88 chapter three
from the beginning, a number of factors argued for circumventing
the mamluk barrier by the Black sea, arguments fully supported by the
genoese-ilkhanid partnership, which dated back half a century. the
impact of this fruitful relationship on the development of commerce in
the Black sea region conclusively shows the ilkhanid role in the overall
chinggisid contribution to making the Black sea an important junction
for long-distance trade.124
the great web of political and inter-state relations between the khans
of sarai, the sultans of cairo, the ilkhans of tabriz and the genoese mer-
chants formed the basis for this unique stage in medieval economic his-
tory around the Black sea.
3.3 Political Consequences: The Sarai-Cairo-Tabriz Triangle
two conflicts played out at critical points on the silk road and the spice
route—between the golden horde and the ilkhanate, over azerbaijan
and the priceless city of tabriz, and between the mongols of iran and the
mamluk sultanate over cilician armenia and ayas. these conflicts were
not restricted to simple bilateral military confrontations. rather, they also
involved considerable collateral forces, and had far-reaching and long-
lasting consequences at the political and commercial level.125
each of the states involved in the contest was a major power in eastern
europe, in Western asia or in north-eastern africa and the stakes were
unprecedentedly high, leading to sustained and remarkably consistent
involvement in the conflict from all parties, with only slight variations in
intensity as circumstances changed. thus the sarai-cairo-tabriz triangle
took shape, a network of forces within which the major players were either
in alliance or at loggerheads. given the political importance of these princi-
pals, they attracted notable auxiliary forces into their spheres of influence:
the genoese, the Byzantines, the seljuks. common to all these second-
ary alliances was the self-interested tendency to belong to both opposing
camps at the same time. the ways in which this duplicity manifested, and
the extent to which it succeeded, differed from case to case.
events around the year 1260 would have much more harmful conse-
quences for the golden horde than for either the mamluk state or the
ilkhanate, since only the horde was entirely cut off from the benefits of
124 cf. chapter 3.4.2.
125 for the effect that these conflicts had on long-distance trade, see chapter 3.4.
