Address: Department of Asian Studies & Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Mt. Scopus 91905, ISRAEL
http://mongol.huji.ac.il/
Āṣaf ibn Barakhyā (Hebrew: Asaph ben Berechiah) is an enigmatic figure. An obscure biblical chara... more Āṣaf ibn Barakhyā (Hebrew: Asaph ben Berechiah) is an enigmatic figure. An obscure biblical character (also connected in the Jewish tradition to Asaph the Physician, author of an early Hebrew medical text), in Muslim lore Āṣaf appears mainly in connection to the king and prophet Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd. This study reviews Āṣaf’s main images in the Jewish and Muslim realms and then focuses on his representation in Mamluk, Chaghadaid, and Ilkhanid sources. It argues that the Mongol period gave a major boost to Āṣaf’s image as the embodiment of an ideal vizier in the Iranian-Turkish realm, and seeks to explain why he became such a prevalent political symbol in the Mongol and post-Mongol domains while never gaining similar function among the neighboring Mamluks.
This article is part of a special issue of MSR 2024 titled Mamluks and Mongols: Studies in Honor of Reuven Amitai, ed. by Or Amir, Michal Biran and Jonathan Brack see https://mamluk.uchicago.edu/browse-download.html
This article analyses the collapse of the Mongol empire in the mid-to late fourteenth century (13... more This article analyses the collapse of the Mongol empire in the mid-to late fourteenth century (1330s to 1390s) across Eurasia, looking at three facets of the Crisis: environmental-focusing on climate change; epidemiological-exploring the Black Death's impact on the fall of the Chinggisids; and political-mainly the dilution of the Chinggisid charisma due to the halt of expansion. We argue that the main facet of the Crisis was political, and that it derived from the nomadic culture of the Mongols. This was the same political culture that enabled them to establish their huge empire. However, an integral part of this political culture was the need to secure the support of the nomadic elites who were also the backbone of the Mongol army. This proved to be much harder in a reality of excessive natural disasters on the one hand and the erosion of the Chinggisid charisma due to the renunciation of the ideal of world conquest on the other. The result was a growing number of elite groups who contested for power while nominally retaining the framework of the Chinggisid principle, among whom the imperial sons-in-law played a significant part, as well as the shrink and fragmentation of the Chinggisid polities that survived the Crisis.
Biran, Michal, and Ishayahu Landa. “The Chinggisid Crisis of the Mid-Fourteenth Century: Reasons and Consequences.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2024, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186324000294.
The study reviews Islamic expansion into Central Asia (from eastern Iran to Gansu in north-west C... more The study reviews Islamic expansion into Central Asia (from eastern Iran to Gansu in north-west China) from the seventh to the 16th century, highlighting Muslim- Buddhist encounters. It first discusses an initial period of Islamic imperial military expansion into Central Asia, where Buddhism was only one, rather marginal, religion practiced among the sedentary population met by the conquerors. It then argues that further Muslim expansion into Central Asia from the late 10th century onwards was mainly due the Islamisation of nomadic or post-nomadic collectives who had adopted Islam primarily to acquire communal identity and legitimation. Around the same time, other nomadic and semi-nomadic groups in East and Central Asia adopted Buddhism as part of their state formation, for similar reasons. These Muslim and Buddhist polities were connected by trade and sometimes also marital and political alliances, but there is hardly any evidence for meaningful intellectual contacts prior to the Mongol conquest. The Mongol period (13th–14th centuries) not only resulted in a huge expansion of Islam, it also brought Islam and Buddhism under one rule and invigorated Muslim-Buddhist intellectual exchange. Under Mongol rule, Muslims and Buddhists became the major competitors for converting the Mongols, a process which eventually led to the division of the steppe between Islam and Tibetan Buddhism.
This paper reexamines the sources used by N. Fancy and M.H. Green in "Plague and the Fall of Bagh... more This paper reexamines the sources used by N. Fancy and M.H. Green in "Plague and the Fall of Baghdad (1258)" (Medical History, 65/2 (2021), 157-177). Fancy and Green argued that the Arabic and Persian descriptions of the Mongol sieges in Iran and Iraq, and in particular, in the conquest of Baghdad in 1258, indicate that the besieged fortresses and cities were struck by Plague after the Mongol sieges were lifted. This, they suggested, is part of a recurrent pattern of the outbreak of Plague transmitted by the Mongol expansion across Eurasia. Fancy and Green concluded that the primary sources substantiate the theory driven by recent paleogenetic studies indicating that the Mongol conquests of the thirteenth century set the stage for the massive pandemic of the mid-fourteenth century. The link between the Plague outbreak and the Mongol siege of Baghdad relies on three near-contemporaneous historical accounts. However, our re-examination of the sources shows that the main text (in Persian) has been significantly misunderstood, and that the two other texts (in Syriac and Arabic) have been mis-contextualized, and thus not understood properly. They do not support the authors' claim regarding Plague epidemic in Baghdad in 1258, nor do other contemporary and later Arabic texts from Syria and Egypt adduced by them, which we reexamine in detail here. We conclude that there is no evidence for the appearance of Plague during or immediately after the Mongol conquests in the Middle East, certainly not for its transmission by the Mongols.
