Das Reich der Mongolen zwischen Mythos und Wirklichkeit

Denise Aigle: The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality

Studies in Anthropological History. Iran Studies Vol. 11

Leiden (NL): Brill 2015, XIV, 399 pp., 9 illustr., 5 maps

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ISBN13:

978-9004277496

E-ISBN:

978-9004280649

In The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality, Denise Aigle presents the Mongol empire as a moment of contact between political ideologies, religions, cultures and languages, and, in terms of reciprocal representations, between the Far East, the Muslim East, and the Latin West. The first part is devoted to “The memoria of the Mongols in historical and literary sources” in which she examines how the Mongol rulers were perceived by the peoples with whom they were in contact. In “Shamanism and Islam” she studies the perception of shamanism by Muslim authors and their attempts to integrate Genghis Khan and his successors into an Islamic framework. The last sections deal with geopolitical questions involving the Ilkhans, the Mamluks, and the Latin West. Genghis Khan’s successors claimed the protection of “Eternal Heaven” to justify their conquests even after their Islamization.

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Biographical note

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).

Inhaltsverzeichnis / Contents

Introduction

THE MEMORIA OF THE MONGOLS IN HISTORICAL AND LITERARY SOURCES

1. Chapter One. Mythico-legendary figures and history between East and West

2. Chapter Two. The Mongols and the legend of Prester John

3. Chapter Three. The historiographical works of Barhebreaus on the Mongol period

4. Chapter Four. The historical taqwīm in Muslim East

SHAMANISM AND ISLAM

5. Chapter Five. Shamanism and Islam in Central Asia. Two antinomic religious universes?

6. Chapter Six. The transformation of a myth of origins, Genghis Khan and Timur

7. Chapter Seven. Mongol law versus Islamic law. Myth and reality

CONQUERING THE WORLD PROTECTED BY THE TENGGERI

8. Chapter Eight. From ‘non-negociation’ to an abortive alliance.
Thoughts on the diplomatic exchanges between the Mongols and the Latin West

9. Chapter Nine. Hülegü’s letters to the last Ayyubid ruler of Syria. The construction of a model

MAMLUKS AND ILKHANS. THE QUEST OF LEGITIMACY

10. Chapter Ten. Legitimizing a regicide monarch. Baybars and the Ilkhans

11- Chapter Eleven. The written and the spoken word. Baybars
and the caliphal investiture ceremonies in Cairo

12. Chapter Twelve. The Ghazan Khan’s invasion of Syria.
Polemics on his conversion to Islam and the Christian troops in his army

13. Chapter Thirteen. A religious response to Ghazan Khan’s invasion of Syria.
The three ‘anti-Mongol’ fatwās of Ibn Taymiyya

Epilogue. The Mongol empire after Genghis Khan

Maps — Genealogical Tables — Bibliography — Index — Illustrations

Das Reich der Mongolen zwischen Mythos und Wirklichkeit

Denise Aigle: The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality

Biographical note

Inhaltsverzeichnis / Contents

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