An Age of Cross-Cultural Interaction: The Mongols,

Arabs, and The Turks

By: Daniel Levin, Edward Nirenberg, and Russell Huang

The Road to Revision

The Mongols

• Mongols were conquerors

scattered throughout the Central

Asian steppe.

• They were very war-bound and at

one point assembled the largest

empire in history.

• They lived in tribes, in tents called

yurts.

• The Mongol tribes were united by

Genghis Khan.

• They were split up into 4 khanates

after the death of Genghis Khan.

The Arabs

• The Arabs were unlike their

Mongol neighbors. Rather than

being war-bound they had a

predisposition to the

commercial side of interaction.

• During this time, it would be

odd to see a merchant that was

not Muslim.

• They spread their religion to

almost everyone that they

visited.

• Practiced Islam.

The Turks

• The Turks were a varied group

of tribes, and each had

significant roles in history.

• Some important groups include:

the Saljuqs, the Ottomans, and

the Uighurs.

• Many of the tribes were Muslim.

• Uighurs could be found in East

Asia, near China, Saljuqs in the

Middle East, and the Ottomans

in Anatolia.

The Silk Road

• The Silk Road was used by all of the aforementioned civilizations.

• It wasn’t an actual road, per say, but rather a network of trade

routes.

• It is called the Silk road because of all the Silk leaving China being

redistributed throughout the regions who relied upon it.

• Although China once monopolized the silk industry, the

Byzantines, by way of monks who had come to China, soon also

gained access to the silk.

• Though the primary function of the road was commerce, it was

often used for battle by, specifically, the Seljuq Turks and the

Mongols.

INVASIONS

By nature, these 3 groups, the Mongols in particular, got into many

altercations.

The Mongolian Territory

The Mongols amassed a territory so great that it was one of the largest in all of history, second to the British Empire, even more gargantuan than that of Alexander

the Great’s.

Battle of Manzikert

The Saljuq Turks attacked and conquered Anatolia in the Battle of Manzikert in

the year 1071. They kidnapped the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes.

The Conquering of Constantinople

The Ottoman Turks sacked Constantinople in 1453 and took over the Byzantine empire.

QUIZ!1) What year was the sacking of Constantinople?

a)1354b)1450c)1453d)1353e)2005

2) Who participated in the Battle of Manzikert? Who was taken? a) The Mongols took Justinian from the Byzantines because they

wanted to.b)The Ottoman Turks took Theodora from the Western Europeans

because she was causing political unrest.c)The Uighurs attacked China and took several monks.d)The Saljuq Turks attacked Anatolia and took emperor Romanos IV

Diogenes.e)The Chinese attacked because they tainted the land with

Buddhism.

Quiz3) When was the Battle of Manzikert?

a)1053b)1052c)1501d)1450e)1010

4) Which Empire amassed the largest territory in 1279? (Hint: their expansion stopped at Egypt)

a)The Uighursb)The Mongolsc)The Arabsd)The Ottomanse)The British

Quiz5) What abstract thing did the Arabs distribute to almost everywhere that they visited?

a) territoryb) mathc) turbansd) religione) philosophy

6) Why is the Silk Road named so?a) It’s smooth.b) It was the Chinese’s way of reflecting their ethnocentric

nationalism of their monopoly of the silk industry.c)The Arabs liked silk.d) There is no reason for the name.e) Silk was among the main exports.

Quiz7) Name all of the Mongolian Khanates, state the location of each, and at least o thing that they did for the people.