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WORK IN PROGRESS; NOT TO BE CITED!!
Mongol Imperial Space: Between Universalism and Particularism
Michal Biran
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Mongols ruled over a huge imperial Space: In the 13th century Chinggis Khan
and his heirs created the largest contagious empire the world has ever seen, an empire
that at its height stretched from Korea to Hungary from Vietnam, Burma and Iraq to
Siberia, ruling over two thirds of the old world. Moreover, as the only superpower of
the 13th century, the empire also affected other regions, such as South East Asia,
Japan, India, the Arab Middle East and Europe, both Eastern and Western, not least
due to its contribution to the integration of the Eurasian space.
In imperial terms, the Mongol realm combined together territories which were
formerly ruled by various Sinitic, Muslim - and before them Iranian - and Steppe
empires, as well as territories that were not formerly part of an imperial system,
especially in the north. Furthermore, in the centuries that preceded the Mongol
conquest, China, the Muslim world and the Steppe were not ruled by one imperial
power but were divided among various competing polities. Many of these polities
(The Jin, The Xi Xia, The Qara Khitai, the Gaochang Uighurs, the Khwārazm Shahs,
the Rum Seljuqs) were established by nomads, semi-nomads or post-nomads, who
created effective means of ruling multi-ethnic, and economically - and sometimes
ideologically - diverse states and empires. The Mongols therefore had at their disposal
a very diverse imperial tool kit, from which they could- and did- borrow, although
they also introduced their own indigenous institutions. The legacy of the steppe
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empires, that was closer to the Mongols indigenous norms, seemed to have been the
most influential in the first stages of the shaping of their empire.
Mongol imperial space was acquired during constant expansion, that began
with the reign of Chinggis Khan (r. 1206-27), continued under his heirs, and
culminated - as well as practically ended - in 1279, with the conquest of south China's
Song dynasty by Chinggis Khan's grandson, Qubilai Qa'an (r. 1260-94). When
Qubilai came to power, however, the empire was already in the process of dissolving
into four main uluses 1 or regional empires, also called khanates, that were centered in
China, Iran, Central Asia and the Volga region, each of them headed by a Chinggisid
brunch. The Great Khan or Qa'an ruled mainly in China and Mongolia and enjoyed a
certain- though not uncontested- primacy over the other three rulers. The fall of the
Great Khan's state, usually known as the Yuan dynasty, in 1368, is generally deemed
to be the end of the Mongol period in world history so this will be the chronological
limit of this paper. 2 I will refer to two main periods, that of the United Mongol
Empire (1206-60) and that of the four successor states (1260-1368) although as we
shall see below, from the Mongols point of view the division between the two eras
was not as clear cut as it is presented here and in various textbooks. 3
The paper seeks to explain how was the world conceived by the Mongols and
their subjects in the different periods and places; stressing the interplay between the
Mongols' universal vision; their construction of a "Chinggisid space" and their
revival of local spatial concepts in Mongol-ruled China and Iran. I will conclude in
assessing the impact of the Mongol Empire on the shaping of future imperial space.
1
Ulus means the people subject to a certain Mongol prince, hence state, empire or joint patrimony
[Alsen 1987, 237; Buell. 2003, 297]. The term manifests the interplay between people and territory in
the Mongol world view.
2
From a Muslim vantage point, however, the 'Mongol moment‘ sometimes extends until the fall of the
Timurids in 1500.
3
For a general background on the Mongol Empire see e.g. Morgan 2007; May 2012; Biran
2015a[CWH].
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1.Creating the Chinggisid Space: World Conquest and its Aftermath (1206-1260)
Mongol concept of space was based on their ideology: As is well Known the Mongols
believed that they received a heavenly mandate to rule over earth. This notion
originated in earlier steppe empires, and was close to the Chinese Mandate of Heaven.
However there were quite a few differences between the Mongol mandate and that of
their predecessors and neighbors. The steppe mandate was conferred by Tengri,
(Heaven), the supreme sky god, who conferred heavenly charisma (su) and the right
to rule on earth to a single clan, each of whose members could theoretically be
elevated to the supreme rulership, represented by the title Great Khan
(Khaqan/Kaghan in Turkic, Qa'an in Mongolian), while non-members were not
eligible candidates for the throne. This meant not only that succession struggles were
endemic, but also was that Empire was conceived as a joint property of the whole
royal clan, and the Qa'an was therefore expected to share its wealth and territory with
its kin. Moreover, unlike the Chinese case, Tengri did not bestow his mandate on every
generation, i.e. the steppe world was often left without a unifying ruler, although the notion
of the mandate remained as “an ideology in reserve” 4 even during the periods of disunion,
ready to be revived if the creation of a supra-tribal empire were to be attempted again. The
possession of the mandate from Tengri had to be confirmed by the ruler’s success in
battle on the one hand and by shamanic ceremonies on the other, and was reinforces
by the ruler’s control of sacred territory (see below). 5
What was the scope of this mandate? When Chinggis Khan was enthroned in
1206 his mandate was limited to ruling "the people of the felt walled tents", namely
4
Di Cosmo 1999, 20.
5
Golden 1982, 2006; Biran 2015b [NACCint].
