Chuan Gary Qin
Advanced Historical Research Pro-Seminar 2018-19
April 18, 2019
Abstract
In the 13th century, the Mongols, through their initial political conquests and social hospitality –– a welcoming attitude towards foreign culture, social immersions, and transregional diplomatic activities –– that ensued, altered the social structure and culture across Eurasia.1 During the Pax Mongolica, the Mongol administration fostered transregional exchange of art, encouraged trading, and practiced religious tolerance.2 Pieces of material culture that blend both Chinese and Mongolian symbols with local artistic and cultural styles demonstrate the increased interregional cultural transmission and integration seen during the Mongol Era from the late 1200s to the late 14th century. Characterized by a high frequency of foreign contact and intensified cultural interconnectivity, the Mongol Era bridged the West and the East, thus contributing to Eurasia’s progress toward cosmopolitanism.
Introduction
In Eurasian history, the Pax Mongolica from the late 13th to mid-14th century can be regarded as a prosperous oasis surrounded by barren deserts. This century of cross-cultural affluence was preceded by the Mongol political conquests and succeeded by the continental prevalence of the bubonic plague.3 Nevertheless, during the Pax Mongolica, the Mongols –– though unintentionally –– created a blueprint of modern diversity politics. Their patronage of advancements in multicultural artistry, construction of worldly cities, and facilitation for commerce and cultural diffusion brought about the emergence of cosmopolitanism. Specifically, Mongol support for religious tolerance allowed people from distinct ethnic, cultural, and spiritual backgrounds to coexist in the Mongol Empire.
In 1206, after unifying the Turko-Mongol tribes along the Mongol steppe, the forty-four-year-old Temujin established the Mongol Empire at an intertribal kuriltai, during which he was acclaimed as Genghis Khan, the “universal ruler”.4 Thereafter, Genghis Khan led his military forces to the conquests of civilizations in East and Central Asia. After Genghis’s death, his descendants further expanded the empire’s dominions to China, Persia, and Eastern Europe –– in less than 70 years, the Mongol Empire became the largest land empire to ever exist, even to this date.5 This was made possible by the Mongols’ advanced military technology and strategy. Mongol soldiers slaughtered millions of citizens in metropolises like Harat and Baghdad, destroyed cities that resisted to surrender, but gave peace and rights to people who submitted themselves to Mongol reign.6 To understand the influences of the Mongol conquests and Pax Mongolica, one must focus on the Mongols’ social and cultural contributions and their long-lasting effects on the pre-modernization of Eurasia. Additionally, comparisons and contrasts of life in Eurasia before and after the Mongol conquests are also imperative to the holistic view of the Mongol legacy.
Before Genghis Khan was born, the Mongol tribes had a long and relatively peaceful history. The steppes of the Mongolian plateau allowed the Mongol-Tungusic pastoral tribes to constantly migrate along the vast grassland.7 Herdsmen and hunters thrived under the nomadic tribal culture, bolstering both the social and economic well-being of the tribes.8 Even after the Mongol conquests, most indigenous people from the Mongol homeland did not abandon their lifestyle; rather, they discovered that nomadic and sedentary people were able to coexist within the rulings of one single authority. While the tribes migrated frequently, chiefs (khans) and noble families were selected within the tribes. Although the power of such leaders was circumscribed, it laid the foundation for Genghis Khan's rule after he was nominated the khan of his home tribe.9
According to the Secret History of the Mongols, the Tayichi'uts, upon defeating Yesügei, Genghis Khan's father, captured Temujin but let him escape instead of prosecuting him.10 This led to Temujin's proclamation and self-realization after his tribe's victory over the Merkits –– a prominent Mongol tribe –– that he was destined to be the leader who unifies all Mongolian tribes: "My strength was fortified by Heaven and Earth."11
The Mongol tribes, prior to Genghis Khan's unification in the early 1200s, frequently communicated with the outside world: they interacted with the Qara-Khitai Khanate, Turkic tribes, Northern Chinese empires (Xi Xia and Jīn), and occasionally the land west of Siberia. They also traded with sedentary civilizations south of the Gobi desert, acquiring grains, textiles, and metals.12 Even though transregional interactions were seen in Mongol tribes, most of such communications remained basic and unofficial.13 The Mongol nomadic lifestyle and frequent travels laid the foundation for both the Mongol empire's political conquests and their social and cultural exchanges with other regions in Eurasia.
In China and the Middle East, social instability also facilitated the Mongols’ military success. Before Genghis Khan's ambitious conquests, the Song and Xi Xia dynasties dominated most of China while the oligarchical Khwarazm-shahs were in control of modern-day Iran and Afghanistan14. Both regions had significant issues: the Song and Xi Xia were administratively strong but militarily vulnerable, whereas the Khwarazmian leader, Muhammad, decided to distribute the army around the empire as garrisons, weakening their central defense capabilities.15 These empires' relative military weaknesses indirectly allowed the Mongols to conquer them with speed later in the 13th century.
After conquering the Xi Xia dynasty in Northern China in 1209, the Mongols’ campaign south came to a stop when they found breaking into walled cities of the Jīn and Song empires to be challenging.16 Rather than completely halting their attacks, Genghis Khan’s military intelligence told him to not put all his eggs in one basket. Henceforth, Genghis Khan and his army marched westward while containing the Chinese.17 In the same year, the Uighurs made their submission to the Mongols; in 1218, the Qara-Khitai Khanate was also demolished by the Mongols.18 Upon conquering the Qara-Khitai, 450 Muslim merchants from Mongol territory were sent to Khwarazm-shah's city of Utrar.19 Identifying these merchant as spies, the governor of the city decided to kill all of them, including an Mongol envoy who was later sent to Utrar to demand punishment of Utrar's governor.20 These behaviors left Genghis Khan disgruntled and indignant. In 1219, Genghis launched a three-pronged attack of the Sultanate of Khwarezm. The Khwarezm-shah failed to organize proper and effective resistance to the Mongols and quickly came into submission.
