mongol expansion & eurasian commercial axes 55
winner, should continue at the same time as renewed campaigning in
china.84 the great Khan’s brothers were entrusted with carrying out the
plan, which foresaw the empire’s borders stretching from the pacific to
the western seas:85 Qubilai was charged with conquering all china for the
chinggisid empire, and hülegü with taking the near and Middle east.86
his death in 1256 spared Batu from seeing the catastrophic results for
his ulus of the campaign that he had so strongly pursued: this last pan-
Mongol drive to the west not only failed to extend the golden horde’s
asiatic holdings, but lost it those lands which it had gained in the first two
decades in the cuman steppe.
2.2 The Spice Road: Assault on the Fertile Crescent
2.2.1 The Last Pan-Mongol Campaign to the West: Half a Victory
the mandate which the great Khan Möngke gave his brother hülegü
was to ensure “that the laws and customs of chinggis Khan should be
observed, in every detail, from the shores of the amu darya to the furthest
parts of egypt.”87
thus the final goal of the campaign envisaged the conquest of the
whole Fertile crescent, with the two great routes of the spice trade linking
84 grousset, Empire, p. 349, and Vernadsky, Mongols, p. 153, date this meeting to 1253
but are amended by Boyle, “history,” p. 340, who places it in 1251. spuler, Mongolen, p. 44,
agrees with this dating, saying that Möngke took this major decision “schon bald nach
seinem herrschaftsantritt.”
85 Ab ortu solis usque ad mare Mediterraneum et usque ad ponticum, as the catholic
missionary ascelinus records the proud boast of a leading Mongol noble in 1248 (saint
Quentin/richard, p. 105).
86 well-informed as ever, william of rubruck (wyngaert, Sinica Franciscana, i, p. 287)
reports these decisions and how they were first implemented in 1256: Insuper iste Man-
guchan habet octo fratres [.. .]. Unum [= hülegü] [.. .] misit in terram Hasasinorum
[= Ḥashīshiyya, islamic sect in the Middle east] et precepit quod omnes interficiantur; alius
[= also hülegü] venit versus Persidem et iam ingressus este eam, ingressurus, ut creditor, ter-
ram Turkie [= seljuk sultanate of rūm] et inde missurus exercitus contra Baldac [= Bagdad]
et contra Vastacium [= John iii doukas Vatatzes, emperor of nicea]; unum ex aliis [= Qubi-
lai] misit in Cathaiam [= china] contra quosdam qui nondum obediunt; cf. grousset, Empire,
p. 349, Vernadsky, Mongols, p. 153, spuler, Mongolen, p. 44, Boyle, “history,” p. 340.
87 rashīd al-dīn/Quatremère, pp. 140–142; Quatremère’s translation, “jusqu’à l’extremité
du royaume d’Égypte” is an ambiguous version of the persian phrase ta be agasi belad
Mesr, where agasi is a plural noun more exactly translatable as “the furthest parts” of
egypt, meaning that Möngke also intended the conquest of that country, and that hülegü
was not expected simply to stop at the eastern border.