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XXI 
THE MONGOLS AND THE 
NEAR EAST 
 he Mongol empire, the most extensive known to history, stretched from Korea
to Poland, and from Tonkin to the Mediter ranean. Its birth, like that of
so many empires of nomadic origin, had all the earmarks of the miraculous,
but while others vanished as quickly as they appeared, leaving few traces
worth noting, the Mongol empire lasted no little while and placed its stamp
on many generations to come. Needless to say, its formation marked a critical
moment in the history of the crusades and of the relations between east and
west. Although we cannot trace the history of the Mongol empire here, even
in general, we can sketch those of its features of greatest importance for
the subjects dealt with in these volumes. 
 Before the thirteenth century, the Mongols were hardly known except to their
immediate neighbors in China and Central Asia, and to a few merchants and
missionaries, Moslem or Nestorian. 
 For Anatolia, see the bibliography given above for the Selchükids of
Rum, chapter XIX, p. 675. Up-to-date references are furnished in the Turkish
Jsldm ansikiopedisi and, to the extent that it has appeared, the new edition
of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. There exist only special studies, often in
Turkish; one may find, however, some important general observations, not
always in agreement, in F. Koprulu, Les Origines de l'empire ottoman (Paris,
1937), and P. Wittek, The Rise of the Ottoman Empire (London, 1938). As for
the sources, one may read the English translation of Bar Hebraeus by Sir
Ernest A. Wallis Budge, The Chronography of Gregory Aba'l Faraj, the Son
of Aaron, the Hebrew Physician, commonly known as Bar Hebraeus (2 vols.,
London, 1932); the French translation by C. Defréméry and B.
R. Sanguinetti (4 vols., Paris, 1853—1858, reprinted 1879—1914,
1954) of the Voyages of Ibn-BattUtah, now being translated into English by
H. A. R. Gibb, The Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D. 132 5—1354, I, Works
Issued by the Hakluyt Society, znd series, CX (Cambridge, 1958); and for
a translation of Ibn-Bibi's chronicle, see H. W. Duda, Die Seltschukengeschichte
des Ibn Bihi (Copenhagen, 1959). The works of W. Barthold, Histoire des Turcs
de l'Asie centrale (Paris, r 946), and Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion
(London, 1928), remain indispensable, as do his numerous articles in Russian.
 For the fl-khanid state, one need only refer to Bertold Spuler, Die Mongolen
in Iran (and ed., Berlin, 1955), where there may be found all the bibliographical
references necessary; to which add, for the Mongol thrust toward western
Asia, R. Grousset's and S. Runciman's histories of the crusades, and C. Cahen's
La Syrie du nord. One of the principal sources, part I of the Ta'rikh-i-Jahan-Gusha
of Juvaini, has been translated into English by J. A. Boyle (Cambridge, 1957).
See also D. Sinor, "Les Relations entre les Mongols et l'Europe jusqu'à
la mort d'Arghun," in Cahiers d'histoire mondiale, III (1956), 39—62.
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