Deciding to return to the Mongol homeland after gaining power in most territories of Khwarezm in the 1220s, Genghis Khan and his troops explored some new grounds: they headed home through a route north of the Caspian Sea.21 They marched through the Caucasus and built the groundwork of their later invasions of Russia and Eastern Europe from 1236 to 1242 by investigating the geography and social conditions of those areas. By exploring the new territory, Genghis Khan also discovered the potential of yielding cultural connections with various regions near the Caucasus through his conquests.22
The 13th century Rus, the Volga river region in modern-day Russia, was a non-centralized state with individual principalities prior to the Mongol invasion of Eastern Europe in the mid-13th century.23 Kiev and Novgorod, two important Russian cities, competed for supremacy of the state. Kiev, due to its geographical location, had friendly terms with the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople –– they established a slave trade system, and Kiev gradually became one of the largest cities in Eastern Europe at the time.24 However, Kiev in the 1230s was not in a healthy state both socially and economically. Kiev was surrounded by both powerful Western influences and threats from the East.25 Poland and Byzantine constantly pressured Kiev's society (even though Kiev and Byzantine had treaties, Byzantine was still a well-established state that was much powerful than Kiev in the 13th century).26 Meanwhile, the Mongol invasion of the Khwarezm and Kipchak Khanates earlier in the 13th century warned Kiev that their land was not safe.27 Rus' Golden Age also began to decline as important trade routes connecting Eastern Europe and the Middle World no longer went through Kiev via land transportation after the fourth Crusade.28 Therefore, the Mongols were able to siege Kiev with relative ease in December 1240. After the year's turn, the Mongols established their military base in Kiev and sought to continue west for the Hungarians, though they soon retreated. Nevertheless, the Mongols still had control of Kiev for years.29 The Golden Horde, based in the Volga region, flourished as the Mongols brought “Oriental Despotism” as well as traditional Asian culture and art to Eastern Europe.30
In 1241, Batu, the military leader of this Mongol invasion of Russia and Europe, established the Golden Horde in the Kipchak steppe and founded the capital city of Sarai on Volga river. Even though Mongol dominance of Europe was rather impermanent, and its further attacks of Hungary and Western Europe ended up as failures, Mongol rule over the Golden Horde was the longest amongst their four khanates (until 1438).
Back in East Asia, after years of confrontation with the Song Chinese, the Mongols finally made the breakthrough in the 1270s under Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan’s grandson. After taking control of China, Kublai established the cosmopolitan capital of Khanbaliq (now Beijing), opened China’s doors to artists, architects, and missionaries from all over Eurasia, and promoted interregional commerce.31 Not only did travelers like Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville's accounts for the Mongols expand Europeans' view of geography and the Cathay, European merchants and missionaries also made discoveries and obtained economic benefits that connected two seemingly distinct and remote continents.32
Under the leadership of Genghis Khan and his family, the Mongols established a socially diverse empire. The notion of religious tolerance was not completely new, whereas the Mongols were capable of employing this policy to benefit both their own ideologies and civilians’ living standards. Rather than imposing an universal religion on all people, the Mongols sought to ingratiate themselves with other important local religions in newly conquered regions.33 Partly in light of giving competent women higher social status and allowing coexistence of religions, the Mongol Empire presented continental social diversity and cultural mix during their conquests.34 These qualities progressively led to the birth of Mongol universalism, or the “Mongol Global Awakening”, as seen in Eurasia during the Pax Mongolica.35
As Genghis Khan establishing a multicultural empire, he “valued the moral truths he found in all of the religions he encountered.”36 As a result, Genghis Khan was able to recruit men from many ethnic groups and religious backgrounds to join his army and prevent unnecessary casualties from wars of religions. Moreover, the Mongol religious tolerance was not only a social strategy for the Mongols to gain social reputation in newly subjugated territories but also a cultural and spiritual ideology. Genghis Khan, during his lifetime, listened to and examined the teachings, practices, and spiritualities of the proclaimed God's messenger, no matter who was exactly their God. He closely scrutinized the doctrine and theology of the known religions, including Christianity, Taoism, Confucianism, Manichaeism, Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity.37 Although he occasionally questioned some beliefs that these religions entailed, Genghis Khan respected the faiths of his fellow people and thus allowed religions to coexist across his domain starting in the 13th century –– one of the earliest manifestations of religious pluralism in global history.38 Practiced in the Mongol Empire and particularly the Middle East, the policy of religious toleration –– along with the implementation of the Paiza –– gave the empire the opportunity to gain social diversity and cultural enrichment.
The Paiza39 is an official form of document given by the Mongol government to the empire’s envoys. With the Paiza as a form of identification, elites, diplomats, merchants, and military commanders of the Mongol Empire were able to freely travel from region to region; they also received supplements and special accommodations at designated stops and stations along the Silk Road.40 Although the Mongols did not create the Paiza, they innovated its look, increased its value, and regulated its usage across the empire. The Paiza was one of the world's first diplomatic passports, showcasing both political and economic strength of the Mongol empire. The inscription on the object reads, in 'Phags-Pa: “By the strength of Eternal Heaven, an edict of the Emperor (Khan). He who has no respect shall be guilty.” The safe conduct pass, manufactured with silver, shows an increased demand for luxurious metals from the Grand Yuan and improved technology in metal craftsmanship. The animal symbol atop the inscription reveals the Tibetan and Chinese tradition of dispelling evilness of the devil, indicating the message that holders of the Paiza will be safe during their travels.41
Middle East and Persia
A number of years after Genghis Khan’s death in 1227, his grandson Hülegü was in command of the Mongol's expedition to the Middle East. Hülegü led the next generation of territorial and cultural expansion of the Mongol Empire in the Middle East. Since 1253, Hülegü conquered the Isma'ilis, performed one of the greatest massacres in history in Baghdad, and forced the Abbasid Caliphs, who had been the most powerful force in the Middle East since the 9th century, to move to the Mamluk capital of Cairo. Entrenched in power in the Middle East, Hülegü became the Il-Khan of Persia, had control over the fertile Mesopotamia region, facilitated trade with Cathay, and practiced religious tolerance. Hülegü, bearing resemblance to his predecessors Tolui and Ögedei in terms of strategies of social engagement, gave out the Paiza to the elites of the Middle East, hoping to attract them to engage in frequent contact with Cathay and other Mongol territories.
