Mongol Eurasia Research Articles

Introduction: By Land and by Sea: Understanding Cultural and Other Networks of Exchange in Mongol Eurasia and Beyond

Introduction: By Land and by Sea: Understanding Cultural and Other Networks of Exchange in Mongol Eurasia and Beyond

The Case for Science Diplomacy in Mongol Eurasia

This paper considers the concept of science diplomacy in the context of Eurasian history with a particular focus on the period of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. The Mongol Empire held sway over much of Eurasia and thus participated in diplomatic activity within and outside of Mongol domains. Scientists and intellectuals routinely headed diplomatic embassies sent and received by the Mongol Empire. Diplomats were valued for their knowledge and skills and served as interlocutors and translators for the Mongol Khans. These scientist-diplomats were key figures in the court and were essential in facilitating exchanges, building connections and fostering relations. As polyglots and polymaths they were able to operate in a multi-cultural environment. They were part of the complex framework of the Mongol Empire that brought to bear a kind of Eurasian development model that relied on expertise, knowledge and resources that could be utilised across the empire. Set within this context, the paper describes the creation of a politico-science complex in Mongol Eurasia with a special emphasis on the relationship between the Mongol Khans and their partners, chief among them were scientists and intellectuals. The Mongol Empire as an empire built upon exchanges summarises how scientific exchanges were both a product of and a driver for diplomatic relations in this period. Thus, the historical connection between diplomacy and science in Eurasia is a necessary component in understanding the modern notion of science diplomacy beyond a European context and applied more globally both in terms of time and space.

Review of “Michal Biran, Jonathan Brack and Francesca Fiaschetti (eds.) 2020. Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia. Generals, Merchants, and Intellectuals”

"Review of “Michal Biran, Jonathan Brack and Francesca Fiaschetti (eds.) 2020. Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia. Generals, Merchants, and Intellectuals”" published on 04 Apr 2022 by Akadémiai Kiadó.

Remembering Thomas T. Allsen (1940–2019): Medieval Eurasia Reimagined

Remembering Thomas T. Allsen (1940–2019)Medieval Eurasia Reimagined Ruth Dunnell and Michal Biran The passing of Tom Allsen in February of 2019 provides an opportunity for medieval Eurasianists and Mongolists across the globe to review and celebrate their debt to this practitioner of comparative Eurasian history. Allsen's scholarly work constituted a profound paradigm shift that liberated the study of the Mongol Empire from its confines in philology and the sedentary-nomad binary opposition, and set it on an innovative new path. His rare ability to use sources in the major languages of the empire—Chinese, Persian, Russian—allowed him to look at the empire in its full Eurasian context and highlight the Mongols' indigenous norms and their composite imperial culture. Adopting the larger Eurasian perspective led him to pursue a series of comparative cultural studies that opened up new vistas on the political, socio-economic, and military history of the empire. His monographic studies and numerous articles and book chapters remain essential references and valued teaching tools (see the extensive bibliography that accompanies this remembrance). If the Mongols today are known not only as destroyers of cultures but also as the champions of cross-cultural contacts across Eurasia, this is first and foremost due to Allsen's scholarly enterprise. Tom Allsen's extensive body of research rests on the sturdy edifice of five path-breaking books: Mongol Imperialism, The Policies of the Grand Qan Möngke in China, Russia and the Islamic Lands, 1251–1259 (1987); Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire, A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles (1997); Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia (2001); The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History (2006); and The Steppe and the Sea, Pearls in the Mongol Empire (2019). Five trim volumes—The Royal Hunt, at ca. 400 pages including the index, was more than twice as long as the other four—worth their weight in gold brocade or pearls to scholars of the era. A posthumous monograph on alcohol in the Mongol Empire may be forthcoming.1 The topics trace a [End Page v] trajectory that reweaves the inextricably linked concerns of politics, economics, and material culture: theory and practice; sedentary and nomadic realms; humans and animals; the global and the local; the Eurasian steppes and the southern seas. It is now hard to imagine Mongol studies before Tom, prompting one senior scholar to remark, "I was fortunate to work on the Mongol world in what I now call the Age of Allsen."2 Many features of Tom Allsen's scholarship incite admiration; we are not alone in finding his spare style and modest presentation of bold hypotheses quite bracing. Free of jargon and fond of arresting examples, Allsen's arguments unfold in clear and purposeful fashion, even when the evidence to support some of his contentions is hypothesized rather than at hand: pose a question, investigate all varieties of data, and draw what now seem as entirely logical, but were then often novel, conclusions. Even the most complex topics emerged as clear, germane, and accessible to a general reader. Browsing through the bibliography of Allsen's later books, besides a rewarding education on its own, shows how widely and deeply this scholar read in the social sciences and how imaginatively he culled the literary record for evidence. A perfect model for students writing research papers at all levels. Stepping back to imagine the larger geospatial and temporal context of his subject, Allsen transcended conceptual and evidentiary barriers to pose new questions and draw connections in unlikely places. The value of such imaginings far exceeded the limitations of the data. While earlier scholars such as Paul Pelliot and John Andrew Boyle performed essential services in unpacking thorny linguistic issues and translating key sources, Allsen took the next necessary step of looking at the Mongol Empire and Eurasia from the perspective of the qan's court and its concerns, not through the eyes of outsiders, antiquarians, or conquered populations. He treated the Mongols like intelligent human beings, pursuing goals as rational to them as any group of like-minded people. This transformative approach began with Mongol Imperialism (based on his Ph.D. dissertation), which reoriented attention from philology to history, [End...

