Introduction

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Chinggis Khan and his heirs established and ruled the largest contiguous empire in world history, an empire that, at its height, extended from Korea to Hungary, and from Iraq, Tibet, and Burma to Siberia. Ruling over roughly two-thirds of the Old World and profoundly impacting also regions beyond its reach, the Mongol Empire created remarkable mobility across Eurasia, with people, ideas, and artifacts traversing vast geographical distances and cultural boundaries. The exchange of goods, people, germs, and more had far-reaching consequences for the Eurasian political, cultural, and economic dynamics. Introducing new commercial, diplomatic, and