Under the Mongols, there existed an unprecedented frequency of transregional interactions between the Islamic world and the Far East in the late 13th to 14th century. The distribution of the Paiza to foreign merchants as well as elite scholars, missionaries, and political envoys contributed to the drastically expanded commerce system and inculturation during the Pax Mongolica. Additionally, the Mongol government eradicated the traditional Chinese imperial rule of collecting confiscatory taxation from merchant activities across Eurasia.42 Both Chinese and Persian cultures were enriched by the exchange of art and innovation. As diplomats and talented individuals who specialize in an academic or artistic discipline traveled around the Mongol empire's vast land. Through this process, Iranian astronomy and medicine were introduced to Chinese people, books and drawings in both Chinese and Arabic were widely distributed among scholars in the empire, and the translation of literature became an important vocation sponsored by the state, which intensified the spread of language in Asia.43 In turn, the Iranians became interested in the Chinese artistic styles. The Islamic world was primarily interested in illuminated manuscripts, and they themselves strived to emulate the Chinese style of book illumination.44
The siege of Baghdad in 1258 announced the end of the Abbasids’ control of Iran that had lasted for more than 5 centuries. Surprisingly, however, the remaining Abbasids –– after retrieving to the Mamluks in Egypt –– did not develop extreme antagonism against the Mongols. Instead, the connections between the Mongol Ilkhanate and the Mamluks were built, maintained, and gradually ameliorated during the Pax Mongolica through commerce and the exchange of gifts. After the Mongol invasions of the Levant ended in 1300, the Mamluks and the Mongol Ilkhanid soon came to an agreement of peace. According to Mamluk historian Ibn al-Dawadari, during the 14th century, the Mongols were filled with great awe of the Mamluk sultan An-Nasir and his people, and Mongol envoys frequently traveled from Aleppo to Cairo, carrying luxurious gifts and ostentatious objects for the Mamluks.45 In turn, the then-sixteen-year-old An-Nasir ordered the people of the highest social order –– Royal Mamluks and military commanders –– to prepare their own gifts and be equipped with their finest attires to welcome the Mongol emissaries.46
Diplomatic settlements entailed the exchange of gifts that further widened the realm of cultural exchange. Over the years, the Mongols often times offered advanced weapons, animals used for hunting, horses, and Mongol fabrics; the Mamluks also sent the Mongols their own unique assortment of gifts: Arabian stallions, jewelries, armors, and even Bulgarian leathers.47 Through these recurrent and cordial cultural transactions between the Mongols and the Mamluks, the Middle East came to relative peace during the 14th century.48 The exchange of gifts and the Mongol facilitation of commerce between the Mamluk Egypt and the Ilkhanid Iran evolved from materialistic interests from both parties into an intangible, adroit means of peacemaking between the two sultanates.
As the massacres in Baghdad in 1258 and other industrial cities in the Middle East decreased the Islamic population, they also destroyed Persia's manufacturing, which was world-leading before the mid-13th century when the Mongols invaded. In the Islamic world, the unintended consequence of genocide was economic recess; intercultural exchange turned out to be the solution to the problem. Hülegü strived to restore the manufacturing capabilities of Persia and sought to extend its power to other regions of the empire. Knowing China’s increasing demand for silk, Hülegü sent 25000 households of silk workers to China to participate in manufacturing jobs under Kublai Khan. Kublai, in turn, also personally owned farms and livestock in Persia and Iraq, promoting connectivity between China and the Middle East.49 Mongol people in Persia provided spices, steel, jewels, pearls, and textiles for Chinese merchants, while the Mongols in China sent porcelains and Chinese medications to the Islamic world.50 On an imperial level, trades brought Mongol leaders in China gold and silver vessels, boxes, and precious gems that the royal families had long coveted; Muslim leaders received paper, ink, aromatics, and more processed commodities from the Grand Yuan.51 The commercial exchange between the Mongols and the Abbasids, initiated by the issuance of the Paiza to Muslim natives and the Mongol promotion of interregional travelling, gave both the Yuan dynasty and the Ilkhanate economic variety and prosperity.
Even though the Mongol army destructed most historical buildings in Baghdad including the royal library of the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258, many Islamic writers and scholars flourished under Mongol rule, one of them being Ibn al-Fuwati.52 A biographer, al-Fuwati was granted all-around access to libraries built by Hülegü’s architects throughout the Ilkhanate and was employed by the empire as the head of the new imperial library in Maragha in 1261-62. Throughout the prolific biographer’s life, he filed 5291 numbered entries in his biographical dictionary Madjma' al-adab fi mu'djam al-alqab, many of them depicting the impact of the Mongol empire’s cultural transmission.53 According to excerpts of Ibn al-Fuwati’s biographical entries, many merchant families in the Islamic world during the late 13th century were fluent in not only Persian but also Chinese, Mongol, and Turkic languages. In addition, some important Muslim figures of the Ilkhanate, due to their frequent cultural immersion, wrote in Persian, Mongol, Uighur, and Turkic and spoke Arabic, Chinese, and Hindu.54 By handing the Paiza to Muslim elites, the Mongol administrators were able to create a multicultural environment in which the communication barriers between different civilizations that had been previously prevalent in Eurasia gradually diminished. Even though most of Ibn al-Fuwati’s biographies have been lost, his remaining accounts of society and culture of Mongol Persia during the early stages of the Pax Mongolica already encapsulate details of the efforts that the Mongols made to integrate people of different ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds in the Ilkhanate.
In the 13th and 14th century, the Mongols' practice of religious tolerance not only pacified the region after years of turmoil but it also, tactically, benefitted the Mongols themselves. In order to establish governance and prevent unnecessary casualties as a result of wars of religion, the Mongols ingratiated their own ideologies with local spiritual beliefs in subjugated land and gave foreign religions a platform to develop. In addition, the Mongols even reduced taxation for the clerics of Buddhism, Daoism, Nestorianism, and both Shia and Sunni Islam along the Silk Road.55
The Mongol era was a time period when religions and beliefs of supreme beings were widely popular. However, before Genghis Khan, one region was largely ruled by one single religion, which brought resentment and belligerence rather than peace and prosperity to Eurasia. Religiously motivated wars had been threatening the peace and stability of societies, most notably the Christian Crusades. While the Mongol conquests in the 1200s were also a destructive force, the Mongols spent the next century striving to repair their damage done in the Middle East, especially from social and cultural standpoints. Their foreign friendly policies were the cornerstone of the solidification of the influence of the Mongols since the late 13th century.
In the Islamic world, specifically, religious tolerance was perfected by the leaders of the Ilkhanate. Hülegü’s grandson Arghun was baptized as Christian soon after his birth, but believed in Buddhism throughout his life. However, many of Arghun’s close relatives and fellow administrators during his reign as the Ilkhan were Christians.56 Previous to Mongol reign in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the language barrier between Islamic, Buddhist, and Christian believers formed an almost insurmountable problem for the religions.57 However, Arghun and his followers were able to use their religious tolerance and support for commerce to relieve the communication barriers and further bridge the gap between the cultures. Arghun traveled to France and England in person to deliver luxurious gifts by himself and Kublai Khan, the emperor of the Grand Yuan.58 Therefore, the Mongol’s social efforts in the 14th century, manifested through the wide distribution of the Paiza as a means to promote intercultural contact and exchange, created a religiously and culturally diverse and economically prosperous state in Persia that was the Ilkhanate.