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the steppe nomads, 6 just like the mandate of his Turkic predecessors in the Steppe and
despite their universalistic rhetoric. 7 Following Chinggis Khan's continuous military
successes however, especially his campaign against the Khwarazm Shah in 1220-25,
the mandate was broadened to include the whole word, both steppe and sawn, as is
made clear in Chinggis Khan's edict:
"This is the order of the everlasting God: In heaven there is only one eternal
God; on earth there is only one lord, Chinggis Khan." 8
The successes of Chinggis's heirs in the next decades further bolstered these
universalistic claims. Already Ogodei, Chinggis Khan's son and heir (r. 1229-41), is
called dalai-i-qan [the Oceanic or universal khan; glossed in Chinese as Hainei
Huangdi 海内皇帝- the emperor of [all] within the seas], and the title appears also on
his heir's seal. 9 The Mongols' heavenly mandate was a major element of their
ideology. It appeared at the head of their letters, edicts and seals both in its terse
Mongolian form (Möngke Tengri-yin küchün-dür; Qaghan-u su-dur, ie By the Might
of Eternal Heaven; By the Good Fortune of the Qaghan) and in various other
languages embellished with Quranic verses, references from the Confucian classics or
even biblical quotes, according to their prospective audiences. 10 Champions of self
6
SH/ De Rachewilz par 202, 1: 133; par 244, 1:168 ; Later sources of course assign Chinggis Khan
the mandate to rule the world from this date, but this was probably an anachronism. See Jackson
2006.
7
For the Turkic rhetoric and reality see the Orthon inscriptions Tekin 1968. Golden 2006.
8
Rubruck/Jackson 1990, 248. Rubruck is citing Mongke's letter to Louis IX which begins by citing an
edict of Chinggis Khan. CF. the discussion in Jacksonn 2006 after Vogelin 1940 [rpt. 2010]. The
Mongols defined their realm as "whoever we are Mo'al [=Mongols] or Naiman or Merkit or Muselman
[ Muslims]. I see the Muslims as referring to the Khwarazm Shahs' subject; Naiman to the former Qara
Khitai (subnmitted on 1218) and Merkit to the forest tribes the rebellion of which was subdued around
1217. For Chinggis Khan's moving from raids to conquest and the importance of the campaign against
the Khwarazm Shah see Biran 2007, ch. 3.
9
SH/De Rachewiltz par 280; DeRachewiltz, 1983; Cleaves and Mostaert 1952, 485-95.
10
My favorite is Hulegu's 1262 letter to Louis IX king of France, in which he cites the Shaman Teb
Tengri enthroning Chinggis Khan using the words of the prophet Jeremiah (Meyvaert 1980, translated
in Babe and Bober 2010: 156-9) which starts like this: "God who at sundry times and in divers manners
spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto our grandfather
Chinggis Khan by Teb Tengri (meaning prophet of God) his relative, miracously revealing future
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propaganda, the Mongols also often supply foreigners with lengthy catalogues of the
rulers they had subdued in order to document their miraculous success. 11
In terms of space, this means that the Mongols divided the world into two
parts: the first, the one they already conquered and the second, the part that still need
to be subjugated. This was rather similar to the concept of the abode of Islam (Dār alIslām) and the abode of war (Dār al-ḥarb) in the Muslim world, or the Chinese
concept of All Under Heaven (tianxia 天下, where extension was expected to come
not necessarily through war but through the people recognition of the moral
superiority of the Chinese emperor). 12 Unlike those two concepts, however, the
Mongols defined the division not in territorial terms but in terms of people- just like
their victories were described as winning over rulers, or as the wealth of a nomadic
chief is measured not in territory - quite abundant in the steppe- but in people- a much
rarer resource. The Mongols differentiated between people who were pacified or
submissive (il irgen) and rebellious people (bulgha irgen), who would eventually be
pacified. 13 The rebellion of the latter was not directed only against Mongol authority
but also against Heaven that enabled it, and was therefore futile. The Mongols took
their world conquest mission rather literally. They also took great pain to eliminate
events to him through the words of Teb Tengri, saying in effect: "I alone am the Almighty God on high
and I have set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to be king of all the world to root out and to
pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant: (Jeremiah 1:10 in italics). .
11
For examples, see Juvaynī/Qazwini, I, 95; Juvaynī/Boyle, 121-22; Skelton et al. 1995, 85 and 10406; and Meyvaert 1980, 249 and 253-57 The propaganda worked- even a hostile writer like Juzjani,
writing in Delhi ca. 1260, had to admit that the Mongols possessed a ‘heavenly mandate (qaẓā-i
āsmānī),’ and that ‘by the decrees of Heaven and commands of Divine Destiny the turn of world
sovereignty (jahānbānī) passed from the Rulers of Iran and Turan to Chinggis Qan and his
descendants.’ Jūzjānī/Lees, 324, 344, 380 and Jūzjānī/Raverty, II, 869, 1006, 1070.
12
For the abode of Islam and the abode of war see e.g. EI2 Dar al-Islam, Dar al-Harb; for All under
Heaven see Pines 2009.
13
De Rachewiltz, SH, 2:550 ff; Fiachetti 2014. Rubruck put it nicely: the Mongols have
‘reached a level of arrogance that they believe the whole world is longing to make peace with them’
(Rubruck/J 1990, 172-3).
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competing rulers with universal claims such as the Abbasid Caliph and the Jin and
Song emperors.
