The Medical Knowledge Network Along the Silk Road During the Ilkhanate Era: Examining the Central Role of Iran (Rabʿ-E Rashidi) and the Anatolian Corridor Publisher



Seifabadi MM ; Karimi M ; Taherikharameh Z ; Khoshsourat J
Source: Journal of Research on History of Medicine Published:2025

Abstract

Documentary evidence demonstrates the medical knowledge network along the Silk Road during the Ilkhanate era (13th-14th centuries CE), highlighting Iran’s central role through Rabʿ-e Rashidi in Tabriz as the critical nexus connecting with the Anatolian Corridor. Through analysis of primary sources including the Mukatabat-i Rashidi correspondence, this research highlights how Rashid al-Din Fazl Allah, himself from a medical lineage, implemented strategies such as recruiting fifty physicians from diverse regions and establishing structured apprenticeship systems at Dar al-Shafa in Muʿalijan. These actions, contrary to prevailing assumptions, fostered unprecedented medical knowledge integration. Documentary evidence confirms how the western branch, enriched by Seljuk hospitals like Ghiyathiyya, functioned as a specialized medical corridor where architectural similarities between Tabriz and Anatolian medical complexes reveal a shared template for education and practice. It demonstrates how deliberate governance by Iranian ministers of the Ilkhanate transformed these routes into integrated systems for transferring pharmacological materials and medical knowledge, fundamentally reshaping cross-cultural scientific exchange during this period, evidence that challenges the conventional narrative of Mongol-era scientific decline. © 2025, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.