Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality

Denise Aigle (EPHE, CNRS UMR “Orient & Méditerranée”) has published monographs, edited volumes and many articles…on Mongols and Iran, including Le Fars sous la domination Mongole. Politique et fiscalité (Leuven, Peeters, 2005).

"The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality, by Denise Aigle, provides a welcome contribution to scholarship concerning cross-cultural interaction and the Mongol Empire.[…] Aigle’s collection of essays highlights the fact that the evolution of myths and the manipulation of information concerning the Mongol Empire have their own unique history. It is one that is worthy of thorough consideration, in order to better understand the complex geopolitical struggles that characterized this period in Eurasian history." – Donna Hamil, in: Terrae Incognitae 48/2 (September 2016)"D. Aigle livre une méthode rigoureuse de critique textuelle, qui repose sur la prise en compte des différentes strates et stratégies d'écriture. Les apports de l'ouvrage dépassent donc largement le cadre des études mongoles pur offrir à l'historien médiéviste un cadre méthodologique et conceptuel, pour tenter de démêler le mythe de la réalité ce qui en fait un livre de référence." – Anne Troadec, in: Oriente Moderno 96 (2016)"In this collection of articles, some new and some updated, Aigle’s research reaches a much wider audience and deservedly so. Perhaps France’s leading scholar on the Mongol Empire, she examines the intellectual frontier between the Mongols and the Islamic world and Western Christendom in terms of political ideology, religion, and culture and explores how the ideas that so often existed between myth and reality shaped understanding between the parties. The work is arranged thematically, allowing Aigle to discuss how this intellectual frontier changed over time and demonstrating the metamorphosis of the intellectual frontier between the Mongols in the Middle East and their neighbors. [...]. In this much-needed work, Aigle simultaneously studies the mind-set of the Mongols and other societies while establishing that none was tied to a stagnant and unchanging perspective. A superior display of scholarship.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." – T. M. May, in: Choice, July 2015“In The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality: Studies in Anthropological History, Denise Aigle takes the problem of how we know what we know about the Mongols seriously, and endeavours to highlight the complex layers of interpretation of the past and transmission of historical writing about the Mongol Empire….The book stands as a major contribution to our understanding of the production of knowledge about the Mongols, and a reminder that historical sources are produced by individuals who seek to render the past and present understandable in terms that are culturally familiar.“Patrick Wing, in Bulletin critique des Annales islamologiques (31), 2016"This is an unexpected and refreshing historical study of the Mongol Empire by a scholarly commenator whose analysis is worthy of attention."George Lane in: BSOAS (2016)

• ContentsList of illustrationsList of mapsList of dynastic tablesAcknowledgmentsNotes on transliterationList of abbreviationsIntroductionTHE MEMORIA OF THE MONGOLS IN HISTORICAL AND LITERARY SOURCESChapter One. Mythico-legendary figures and history between East and West Chapter Two. The Mongols and the legend of Prester JohnChapter Three. The historiographical works of Barhebreaus on the Mongol periodChapter Four. The historical taqwīm in Muslim EastSHAMANISM AND ISLAMChapter Five. Shamanism and Islam in Central Asia. Two antinomic religious universes?Chapter Six. The transformation of a myth of origins, Genghis Khan and TimurChapter Seven. Mongol law versus Islamic law. Myth and realityCONQUERING THE WORLD PROTECTED BY THE TENGGERI Chapter Eight. From ‘non-negociation’ to an abortive alliance. Thoughts on the diplomatic exchanges between the Mongols and the Latin WestChapter Nine. Hülegü’s letters to the last Ayyubid ruler of Syria. The construction of a modelMAMLUKS AND ILKHANS. THE QUEST OF LEGITIMACYChapter Ten. Legitimizing a regicide monarch. Baybars and the IlkhansChapter Eleven. The written and the spoken word. Baybars and the caliphal investiture ceremonies in Cairo Chapter Twelve. The Ghazan Khan’s invasion of Syria. Polemics on his conversion to Islam and the Christian troops in his armyChapter Thirteen. A religious response to Ghazan Khan’s invasion of Syria. The three ‘anti-Mongol’ fatwās of Ibn TaymiyyaEpilogue. The Mongol empire after Genghis KhanMapsGenealogical TablesBibliographyIndexIllustrations