But despite this emphasis on people, territoriality was also important, as it
serves as a proof for Heaven's grace. Mongols' popular phrase for describing the
universalistic dimensions of their empire was that they rule "from the place where the
sun rises till the place where it sets" namely East to West or the entire world. This
phrase, first used (as far as I know) in Guyug's letter's to the Pope in 1246 - i.e. after
the European campaign of 1237-42 which indeed greatly enlarged the East-West
scope of the Empire - was repeated in a variety of Mongolian, Muslim and Chinese
sources for describing the Empire's realm, both throughout its continuous expansion
and after it stopped. 14 Indeed when the empire stopped expanding its sheer size was
brought as sufficient proof for its legitimation.
The original steppe mandate was reinforced by controlling sacred territories,
which were considered repositories of charisma. Such territory was the Ottükan
mountains near the Orkhon river in central Mongolia that was celebrated in the Turkic
Orkhon inscriptions of the eighth century and in which the Turks' successors, the
Uighurs (744-840), later erected their capital. The Mongol capital, Qara Qorum, was
also established in this region, and we have both Chinese and Muslim evidence that
before choosing its location, the Mongols actually looked for remains of former
nomadic empires. Excavating Steles and checking Chinese history books, the
Mongols looked for both historical and archaeological evidence as well as folk
memories, and making the best out of them for enhancing the prestigious and
14
For Guyug's letter to the Pope, originally in Mongolian, see e.g. de Rachewiltz 1971, 213-14; also
Mongke's letter to the King of France cited by Rubruck/J 1990, 249 [Latin]. This phrasing appears e.g.
in Wassaf, 452 [Persian]; Ibn al-Fuwati 1995, 3:319 [Arabic]; Wang Shidian, Mishujian zhi, 74
[Chinese].
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charismatic location of their capital. 15 Qara Qorum, however, was established a few
tens of kilometers apart from the Turkic and Uighur sites, in a location allegedly
chosen by Chinggis Khan, perhaps for both enjoying the region's charisma
repositories and stressing the uniqueness of the Chinggisid experience.
In 1260, however, Qubilai Khan transferred the Mongol capital from
Qaraqorum to north China - eventually to Beijing. This can easily be explained by
strategic, political, economic and now even climatic considerations, 16 but entitled the
renunciation of Qara Qorum's repositories of charisma. By 1260 however, the
charisma was so deeply imbedded in the Chinggisid family, 17 by then ruling
territories much vaster than the steppe, that such concession was not a problem.
Following 1260 Mongolia gradually declined to a degree of a marginal periphery in
the Qa'an ulus, losing much of its former prestige. But by the 1260 we can speak
about a Chinggisid space, ruled by "the Golden Family," that continued to share
certain characteristics even when the Empire began to dissolve.
III. Chinggisid Space versus Former Imperial Space: Post-1260 Concepts
In 1260, due to succession struggles, its sheer size, and the fact that it already
reached the ecological boundary of the steppe, the Mongol Empire began to dissolve,
in a process that eventually resulted in the creation of four regional empires centred in
China, Iran, Central Asia and the Volga region. 18
Yet despite the dissolution and the various- and often bloody- disputes among
the Mongol successor states, they still saw themselves as brotherly states and held on
15 15
Juwayni/Qazwini 1939 1:39-46; 191-2; Juwayni/Boyle 1997, 54-61, 236; cf. the version in YS
1976, 122/2999; Su Tianjue 26:1b-2a; Also YS 146:3464-5, 180:4159; Yelu Zhu n. d. , 2:7a; Allsen
1996 , 126; Atwood 2013.
16
Rossabi 1988; for a possible climatic reason see Pederson et. al, 2014.
17
One of the main expression of this charisma is the Chinggisid principle accortding to which only
descendants of Chinggis Khan are eligible to be rulers. See Biran 2007.
18
.Jackson 1978, 1999; Allsen 2001
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to the ideal of a Chinggisid unity. Even at the height of the inter-Mongol conflicts in
the last decades of the 13th century, the rival khanates continued to exchange gifts
and messengers; treat each other in kinship terms (aqa and ini, big and little brothers);
and, even while searching for non-Mongol allies against their own kin, referred to
their conflicts as family feuds, that were never intended to eliminate their rivals. 19 The
various states were connected not only by the postal system that existed throughout
the Chinggisid realm but also by the appanages (qubi) allocated to various princes
and princesses from newly conquered regions, often in a territory that became
connected to a rival khanate. 20
Throughout the post 1260 period, Chinggisid unity remained a highly praised
ideal, and the various uluses were well aware of their common origin and their world
conquest mission- in inter-Mongol diplomacy the rival sides repeatedly reminded
each other that Chinggis Khan had fought for conquering huge parts of earth, and
therefore his descendants should cherish his toil and continue his mission, not
sabotage it. 21 Indeed expansion was now much harder, as a vast mobilization of the
whole Imperial resources was no longer possible and because each state had to defend
itself also from its Mongol rivals. Moreover, since by 1260 the Empire already
reached the ecological border of steppe nomadism in all its fronts, further expansion
demanded organization, techniques and equipment that were different from the former
light cavalry campaign. The Mongols managed to break the ecological border in
south China- where the gain in terms of both economy and legitimation was by far the
19
Kim Hodong 2009. For alliances, such as. Golden Horde-Mamluk alliance against the Ilkhans or the
Ilkhans' attempts of allying the European kingdoms against the Mamluks, see e.g. Amitai-Preiss, 1995
20
For the Jam see Silverstein 2007, Allsen 2011; for the appanages Allsen 2001, Matsuda 2010.
21
See e.g. Wassaf, 452, Biran 1997 for further examples..
