The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire
Michal Biran and Kim Hodong, editors
Chapter Outlines
Introduction Biran and Kim (5,000 words).
At the outset of this work, the editors will provide a historical overview of the
Mongol era and discuss the extant sources. They will explain the project’s holistic perspective, its objectives, and structure. The introduction closes with a survey of recent trends in the field.
Part 1: A Political History of the Mongol Empire
This section will be devoted to the political-military history of the various Mongol polities, which will be outlined in chronological order. Moreover, each entry analyzes the main economic and cultural trends of the polity at hand as well as the reasons behind its dissolution or fall.
1. The Rise of Chinggis Khan and the United Empire, 1206-1260
Ruth Dunnell (30,000 words).
While giving some background on the pre-Chinggisid world, the opening entry canvasses the establishment of the Mongol empire on the part of Chinggis Khan. Thereafter, the author track its continued expansion and consolidation under his heirs, especially Ögödei (r. 1229-41) and Möngke (r. 1251-59).
2. The Empire of the Great Khan – the Yuan Ulus, 1260-1368
Christopher Atwood (25,000 words).
Beginning with the golden age of Qubilai Khan (1260-1294), chapter 2 encapsulates the history of the Khanate of the Great Khan. The contributors then discuss the succession struggles of the mid-Yuan period and the decline under Toghon Temur (1333-68). They will also touch upon Yuan economic and cultural achievements as well as the dynasty’s place in Chinese history. 3. The Ilkhanate, 1260-1335
4. David Morgan (25,000 words).
In this chapter, the reign of Hülegü and his successors will be examined, reviewing the rulers’ domestic and foreign policies, including their relations with China, India, the Mamluk Empire, and Western Europe. In addition, the Ilkhanate’s cultural, artistic, and scientific achievements before and after the polity’s Islamization will be examined. Lastly, the entry alludes to the postIlkhanid upheavals that preceded the rise of Tamerlane (1370). 5. The Golden Horde (1260-1502)
Roman. IU. Pochekaev (25,000 words).
This entry is dedicated to the history of Ulus Jochi, from its consolidation under Batu and Berke, through the golden age of Uzbek (r. 1313-41) and up to its "times of trouble" in the second half of the fourteenth century culminating with Tamerlane's invasion (1395) and the century of gradual dissolution that followed it. It also discusses the Ulus' relations with the other khanates, and its Christian and Muslim neighbors and subjects in Asia and Europe. In so doing, the authors stress the differences between the Golden Horde’s indirect administration and the more direct approach of the other Mongol polities.
6. The Chaghadaids and Ögödeids, 1260-1678 Biran (25,000 words). The fifth chapter outlines the history of the Mongol state in Central Asia, usually known as the Chaghadaid Khanate – far and away the least documented of the four states. Squeezed in between the other Chinggisid polities and home to a pair of competing uluses, the Mongol ‘Middle Kingdom’ was exceedingly less stable than the other khanates, and suffered from a constant "brain drain". That said, it endured longer than its counterparts and paved the way for the emergence of Tamerlane, who strove to restore the empire’s glorious past. While most of this entry concentrates on the preTimurid era, drawing, among others, on new numismatic evidence, it also reviews the later history of the Moghuls, the Eastern Chaghadaids who ruled in Eastern Central Asia up to the late seventeenth century (1353-1678).
7. Entangled Histories: The Mongol Empire until 1368 Biran and Kim
(5,000 words).
This entry compares the histories of the four khanates, tracking their transformation from uluses to khanates during the reign of Qubilai Khan, and analyzing the polities’ shared crisis in the mid-fourteenth century, which led to the fall of the Yuan and the Ilkhanate and the weakening of the steppe khanates.
Part 2: Thematic History
This section addresses a number of issues that cut across the annals and frontiers of the United Empire and the four khanates. By dint of this comparison, we will highlight the attributes that informed all the Chinggisid polities.
1. Imperial Institutions Kim (15,000 words).
The opening entry of part 2 covers various political, military, and social institutions that were rooted in the Mongols’ steppe tradition, which predated their founding of the world empire. These institutions, which were continuously developed and modified by regional Chinggisid polities, were also adopted and subsequently replaced by non-Mongol states after the empire’s demise. Among the most prominent examples are the keshig (royal guards), quriltay (assembly of political leaders), jam (relay post), jasaq (legal code), decimal military system, and seasonal migrations. Similarly, the author will explain the functions and significance of the numerous official titles that stemmed from the Mongol-Turkic heritage, such as the darughachi, jarghuchi, ilchi, and bichigchi. The extent to which these imperial frameworks were accepted by subjected peoples and their operational reach bear witness to the homogeneity of the Chinggisids’ different states.