Europe and the Golden Horde
“Saint Jerome Reading a Pseudo-Mongol Script”, a fresco completed around 1300 C.E. in the Church of San Francesco Assisi, depicts Saint Jerome (347-420) reading a book with script written vertically with style and structure that resemble the 'Phags-Pa script, the official script of the Mongol empire.59 Created in 1260 by Tibetan monk Phags-Pa, the script not only came to fame within the dominions of the empire but also expanded its cultural impact to Christianity-dominated Europe within decades of its original creation. This piece of fresco, attributed to Proto-Renaissance pioneers Giotto and Cimabue, illustrates Saint Jerome carefully scrutinizing the Mongol script, while in reality the Christian priest lived in a completely different era than when the 'Phags-Pa script was in use. Elements in the works of many renowned Christian Proto-Renaissance artists, namely Cimabue and Paolo Veneziano, exhibit significant Oriental (including Byzantium) influences. The script was used to illustrate what the painters thought the Christians theologians had read centuries before. What the painting really shows is the impact caused by the power and speed of the Mongol empire’s cultural exchange in Eurasia.60 Boldly depicting the Mongol square script on a Christian-style painting, “Saint Jerome Reading a Pseudo-Mongol Script” demonstrates that the Mongol empire’s interregional cultural diffusion spread literature and writing through Central Europe and to Italy, which impacted the cultural perspective of Europe during the early-Renaissance period in the 14th century.61
The “Cup with Fish-shaped Handles”, designed and manufactured in the Golden Horde in the early 1300s, displays another artistic evidence of Mongol inculturation in Europe.62 Gold, an element stored in relative abundance in Central Asia and the Golden Horde, was selected by Batu to be utilized to make luxury tableware for the leaders of the Horde. Contrary to the Paiza which was mostly made in silver and copper, the cup was made from pure gold. Used as a drinking vessel, the golden cup exhibit the exotic luxuriousness that enthralled the Mongol leaders during the Pax Mongolica. Its handles, in the shape of fish tails, showcase the influence of Chinese culture on art and manufacturing in the Golden Horde. With specific sculpting techniques, the scales of the fish are displayed with detailed meticulousness; the double-end tails of the fish are examples of traditional Chinese artistic elements. Fish, particularly carp, are symbols of good fortune, wealth, and prosperity in imperial Chinese culture. By employing the symbol of fish in crafting the golden cup, artisans of the Golden Horde demonstrated their basic knowledge about Chinese culture and were able to apply them toward creating artworks for the leaders of the Horde.63 The engravings on the bottom of the cup, a Chinese tradition, was done in Arabic –– this reveals the heightened interconnectivity between the Golden Horde, China, and the Middle East during the Mongol era.64 Currently kept at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, the cup is still regarded as an important item showing Russia’s diverse past.65
The commonalities of the two artworks completed in Europe in the early 14th century show the degree to which the culture and traditions from East Asia transmitted and propagated to Europe and the Golden Horde via the Silk Road. Merchant activities and interregional cultural exchange among elites, scribes, and even civilians were encouraged through the distribution of the Paiza, which helped advance and blend the art, manufacturing, and technology of different region of the Mongol empire. In the meantime, the acknowledgement and later the tentative acceptance of Far Eastern elements becoming integrated as part of the Central European culture, and vice versa, were heavily influenced by the descriptions by renowned intercontinental voyagers, especially Marco Polo and Rabban Sauma.
Marco Polo –– who traveled to Asia with his father and uncle from 1271 to 1295 –– described the Great Khan as the wealthiest man in the world and Khanbaliq as the global capital. His accounts, remarked in his journal Livre des Merveilles du Monde, did not merely reflect the powers of the Grand Yuan but also unveiled the trend of vast advancements and expansion in continental economy and cultural exchange in Eurasia, as well as the emergence of a new social order that significantly impacted both the East and the West. An example of heightened cultural cross-fertilization across Eurasia was the continental implementation of paper currency. As Polo explains, paper currency was highly valued by administrators and merchants in both China, Central Asia, and the Golden Horde –– it was treated as if it was made of gold or silver along the silk road.66 In Central Europe during the Pax Mongolica, paper money was also used as a lavish diplomatic gift given by Mongol envoys to European leaders and elites. Although the Mongols did not invent paper money, they inherited the Song’s creation, further improved its production, and publicized its usage across Eurasia.67 They were the first empire in the world to legalize and impose the use of fiat currency.68
Even though the Mongol empire never subjugated Central and Western Europe as a part of their territory, they indirectly allowed European society in the Latin Christendom to flourish in the next centuries due to their social and cultural impact. The Chinese techniques of harnessing water and wind power were introduced in Europe in the early 14th century via the trade routes, and soon mechanized mining, metallurgy, and milling, which were professions that previously required intensive human or animal labor. Technologies that improved the quality of metals, the efficiency of printing, and the substitution of parchment by paper became common in Europe during the Mongol era, allowing people's lives to become more convenient.69 Similarly, as the Mongols propagated technological progress in craftsmanship and metallurgy in the Golden Horde, the skills of local goldsmiths and metalworkers drastically improved. This gave the “Cup with Fish-shaped Handles” a more refined and exquisite design.70
While Marco Polo was immersing himself in the hospitality of the Grand Yuan and the glamour of the cosmopolitan Khanbaliq, a Chinese monk embarked on a journey from the Mongol capital to the Mediterranean Sea. In the summer of 1287, a cleric named Rabban Bar Sauma’s arrival at the city of Naples surprised the civilians of the city.71 A man of Turkic descent born and raised in Khanbaliq, Sauma was a firm believer of Nestorian Christianity who sought to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem but ended up in Central Europe. Sauma became the first identified Chinese person to reach Europe, and he documented his remarkable journey in Persian.