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greatest. They were less successful in other fronts. 22 The Chinggisids were aware that
their feuds were halting future expansion thereby jeopardizing Chinggis Khan's
mission, and thus simultaneously with the boasting of how they already control the
world (see below), the ideal of continued expansion up to a full world conquest was
also alive. This is best documented in the descriptions of inter-Mongol negotiations
before the signing of the peace agreement of 1304, that was due to end the four
decades' conflict between the Central Asian Mongols and the Qa'an together with
further inter-Mongol enmities. Wassaf's paraphrased a message of the Chaghadaid
Khan Du'a (r. 1282-1307) who initiated the peace, in which the latter suggested that
after the peace :the Qa'an will turn 'to the rebellious groups in the fringes of Khitai
[north China] and Manzi [South China]', i.e. to Southeast Asia, the Chaghadaids and
Ogodeids against 'Hind, Sind and Delhi', namely towards India; the Ilkhans to "the
lands of the west, namely Egypt and Syria, Rum (Byzantium) and the Afranj (the
Franks in Western Europe)'; while the Golden Horde rulers to the 'enemies of their
family' (outside its realm). 23 Interestingly the Franks, by then Ilkhanid allies, are also
enumerated among the future targets of expansion, thereby suggesting that such
alliances with non-Chinggisids were temporary at best (in a similar way of the
Muslim hudna [armistice] or sulh [truce]). Such expansion, however, never
materialized, partly because the peace agreement started another decade of warfare in
Central Asia with repercussions to the other states. 24 When the war ended in the
early1320s, if not earlier, all the parts of the Chinggisid realm acknowledged the
22
The use of the Muslim siege engineers in the siege of the Yangzi town is as example to successful
exchange of experts which indeed continued but the scale was completely different from the well
designed campaigns of the United Empire.
23
Wassaf 452-3.
24
Biran 1997, Amitai suggested, that the waning of this imperial ideology, manifested in the 1323
peace agreement with the Mamluks, was one of the reasons of the Ilkhanate's collapse in 1335.Amitai
1999, 2005. Perhaps the urge for continued conquest was stronger at the Ilkhanate that was surrounded
by many neighboring non-Mongol territories (whereas in the East the Yuan reached the edge of Asia at
least in continental terms).
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nominal authority of the Great Khan's ulus in China. in a way reminiscent to the
relations between Muslim polities of the late Abbasid period and the Caliph. This
comparison was suggested by the Mamluk historian al-Umari (d. 1349) who stressed
the voluntary acknowledgment of the Qa'an's authority by the other polities. 25 The
Chinggisid space was visually displayed in the Yuan map of the 1331, that
acknowledged its divisions: The map, included in the Jingshi Dadian ( 經世大典,
The Encyclopedia of Yuan Dynasty Institutions), schematically displayed the four
Mongol khanates, including also some places located outside them, mainly further
west. The map included clearly-defined borders among the four khanates, and
between them and the "outer" space. Yet while polities outside the Chinggisid realm
are not named, and can be deduced from the included toponyms (e.g. Damascus,
Constantinople, India and Kashmir) the three western khanates are defined on the map
as the fiefs (fengdi 封地) of their reigning Khans: - the Golden horde khan, Ozbeg (r.
1313-41); the Chaghadaid Khan, Dura Temur, (r. 1331) and the Ilkhan Abu Sa'id
(r.1316-35).
26
Yet simultaneously with the concept of the Chinggisid space and its limits,
universal rhetoric and references to world rule as something that was already achieved
continued in the post 1260 stage as well. Since all four successor states were vast
25
Umari/ Lech p. 26 “He (the Qa'an) resides in the east, Khanbaliq of Khitay and he is the most
important ruler in the region of Turan where ancient states of the Turks had existed. He exerts
suzerainty, just like the caliphs had done before, over the other three [rulers in the west]. These
rulers inform him about important matters in their statessuch as the eruption of war, or the
punishment of great amirs because of infringement of order called yāsa. They do not necessarily
have to do it, but it was observed as a sort of custom. According to the testimony of Nizam al-Din
b. al-Hakim al-Katib al-Busaidi, the Qān constantly sends letters to the three qāns and emphasizes
concord and harmony. In the letter sent to them his name comes ahead of all the others, and when
they sent letters to him they put his name in front of their own. They voluntarily granted him
priority over them." The main difference between the Chinggisid realm and the late-Abbasid
"Muslim league of nations" (to use Kennedy's idiom) was that the relations between the Mongol
states were defined in terms of kinship, not religion.
26
For the Jingshi dadian map see e.g. Bretscneider 1888, vol. 2; Cai Meicun 2006; Hyunhee Park
2012, 2013.
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polities and, moreover, as the empire was perceived as a joint patrimony of the
Chinggisids, each state can appropriate the achievements of Chinggis Khan and his
heirs, and proudly present them to its local audience, for both propaganda against
enemies and internal legitimation.. 27
The continuing adherence to universal space find expression in Mongol
commissioned historical, geographical and cartographic works, which flourished after
the dissolution of the Empire. One important consequence of the empire's dimensions
and its world conquest ideology (whether understood as mission complete or as work
in progress) was the huge increase in the knowledge about the world, in terms of its
geography, history and its visual representation in cartography. Such information was
first collected in order to facilitate further military campaigns: Chinggis Khan and his
heirs ascribed high importance to gathering good intelligence about their enemies,
including spatial information such as the type of the terrain, and possible routes, and
made full use of it. 28 This was continued in the period of the successor states, and we
found the Mongols collecting and/or preparing maps of border regions such as Java,
Burma, Yunnan, Anatolia and the Mediterranean. However, the more ambitious
Yuan and Ilkhanid works are explained not by military needs but as a result of the
unique dimensions of the empire:
In 1286 Jamal al-Din, a Muslim astronomer in Qubilai's court, who was also
responsible for the introduction of the first terrestrial globe to China, 29 asked Qubilai
27
e.g. Abaqa's letter to Baybars in 1268-9, in Amitai 1994 (Amitai 2007 X;11-33, esp. 17-18), as well
as Hulegu's letter mentioned above..
