igor de rachewiltz born april 11 1929 is an italian historian and philologist specializing in mongol studiesigor de rachewiltz was born in rome the son of bruno guido and antonina perosio the de rachewiltz family was of polish noble roots his grandmother was a tatar from kazan in eastern russia who claimed lineage from the golden horde in 1947 he read michael prawdins book tschingischan und seine erben genghis khan and his heritage and became interested in learning the mongolian language he graduated with a law degree from a university in rome and pursued oriental studies in naples in the early 1950s de rachewiltz went to australia on scholarship he earned his phd in chinese history from australian national university canberra in 1961 his dissertation was on genghis khans secretary 13thcentury chinese scholar yel chucai he married ines adelaide brasch in 1956 they have one daughterstarting in 1965 he became a fellow at the department of far eastern history australian national university 196567 he made a research trip to europe 196667 he published a translation of the secret history of the mongols in eleven volumes of papers on far eastern history 19711985 he became a senior fellow of the division of pacific and asian history at the australian national university 196794 a researchonly fellowship he completed projects by prominent mongolists antoine mostaert and henri serruys after their deaths he was a visiting professor at the university of rome three times 1996 1999 2001 in 2004 he published his translation of the secret history with brill it was selected by choice as outstanding academic title 2005 and is now in its second edition in 2007 he donated his personal library of around 6000 volumes to the scheut memorial library at the katholieke universiteit leuven currently de rachewiltz is an emeritus fellow in the pacific and asian history division of the australian national university his research interests include the political and cultural history of china and mongolia in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries eastwest political and cultural contacts and sinomongolian philology generally