Until now [he writes], no work has been produced in any epoch which contains a general account of the history of the inhabitants of the regions of the world and different human species. In this land [Iran] no book is available concerning the histories of other countries and cities and among the sovereigns of old none investigated or examined this [possibility]. Today, thanks to God and in consequence of him, the extremities of the inhabited earth are under the dominion of the house of Chinggis Qan and philosophers, astronomers, scholars and historians from North and South China, India, Kashmir, Tibet, [the lands] of the Uighurs, other Turkic tribes, the Arabs and Franks, [all] belonging to [different] religions and sects, are united in large numbers in the service of majestic heaven. And each one has manuscripts on the chronology, history and articles of faith of his own people and [each] has knowledge of some aspect of this. Wisdom, [which] decorates the world, demands that there should be prepared from the details of these chronicles and narratives an abridgement, but essentially complete [work] which will bear our august name … This book [he concludes], in its totality, will be unprecedented an assemblage of all the branches of history.