Empires and Gods: The Role of Religions in Imperial History, 2024
51. Michal Biran. 2024. “Religions in the Mongol Empire Revisited: Exchange, Conversion, Conseque... more 51. Michal Biran. 2024. “Religions in the Mongol Empire Revisited: Exchange, Conversion, Consequences”. In Jörg Rüpke, Michal Biran and Yuri Pines,eds. Empires and Gods: The Role of Religions in Imperial History, 232-262. Berlin/Boston: DeGruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111342009-011
The unprecedented expansion of the Mongol Empire was understood by the Mongols, as well as their subjects, enemies and neighbors, as Heaven’s will. Indeed it was Tengri, the sky god of the steppe, who conferred upon Chinggis Khan the right to rule over earth and the charisma required for pursuing it. Understanding world religions as different paths to reach Tengri, the Mongols practiced a policy of religious pluralism. They mobilized the spiritual resources of their domains for the sake of the empire just as they did with their human and material resources, thereby promoting religious exchange on an unparalleled scale and transforming the religious landscape of Eurasia. This exchange also affected the Mongols themselves who adopted universal religions: Tibetan Buddhism in China and Islam in the three western khanates. This chapter analyses the Mongols’ political theology and its role in the Empire’s expansion; the Mongols’ religious policies and their impact on the Empire; as well as the Mongols’ process of conversion, and its impact on Mongol and post-Mongol empires.
The Mongols in Global History and Art History, 2023
Michal Biran. 2023. “Ilkhanid Baghdad (1258-1335): Between the Local and the Global.” In The Mong... more Michal Biran. 2023. “Ilkhanid Baghdad (1258-1335): Between the Local and the Global.” In The Mongols in Global History and Art History, ed. Anne Dunlop, 185-215. Florence: I Tatti - The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies ; Rome: Officina Libraria.
This paper highlights some of the transformations that took place in Baghdad following the Mongol conquest. The point of departure for this analysis is the prism of mobility—the ability of people,
ideas, and artifacts to move or be moved across both space and society—which I see as a main feature of Mongol rule. The essay thus explores the mobility of people, artifacts, and ideas in Ilkhanid Baghdad. More specifically, it deals with emigration and immigration, trade routes and local production, and inter-religious polemics compiled by Baghdadi residents.
Biran, Michal, Michael Shenkar, Kubatbek Tabaldiev, Kunbolot Akmatov, and Valery Kolchenko. “The ... more Biran, Michal, Michael Shenkar, Kubatbek Tabaldiev, Kunbolot Akmatov, and Valery Kolchenko. “The Kök-Tash Underground Mausoleum in North-Eastern Kyrgyzstan: the First-Ever Identified Qara Khitai Elite Tomb?” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2023, 1–33. doi:10.1017/S1356186322000621.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Feb 23, 2023
The Qara Khitai or Western Liao dynasty (1124-1218) is one of the most fascinating polities in me... more The Qara Khitai or Western Liao dynasty (1124-1218) is one of the most fascinating polities in medieval Eurasia, but also one of the least documented in terms of both literary sources and material culture. Founded by Khitan refugees who escaped from North China when the Jurchen Jin dynasty (1115-1234) vanquished the Khitan Liao dynasty (907-1125), the Qara Khitai soon established a multicultural empire in Central Asia, combining Khitan, Chinese, and Muslim elements. The Buddhist Qara Khitai ruled over their mostly Muslim population in rare harmony until the rise of Chinggis Khan (r. 1206-1227). Hitherto only a few objects-and not a single structure-have been associated with this powerful empire. We argue that the Kök-Tash mausoleum, excavated in 2017-2018 and originally interpreted as a unique subterranean Muslim mausoleum, is actually the first-ever identified Qara Khitai elite tomb. This unique tomb, located in the Kochkor valley of northeastern Kyrgyzstan, about a day's ride from the Qara Khitai capital of Balāsāghūn, shares many similarities with the Liao tombs in North China, notably the typical Khitan mesh-wire burial suit. Yet it also uses local Central Asian materials and techniques, thereby manifesting how the Qara Khitai managed to retain their cultural identity in their new Central Asian and mostly Muslim environment. Moreover, identifying the Kök Tash mausoleum as a Qara Khitai tomb allows us to reassess several other unusual tombs excavated in the region in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and to suggest attributing them, too, to the Qara Khitai.
