46 chapter two
“Merchants brought him wares from all corners of the world; he bought
everything, whatever it might be, and paid each one a price many times
higher than it was worth. he also gave exemptions and yarlïks to the sul-
tans of rūm, syria and other countries, and whoever came to serve him
did not leave empty-handed.”36
his generosity was equalled only by the scope of his ambition: there
is no doubt that the final goal toward which he tirelessly bent all his
energies was to extend Jochid hegemony across the whole “civilised belt”
stretching onward from the cuman steppe, so as to secure for the golden
horde the privileged position of bringing all trade between turkestan and
the eastern shore of the Mediterranean under one rule. although his great
ambitions even reached as far as dominating the continental routes across
the Fertile crescent, bridging the indian ocean and the Mediterranean,
there is no doubt that the silk road was the backbone of his whole com-
mercial policy.37
this policy was determined by necessity and by concrete circumstances,
and took shape around two partially connected goals: to secure the Jochid
share of silk road traffic, and to bring the whole of the Fertile crescent
under Mongol rule, meaning also the western terminus of the silk road
where it met the Mediterranean at ayas in cilician armenia. in order to
realise the first ambition, Batu had to confront the great Khan at Qara
Qorum, but to fulfil the second he had to work with him.
several oriental sources offer more or less convergent accounts of how
and where the first Jochid khan drew his strength from the silk road.
Jūzjānī writes: “in the shade of his protection, the Muslims of turkestan
enjoyed great peace and perfect security. in all those parts of iran which
fell under Mongol rule, one part belonged to him [= Batu] and in the parts
which were dependent, he also appointed the high dignitaries.”38
his compatriot Juwaynī is more explicit on how tartar power spread
from the cuman steppe into central asia: he confirms that transoxiana
all the more notable because “he observed no religion and belonged to no sect, and bowed
to no known god” (ibid.).
36 ibid.; the ‘exemptions’ are commercial privileges, and the yarlïks are the documents
recording these; the phrase “sultans of rūm” refers to the seljukids of asia Minor.
37 these are the routes that link the red sea to egypt on the one hand and the persian
gulf, iraq and syria on the other (cf. ciocîltan, “geneza,” pp. 83–84 and chapters 2.2.1,
3.4.2); one indication that Batu appreciated the commercial significance of the near east
is the privilege which he granted to syrian merchants (see previous note).
38 tiesenhausen, Sbornik, ii, p. 15.