Fools, Devils, and Alchemy: Secular Images in the Monastery
The fool is one of the most popular and stable character types throughout cultures and times. This is especially true of medieval Europe. The fool, sometimes a jester, sometimes a clown or a trickster, is always recognizable through his abnormal appearance.
The Indigenous Christians of the Arabic Middle East in an Age of Crusaders, Mongols, and Mamlūks (1244-1366)
The chronological period of study is highlighted by the usurpation of the Ayyūbid-ruled Sultanate by the Baḥrī Mamlūks, while the two most important political-military events in the region were the collapse of the Crusader States and the invasion of the Mongols. This thesis will examine how events impacted on the nine Christian Confessions, treating each separately.
The Effects of the Mongol Empire on Russia
This paper looks at the Mongol Empire’s impacts on Russia in terms of religion, art, language, government, and the ultimate rise of Moscow.
Prolegomena to the Ju-nan i-shih: A Memoir on the Last Chin Court Under the Mongol Siege of 1234
Ju-nan i-shih is a reminiscence on the events at the refuge Chin capital of Emperor Ai-tsung (r. 1224-1234) at Ts’ai-chou, Honan, during the Mongol siege of July 1233 to February 1234, when it capitulated.
The Forgotten Text of Nikolai Golovin: New Light on the Igor Tale
Mann argues that a rare text of the Skazanie o Mamaevom poboishche comes from an early, fifteenth-century redaction that scholars could never locate—a redaction that is the prototype for all the redactions that have been studied heretofore. He maintains that unique parallels between this redaction and the Slovo o polka Igoreve support the hypothesis that the Igor Tale was an oral epic song in a tradition that actually continued into the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when oral tales about the Kulikovo Battle (1380) were composed. He places the new parallels in the context of other evidence for oral composition in the Igor Tale.
Movie Review: Mongol
Set in 1192, Mongol tells the tale of the Mongolian Steppe and the rise of Temüjin, who would later become Genghis Khan, one of the most feared and respected warriors of the medieval world.
Causes of Piracy in Medieval Japan
The scope of the study spans two distinct phases of piratical activity by Japanese marauders known as the wako, the first lasting from 1223 to 1265 and the second from 1350 to the early 1400s.
Biological Warfare at the 1346 Siege of Caffa
On the basis of a 14th-century account by the Genoese Gabriele de’ Mussi, the Black Death is widely believed to have reached Europe from the Crimea as the result of a biological warfare attack.
How did Persian and Other Western Medical Knowledge Move East, and Chinese West? A Look at the Role of Rashīd al-Dīn and Others
This paper looks specifically in this larger context at one key aspect of the western knowledge arriving in China, Islamic medicine, which included major Ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Syrian Christian as well as Persian and even Indian components, making it truly international, and speculates as to how it got there.
To Protect, Serve, and Sell Out: The Mongol Imperial Guard and the Roman Praetorian Guard
The first incarnation of the Mongol Imperial Guard differed from the Roman Praetorians, who were, from the moment of their origins, seen as an “elite unit” and an “important arm of the state and a formidable personal military power base.” The Mongol Imperial Guard under com- mand of Chinggis Qan, established in 1206, could be seen in light somewhat contrasting to that of the Romans.
Imagining Samarkand: Fruitful Themes in 13th-16th Century Literature on a Silk Road City
… Samarkand was seen as the last great urban Islamic stop.4 Perhaps because of this, the period between the Arab invasion of Samarkand and the Mongol invasion in 1220 fomented many of the mythologies about the city which will feature prominently in this paper.
The Mongol War Machine: How were the Mongols able to forge the largest contiguous land empire in history?
In the early 13th century a young Mongol chieftain called Temujin united the nomadic steppe peoples of Mongolia through conquest in order to fulfill his vision of a great nation.
The Eagle Returns: Evidence of Continued Ismaili Activity at Alamut and in the South Caspian Region following the Mongol Conquests
The catastrophic Mongol incursions into the heart of the Muslim world during the thirteenth century left a path of death and destruction in their wake.
Friar Benedict the Pole of Vratislava his mission to Mongolia and his narrative (1245-1247)
This is a study of the life and achievements of the Franciscan, Benedict the Pole of Vratislavia, who was sent with an Apostolic mission by Pope Innocent 17 in 1245 to the Great Khan of the Mongols.
The viaggio in Inghilterra of a viaggio in Oriente: Odorico da Pordenone’s Itinerarium from Italy to England
Odorico da Pordenone was a Franciscan Friar who, in the wake of the thirteenth-century expansion of the Mongolian empire, travelled to the court of the Great Khan at Khanbalik (modern Beijing).
Sacred Kingship among the Peoples of the Steppes
eurThe vast belt of the Steppes, located between the Hungarian plains and the Great Wall of China,
runs along the southern edge of the Eurasian arboreal zone. Starting in the 1st millenium B.C. this region has been inhabited by Iranian, Hunnish, Turkish and Mongol mounted nomads who, at various times, unified a large portion of the Steppes into a single empire.
Biological Exchange and Biological Invasion in World History
For millions of years, most species stayed home. Geographic barriers, such as oceans and mountain chains, inhibited migrations and divided the earth into distinct biogeographical provinces. Only birds, bats, and flying insects bucked the trend consistently.
Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History
Modern historiography has not fully appreciated the ecological complexity of the Silk Roads. As a result, it has failed to understand their antiquity, or to grasp their full importance in Eurasian history.
Conqueror: A Novel of Kublai Khan, by Conn Iggulden
An epic tale of a great and heroic mind; his action-packed rule; and how in conquering one-fifth of the world’s inhabited land, he changed the course of history forever.
Shipwreck from Mongol Invasion fleet discovered off Japan
Archaeologists from the University of the Ryukyus in Japan have discovered large parts of a Mongolian/Chinese ship that was likely part of the…
The Assassination of King Het‘um II: The Conversion of The Ilkhans and the Armenians
The Assassination of King Het‘um II: The Conversion of The Ilkhans and the Armenians By Angus Stewart Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,…
The Letters of Eljigidei, Hülegü, and Abaqa: Mongol Overtures or Christian Ventriloquism?
The Letters of Eljigidei, Hülegü, and Abaqa: Mongol Overtures or Christian Ventriloquism? Aigle, Denise (French Institute for the Middle East – Damascus) Inner…
Mobilisation of the European Periphery against the Mongols
I related how, according to the Novgorod Chronicles, newly arrived crusaders, together with the Sword Brothers, allied themselves with the Russian-Orthodox Pskovites before they went on to their crushing defeat at the hands of the Lithuanians at Saule in September 1236.
The Secret History of the Mongols and Western Literature
Of all the peoples of the world, the Mongols of Chinggis Qan are among the strangest to Western civilization – a warlike Asian people without agriculture, cities, or writing. However, three episodes in the Secret History of the Mongols can be matched with comparable episodes in western literature.
Tamerlane and the Symbolism of Sovereignty
Tamerlane and the Symbolism of Sovereignty Forbes Manz, Beatrice Iranian Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1/2, Soviet and North American Studies on Central Asia…