ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the climactic event in the historical relationship: the formation of the Eurasian empire of the Mongols in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It focuses on the formation of the Mongol empire under Chingiz Khan and its expansion to include the greater part of the Eurasian continent, from the Pacific coast to the Mediterranean, between ca. 1100 and ca. 1500. The spread of the universal religions, like the growth of Eurasian trade, contributed to the formation of a Eurasian community of civilizations as it gave rise to cosmopolitan classes of monks or religious scholars who were devoted to the study, translation, and interpretation of foreign religious literature. It is considering separately subsequent developments in each of the four main areas of the empire: Khurasan and Mawarannahr; the steppe zone north and northeast of Mawarannahr; western Iran and eastern Anatolia; and western Anatolia.
