The Mongols and the Medieval Near East | Nicholas Morton

E546 | The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous land empire in history, yet its influence on the social and political history of the realms that came under its domain is often minimized due to its short-lived nature. In some ways, the most lasting effects of the Mongol invasions were the unexpected geopolitical shakeups that their arrival brought. Notable examples included the increase in the slave trade which facilitated the rise of the Mamluk sultanate, or the controlled chaos of competing Turkmen tribes who had fled to Anatolia, setting the stage for the eventual rise of the Ottomans. The Mongols were not merely invaders, however, and an overemphasis on military history often conceals the rich cultural history of a nomadic society with its own religious traditions and policies of tolerance towards the diverse societies of the medieval Near East. In this episode, we discuss these topics and more with Nicholas Morton, the author of a new book on the Mongols, entitled The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East. More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2023/05/mongols.html Nicholas Morton is an Associate Professor at Nottingham Trent University in the UK where he specializes in the history of the Mongol Empire and the Crusades. The author or editor of many books and articles, he also co-edits three book series with Routledge: “Rulers of the Latin East”, “Global Histories before Globalisation” and “Medieval Religious Orders: History, Sources, Memory.” You can find more of his research and public outreach on YouTube and Twitter. Maryam Patton is a PhD candidate at Harvard University in the joint History and Middle Eastern Studies program. She is interested in early modern cultural exchanges, and her dissertation studies cultures of time and temporal consciousness in the Eastern Mediterranean during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. CREDITS Episode No. 546 Release Date: 26 May 2023 Recording location: Cambridge, MA and Nottingham, England Sound production by Maryam Patton Music: Music: Old Vessel (ID 1948) by Lobo Loco Bibliography and images courtesy of Nicholas Morton