mongol expansion & eurasian commercial axes 47
was also under Batu’s rule,39 not just the northern half of Khwarezm with
its capital at urgench, which had been part of the golden horde’s territo-
ries from the very start.40
the claims about Jochid “vassals” in iran are supported by al-‛umarī, the
syrian encyclopaedist of the Mamluk period, who reports that chinggis
Khan gave his eldest son “the cuman steppe and its dependencies, which
also include arran, tabriz, hamadan and Meragha.”41 another scholar in
Mamluk service, aḥmad al-Qalqashandī, writes that Batu did not conquer
tabriz and parts of iran, but received them in the original partition.42 a
more convincing piece of evidence than these foreign sources is the argu-
ment advanced at sarai itself, during the dispute about the reconquest of
the transcaucasian lands occupied in 1261 by the Mongols of persia: the
initial division was cited as an argument for Jochid reconquest, which sug-
gests that azerbaijan and arran effectively belonged to the golden horde
during Batu’s reign and under his successors, right down to that year.43
the transcaucasian regions were probably very much more important
to the golden horde than their central asian holdings, because they
were so much closer to the capital on the Volga. the “green island” of the
south caucasus was exceptionally important for Batu and his heirs, and
had always been extremely valuable for all turanic nomads, including the
Mongols.44 on the one hand it extended golden horde territories and
allowed the Jochids direct access to the silk road, and on the other hand
it formed a vital strategic base from which to maintain the ulus’ commer-
cial and territorial interests from the cuman steppe into western asia.
the source of this persistent attraction was tabriz, the great silk road
commercial emporium south-west of the caspian, which impressed all
visitors with its grandeur. the arab ibn al-athīr noted that the tartar
invaders found “tabriz, which is the very heart (aṣl) of the country, and
every one is dependent on it and on those who live there.”45 the city
reached the peak of its growth under Mongol rule, when its perimeter
39 Barthold, Boyle, “Batu;” grekov, Yakubovskiy, Orda, p. 63 note 2, ignore this state-
ment and interpret Jūzjānī’s term ‘turkestan’ in an unnecessarily restrictive manner, tak-
ing it to mean Khwarezm alone.
40 cf. p. 42.
41 tiesenhausen, Sbornik, i, p. 222; it was certainly Batu rather than Jochi who con-
quered these territories.
42 spuler, Mongolen, p. 53 note 8, p. 100.
43 cf. spuler, Mongolen, p. 53; Zakirov, Otnosheniya, pp. 18–19 and chapter 3.1.
44 cf. chapters 1.1.4 and 3.1.
45 ibn al-athīr/tornberg, xii, p. 328; cf. Blair, “tabrīz,” p. 43.