The Mongols and the Black Sea Trade in the 13th and 14th Centuries

36 chapter one

persia, connecting the persian Gulf to the Black Sea via ormuz, tabriz

and trebizond.

as a result, the Black Sea region was connected to the flow of trade on

the Silk road and on the spice route, a situation which is probably unique

in all of history and certainly during the Middle ages. Significantly, all

great merchant expeditions or missionary journeys after 1300 went via the

Black Sea. numerous sources attest to Western merchants travelling these

two routes in the first half of the fourteenth century, raising them to the

rank of major commercial arteries.