28
A notable example is Chinggis Khan's conquest of Bukhara: Chinggis Khan's main army advanced to
the city not on the usual way, through Samarqand, but via the allegedly impenetrable Kizil Kom
desert, appearing in early 1220 before Bukhara's gates, some 650 km behind the enemy's line, is an
impressive example to the use of such information. which in this case sealed the fate of the Khwarazm
Shah's kingdom
This terestrial globe known as ‫ ﻛﺮة اﻷرض‬Kura-yi ard = 苦来亦阿儿子 Gulaiyi a’erzhi) was one of
the western instrument brought by Jamal al-Din to china. It was made of wood, which is formed into a
ball, 7 parts are water; their color is green, 3 parts are land, their color is white. Streames, rivers, lakes
and seas are drawn, and they crossed like veins through it. Small squares are drawn and they are used
29
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Khan to sponsor the production of a unified geographic treatise that would cover all
the lands that the Mongols had conquered and will be accompanied by a map:
"The entire land of China was very small in the past. The geographic books of
the Khitai (Northern Chinese) had only forty to fifty types. Now all of the land
from the place of sunrise to sunset has become our territory. And therefore, do
we not need a more detailed map? How can we understand distant places? The
Islamic maps are at our hands. And therefore, could we combine them [with the
Chinese maps] to draw a [world?] map?" 30
Qubilai was convinced and ordered the Palace Library to collect geographic
gazetteers and maps from every region of his empire in order to compile the great
treatise. Completed in 1303, the Treatise on the Great Unified Realm of the Great
Yuan (Dayuan yi tong zhi) contained 1,300 chapters. Although it did not survive
today except for part of its introduction, it must have included extensive descriptions
of foreign countries. This assumption is reinforced by the available maps: The most
impressive Yuan map is by far is the The Map of Integrated Regions and Terrains and
of Historical Countries and Capitals (Honil gangli yeokdae gukdo jido 混一疆理歷
代國都) – produced in Korea in 1402 but based on Yuan maps. Recently, Kim
Hodong who analyzed its toponyms, urged that the original place names were
written in the Mongolian-Uighur script, and suggested that the map of Jamal al-Din
for measuring the circumference and the distance of the routes. [Song Lian 1976, 48:998-9.] This
unique object, probably a product of Ilkhanid astronomical center in Maghara did not leave its mark on
Chinese spatial concept (this would have to wait for the Jesuits' globes of the 17th century), nor did the
longitudes and latitudes implied by the squares adopted there, but the place names might have been
helpful for Yuan maps. See Hyunhee Park 2013].
30
Wang Shidian, 74; cited at Hyunhee Park 2012, 129-30; see also Hyunhee Park 2013.
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was the basis for this map. 31 This map included more than a 100 places in Europe (inc.
Marselle and Sevilia) and 35 in Africa! and it makes sense that Muslim works were
used for asserting such amount of new information. 32
The existing Ilkhanid maps are far less impressive but the most important
universal work in this realm belongs to the field of history, not geography. This is off
course the first world history compiled by the Ilkhanid historian and vizier Rashid alDin (d. 1318). Let us return to the famous words of the Ilkhan Oljeitu (r. 1304-16)
when he commissioned the work to Rashid al-Din:
Until now no one at any time has made a history of all inhabitants of the climes
of the world and the various classes and groups of humans, there is no book in
this realm that informs about all countries and regions, and no one has delved
into the history of the ancient kings. In these days, when, thank God, all corners
of the earth are under our control and that of Chinggis Khan’s illustrious family,
and philosophers, astronomers, scholars, and historians of all religions and
nations – Cathay, Machin, India, Kashmir, Tibet, Uyghur, and other nations of
Turks, Arabs, and Franks – are gathered in droves at our glorious court, each
and every one of them possesses copies of the histories, stories, and beliefs of
their own people, and they are well informed of some of them. It is our
considered opinion that of those detailed histories and stories a compendium
that would be perfect should be made in our royal name. 33
The book was supposed to include a geographical volume and a map, both did not
survive, and perhaps were never compiled, but Rashid al-Din's world history which
indeed included (apart from that of the Mongols) that of the Chinese, Indian, the
31
Kim Hodong 2013 (unpublished paper).
Hyunhee Park 2012; and see the forthcoming issue of Journal of Asian History.
33
Rashid/ Thackston 1988-9, 1:16.
