Mongol Expansion into the Near East, 1218-60

Mongols – The Expansion of the Mongol Empire, 1218-60

In this course, Dr Nicholas Morton (Nottingham Trent University) explores the expansion of the Mongol Empire from 1218-60. In the first module, we look at the Mongol campaigns into the Near East, focusing in particular on their invasions into the Khwarazmian Empire, the Caucasus, Anatolia, the Ayyubid Empire and the Mamluk Sultanate. In the second module, we then turn to look at what life was like under the Mongols and consider how this changed as their empire expanded.

Mongol Expansion into the Near East, 1218-60

In this lecture, we look at the expansion of the Mongol Empire into the Near East, focusing in particular on: (i) the Mongol invasion into the Khwarazmian Empire in 1218; (ii) the Mongol campaign around the Caspian Sea from 1220-23; (iii) the major empires of the Near East in the 1220s, including the Khwarazmian Empire, the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate, and the Ayyubid Empire; (iv) later Mongol invasions into the Khwarazmian Empire and the Caucasus from 1230-32; (v) the Mongol invasion of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate from 1242-3; (vi) the Mongol campaign of 1256; (vi) the 1260 Mongol campaign into the Ayyubid Empire; and (vii) the unconquered smaller territories of the Near East and the Mongols campaign against these and the Mamluk Empire in 1260.