Dunnell, Ruth, and Michal Biran. "Remembering Thomas T. Allsen (1940–2019): Medieval Eurasia Reim... more Dunnell, Ruth, and Michal Biran. "Remembering Thomas T. Allsen (1940–2019): Medieval Eurasia Reimagined." Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 51 (2022): v-xvi. doi:10.1353/sys.2022.0000.
Remembering Thomas T. Allsen (1940–2019): Medieval Eurasia Reimagined
Journal of Song-Yuan Studies
Dunnell, Ruth, and Michal Biran. "Remembering Thomas T. Allsen (1940–2019): Medieval Eur... more Dunnell, Ruth, and Michal Biran. "Remembering Thomas T. Allsen (1940–2019): Medieval Eurasia Reimagined." Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 51 (2022): v-xvi. doi:10.1353/sys.2022.0000.
Baghdad: From Its Beginnings to the 14th Century, 2022
Biran. Michal. 2022. "Baghdad under Mongol Rule." In Baghdad: From Its Beginnings to the 14th Cen... more Biran. Michal. 2022. "Baghdad under Mongol Rule." In Baghdad: From Its Beginnings to the 14th Century, ed. Jens Scheiner and Isabel Toral-Niehoff, 285-315. Leiden: Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004513372_012
The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared , 2021
Biran, M. (2021). The Mongol Imperial Space: From Universalism to Glocalization*. In Y. Pines, M.... more Biran, M. (2021). The Mongol Imperial Space: From Universalism to Glocalization*. In Y. Pines, M. Biran, & J. Rüpke (Eds.), The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared (pp. 220-256). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108771061.008
The Mongol Empire (1206-1368) had a tremendous impact on slavery across Eurasia. While slaves pla... more The Mongol Empire (1206-1368) had a tremendous impact on slavery across Eurasia. While slaves played a minor role in pre-Imperial Mongolia, the Mongols saw people as a resource, to be distributed among the imperial family and used for imperial needs, like material goods. This view created a whole spectrum of dependency running from free men to full slaves. Specifically, the huge conquests of the United Empire (1206-60) resulted in huge supply of war captives, many of whom eventually sold in the Eurasian slave markets created by the Empire. With the dissolution of the Empire and the halt of its expansion, the demand for slaves remained high, and other means had to be sought for supplying it. The chapter discuss slavery among the pre-imperial Mongols; the general context of slavery caused by Mongol mobilization and redistribution policies; the various ways of becoming a slave in the Mongol Empire; and the slaves’ dispersion, uses, conditions as well as manumission mechanisms and opportunities for social mobility. It highlights the different types of slavery (extrusive versus intrusive) in China and the Muslim and Christian worlds and argues that in Mongol Eurasia slavery was not always a social death.
Biran, Michal. 2021. “Forced Migrations and Slavery in the Mongol Empire (1206–1368).” Chapter. In The Cambridge World History of Slavery, edited by Craig Perry, David Eltis, Stanley L. Engerman, and David Richardson, 76–99. The Cambridge World History of Slavery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781139024723.004.
The Qara Khitai or Western Liao dynasty (1124–1218) ruled in Central Asia in the period that prec... more The Qara Khitai or Western Liao dynasty (1124–1218) ruled in Central Asia in the period that preceded the rise of Chinggis Khan. Founded by Khitan refugees who escaped from north China when the Jurchen Jin dynasty (1115–1234) vanquished their Khitan Liao dynasty (907–1125), they soon carved out for themselves a multicultural empire in Central Asia that combined Chinese, nomadic, and Muslim elements. Vanquishing the Qarakhanids and the Seljuks and making the Khwārazm Shāhs, the Gaochang Uighurs, and various Mongolian tribes their vassals, at its height the Qara Khitai Empire stretched from the Oxus to the Altai Mountains (namely, from Uzbekistan to western Mongolia including most of Xinjiang, China). Their biggest victory in 1141 against the Seljuks even became the basis for the legend of Prester John. Practicing religious tolerance and mostly indirect rule—leaving local rulers largely intact apart from in their capital Balāsāghūn (Burana, Kyrgyzstan)—and, using their Chinese and nom...
