Conclusion

This conclusion summarises the book's main findings about the Mongols' conquest of the Islamic world and their eventual conversion to Islam. It first considers the damaging effects of the Mongol invasions on Islamic lands and their people before discussing the weaknesses of the Mongol empire, partly due to the absence of fixed rules for succession. It then examines the Mongol overlordship of many sedentary regions both in the Ilkhanid territories and in Central Asia under client Muslim princes, the fragmentation of the Mongol empire that hastened the development of its constituent parts along divergent lines, and the Islamization of Mongol rulers. It also describes the Mongols' efforts to rehabilitate their conquered territories and the positive results of Mongol rule in the eastern Islamic lands.

The Era of Inter-Mongol Warfare

This chapter examines the conflicts among the Mongol successor-states that developed after 1260, along with the turbulent activities of nomads within such states and the measures of reconstruction that the various Mongol regimes put in place. It begins with a discussion of the Mongol empire's fragmentation into four virtually independent khanates, where the conquered Muslims of the empire were now divided: the dominions of the ‘Great Khan’ (qaghan) in China and Mongolia proper; the Ilkhanate in Iran, Iraq and Anatolia; the ulus of Chaghadai in Central Asia; and the ulus of Jochi in the western steppes. The chapter then considers the relationship between the khans and the qaghans, the problems of warfare between different Mongol khanates, and the Jochids' incursions into Ilkhanid territory. It also explores the impact of the inter-Mongol warfare upon the agrarian and urban economy of the Islamic world.

Hülegü’s Campaigns and Imperial Fragmentation (1253–62)

This chapter chronicles Hülegü's campaigns in south-west Asia between 1253 and 1262. It begins with a discussion of the Mongol invasions of Iran and other parts of south-west Asia before considering why some of Hülegü's opponents acted in the way they did and thereby brought down destruction upon themselves. It then examines the question of armaments used by Hülegü and the terms of his commission during Möngke's reign. It also analyses Hülegü's actions in the wake of the conquest of Iraq, the temporary reduction of Syria and the death of Möngke, the Mongols' conflict with the Jochids, and Hülegü's creation of the Ilkhanate. Finally, it looks at the reconstitution of the ulus of Chaghadai and the dissolution of the Mongol empire.

Mediated Sovereignty

This chapter focuses on the local Muslim potentates who were allowed by the Mongols to keep their thrones in return for sovereignty and loyal service, with particular emphasis on the impact of Mongol overlordship upon subject Muslim rulers. It first considers the Qipchaq khanate and the subject principalities in the Ilkhanid territories before discussing the Mongols' new subject dynasties, including the Qutlughkhanids and the Kurtid rulers of Herat. It then examines two contrasting zones in Iran, the south and the north, as well as the obligations imposed by the Mongol conquerors and the advantages of vassalage. It also analyses Chinggisid intermarriage with the subject dynasties and asks whether, and to what degree, elite Muslim women exerted influence at the level of the provincial Muslim dynasties that ruled under Mongol suzerainty. Finally, it shows that some client Muslim princes revolted against their Mongol overlords.

Medieval Authors on the Mongols

This chapter focuses on the book's primary written sources on the Mongols, including the work of Sunnī Muslim authors, Shīʻī Muslims, and eastern Christians who wrote under Mongol domination. After a brief overview on the Mongolian and other Far Eastern material, the chapter discusses nine categories of sources, most of them in Persian or Arabic. Among them are the works of Muslim observers contemporary with the early Mongol invasions, Muslim historians writing under the pagan Ilkhans, Muslim authors active in Iran following the conversion of the Ilkhans, and Christians from Latin Europe. The chapter considers why these authors told the story in the manner they did, their preoccupations and guiding purposes, and their intended readers.

Pax Mongolica and a Transcontinental Traffic

This chapter examines the conditions created by the Mongol conquests, summed up in the phrase Pax Mongolica, and the role of the Silk Roads in the transcontinental travel andcommunication to which the Mongols had given impetus. It begins with a discussion of commodities traded in Mongol Asia, including spices, silks and other luxury textiles, pearls, precious stones, bullion and furs. It then considers the Mongols' diversion of trade routes within Western Asia and their role in the emergence of new termini, along with the steps taken by Mongol khans to foster trade. It also analyses the obstacles and risks involved in overland trade and travel in the era of the successor-states, the growth in the maritime trade of Asia during the Mongol epoch, and the limits of cultural diffusion brought by transcontinental trade across Mongol Asia.

The Mongol Westward Advance (1219–53)

This chapter examines Mongol expansion in Western Asia during the period 1219–1253. Following the reduction of the nomadic tribes of the eastern steppe, Chinggis Khan turned his attention to the Jurchen-Jin empire in northern China. In the mid-twelfth century the Jin emperor had been hostile to the Mongols. The war against the Jurchen-Jin ended after the last vestiges of the Jin state vanished completely in 1234, seven years after Chinggis Khan's death. The chapter first provides a background on Chinggis Khan's conflict with the Khwārazmshāhs before discussing the Mongol campaigns in the eastern Islamic lands in 616–621/1219–1224. It also considers Mongol operations in Western Asia during the period 1229–1252, the Mongol art of war, and Muslims' support for the Mongol invaders.

Introduction

This book examines the ways that the Islamic world (Dār al-Islām) was affected by the campaigns of conquest by the armies of Temüjin, better known as Chinggis Khan (d. 1227), and his first three successors, under whom the empire of the Mongols (or Tatars) came to embrace all the Muslim territories east of Syria and the Byzantine Greek oecumene. It also analyses the character of Mongol rule over Muslims down to, and just beyond, the conversion to Islam of the various khans, as well as the longer-term legacy of subjection to the infidel. The book addresses a number of questions; for example, how destructive for the Islamic territories were the campaigns of Mongol conquest, and how far the damage was compounded by the subsequent wars between hostile Mongol khanates.

The Onset of Islamization

This chapter examines the conversion to Islam of the Mongol khans of Western Asia, with particular emphasis on the difficulties confronting royal converts who sought to impose their new faith on their infidel followers and to re-establish the Shariʻa. It begins with an overview of the conversion process among the Jochids and the Chaghadayids and within the Ilkhanate, after which it considers the charge that Mongol khans who had converted to Islam had abandoned the ‘yasa of Chinggis Khan’. It also compares the policies of Ghazan Mamūd and Tegüder Ahmad's towards Christians before concluding with an analysis of Rashīd al-Dīn's ‘official’ history of Ghazan's conversion and the religious stance of Ghazan's forebears.

The Onset of Islamization

This chapter examines the Islamization of the Mongols, with particular emphasis on patterns of conversion and conceptual problems, including questions such as the appeal of Islam to the nomadic Mongols of Western Asia and the means by which the new faith was conveyed to them. After explaining the meaning of ‘conversion to’ or ‘the adoption of’ Islam, the chapter considers some of the reasons why Islam became the religion of all the Mongol rulers of Western Asia. It then discusses the Mongol tradition vs the rhetoric of Islamic proselytism and shows that the Muslim diaspora over which the conquerors presided facilitated the spread of Islam among the ranks of ordinary Mongols. It also analyses agents of Mongol conversion to Islam, including the military, and concludes with the argument that the raising of Islam to the status of the dominant faith — and the concomitant demotion of other faiths — was incongruent with the Mongol tradition of pluralism.