Din, and copied in Tabriz by the author's own scribes and illustrators, the manuscript's importance as the first world history was quickly recognized. Encompassing the known world from China in the east to Ireland in the west, it represents an intellectual enterprise of the first order and one unique in the history of the medieval world.