As an official Mongol emissary, Rabban Sauma’s journey was of paramount importance to both Europe and East Asia. As he traveled to Byzantium, Italy, and France, he exchanged political ideas with Byzantine emperor Andronicus II, the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church, and King Philip IV of France. Not only did the Europeans he encountered learn more about religious tolerance in the Cathay, Rabban Sauma also widened the Europeans’ knowledge about the cultures of the Ilkhanate, the Chagatai Khanate, and the Great Yuan through his conversations with European leaders. After completing his political duties in Europe, Rabban Sauma returned to Baghdad in pursuit of an immersive religious environment and resided there until his death in 1294.72 As one of the most significant embassies in Mongol history, Rabban Sauma exemplified the type of social, cultural, and religious diversity seen in the Mongol era. His journey is indicative that the Mongol cultural developments in the Cathay also had noteworthy reverberations in Eurasia, particularly in the Middle East and Europe.73
As Marco Polo returned to Venetia in 1295, the Pax Mongolica reached its zenith. As a result of the intensified cultural synergy between Europe, the Middle East, the Golden Horde, and China, the Christian domains in Europe experienced an influx of Mongol textiles.74 Luxury textiles came to fame in Europe, eventually possessing similar levels of cultural influence in European society with that of China and Persia in the early 14th century. Christians in Europe began to scrutinize Mongol goods and culture, which gradually started to appear in European –– primarily Kievan and Italian –– monuments, paintings, and pottery depicting Mongol scripts, symbols, and figures.75 Furthermore, with the Mongol empire having suzerainty over Jerusalem, missionary friars, scribes, and envoys of Persia and Europe also convened regularly about the cultural and religious issues between Europe and the Middle East.76 The Pax Mongolica caused a ripple effect of economic and cultural diffusion in regions in Europe. While the Mongol and European merchants operated their commerce via the Silk Road, new trade routes emerged in Europe. Kiev, now an important city of the Golden Horde, sought to restore its trade partnerships with Byzantium and expand its network to other states along the Mediterranean Sea; Venetia also revamped its marine trade routes with Syria and Egypt during the later stages of the Pax Mongolica. As more goods circulated around Europe, Eurasian economy became revitalized.77
The Mongol reign in the Golden Horde was strengthened by its social innovations. By introducing what Western historians identified as “Oriental Despotism” to the Golden Horde, the Mongol rulers enabled the transformation of Russia from a disunified, weak group of appanages to a uniform, centralized autocracy.78 In Kievan Rus, the Mongols were able to fortify the military strength of the Horde while also branching out culturally, forming new connections with Central European states. In Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde, as Muslim, Cathay, and nomadic cultural influences were prevalent in literature, art, and people’s day-to-day lives, as seen in the golden cup with fish-shaped handles, the Mongol empire also strived to preserve the original Russian culture and Russia’s punctilious religious sensibilities.79 The Mongol presence in Rus secured Russia’s political consolidation and cultural flourishment for the years to come. Even though in 1502 the Russian Tsar Ivan III Vasilyevich declared Russia’s independence from the Mongols, marking the fall of the Golden Horde, traces of Eastern culture and, more importantly, despotism and autocracy remained prominent in the Russian state and later the Russian empire until the 20th century.80
During the Pax Mongolica, there existed a shift in the European perspective on the Mongol Empire. Previously in 1240, Matthew Paris and Thomas of Spalato's chronicles depicted the Mongols as brutal, hysteric disturbers of peace. Nevertheless, come the 1300s, the Mongols began to represent the sumptuousness and luxuriousness of commercial goods, noble lords, and brave warriors. Prior to the Pax Mongolica when the Mongol cultural elements began to disseminate throughout Eurasia, false information and regards about the peoples of the Far East were held by the Europeans: brutalists, illiterates, and even one-eyed monsters.81 In merely less than a century, these firmly believed ideas about the Mongols shifted, and even the Mongol national script was emulated by royal Christian artists and used on frescos in Church of San Francesco Assisi, a famed site of pilgrimage celebrating the life of San Francesco (1181-1226).
As their own narrative of the Mongols changed over time, Europeans started to open themselves up to new ideas and innovations across various disciplines.82 The Mongols' cultural openness and willingness to engage in foreign contact were a critical factor in foreign exchange and the creation of a world system. Ever since the establishment Mongol Empire, world history no longer remained segmented but rather commingled –– at least in Eurasia. As the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sailed west in 1492, approximately two centuries after Marco Polo’s publication of his chronicles, what he was actually searching for was Asia.83 During the start of the Age of Discovery in the 15th century, Polo’s journal Livre des Merveilles du Monde (The Travels of Marco Polo) remained as one of the few actual accounts of Asian culture and society.84
China
In 1271, Kublai Khan adopted the Chinese dynastic title of Yuan, "the origin". As the Mandate of Heaven allowed, the accession of dynasties passed on the Mandate from one period on to the next85. On March 28, 1272, the Mongols and Kublai established their capital in Khanbaliq (the eight-mile city of the Khan) and designated it the “Grand Capital”. Kublai Khan decided to centralize Mongol government in Khanbaliq (now Beijing) largely due to its geographical attraction (relative proximity to the Silk Road and Mongol homeland while also connected to Southern China by roads and canals).86
In spite of a relatively smooth transition of power from the Song after their conquests, the Yuan empire and Kublai Khan faced notable social challenges in North China, which had been operating without a stable government control for multiple years.87 To reinvigorate the economics in North China, Kublai established the Office for the Stimulation of Agriculture.88 To further encourage international commerce, Kublai Khan extended the usage of paper money across the empire, reinforced transportation infrastructure, and supported the voyages of talented individuals such as architects, doctors, and artists.89 As a result, China during the Pax Mongolica experienced a period of immense cross-cultural fertilization across Eurasia.
The tombstone, discovered in Quanzhou, shows both a cross representing Nestorian Christianity as well as Mongolian carved epitaph about the details of the person who died.90 This tombstone is of a Mongolian who believed in Nestorianism and lived in Southern China during the 14th century. This tombstone is an example of heightened religious exchange and tolerance in Eurasia during the Mongol era. Even a gravestone can blend traces of Western and East Asian culture –– seemingly distinct religions truly began to intertwine and coexist in the Mongol empire during the 13th to 14th century.
The Mongols practiced religious freedom in China similar to the way they abided by it in the Islamic World. However, Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan, preferred Buddhism over most, if not all, existing religions during that time period. Therefore, the Mongols established a secular government in Tibet, where they never managed to thoroughly conquer. Tibet’s Phags-Pa, a renowned Buddhist monk, converted Kublai’s chief wife Chabi to the faith, thus facilitating the direct connection between the Yuan government and Buddhism. In light of this relationship, Phags-Pa invented a script for the Mongol empire in 1269, forming a foundational cultural element that bridged Tibet, China, and Buddhism.91 Although without direct control, the introduction of 'Phags-Pa as the empire’s official script also popularized Buddhism in China. Under the Mongols, Buddhism became an official religion in imperial China for the first time. Henceforth, Buddhism became a popular religion in China even until today.92 The creation and popularization of the 'Phags-Pa script as the premier transcriptional language in Eurasia was the byproduct of the Mongol government’s open-mindedness toward religion. The Nestorian tombstone, one of many of its kind found in Quanzhou, is a piece of direct evidence of the adoption of the 'Phags-Pa script in both imperial chronicles and people’s day-to-day use.93
Despite the Sino-Mongol bureaucracy’s favor of Buddhism, other religions also thrived in China due to the Mongol support of religious pluralism. Daoism, a traditional Chinese philosophical belief emphasizing moral disciplines, increased its eminence in Yuan society. The Mongol government, after studying the Daoist teachings of humility, compassion, and frugality, granted Daoism special dispensations.94 Their monasteries were designated as tax-free commerce and manufacturing emporiums, while Daoist practitioners were exempted from social labor that was mandatory for most civilians.95 The Mongol administration fulfilled the Daoist expansion at the expense of collecting tax revenue to sustain military endeavors.