2. Ideology Thomas T. Allsen (5,000 words).
This chapter reviews the various ways in which the Mongols legitimized their rule, from the steppe ideology of Tengri and the heavenly mandate to the khanates’ synthesis of religious (Muslim and Buddhist) and local (mainly Chinese and Persian) prestige concepts, as well as the various means of disseminating these.legitimation concepts
3. Military Machine Timothy May (8,000 words).
Chapter 3 centers around the organization of the ‘United’ army and its various counterparts in the four khanates. Furthermore, the contributors discuss the role of the guard (keshig) as well as the training, planning, tactics, weaponry and logistics of various Mongol campaigns.
4. Economic Exchange Akinobu Kuroda (12,000words).
In this entry, the author surveys the various mechanisms of economic exchange under Mongol rule, like trade (i.e., continental and maritime commerce, barter, and the role of the ortaqs), tribute, booty, and taxation. An emphasis will be placed on the economic institutions, monetary policies, and commercial networks that heralded the global economy.
5. Religious Exchange Johan Elverskog (8,000 words). Among the topics covered in this entry are Mongol policies towards different religions; the motivations behind and implications of Chinggisids’ conversion to Islam and Buddhism; and inter and intrareligious dialogues under Mongol rule.
6. Scientific Exchange Morris Rossabi and Robert G. Morrison
3000 5000 (8,000 words).
Referring to both natural sciences and ‘the humanities,’ this chapter assays Mongol policies towards different types of scholars, and elaborates on exchanges in fields like medicine, astronomy, mathematics, geography, historiography, and philosophy. The authors also discuss technological transfers during the period in question.
7. Artistic Exchange Roxann Prazniak (8,000 words)
Art and material culture were among the most diffuse elements during the Mongol period. In this entry, the contributors will review major developments in painting, textile, ceramics, metalwork, calligraphy, and architecture, while pointing out mutual influences between different regions or cultures.
8. The Chinggisids’ Impact on the Environment Paul D.Buell
(6,000 words).
How did the open world of the Mongols influence the environment? In answering this question, the authors will underscore the spread of the Black Plague and the role of climatic changes and natural disasters on the empire’s history, especially during the mid-fourteenth century crisis. The spread of pastoralism and pasture land under the Mongols will also be discussed.
9. The Chinggisids' Impact on Ethnicity Biran (5000 words) Mongol policies, especially the devastation that accompanied initial conquests, the huge mobilization of people, the formation of new administrative divisions, the Mongol policy of ruling through strangers as well as the imperial disintegration, which forced many new collectivities to refashion their identities, were crucial for Eurasian ethnic changes in both steppe and sawn. The chapter explores the impact of Mongol rule on the ethnicity and identities in China, Iran, Russia, Mongolia and the Steppe world, where these processes led to the dispersion of long-established steppe peoples (such as the Tanguts, the Qipchaqs and the Kitans) and to the emergence of new collectivities, which formed the basis for many of the modern Central Asian peoples (e.g., the Uzbeks and Kazakhs).
10. Women and Gender under Mongol Rule Anne Broadbridge (5000)
and Bettine Birge (3000) [we still await her final confirmation]
(8,000 words).
This chapter explores gender roles in Mongol society. More specifically, the contributors will discuss women’s influence on the political sphere and society at large as well as the institution of regency and marriage patterns in the Mongol empire..
Part 3: Views from the Edges: Regional Histories
This section deals with outlying regions of the Mongol empire, most of which were ruled indirectly via local elites. Apart from enhancing our knowledge of these particular areas, part 3 will offer a sampling of how different peoples ‘experienced’ the Chinggisids. In consequence, readers will get a sense for the uniformity (or lack thereof) of the Mongols’ policies across their entire realm. Adding another perspective to the narratives of part 1 and the themes of part 2, the discussion will reflect on the history of the ‘centers’ through the prism of their peripheries. 1 Mongolia in the Mongol Empire: From Center to Periphery
Morris Rossabi (10,000 words).
Focusing on Mongolia under the Yuan dynasty (1260-1368), this chapter refers to the Chinggisid heartland’s political, economic, and cultural history after it ceased to house the empire’s capital. Besides the ‘standard’ Chinese and Persian sources, the authors will tap into archaeological findings, inscriptions, and documents from this land.