Michal Biran, Jonathan Brack, and Francesca Fiaschetti (eds.), Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia. Generals, Merchants, and Intellectuals, Oakland: University of California Press 2020, xiii + 338 pp., ISBN 9780520298743.

Article Michal Biran, Jonathan Brack, and Francesca Fiaschetti (eds.), Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia. Generals, Merchants, and Intellectuals, Oakland: University of California Press 2020, xiii + 338 pp., ISBN 9780520298743. was published on October 1, 2021 in the journal Der Islam (volume 98, issue 2).

Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia: Generals, Merchants, and Intellectuals Edited by Michal Biran, Jonathan Brack and Francesca Fiaschetti

Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia: Generals, Merchants, and Intellectuals Edited by Michal Biran, Jonathan Brack and Francesca Fiaschetti

Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia: Generals, Merchants, and Intellectuals. Edited by Michal Biran, Jonathan Brack, and Francesca Fiaschetti. Oakland: University of California Press, 2020. xv. 335 pp. ISBN: 9780520298750 (paper).

Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia: Generals, Merchants, and Intellectuals. Edited by Michal Biran, Jonathan Brack, and Francesca Fiaschetti. Oakland: University of California Press, 2020. xv. 335 pp. ISBN: 9780520298750 (paper). - Volume 80 Issue 3

Michal Biran (ed.). In the Service of the Khan: Elites in Transition in Mongol Eurasia

Le present volume reunit les contributions de chercheurs ayant participe au projet ERC « Mobility, Empire and Cross Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia » de l’Universite Hebraique de Jerusalem, vaste entreprise de recension prosopographique a l’echelle de tout l’empire mongol et a travers l’ensemble des sources actuellement disponible. C’est donc une petite partie seulement de l’aboutissement de ce projet qui est ici devoile, et l’on espere vivement que suivront sous peu bien d’autres resulta...

Like Stars in the Sky: Networks of Astronomers in Mongol Eurasia

AbstractThe Mongols established an empire that ruled over two thirds of Eurasia. This was achieved, so they believed, by the will of heaven. Therefore, they had a great interest in reading the sky for guiding their earthly activities. Under the patronage of Mongol rulers, astronomers in both Yuan China and the Ilkhanate of Iran developed an extensive scholarly network and the astral sciences in both khanates witnessed their heyday. This paper reconstructs and compares the dynamic networks of astronomers in Ilkhanid Iran and Yuan China. Based on the astronomers’ biographies, it analyzes the wider culture of expertise and social settings that shaped the profession of heavenly observation and predictive analysis. The comparative perspective will highlight the continuities and changes of astronomy in China and Iran under Mongol rule. I will also discuss the achievements and limitations of the cross-cultural reading of heaven in Mongol Eurasia.

