Edgard Blochet (1870-1937), the French orientalist, left his mark in several areas of Middle Eastern and Asian studies. In 1910 his introduction to Rashīd al-Dīn's Jāmi' al-tawārīkh was published as volume XII in the E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Series. The Jāmi' al-tawārīkh has been described as the first 'world history'; written at the start of the fourteenth century, in the Mongol Ilkhanate in Persia, it describes cultures and major events in world history from China to Europe and in addition, it covers Mongol history.

Introduction A l'histoire des...