Beyond the integration of Buddhism and Daoism –– what are understood nowadays to be Chinese religions –– into Chinese society, the Mongol empire also tolerated Western religious beliefs, most notably Nestorianism and Catholicism. Prior to the Mongol invasion of China, a Turkic tribe later known as Öngüt migrated to an area south of the Gobi desert in the 12th century.96 People of this tribe were the one of the first influxes of followers of the Nestorian Church to China. Dismissed by the prominent Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, Nestorians were later able to prosper under the Mongol reign.97 Renowned travelers such as William of Rubruck, an Franciscan who traveled to Karakorum from 1253 to 1255, described the Nestorians as a group of multicultural people who had their literature and inscriptions in Syriac, Turkish, and 'Phags-Pa.98 Nestorian ideologies, as people could move around the empire at ease starting in the 13th century, disseminated to important cities –– most notably Quanzhou –– the biggest seaport in China during the Mongol Era. The Nestorian graves, found in Quanzhou, exhibit the diversity of Nestorianism during the Yuan. Being far away from Roman and Eastern Orthodox leaders in the West, the Nestorians opened up to foreign cultural elements in China.99 Nomadic elements and the 'Phags-Pa script became integral features of Nestorianism. Additionally, elite Nestorians were invited to become a part of the Mongol empire’s global administration system, in which people of different religious beliefs and ethnic origins assume crucial roles in the Sino-Mongol bureaucracy.100 The inscriptions, artistic style, and depictions of the gravestones found in Quanzhou express the high social standing, cultural diversification, and cross-cultural connections of the Nestorian church in China during Mongol rule.101
Wanting the loyal support from the Chinese, Kublai Khan approached the process of state building in China by maintaining the core cultural and ethnic identity as Chinese –– Kublai Khan and the Mongols appeared to be "more Chinese than the Song".102 Similar to the Mongol endeavors in Europe, Kublai Khan made a number of significant cultural adaptations in an effort to Sinicize his image as the ruler of China. Kublai, after taking over Hangzhou in 1276, secured the literary repositories, invaluable artworks, and historical archives from the Imperial Library to the Grand Capital.103 He began to build a Chinese temple for his family and ancestors, showing his will to use Chinese ceremonies and rituals to honor his Mongol ancestry. In an attempt to create an ordered society, Kublai also employed "Pacification Commissioners" as advocates for traditional Chinese culture. These commissioners repaired public social works such as temples and shrines, which were sanctified places that manifest the popularity of Confucianism and other Chinese philosophical beliefs under the Mandate of Heaven.104
Another Mongol tradition that exhibit social diversity is their policy of giving females higher social standings than previous Chinese dynasties. As a result of Genghis Khan and his descendents’ kindness to females, the Mongol Empire gave royal women the ability to impact their warfare and commerce. Elite women acted as political advisors to Mongol leaders and were selected to look after newly subjugated territories when men continued their conquests.105 Business on the Silk Road also reached its apogee when Genghis Khan assigned his daughters –– Alaqai Beki, Al-Altun, and Checheyigen –– to operate the commerce systems areas between China and Persia.106 Furthermore, Alaqai also founded a city in Olon Sume featuring religious elements and objects of Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Islam.107
The Mongols, publicly, had a liberal attitude toward art and culture. During the Mongol era, Kublai Khan restored the Confucian traditions of music and dance.108 In the meantime, literary artists enjoyed greater freedom of expression than most other dynasties in China. Due to the freedom given by the Mongols and "continuance of education" of scholars in Confucian literary works, art and craft flourished in China during the Yuan dynasty.109 While building Beijing, the Grand Capital, Kublai Khan invited many Islamic architects and Central Asian craftsman to design the city such that it blended cultural elements from both nomadic and sedentary civilizations.110 Nepalese architect Araniko was even commissioned by Kublai to construct Daoist, Confucian, Buddhist temples and sanctuaries in Khanbaliq, in addition to many astronomical apparatuses.111 Although the Ming dynasty, who replaced the Mongols, took credit for designing and constructing the Forbidden City in Beijing, it was Kublai Khan and the Mongols who built Beijing's first walled imperial palace.112
The Yuan’s promotion of commerce and merchant activities throughout Eurasia both satisfied the Mongol bureaucracy’s own favor for exotic, luxurious goods and also enriched the empire culturally, economically, and socially. Interregional trade prospered not only along the Silk Road but also via sea routes in the Indian Ocean. With advanced marine technology, Chinese merchants during the Mongol era employed large fleets carrying silk, embroidery, pearls, among other Chinese luxury goods. In return, Persian merchants along the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf exported lucrative amounts of enamels and metal.113 More importantly, no one ethnic group dominated transregional trade. Rather, people of different origins –– including the Jews, Armenians, Indians, Uighurs, Khwarezmians –– took control of commerce in various locations and times.114 Because glamorous goods such as textiles and porcelain enamored Kublai, the Mongols also revived the textile industry in China and elevated its quality, inspiring artists and manufacturers to produce colorful fine clothing and gold Buddhist mandalas using cloths.115
During Kublai Khan's administration in China, landowners were granted property rights, reduced taxes, and upgraded communications and transportation. Administrators lessened the previously harsh penalties of committing capital offenses, promoted peace, and supported the printing of books on criminology so that civilians have behavioral guidance. Similar to how the Nestorians were welcomed in China, Kublai Khan attracted an entourage of Muslims by providing them social autonomy and appointing them to leadership roles in the government.116 Even though the core ethnic group during the Yuan was still Han, Mongol leaders employed and mixed groups of administrators, including people from Central Asia, the Middle World, and even Europeans.117 Moreover, low-ranked civilians in China such as scribes were constantly promoted by Mongol leaders, who supported both the welfare of citizens and the supply line of talents within the administrative system.118
Cultural linkages brought along enormous economic benefits in China. According to Marco Polo, Chinese economy flourished under Mongol rule –– civilians "lived by trade and industry" and town and cities thrived through commerce.119 Economically separated for more than 300 years prior to the Yuan, Northern and Southern China were to "rediscover each other" economically under the Mongols.120 The Yuan also reestablished the 1100-mile-long Grand Canal, connecting the former capital of Song, Hangzhou, to the new cosmopolitan capital of the Mongol Empire, Khanbaliq.121 After Kublai’s death, Beijing’s progress toward becoming a global and multicultural city did not halt. Emperor Chengzong, Kublai’s son, facilitated the construction of the first Latin Church in the Grand Capital from 1288 to 1289, per Italian scholar Fra Giovanni’s accounts.122 Economic prosperity and relative urbanization initiated by the Mongols allowed Khanbaliq to gradually develop into the modern metropolis that is today’s Beijing. Beijing became one of the most renowned, both politically and economically, cities in the world.