32
14
Muslims, the Jews, the Turks and the Franks, contained a huge amount of
geographical information, esp. on Mongolia and East Asia. 34
In Oljeitu's words, just as in Jamal al-Din address to Qubilai, it is the space
that creates knowledge- it is because we, Mongols, now rule the world that we want to
know more about it. Interestingly both history and map included also regions and
people that were not included in the Chinggisid space, namely were not politically
ruled by the Mongols. Here too Oljeitu's words may be indicative: in his commission,
Oljeitu did not differentiate between people and territories conquered by the Mongols
and those that were not, claiming instead that the whole world is under Chinggis
Khan's family. Apparently the flocking of these "non-conquered people" (Indian,
Franks, Arabs) to his court was taken as their recognition of the Chinggisid
superiority, perhaps of their being part of the il irgen, submissive people. This is
indeed reminiscent of the Chinese concept of tribute. Indeed even beforehand , in
fact since the halt of the military expansion, even Qubilai had to satisfy himself with
formal acknowledgment of his superiority from various kingdoms in south and south
East Asia, in a way reminiscent of the Chinese classical tribute system. The
terminology was still one of submission (jiang 降), and people- as either hostages, or
tribute- were demanded to arrive at the Yuan court, but otherwise the Mongols
satisfied with the various rulers' participation in their economic empire, centered in
China. 35 Indeed in terms of economic and cultural integration, the Mongols- - mainly
due to the huge population movements they initiated or encouraged- managed to unite
34
For Rashid al-Din and his work see e.g. Allsen 2001; Burnes, Akasoi and Talalim 2014.
Lo Jung-pang 2011 [1957], 313; Sen Tansen 2006; Fiachetti 2015; see e.g. YS134/3260, 19/405,
210/4660, 4669, where the advocats of diplomacy instead of war include Mongols and Uighurs. Yuan
Chinese literati often referred to war as the first stage in taking over a region, to be replaced latter in
"cultvation of culture." See Langlois 2007 for several examples.
35
15
the whole Old world, including parts over which they did not rule. 36 Yet the shift
from a political to economic and cultural space, namely the renouncement of the
world conquest ideology, probably accelerated the political disintegration of the
Mongol realm. 37
Thus in the post-1260 we have both a universal space, encompassing the
whole world, and a Chinggisid space, politically held by the Golden family. Yet this
is not the whole story: While the universal ideology was still alive, the Empire's
dissolution also resulted in closer connection between the Mongols and their subjects
in each ulus, due to both practical considerations- such as gaining legitimacy or ruling
more effectively- and assimilation. This led to the embracing of world religions
(Islam in the three western Khanates; Tibetan Buddhism in China). It resulted in the
building of new capitals, serving as both economic centers and symbols of power for
the various uluses, and located on the border of the arid and agricultural zones, i.e.,
closer to the steppe and generally North Eastern of the location of former capitals. 38 It
also led to adopting local legitimation concepts in places with strong imperial
tradition such as China (Confucianism) and Iran (pre-Islamic Iranian legitimation). In
a typical nomadic amalgamation, the various legitimation concepts- Chinggisid,
religious, local- coexisted and were not mutually exclusive. In spatial terms, this led
to the revival of former local Imperial concepts- that of The Great Unity (Dayitong,
36
E.g., Biran 2015a; Kuroda 2009. The conquest of the Song, which made the Mongols a maritime
superpower and enabled them to connect maritime and continental routes, was the key point in creating
such an integrated economic world. Part of this integration was a huge increase in geographical that
was not confined to official compilation or to the Empire realm: the constant movement of peoplesuch as soldiers, administrators, diplomats, merchants, missionaries, adventurers- inside the empire's
borders and beyond- encouraged it, and is best manifested in the rich array of travelogues that
originated in the Mongol period, the most notable examples are of course Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta,
natives of Venice and Tangier, both outside the Chinggisid realm.
37
See Amitai 2005 re the Ilkhanate's situation.
38
In China the capital shifted from Kaifeng and Hangzhou to Beijing; in the eastern Islamic world it
moved from Baghdad to Tabriz in Adharbaijan, in Russia from Kiev first to Saray (south-east of Kiev)
and then to Moscow (north-east again), and in Central Asia (the least defined case) from Balasaghun
(modern north Kyrgyzstan) to the region of Almaliq (in north Xinjiang). Biran 2004; for the more
complicated situation in Central Asia, see Biran 2013.
16
namely the unification of the Sinitic world under one ruler) in China and of Īrān
zamīn (the land of Iran), namely Iran as a political unit independent of the rest of the
Muslim world, which means the revival of the term Iran as a political concept - (as
opposed to its place in collective memory and literature) for the first time since the
fall of the Sassanid empire in the 7th century. 39
These concepts fitted quite nicely with the borders of the respective successor
states: the territory directly under the great Khan's rule included- after 1279- both
northern and southern China, united by the Mongols after more than 350 years of
division. That it also it included much more territory, e.g. Mongolia, Manchuria, Tibet,
Yunnan and Korea- can only add to Mongol legtimation. 40 The Ilkhanate ruled over
Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus, parts of Anatolia, parts of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, a
territory reminiscent of the Sassanid realm (224-651AD). In both cases embracing
the local concept must have been quite easy for the Mongols, as both concepts include
a strong universal component and ideological elements similar to the Mongol ones the
Mandate of Heaven is central to the Chinese concept and the charisma
(farnah/farrah/khwarnah) to the Iranian. Moreover, as highly practical rulers, the
Mongols probably acknowledged the advantages of reviving such concepts for coopting local elites. The initiative probably came from the Mongols' local advisors,
who strove to accommodate their foreign lords into the local tradition: already in 1262
Hulegu received an illustrated copy of the Shahnameh, the Iranian "book of kings",
into which he was inserted as the reigning Sultan, 41 and Qubilai, whose original
appanage was in north China, was surrounded with Chinese advisors long before he
39
Fragner 1997, 2006; Brook 2010.