The Maritime and Continental Networks of Kīsh Merchants under Mongol Rule: The Role of the Indian Ocean, Fārs and Iraq

AbstractBased on a variety of literary and archaeological sources, notably the tariff lists produced in Rasulid Yemen, this study reconstructs the trade routes of the Kīsh merchants, demonstrating that the Persian Gulf route—between South and West India (Coromandel, Malabar, and Gujarat) and Iraq via the Persian Gulf—and the Red Sea route—between South and West India and Egypt via the Red Sea—were closely connected in the Mongol period. This not only manifests aspects of the proto-globalization in Mongol Eurasia but also argues against the supposed economic decline of post-1258 Baghdad and the economic centrality of Cairo in the post-Abbasid Muslim world.

Introduction: Mobility Transformations and Cultural Exchange in Mongol Eurasia

AbstractThe Mongol Empire is as an early example of the transformative role of mobility, celebrated in the contemporary social sciences. The only way in which the Mongols who by the time of Chinggis Khan numbered less than a million nomads, were able to create and rule their huge empire was by fully mobilizing the resources—both human and material—from the regions under their control. This high measure of mobility fostered robust cross-cultural exchanges in various fields, resulting in a huge expansion of knowledge and connectivity, cultural relativism, and a common imperial culture—political, material, institutional—with regional variants. These developments set the stage for major transformations in world history. The introduction presents the articles included in this special issue, which tackle various case-studies of mobility and transformation while looking at the Mongol Empire in Eurasian perspective, and highlighting the impact of the Mongols’ indigenous culture on the proto-global world of the 13th and 14th centuries.

Muslim-style Mausolea across Mongol Eurasia: Religious Syncretism, Architectural Mobility and Cultural Transformation

AbstractThe first Mongol khans were buried in hidden graves, but later Mongols adopted the Muslim practice of building aboveground domed tombs. This essay examines three domed mausolea typical of the Muslim lands erected in the early to mid-14th century in different Mongol khanates—that built for the Ilkhan Öljeitü at Sultaniyya, a second for the Chaghadaid Buyan Quli Khan outside Bukhara, and a third anonymous tomb at Guyuan, Hebei, in the Yuan territories of north China—to show how different Mongol patrons interpreted the same form and funerary traditions associated with it.

China, the Abode of Arts and Crafts: Emergence and Diffusion of a Persian Saying on China in Mongol Eurasia

AbstractBetween 1250 and 1450 a saying about China spread across Eurasia, from Castile to the Indian subcontinent. It is the proverb known as the “eyes of the world”, according to which when it comes to arts and crafts, the Chinese see with two eyes, the Europeans with one, and other nations are blind. This metaphor was widely used by pre-modern Eurasian intellectuals to synthesize the high degree of sophistication and splendour reached by Chinese culture. It has been suggested that the adage originated either in the Byzantine world or in Mongol China, whence it spread to central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Europe. A study of Persian sources, however, seems to invalidate this hypothesis, suggesting a Persian origin. Such Eurasian diffusion of a Persian saying about China illustrates how easily literary images, tropes, and lore could spread across the Mongol empire and how Asian geographic and ethnographic discourses could contribute to the new representation of the world which emerged in the Mongol period. It also advocates for the inclusivity of Persian literary imagery, at times so influent as to trespass the borders both of the Persianate and of the Islamicate world.

Artistic Contact between Italy and Mongol Eurasia: State of the Field

Artistic Contact between Italy and Mongol Eurasia: State of the Field

Introduction

Abstract The Mongol empire (1206–1368) caused massive transformations in the composition and functioning of elites across Eurasia. While the Mongols themselves obviously became the new Eurasian elite, their small number as compared to the huge territory over which they ruled and their initial inexperience in administrating sedentary realms meant that many of their subjects also became part of the new multi-ethnic imperial elite. Mongol preferences, and the high level of mobility—both spatial and social—that accompanied Mongol conquests and rule, dramatically changed the characteristics of elites in both China and the Muslim world: While noble birth could be instrumental in improving one’s status, early surrender to Chinggis Khan; membership in the Mongol imperial guards (keshig); and especially, qualifications—such as excellence in warfare, administration, writing in Mongolian script or astronomy to name but a few—became the main ways to enter elite circles. The present volume translates and analyzes biographies of ten members of this new elite—from princes through generals, administrators, and vassal kings, to scientists and artists; including Mongols, Koreans, Chinese and Muslims—studied by researchers working at the project “Mobility, Empire and Cross Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia” at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The annotated biographies assembled here not only add new primary sources—translated from Chinese, Persian and Arabic—to the study of the Mongol Empire. They also provide important insights into the social history of the period, illuminating issues such as acculturation (of both the Mongols and their subjects), Islamization, family relations, ethnicity, imperial administration, and scientific exchange.