The Yuan dynasty, through their support for social stability and cultural diffusion in China during the Pax Mongolica, became a short yet highly influential era. Prior to the establishment of the Grand Yuan in 1271, a period of social unification in Chinese imperial history was usually followed by years of interregnum, social turmoil, and political fragmentation. The emergence of Mongol reign in China broke this rule that had lasted for centuries. Not only was the Yuan able to preserve China’s unity after conquering the Song, but their social advancements and patronage of peace also extended the unification of China’s imperial government much longer than their own demise.123 The Ming’s takeover in 1368 destructed the Grand Yuan’s political force, while the Mongol societal values and spirit of inculturation lingered. China remained a united empire state until the official fiscal collapse of the Qing in 1911’s Xinhai Revolution.
Conclusion
Starting from the late 1330s, the outset and spread of the bubonic plague in Eurasia soon caused the decline of the Mongol Empire. The pandemic reached Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde, in 1345; in 1346 to 1351, it radiated throughout most of Central and Western Europe.124 The immediate repercussions of the Black Death were hardly controllable: population plunge, social instability, and hyperinflation triggered by economic decline, lack of labor, and diminution of transregional trade.125 The establishment of the Ming dynasty marked the formal end of the Mongol Empire, although a number of decentralized Mongol khanates retained political control of their respective regions until the late 15th century.
Granted, given the time frame during which the Mongols dominated Eurasia, the extent to which they contributed to the globalization of the world was limited. Many of the notable social and cultural accomplishments they achieved also vanished with the pandemonium caused by the Black Death. Nevertheless, the Mongol legacy cannot be overlooked. As the first empire –– and the only one to this date –– to unite China, Central Asia, Persia, and Eastern Europe, the Mongol Empire brought unprecedented political and social stability to Eurasia for a short period of time following their ferocious conquests. From a social standpoint, the mindset of the Mongols in how to maintain social stability bears resemblance to the modern world, where diversity is particularly emphasized. Due to the policy of religious toleration, people of distinct cultural backgrounds and spiritual beliefs were able to coexist cordially –– without much violence –– in the same region within the empire. The discovery of Nestorian tombstones in Quanzhou, China indicates that Nestorianism, a branch of Christianity not permitted in the Latin Christendom, was able to thrive in the Grand Yuan. Furthermore, Mongol queens assumed administrative roles with extensive authority while some of them even ruled important cities along the Silk Road; elite women were also granted property rights.126 The Mongol social benevolence and the issuance of one of the first interregional diplomatic passports, the Paiza, helped them to freely recruit elites from different corners of the empire, facilitating the diversification of Mongol society and the construction of metropolises, namely Khanbaliq, Shangdu, Sarai, and Tabriz.127 The Mongol society, the way Genghis Khan and his descendants framed it, presented a prototype of modern diversity politics –– the degree to which people of a population is heterogeneous –– in the 13th to 14th century.
The Mongol Era also marked the first direct and official contact between China and Central Europe, heightened frequency of cultural exchange, and an augmentation of transregional trade. Renowned Florentine merchant Francesco Balducci Pegolotti wrote a handbook (c.1340) containing advices, expertise, and itinerary given to tradesmen along the Silk Road. The golden cup with Chinese elements and Arabic engravings found in the Golden Horde, as well as the fresco showing Saint Jerome reading the square script are displays of increased knowledge of the East Asian and Mongol culture and traditions in various regions of Europe. Notable envoys and voyagers, specifically John of Plano Carpini, William of Rubruck, and Marco Polo traveled continentally to the Cathay and altered the European perspectives of the Mongols for future centuries.128
In 1620, English scientist Francis Bacon specified three seminal innovations as core components of a modernized world: literature, warfare, and navigation. Bacon noted that after the popularization of these three elements, “innumerable changes have been thence derived.”129 Printing, gunpowder, the compass, along with papermaking –– all four of China's "greatest ancient inventions" were publicized in the West during the era of the Mongols.130 Culturally, potentially due to their identities as “outsiders”, the Mongols did not inherit and dwell in the conventional Chinese ideology of keeping most, if not all, creations domestic. Rather, the Mongols discovered that continental peace, social stabilization, and political consolidation –– to some degree –– could be achieved through the dissemination of culture, social traditions, and technology.
The global culture established by the Mongols through the Pax Mongolica continued far beyond the empire’s tenure. According to Jack Weatherford, the Mongols created the “nucleus of a universal culture and world system” through their conquests.131 What heightened connectivity brought to people were diverse and multifaceted: worldly politics, expedited communication, artistic advancement and revitalization, progression in philosophy and legislation, new technology, and interregional commerce.132 Above all, Genghis Khan and his descents created an amalgamation of cultures and social values within the Mongol Empire and even deeply impacted regions that they failed to defeat in the 13th to 14th century.133 The collision of nomadic and sedentary lifestyles, the mutual respect and toleration of people’s religious beliefs, the enthusiasm for exotic culture, art, and goods, and the embracement for social diversity created the world’s last great tribal empire and one of the world’s most prosperous periods socially –– the Pax Mongolica. The Mongol Empire did not directly engender the modern world, but the Pax Mongolica did give people a glimpse of what were to come –– the globalization of the world and the rise of cosmopolitanism.
Notes
1. Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, (New York: Crown, 2004), xxiii.
2. Ibid., xxii.
3. Lauren Arnold, Princely Gifts and Papal Treasures: The Franciscan Mission to China and Its Influence on the Art of the West, 1250-1350, (San Francisco: Desiderata Press, 1999), 11.
4. David Morgan, The Mongols. 2nd ed., (Malden: Blackwell, 2008), 55.
5. Ibid., 5.
6. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 111.
7. Morgan, 30.
8. Ibid., 30-31.
9. Ibid., 50-51.
10. Igor De Rachewiltz, trans. The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century, (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 21-24.
