Pearls in the Mongol Empire: Steppes, Seas, and Eurasian Exchange Networks
by N
About This Novel
A well-known historian of the Mongolian Empire and an expert on inland Eurasian history and culture; he compiles historical materials in six languages and uses pearls as a window to link land and sea trade in the Eurasian world; he traces the cross-ecological interaction between the north and the south and reexamines the long-term influence of Mongolian political culture. In 1221, in present-day Turkmenistan, a woman captured by Mongol soldiers claimed to have swallowed her pearls to protect them. She was immediately executed, and in order to find a few pearls, Genghis Khan ordered his soldiers to disembowel those who died on the battlefield. With aesthetic, economic, religious and political value, pearls were the supreme treasure of the ancient world. And Mongolia, the most extensive inland empire in history, is its unrivaled collector, supporter, and transmitter. What kind of new starting point and new challenge will it bring for nomadic people to expand their influence to the ocean area?
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