the disintegration of the empire 89
asiatic trade. for this reason, their overwhelming political priority in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was to recuperate their privileged
position of the past, when the ulus of Jochi had for two decades shared
in the profits of the silk road,126 and this was also the most important
component of the triangle of forces described here; the repeated failure
of their attempts to capture tabriz set the tone for their relations with
the ilkhanate,127 and laid the foundation for the Jochid-mamluk alliance
against persia, which in turn led to a decisive downturn in persian rela-
tions with the sultan of egypt.128
apart from this overall coherence, each bilateral relationship in the
network had its own specific lineaments, lending each its own character.
By comparison, the ilkhanid-Jochid and ilkhanid-mamluk relationships
are notably straightforward, both because of the underlying rivalry and
because of the predictable way in which hostilities unfolded. the connec-
tion between sarai and cairo was entirely different, not merely because
it was an alliance rather than an enmity, but because it was complex and
partly contradictory. the relationship demands closer examination not
just for these reasons, but also because it was the only geo-political line
of force which crossed the Black sea in a meaningful manner, thereby
massively influencing regional developments in the middle ages.129
3.3.1 The Sarai-Cairo Axis and its Allies
a surprising aspect of the sarai-cairo axis is how quickly it was estab-
lished, following the outbreak of the ilkhanate-mamluk war in 1260–1261
and the ilkhanate’s war with the golden horde.130
although in the long term the volga khans were to be the more eager
partners in the alliance, it was originally proposed by sultan al-malik
al-Ẓāhir Baybars. in 1261 or 1262 he sent an alan merchant as intermediary
126 cf. chapter 2.1.2.
127 cf. chapter 3.1; there is as yet no monograph on relations on the other two sides
of our triangle (see following notes), though the various forms which they took in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are addressed rather unsystematically in the chrono-
logical sections of spuler’s great surveys of the Jochids and ilkhanids (spuler, Horde, and
idem, Mongolen).
128 amitai-preiss, Mongols, and idem, “ghazan,” are monographic treatments of ilkha-
nid-mamluk relations in the thirteenth century.
129 the golden horde’s relations with the mamluk sultan are the subject of the mono-
graph by Zakirov, Otnosheniya; schmid, Beziehungen, similarly addresses a subset of these,
Byzantine relations with egypt in the early fourteenth century.
130 see chapters 3.1, 3.2.