11. Paul Ratchnevsky, Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy. Edited by Thomas Nivison Haining, Nachdr. ed., (Malden: Blackwell, 2006), 41.
12. Morgan, 31.
13. Ibid., 31.
14. Morgan, 44.
15. Ibid., 45-47.
16. Ibid., 57-58.
17. Ibid., 59.
18. Ibid., 59.
19. Ibid., 60.
20. Ibid., 60-61.
21. Ibid., 62.
22. Ibid., 62.
23. Kevin Morrison, "The Fall of Kiev." Journal of Undergraduate Research, Montview Liberty University.
24. Ibid., 2.
25. Ibid., 3.
26. Ibid., 3-4.
27. Ibid., 5.
28. Ibid., 4.
29. Ibid., 8.
30. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 235.
31. Ibid., 203-204.
32. Morris Rossabi et al, The Mongols and Global History, (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011), 17.
33. "The Mongols in World History." Asian Topics in World History, Columbia University, 6.
34. Weatherford, The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, 70.
35. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 233-234.
36. Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Quest for God: How the World's Greatest Conqueror Gave Us Religious Freedom, (New York: Viking, 2016), 13.
37. Ibid., 13.
38. Ibid., 12-13.
39. See Appendix A, “Safe Conduct Pass (Paiza) with Inscription in 'Phags-Pa Script”.
40. Timothy Michael May, The Mongol Empire: Historical Encyclopedia, (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2017), 29.
41. Ibid., 30.
42. "The Mongols in World History," Asian Topics in World History, accessed October 12, 2018, http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/main/transcript.pdf, 4.
43. Paul Ratchnevsky, Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), 210.
44. Ibid., 211.
45. Abu Bakr ibn ‘Abd Allah Ibn al-Dawadari, Kanz al-durar wa-jami al-ghurar.
46. Ibid., vol. 9, 53.
47. Donald P. Little, “Missions and Gifts Exchanged by Mamluks and Ilkhans”, Komaroff, Linda, editor. Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 39-42.
48. Ibid., 36-37.
49. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 221.
50. Ibid., 221.
51. Thomas T. Allsen, Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia, (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001), 12.
52. Devin DeWeese, “Cultural Transmission and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: Notes from the Biographical Dictionary of Ibn al-Fuwati”, Komaroff, Linda, editor. Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 11-12.
53. Ibid., 16-17.
54. Ibid., 24.
55. "The Mongols in World History," Asian Topics in World History, accessed October 12, 2018, http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/main/transcript.pdf, 6.
56. Arnold, 21.
57. Ibid., 21-22.
58. Ibid., 22.
59. Rosamond E. Mack, Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300-1600, (Berkeley: U of California P, 2002), 51-52.
60. Ibid., 52.
61. See Appendix A, “Saint Jerome Reading a Pseudo-Mongol Script”.
62. See Appendix A, “Cup with Fish-shaped Handles”.
63. Linda Komaroff and Stefano Carboni, editors. The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353, (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002), 273.
64. Ibid., 273.
65. Ibid., 273.
66. Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo. Edited by R. E. Latham, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1958), 147.
67. Hans Ulrich Vogel, Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues, (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 89.
68. Ibid., 89-91.
69. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 235.
70. Komaroff and Carboni, 273.
71. Morris Rossabi, Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the First Journey from China to the West. (Berkeley: U of California P, 2010), 1.
72. Ibid., 177-178.
73. Ibid., 178-180.
74. Mack, 18.
75. Ibid., 18.
76. Ibid., 18-19.
77. Ibid., 19.
78. Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, A History of Russia. 6th ed., (New York: Oxford UP, 2000), 74.
79. Charles J. Halperin, Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History. (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985), 123-124.
80. Reuven Amitai-Preiss and David O. Morgan. The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy. (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 270.
81. Morgan, 153-154.
82. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 237.
83. "The Mongols in World History," Asian Topics in World History, accessed October 12, 2018, http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/main/transcript.pdf, 2.
84. Ibid., 2.
85. Ibid., 111.
86. Rossabi, Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times, 121.
87. Rossabi et al. The Mongols and Global History, 7.
88. Ibid., 7.
89. Ibid., 7.
90. See Appendix A, “Christian Tombstone from Quanzhou with ‘Phags-Pa Inscriptions”.
91. W. South Coblin, A Handbook of 'Phags-pa Chinese, (Honolulu: U of Hawai'i P, 2007), 18.
92. Morgan, 110.
93. See Appendix A, “Christian Tombstone from Quanzhou with ‘Phags-Pa Inscriptions”.
94. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Quest for God, 244.
95. Ibid, 244.
96. Tjalling Halbertsma, Early Christian Remains of Inner Mongolia: Discovery, Reconstruction and Appropriation. 2nd ed., (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 1.
97. Ibid., 1-2.
98. Ibid., 19-21.
99. Ibid., 212.
100. Ibid., 213.
101. Ibid., 212-214.
102. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 196.
103. Arnold, 23-24.
104. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 197.
105. Anne F. Broadbridge, Women and the Making of the Mongol Empire, (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2018), 2-3.
106. Jack Weatherford, The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire, (New York: Crown Publishers, 2010), 78-79.
107. Ibid., 70.
108. Rossabi, et al. The Mongols and Global History, 7.
109. Morgan, 113.
110. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 203.
111. Rossabi et al. The Mongols and Global History, 9.
112. Ibid., 17-18.
113. Arnold, 70.
114. Thomas T. Allsen, Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia, (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001), 12.
115. Rossabi et al. The Mongols and Global History, 9.
116. Ibid., 7-8.
117. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 198.
118. Ibid., 203.
119. Polo, 168.
120. Morgan, 113.
121. Ibid., 113.
122. Arnold, 46-47.
123. Morgan., 113.
124. Ibid., 243-244.
125. Amy Chua, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance and Why They Fall, (New York: Anchor Books, 2007), 121-125.
126. Rossabi, The Mongols and Global History, 18.
127. Ibid., 17-18.
128. Ibid., 16-18.
129. Lord Francis Bacon, Novum Organum and Other Writings, (Devoted Publishing, 2016), 32.
130. Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 236.
131. Ibid., 234.
132. Ibid., 266-267.
133. Ibid., 267.
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Appendix A: Pieces of Material Culture
1. Safe Conduct Pass (Paiza) with Inscription in 'Phags-Pa Script
2. Saint Jerome Reading a Pseudo-Mongol Script
3. Cup with Fish-shaped Handles
4. Christian Tombstone from Quanzhou with 'Phags-Pa Inscriptions