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

ConTEnTS

Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ vii

list of Maps ...................................................................................................... ix

1 Preliminary Remarks ............................................................................ 1

1.1 The Mongols and Trade ............................................................... 2

1.1.1 Sources and Historiographical Concepts .................. 3

1.1.2 The Khan and the Merchants: A Symbiotic

Relationship ....................................................................... 8

1.1.3 The Silk Road as the Spine of Eurasian

Commerce .......................................................................... 20

1.1.4 The nomads and the Silk Road ................................... 23

1.2 The Mongols and the Black Sea ................................................ 30

1.2.1 Continental Possessions, Maritime Horizons .......... 30

1.2.2 Expansion and Blockade ................................................ 32

1.2.3 The Black Sea—A Crossroads of Eurasian Trade ... 34

2 The Mongol Expansion and the Eurasian Commercial Axes ..... 37

2.1 The Silk Road as a Channel for Expansion ............................ 37

2.1.1 Chinggis Khan and the Silk Road ................................ 37

2.1.2 The Silk Road under the Protectorate of the

Golden Horde .................................................................... 42

2.2 The Spice Road: Assault on the Fertile Crescent ................. 55

2.2.1 The last Pan-Mongol Campaign to the West:

Half a Victory ..................................................................... 55

2.2.2 The ilkhanate—Chief Beneficiary of Western

Asian Expansion ............................................................... 58

3 The disintegration of the Empire: intra- and Extra-Mongol

Commercial Rivalries .............................................................................. 61

3.1 The Jochid-ilkhanid Struggle for Tabriz ................................. 61

3.2 Cilician Armenia in the ilkhanid-Mamluk Struggle for

the Fertile Crescent ....................................................................... 68

3.3 Political Consequences: The Sarai-Cairo-Tabriz Triangle ..... 88

3.3.1 The Sarai-Cairo Axis and its Allies ............................. 89

3.3.2 The ilkhanid-Genoese Alliance .................................... 95