Mobility, Empire and Cross-Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia (MONGOL)

This essay reviews the ERC-funded project Mobility, Empire and Cross-Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia conducted at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1/2013-12/2017). The project has studied the impact of the Mongol Empire (1206-1368) on world history through the prism of mobility. It aimed to explain why, how, when, and to where people ideas and artifacts moved across Eurasia and what were the outcomes of these population movements. Guided by »the humanistic approach to world history«, namely combining a world history perspective with a close reading of multilingual primary sources, the project has created a sophisticated prosopographical database for studying these movements. The database records multilingual information about people who were active in Mongol Eurasia, currently indexing more than 13,500 persons. This unique resource enables the study of various groups of migrants (tribes, captives, experts, etc.); networks of economic and cultural transfer; and various imperial institutions (army, diplomacy, imperial sons-in-law), thereby illuminating the era’s social and cultural history. Stressing the pivotal role of the nomadic Mongols in initiating population movements, it analyses how these movements created multiple cross-cultural contacts; triggered massive ethnic, religious and geopolitical transformations, and led to a closer integration of the old world. The enhanced connectivity created both a common imperial culture – material, political, administrative – across Eurasia, and relativism of knowledge and religions. These, in turn, left a considerable imperial legacy to later polities, and helped shape the transition from the medieval to the early modern world. Yielding more than 80 publications so far, while various books, volumes and dissertations are in the making; training and grooming a considerable portion of the next generation of Mongol Empire scholars; and contributing significantly to the globalization of Mongolian studies worldwide, the project’s main legacy has been the study of the Mongol Empire on its own terms and within its full Eurasian context.

Editor’s Preface

medieval worlds provides a forum for comparative, interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages. Its aim is to overcome disciplinary boundaries, regional limits and national research traditions in Medieval Studies, to open up new spaces for discussion, and to help developing global perspectives. We focus on the period from c. 400 to 1500 CE but do not stick to rigid periodization. medieval worlds is open to submissions of broadly comparative studies and matters of global interest, whether in single articles, companion papers, smaller clusters, or special issues on a subject of global/comparative history. We particularly invite studies of wide-ranging connectivity or comparison between different world regions. Apart from research articles, medieval worlds publishes ongoing debates and project and conference reports on comparative medieval research. Editor’s Preface Walter Pohl and Ingrid Hartl World Literature is Trans-Imperial: A Medieval and a Modern Approach Christian Høgel The Global Eminent Life: Sixth-Century Collected Biographies from Gregory of Tours to Huijiao of Jiaxiang Temple James T. Palmer The Aristotle of Pippin III. Greek Books Sent to the Frankish Court (ca. 758 AD) Christian Gastgeber Biblical Elements and the ‘Other’ in the Chronicon regum Legionensium Patrick S. Marschner “The messenger is the place of a man’s judgment”: Diplomacy between Emperors and Caliphs in the Tenth Century Courtney Luckhardt The Geopolitics on the Silk Road: Resurveying the Relationship of the Western Türks with Byzantium through Their Diplomatic Communications Li Qiang and Stefanos Kordosis Project Reports Dynamics in Buddhist Transfer in Eastern Central Asia 6th-14th Centuries: A Project Report BuddhistRoad Team Mobility, Empire and Cross-Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia (MONGOL) Michal Biran Greek into Arabic. Philosophical Concepts and Linguistic Bridges Cristina D’Ancona, Gerhard Endress and Andrea Bozzi Writing the History of Aristotelian Logic During the Long Ninth Century. Some Remarks and Preliminary Results Christophe Erismann The THESIS Project Monica Brinzei Origins of the Vernacular Mode: Medieval Theology, Politics and Religious Identities Pavlína Rychterová