Though I did not see it mentioned specifically apart from Mongolia. See the examples below.
41
Ibn al-Fuwati 1995, 3:317 for further attempts to accommodate the Mongols into Iranian and
Islamic history see e.g. Melville 2001, 2007 and below.
40
17
became the Great Khan. 42. Indeed local scholars in China and Iran, often employed or
subsidized by the Mongols, were happy to promote the revival of their former
imperial concepts. 43
Most of the local elites indeed saw their space in its particular, regional
context. See, for example, Song Lian (1301-81) , later the compiler of the Yuan
official history (Yuanshi) under the succeeding Ming dynasty, a Jiangnan man (i.e.
Southerner) who refused to serve the Yuan but certainly acknowledged its mandate.
In an introduction to a collection of biographies he compiled in the 1340s or 50s Song
says:
Our August Yuan received the bright mandate from heaven to bring peace to the
Sinic world; where the heavenly lance pointed,the myriad directions all
followed. At the first drum the many (Mongolian) tribes came on board; at the
second drum the (Tangut) Xia 夏 people sued for peace (in 1226); at the third
drum the (Jurchen imperial) 完顏 Wanyan clan submitted (in 1234); and at the
fourth drum the Southern Song was pacified (in 1279). The vast realm was
unified under one teaching, all were the emperor’s servants. With good plans
and judgment, his every action was victorious. As well, he relied upon capable
men and unwaveringly loyal officials; they enabled him to proclaim the power
of heaven, and such was the divine speed with which the deeds were performed
and governance was established. 我皇元受天明命, 撫安方夏, 天戈 所指, 萬方
畢從. 是故一鼓而諸部服, 再鼓而夏人納欵, 三鼓而完顔氏請 降, 四鼓而南
42
43
Rossabi 1988.
See the many examples in Brook 2010; Fragner 1997, 2006; Krawulsky, 1989, 2011.
18
宋平, 東西止日之出入, 罔不洽被政教, 共惟帝臣. 雖睿謀雄斷, 動無不勝, 亦
頼熊羆之士、不貳心之臣, 有以誕宣天威, 故功成治定 若是之神速也. 44
Obviously for Song Lian, the Yuan achievement is the unification of the Sinitic
world- he does not refer to the Mongol territorial gains in other fronts- not even in
Korea or against the Dali kingdom in South west China, both included in the Great
Khan's realm. 45
Another major example appears in the introduction of Nizam al-tawarikh, a
Persian historical work going from Adam to Abaqa (r. 1265-1280), Hulegu's son and
successor and the reigning Ilkhan when Baydawi was writing in 1275, namely twenty
years before Ilkhanid Islamization. Baydawi, a noted religious scholar famous for his
Quranic commentary wrote:
I have collected this book from reliable chronicles and named it Nizam altawärikh ['The arrangement of chronicles'], for in it I have connected the
sequence of governors and kings of Iran — which extends from the Euphrates to
the Oxus, or rather from the Arab lands to the borders of Khojand, as will be
mentioned — from Adam (peace be on him) to the present day, which is 21
Muharram 674 hijri [17 July 1275]. 46
44
Song Lian 1999, 1, cited in Langlois 2009, 133-34.
45
See also Yuan Mingshan, the Stele inscription of Bayan 丞
相 淮 安 忠 武 王 碑 in Quanyuanwen 76:346ff., in which Chinggis is
described as subjugating the Kerayet, Merkits, the Xi Xia and the
Jin, thereby ruling two thirds of All under Heaven. The remaining
太祖皇帝莆起朔方
，
正統命帝元
，
t h i r d i s s u p p o s e d l y a d d e d b y Q u b i l a i a f t e r t h e S o n g c o n q u e s t . 天以
博爾朮、木華黎、博兒忽、赤老溫四傑輔之。滅克
，
，
，
，
烈 滅乃 蠻 滅夏 滅金 乃有天下三分之二。
Baidawi/T., p. 3, modified with reference to Istanbul ms. 3605/2, f. 102r-v and Princeton Garrett ms.
247B, f. lv-2r., as translated by Melville 2001, 76.
46
19
The Mongols appear as the 8th and last dynasty in the book's fourth part, the one
devoted to the independent Iranian dynasties (which appear after parts dedicated to
the prophets (beginning with Adam), the pre-Islamic Iranian kings and the Caliphate)
he says:
"The eighth group is the Mongols, whose leader and chief is Chinggis Khan. He
attacked the Khwarazmians in AH 617; he and his sons govern many lands of
the Khata and Turk. They conquered the whole of Iran and subjugated its
kingdoms and kings. Of his sons, Hulegu Khan was the first who ruled Iran and
conquered its territories. His son Abaqa [is] king of Iran-zamin, Rum, 'Iraq and
all the[ir] kingdoms. He is strongly inclined towards justice and compassion and
favours the Muslims entirely. 47
While Baydawi was aware of the Ilkhans' Chinggisid connections, his focus was on
their rule of Iran which he defines once as stretching from the Euphrates to the Oxus,
excluding parts of Iraq and Anatolia that were also under the Ilkhanate's rule.
