ABSTRACT
The Circle of Justice gained new and persuasive cultural representations under the Mongols. This is not surprising, as their acculturation was more difficult than that of the Seljuks. The Mongols, like the Seljuks, were Central Asian tribal nomads who invaded the Middle East and ruled it in cooperation with local elites. Unlike the Seljuks, they were not losers in some steppe quarrel but winners who had already defeated or coopted all the region’s tribes and were well on their way to conquering China. From the far northern steppes, they were not Muslims on their arrival in the Middle East; they were even less familiar with sedentary life and government than the Seljuks and were known more for destructiveness than for justice. The only people to offer a successful defense against them were the Mamluks of Egypt, who prevented the Mongols from taking North Africa and the Syrian coast.