2. Korea under the Mongols David Robinson (8,000 words).
This entry delves into Mongol-Korean relations from their initial contact in
1218 until the Chinggisids’ sway over the peninsula ran its course at around 1388, with the death of Tögüs Temür. The political status of Korea was quite odd, especially after one of Qubilai’s daughters was married off to a Korean prince in 1274; although the local rulers were henceforth ‘imperial son-inlaws,’ they were merely regarded as ‘kings’ of a vassal state up to the fall of the Koryo dynasty.
3. Georgia and the Caucasus Lorenzo Pubblici (8,000 words).
While the Mongols had ravaged the Caucuses by the end of Chinggis Khan’s reign, it was only in the 1230s that they managed to subdue this restive territory. From that point on, Georgian and Armenian troops participated in many of the United Empire’s campaigns, including Hülegü’s conquest of Baghdad. Subjected to the Golden Horde and then the Ilkhanate, the region’s men continued to take part in Ilkhanid battles. After having their land split up by the Mongols and after enduring a period of disintegration in the late thirteenth century, the Georgians exploited the fall of the Ilkhanate (1335) to become a major force in the Caucasus.
4. Siberia under the Mongols Thomas T. Allsen (8,000 words). An integral part of Mongolian society, the ‘people of the forests’ in the Taiga region north of Mongolia were placed under indirect rule by Chinggis in the early 1200s. Above all, they supplied the empire with furs and gerfalcons. Following the United Empire’s dissolution, eastern Siberia was granted to the Yuan (contested by Qaidu from the 1270s onwards), while western Siberia fell under the purview of the White Horde (a branch of the Golden Horde that descended from Orda, Jochi’s eldest son). The Khanate of Siberia, which was founded in the late fourteenth century, evolved from this branch.
5. Tibet, Leonard Van der Kuijp (8,000 words).
Two important precedents were set by the Mongol regime in Tibet: the land was submitted to China (under the Yuan); and the beginning of theocratic rule therein. Relations between the Chinggisids and Tibet began in 1236 and were, by and large, cemented under Qubilai Khan, thanks to Phags Pa Lama’s influence on the Mongol ruler. Under the Chinggisids, Tibet was always ruled by a monk. While Tibet’s main importance to the Mongols was religious, the empire created the institutions that unified the country and expanded its artistic and cultural base.
6. The Rus Principalities Lawrence Langer (8,000 words). On the eve of the Mongol conquest, ‘Russia’ was but a medley of city states, known as the Rus principalities. However, the Chinggisid regime gave rise to the emergence of Muscovy and paved the way for the creation of the Russian empire. Subject to the Golden Horde’s indirect administration and deemed inferior to the Turkic-Muslim population, the Russians had to cope with infidel and later Muslim rule – a period that they subsequently dubbed the “Tatar Yoke.” Nevertheless, the Russian princes absorbed a great deal from the Chinggisids’ administrative methods. Mongol dominion over the principalities reached its zenith between the thirteenth and mid-fourteenth centuries, but began to erode in the late 1300s. Despite the Russians’ victory in the Battle of Kulikovo (1380), it took over a hundred more years to extricate themselves from the grip of the Chinggisids.
Part 4: External Histories: the Mongols’ Relations with Unsubjugated Regions Over the course of this section, the contributors outline the principal types of relations that the Mongols maintained with those regions that they did not conquer. Despite being located outside the empire’s borders, the areas under review were integral parts of the globalized thirteenth and fourteenth-century world. More specifically, part 4 elucidates the Chinggisids’ political, economic, and cultural contacts, including their short and long-term ramifications.
1. Western Europe and the Mediterranean (the Italian City-States, France, England and Byzantium) Nicola DiCosmo (8,000 words).
While the Mongol cavalry never reached Western Europe, the threat of such an attack was quite imminent during the United Empire period. Relations between the Chinggisids and the West improved during the khanates era, even if the attempts to form an anti-Mamluk alliance never came to fruition. European merchants, especially Italians, greatly benefitted from the new commercial opportunities, as they established colonies in the Ilkhanate and the Golden Horde and some even travelled to China and Central Asia.
Missionaries also plied the empire’s routes, founding bishoprics in Iran, Central Asia, and China. Alternatively, Mongol attire became fashionable in European courts, and Tatar khans were portrayed in Western literary works.
That said, the Chinggisids’ most noteworthy contribution to the Occident was the broadening of its geographical and cultural horizons, for the expanding European world and the image of Oriental splendor were important catalysts behind Columbus’ voyages and the Age of Exploration.
2. The Arab Middle East: (Egypt, Syria, North Africa, the Hijaz and Yemen)
Reuven Amitai (8,0000 words).