Did the Mongols themselves see their space in these terms? The Mongols' voice is not
easily found in the sources, most of them penned by Mongol subjects. However,
there is no Mongolian word for China- the Mongols continued to refer to Khitai/Kitad
for north China and Manzi/Nangiyas for south China (as did also Marco Polo and
Rashid al-Din). 48 Moreover, in two Sino Mongolian inscriptions of 1328 and 1362,
the Mongols made clear that for them Da Yuan, as their dynasty was known in China
(Mon. Dai On) equals Yeke Monggol Ulus (the Great Mongolian Nation, as the united
47
Garrett ms. f. 41r-v; cf. Baid‫ה‬wi/T., pp. 94-5, Baid‫ה‬wi/H., p. 83; many variations, as translated by
Melville 2001 77. See also the very similar passage in Wassaf 1269H., 55-56.
48
Hodong Kim 2006.
20
Mongol Empire was called in Mongolian). 49 Apparently for the Mongols the great
unification must have referred to the whole Chinggisid space.
As for the Ikhans, although under Abaqa they built their first palace in Iranian
land on the site of a former Sassanian site known as Takht-i Sulayman, the throne of
Solomon, adorning it with tiles bearing citations from the Shahnamah 50 their letters,
coins and inscriptions hardly mention the name Iran or Iranian titles like King of
Kings (Shahanshah). 51 The Chinggisid ideology of world conquest, however, is very
much present in these medias (see Hulegu's letter cited above) well into the 14th
century, and remained valid even after 1295 when Islamic formulas are added. 52
Apparently the Mongols felt more at home in the universal world of Islam, on its
leadership they can compete after extinguishing the Caliph, then in the more limited
notion of Iran.
In the steppe khanates there were no developed former imperial concepts to
revive, yet at least in the Chaghadaid case, we can detect a certain local spatial
concept, defined in the terms of the Chinggisid space: The Chaghadaids, after their
restoration of power under Du'a (r. 1282-1307) referred to themselves as Dumdadu
Monggol Ulus, the Middle Mongoi ulus, a name attested in Latin as the Medium Imperium
and in Arabic in their designation by the local Jamal Qarshi ( fl. early 14th century) as
Wasitat al-`iqd, the central link in the (Chinggisid) necklace. 53 The designation,
probably playing on the prestige connected with the Chinese concept of the Middle
Kingdom , refers to the Chaghadaids' geographical location in the midst of the other
49
Cleaves 1951, 53; Cleaves 1949, 62.
Huff 2006
51
Amitai 2013, 102-105.
52
Amitai 2013, chs 1, 2; Amitai 1999. [add citation?]
53
Dai Matsui 2009; Qarshi 2005, XX.
50
21
Mongol states. I can not tell how the Ulus Jochi, often referred to as the northern
lands (bilad al-shimal) in the Mamluk and Ilkhanid sources, refer to themselves. 54
Both the Mongols' universal and global concepts and the more particular
regional ones were influential in shaping future imperial space.
III: Shaping Future Imperial Space:
The Mongol period had an enormous impact on the shaping of future imperial
space in Eurasia. The particular imperial concepts, namely the boundaries of the four
successor states, were most dominant: In China, they [re]created a unified entity that
remained undivided throughout the later imperial period and laid the foundation for a
multi-ethnic polity, ruled from Beijing, that also control large tracks of nomadic lands.
The Mongols revived the notion of Iran as a distinct political entity within the Muslim
world, as it remained almost ever since and certainly from the 16th century. In Russia,
they turned a group of city-states into the nucleus of a huge Russian empire. With respect
to Central Asia, the main effect of the Mongol period was related to people, not territories:
There Mongol rule resulted in a major ethnic reconfiguration which led to the
disappearance of many established steppe people- such as the Kitans, Uighurs, Tanguts
and Qipchaqs- and to the emergence- again mainly in the 16th century- of the modern
Central Asian people such as the Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Nogais and Tatars, most of them
coalesced around a certain (dead or alive) Mongol prince. 55 Certainly the terms Mongolia
and Moghulistan (the eastern Chaghadaid Khanate roughly equivalent to Kirgizstan,
south Kazakhstan and Xinjiang) are another- more local- spatial legacy of the Mongols.
54
In the post Mongol period the Russian ruler was known in the steppe as Chaghan Khan, the Whitehence Western khan, but I found no such references in the Mongol period.
55
Unlike the former steppe people, all these new people were Muslims. The huge expansion of Islam
was one of the most apparent - and unintended- results of the Mongol period [Biran 2007; Allsen 2015]
22
Moreover, the ability of Qing China and tsarist Russia to eventually divide the steppe
between then in the eighteenth century, thereby breaking the power of the Mongolian
nomads, owe much to their common Mongol legacy (proudly adhered to by the Qing and
totally refuted by the Russians). More indirectly, it can even be argued that the expansion
of the knowledge of the world that took place in the Mongol period paved the way for the
European expansion: As Samuel Adshead puts it, ‘if Europe came to dominate the world,
it was because Europe first perceived there was a world to dominate. 56 When Columbus
set out on his first voyage in 1492, his principal objective was to find the land of the
‘Great Khan’ that emerges from the Book of Marco Polo, whom he ardently admired. 57
Against this backdrop, our globalized world can be viewed as a progeny of the Mongols’
imperial enterprise.
In sum: The Mongols did not manage to conquer the world, but the
unprecedented scale of their empire had a tremendous effect on spatial concepts
across Eurasia- creating, reviving and transforming imperial concepts in both regional
and global spheres.
56
57
Samuel A. M. Adshead, Central Asia in World History (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993), p. 77.
1931; Lerner 1999.