The THESIS Project

medieval worlds provides a forum for comparative, interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages. Its aim is to overcome disciplinary boundaries, regional limits and national research traditions in Medieval Studies, to open up new spaces for discussion, and to help developing global perspectives. We focus on the period from c. 400 to 1500 CE but do not stick to rigid periodization. medieval worlds is open to submissions of broadly comparative studies and matters of global interest, whether in single articles, companion papers, smaller clusters, or special issues on a subject of global/comparative history. We particularly invite studies of wide-ranging connectivity or comparison between different world regions. Apart from research articles, medieval worlds publishes ongoing debates and project and conference reports on comparative medieval research. Editor’s Preface Walter Pohl and Ingrid Hartl World Literature is Trans-Imperial: A Medieval and a Modern Approach Christian Høgel The Global Eminent Life: Sixth-Century Collected Biographies from Gregory of Tours to Huijiao of Jiaxiang Temple James T. Palmer The Aristotle of Pippin III. Greek Books Sent to the Frankish Court (ca. 758 AD) Christian Gastgeber Biblical Elements and the ‘Other’ in the Chronicon regum Legionensium Patrick S. Marschner “The messenger is the place of a man’s judgment”: Diplomacy between Emperors and Caliphs in the Tenth Century Courtney Luckhardt The Geopolitics on the Silk Road: Resurveying the Relationship of the Western Türks with Byzantium through Their Diplomatic Communications Li Qiang and Stefanos Kordosis Project Reports Dynamics in Buddhist Transfer in Eastern Central Asia 6th-14th Centuries: A Project Report BuddhistRoad Team Mobility, Empire and Cross-Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia (MONGOL) Michal Biran Greek into Arabic. Philosophical Concepts and Linguistic Bridges Cristina D’Ancona, Gerhard Endress and Andrea Bozzi Writing the History of Aristotelian Logic During the Long Ninth Century. Some Remarks and Preliminary Results Christophe Erismann The THESIS Project Monica Brinzei Origins of the Vernacular Mode: Medieval Theology, Politics and Religious Identities Pavlína Rychterová

Writing the History of Aristotelian Logic During the Long Ninth Century

medieval worlds provides a forum for comparative, interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages. Its aim is to overcome disciplinary boundaries, regional limits and national research traditions in Medieval Studies, to open up new spaces for discussion, and to help developing global perspectives. We focus on the period from c. 400 to 1500 CE but do not stick to rigid periodization. medieval worlds is open to submissions of broadly comparative studies and matters of global interest, whether in single articles, companion papers, smaller clusters, or special issues on a subject of global/comparative history. We particularly invite studies of wide-ranging connectivity or comparison between different world regions. Apart from research articles, medieval worlds publishes ongoing debates and project and conference reports on comparative medieval research. Editor’s Preface Walter Pohl and Ingrid Hartl World Literature is Trans-Imperial: A Medieval and a Modern Approach Christian Høgel The Global Eminent Life: Sixth-Century Collected Biographies from Gregory of Tours to Huijiao of Jiaxiang Temple James T. Palmer The Aristotle of Pippin III. Greek Books Sent to the Frankish Court (ca. 758 AD) Christian Gastgeber Biblical Elements and the ‘Other’ in the Chronicon regum Legionensium Patrick S. Marschner “The messenger is the place of a man’s judgment”: Diplomacy between Emperors and Caliphs in the Tenth Century Courtney Luckhardt The Geopolitics on the Silk Road: Resurveying the Relationship of the Western Türks with Byzantium through Their Diplomatic Communications Li Qiang and Stefanos Kordosis Project Reports Dynamics in Buddhist Transfer in Eastern Central Asia 6th-14th Centuries: A Project Report BuddhistRoad Team Mobility, Empire and Cross-Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia (MONGOL) Michal Biran Greek into Arabic. Philosophical Concepts and Linguistic Bridges Cristina D’Ancona, Gerhard Endress and Andrea Bozzi Writing the History of Aristotelian Logic During the Long Ninth Century. Some Remarks and Preliminary Results Christophe Erismann The THESIS Project Monica Brinzei Origins of the Vernacular Mode: Medieval Theology, Politics and Religious Identities Pavlína Rychterová

Отчет о международном семинаре «Связующие структуры, регионы и институты в монгольской Евразии: мезо-исторический анализ», Иерусалим, 17–18 мая 2017 года

Отчет о международном семинаре «Связующие структуры, регионы и институты в монгольской Евразии: мезо-исторический анализ», Иерусалим, 17–18 мая 2017 года