Oxford Research Encyclopedia for Asian History, 2020
The Qara Khitai or Western Liao dynasty (1124–1218) ruled in Central Asia in the period that prec... more The Qara Khitai or Western Liao dynasty (1124–1218) ruled in Central Asia in the period that preceded the rise of Chinggis Khan. Founded by Khitan refugees who escaped from north China when the Jurchen Jin dynasty (1115–1234) vanquished their Khitan Liao dynasty (907–1125), they soon carved out for themselves a multicultural empire in Central Asia that combined Chinese, nomadic, and Muslim elements. Vanquishing the Qarakhanids and the Seljuks and making the Khwārazm Shāhs, the Gaochang Uighurs, and various Mongolian tribes their vassals, at its height the Qara Khitai Empire stretched from the Oxus to the Altai Mountains (namely, from Uzbekistan to western Mongolia including most of Xinjiang, China). Their biggest victory in 1141 against the Seljuks even became the basis for the legend of Prester John. Practicing religious tolerance and mostly indirect rule—leaving local rulers largely intact apart from in their capital Balāsāghūn (Burana, Kyrgyzstan)—and, using their Chinese and nomadic cultural capital, the Sinicized Buddhist nomads ruled over their heterogeneous but mostly Muslim sedentary population in rare harmony. The aging dynasty, however, could not survive the repercussions of Chinggis Khan’s rise, which coincided with the bolstering of the Khwārazm Shāh’s power. In the early 13th century, after a Naiman prince who had escaped from Chinggis Khan usurped the Qara Khitai throne, the Mongols vanquished the Qara Khitai, incorporating most of their troops into the Mongol army and channeling their skilled subject population for imperial needs. A scion of the Qara Khitai established the Muslim Qutlughkhanid dynasty of Kirman (south Persia, 1222–1306) that ruled under Mongol and later Ilkhanid aegis.
Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia: Generals, Merchants, and Intellectuals, 2020
Biran, Michal. "3. Qutulun: The Warrior Princess of Mongol Central Asia". Along the Silk Roads in... more Biran, Michal. "3. Qutulun: The Warrior Princess of Mongol Central Asia". Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia: Generals, Merchants, and Intellectuals, edited by Michal Biran, Jonathan Brack, Francesca Fiaschetti. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2020, pp. 64-82. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520970786-007
The destruction of the Baghdadi libraries has been a powerful image connected to the Mongol conqu... more The destruction of the Baghdadi libraries has been a powerful image connected to the Mongol conquest of 1258, often claimed to have precipitated the decline of Mus-lim civilization. This study, however, challenges this claim by reconstructing the state of libraries in Ilkhanid Baghdad, revealing a thriving intellectual community. Based on a close reading in Arabic biographical dictionaries and analysis of samāʿ and book lists, it elucidates the functions of libraries in Ilkhanid Baghdad, identifies channels of knowledge transmission, and offers a glimpse of the libraries' holdings. Finally, it analyzes the Mongols' role in invigorating local scholarship and the impact their rule had on Baghdad's intellectual life. Keywords Baghdad-libraries-Ilkhanate-Mongols in the Muslim world-intellectual history of the islamicate World
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Papers by Michal Biran
This article is part of a special issue of MSR 2024 titled Mamluks and Mongols: Studies in Honor of Reuven Amitai, ed. by Or Amir, Michal Biran and Jonathan Brack see https://mamluk.uchicago.edu/browse-download.html
Biran, Michal, and Ishayahu Landa. “The Chinggisid Crisis of the Mid-Fourteenth Century: Reasons and Consequences.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2024, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186324000294.
The unprecedented expansion of the Mongol Empire was understood by the Mongols, as well as their subjects, enemies and neighbors, as Heaven’s will. Indeed it was Tengri, the sky god of the steppe, who conferred upon
Chinggis Khan the right to rule over earth and the charisma required for pursuing it. Understanding world religions as different paths to reach Tengri, the Mongols practiced a policy of religious pluralism. They mobilized the spiritual resources of their domains for the sake of the empire just as they did with their human and material resources, thereby promoting religious exchange on an unparalleled scale and transforming the religious landscape of Eurasia. This exchange also affected
the Mongols themselves who adopted universal religions: Tibetan Buddhism in China and Islam in the three western khanates. This chapter analyses the Mongols’ political theology and its role in the Empire’s expansion; the Mongols’ religious policies and their impact on the Empire; as well as the Mongols’ process of conversion, and its impact on Mongol and post-Mongol empires.
This paper highlights some of the transformations that took place in Baghdad following the Mongol conquest. The point of departure for this analysis is the prism of mobility—the ability of people,
ideas, and artifacts to move or be moved across both space and society—which I see as a main feature of Mongol rule. The essay thus explores the mobility of people, artifacts, and ideas in Ilkhanid Baghdad. More specifically, it deals with emigration and immigration, trade routes and local production, and inter-religious polemics compiled by Baghdadi residents.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004513372_012
Biran, Michal. 2021. “Forced Migrations and Slavery in the Mongol Empire (1206–1368).” Chapter. In The Cambridge World History of Slavery, edited by Craig Perry, David Eltis, Stanley L. Engerman, and David Richardson, 76–99. The Cambridge World History of Slavery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781139024723.004.