The Mongol invasion and the Caliphate’s destruction ushered in a new era in the history of the Arab Middle East. These turn of events forged a distinction between the Persian-speaking Muslim world (from Iraq eastwards) and the Arab-speaking west, even though both areas were mostly ruled by Turks. The Mamluks predicated their legitimacy on their military victories against the Mongols and the Crusades. Moreover, they transformed Cairo into the center of the Arab-speaking world. After Mongol Islamization, the Ilkhans and the Mamluks both strove to strengthen their ties to Hijaz, the homeland of Islam. In any event, the Mamluks and other Arabs, particularly Yemenites, took advantage of commercial opportunities that were possible thanks to Pax Mongolica, while broadening their geographical and intellectual horizons in the process.
3. India (The Delhi Sultanate and South Indian Kingdoms) Sen Tansen
(8,000 words).
Although the Mongols constantly threatened the subcontinent and Chaghadaid raids even reached Delhi in 1328, India simultaneously absorbed several large waves of refugees from the Mongol empire (and later actively recruited such migrants). These new residents enhanced the Delhi Sultanate’s religious and cultural prestige and facilitated its southward expansion. At one and the same time, India (the various southern kingdoms included) was a major player in the Mongols’ commercial networks, buying horses from the Ilkhanate and the Golden Horde and shipping Chinese and Indian goods to West Asia and Africa. The Indian states also maintained close diplomatic ties with the khanates, especially Yuan China. In the early sixteenth century Babur, a descendant of both Tamerlane and Chinggis Khan, found asylum from the Chinggisid Uzbeks in India. Soon after, he established the long-lived Moghul dynasty (1526-1858), thereby bringing India firmly into the Chinggisids’ orbit.
4. Maritime Asia: (South East Asia and Japan) Yokkaichi Yasuhiro
(8,000 words).
Refugees fleeing Mongol incursions into China became the nucleus of trade diasporas in South East Asia. Likewise, Muslim merchants played a key role in the Islamization of Sumatra and other regions. Qubilai Khan made Java, Burma, and Vietnam his tributaries and integrated them into the thirteenth century global network. Although Japan managed to repel two Mongol invasions (in 1274 and 1281), this threat was a persistent burden on the Japanese economy and contributed to the fall of the Kamakura regime in 1336. Nevertheless, Japanese merchants, Buddhist monks and pilgrims all frequented the Yuan’s shores and took part in the Mongol-induced crosscultural dialogue.
Conclusion: The Mongols’ Place in World and Global History Biran and Kim
(6,000 words).
In the conclusion, we explore the legacy that the Mongol empire has left behind: What was its impact on different parts of the world? How and to what extent was the Chinggisids’ imperial enterprise a forerunner of European expansion? And how does it compare with other empires, before and after, on both steppe and sown.
Bibliography
Index
The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire
Michal Biran and Kim Hodong, editors
Accompanying Volume: Sources on the Mongol Empire
(ca. 150, 000 words)
Arranged according to the principal source languages for researching the Mongol empire, each entry reviews major literary genres and compilations and also points to the specific fields that they shed light on. Scholarly translations and research aids are also highlighted. The last two chapters of this complementary volume tend to archaeological and visual sources.
Introduction Biran and Kim (3000 words)
The authors explain the book's objectives and structure, discuss the main genres for the study of the Mongols (across languages) and assess the relative importance of the reviewed sources for the study of the empire.
1. Literary Sources according to languages
Language Words
a. Persian (Charles Melville) 15,000
b. Chinese (Liu Xiao) 15,000
c. Mongolian (György Kara) 10,000
d. Arabic (Biran and Amitai) 10,000
e. Russian (Donald Ostrowski) 10,000
f. Western European sources (Peter Jackson) 15,000
g. Armenian (Dashdondog Bayarsaikhan ) 5,000
h. Georgian (Roin Metreveli) 5,000
i. Turkic and Chaghatay (Devin DeWeese) 5,000
j. Tibetan (Karenina Kollmar- Paulenz) 5,000
k. Korean (Lee Kang Hahn) 5,000
l. Syriac (Pier Borbone) 5,000
m. Uyghur (Dai Matsui) 4,000
n. Greek (Istvan Vásáry) 4,000
o. Tangut sources (Ruth Dunnell) 2,500
p. Hebrew (Na'ama Arom)
2,500
2. Archaeological Sources Shiraishi Noriyuki (8,0000) and Mark
Kramarovsky (7,000).
(15,000 words)
3. Visual Sources Sheila Blair (10,000) and Shane McCausland (5,000), (15,000 words).
Index
No comments:
Post a Comment