In this relatively short (191 pages) but powerful narrative, J.J. Saunders makes an effective argument that the series of Mongolian invasions of Europe and Asia, beginning in the early 1200s, was a major factor in shaping both European culture and Asian religions for centuries to come. The History of the Mongol Conquests (1971, ISBN 0-8122-1766-7) tells the story through a succession of Mongol rulers and potentates, beginning with Chingis (Genghis) Khan, and including Kubilai Khan, Timur (Tamerlane), and the Golden Horde. As the author notes, writing any such history can be a challenge, as extant historical material is written in several Asian languages. 

The book contains maps show conquest routes, stories of privations (entire populations were commonly killed for refusing to capitulate early enough), and other interesting data. We didn’t know, for instance, that Mongol arrows had a range of 200-300 yards. The endnotes are outstanding, proving a rich resource for scholars, and Saunders’ final thoughts make the book important reading for anyone wishing to understand Europe in the Renaissance and the Islamic dynamic as it exists today:

During the four centuries from 800 to 1200 Islam had enjoyed a
cultural predominance; the science and philosophy of the Greeks,
commonly filtered through a Syriac channel, had fertilized the
mind of the Muslim world and stimulated it to an impressive
creative activity, and Arabic acted as the lingua franca of scholar-
ship and letters over a wide segment of the globe from Spain to
Transoxiana. In medicine and mathematics, in history and
geography, in logic and philology, in music and astronomy, in
physics and chemistry, the men of many races who wrote in
Arabic enriched mankind by extending the horizons of know-
ledge and improving the techniques of inquiry, as for instance
by the use of the so-called Arabic numerals. The brilliant culture
of Islam shone the more brightly by contrast with the stagnant
scientists and commentators were introduced into the West to
inspire the intellectual awakening which culminated in the
Renaissance. But with the death of Ibn Rushd (Averroes), the last
great philosopher of Islam, in 1198, the primacy of Arabic-Muslim
culture may be said to have come to an end. The invasions, first of
the Turks and then of the Mongols, and the long and bitter
struggle against Isma’ilianism, had forced the Muslim orthodox
to close their ranks, systematize their theology, cease to tolerate
freedom of speculation, and discourage intellectual effort not
directly related to the furthering of religious piety. In the new
schools or madras, a product of the Seljuk age, little was taught
save the Koran and theology; the professors were exponents of an
unbending scholasticism, and al-Ghazzali, the Aquinas of Islam,
conducted a lifelong campaign against a ‘philosophy’ which he
considered no better than atheism. In the post-Mongol age theo-
logy won a resounding victory; free scientific inquiry was virtually
suppressed, and Islam shut itself up in its past. 

This passage is typical of the thought-provoking analysis found in every chapter of the book, recommended for anyone wishing to know more about this important, but still little known and understood age. Buy it now at the WoWasis estore, powered by Amazon.