Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog, The Mongols and the Armenians (1220-1335),

Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2011.

Apparso su CeSecom: http://cesecom.fupress.com/recensione.aspx?id=127, novembre
2014.

For historians of all age the Caucasus has always been an intriguing area to study, but
very complex. It is very difficult to determine the correct approach for investigating a
region that is at the same time relatively small region and extraordinarily important in the
context of world history.
The Caucasus is a middle land, a linkage, between two continents; its history, since the
antiquity, has fluctuated between Europe and Asia without finding a stable collocation on
one side or the other. Keep in mind the countries that constitute the more coherent
political frame: Russia, Georgia , Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey.
The historical events that led to the Caucasian political physiognomy have followed
quickly by encouraging the cultural sedimentation. This is today and at the same time one
of its greatest assets and its greatest weakness.
The Caucasus has experienced one of the most positive historical periods between the
ninth and the twelfth century when the Great Armenia and Georgia reached a political
stability that would allow them to thrive and expand in the region. The Mongol invasion
was a first major break as they intervened just at the moment of maximum growth ,
largely of the kingdom of Georgia.
The study of the relationship between the Caucasus and the Mongol empire is an
extremely complex because the written sources are few and often require great caution on
the part of the historian who approaches you . The most effective approach to unravel the
complicated tangle of realazioni Mongolian -Caucasian has always been limited to the
synthesis of peculiar. This is also the operation which is dedicated to B. Dashdondog,
good and prepared armenista , Lecturer at the University of Mongolia, although young
scholar, expert , author of very interesting essays on the Mongols and the Caucasus.
Dashdondog, I had the pleasure of meeting in person at a conference in Bologna at the
end of 2009, has devoted an enormous effort to study the relationship between the
Mongols and Armenia in the period 1220-1335 . The dates chosen by the author are not
random : in 1220 the Mongols passed south of the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus and broke
for the first time. It was the beginning of the conquest to the west by the army of Genghis
Khan. This rapid delivery caused a political upheaval that was completed with the
conquest of Greater Armenia by the general Baiju at the beginning of the forties of the
thirteenth century. The end of the search for B. Dashdondog, 1335 is the year of the death
of en - Khan Abu Said who was faced with a tough part of a dynastic strife within his
kingdom and on the other a growing tension with the two more powerful neighbors and
dangerous: the khanate of Chaghatai east and north to the Golden Horde. In practice, the
Mongol - Armenian relations, already deteriorating since the beginning of the fourteenth
century weakened more and more until they ceased entirely in subsequent decades.
The author takes us in a complex environment through a strict chronological addressing
issues key to understanding the evolution of the Caucasian history in the central centuries
of the Middle Ages. The first chapter is an introduction, which explains the two
geographical areas within which moves the narrative: the Greater Armenia and the
Kingdom of Cilicia (pp. 31-42). In the second chapter B. Dashdondog enters the heart of
the topic by analyzing the phases of the Mongol conquest in the South Caucasus (pp. 43-
69). The book becomes very interesting from the third chapter, when the author is the
behavior of the ruling class Armenian opposite to the new rulers, the title of the chapter is
illustrative of the position on the writer: Strategic Submissions by the Armenians (pp. 71
-97). You can fully agree with the theory of B. Dashdondog as she makes a proper
distinction between the behaviors of large sections of the aristocracy in power in Greater
Armenia and the kingdom of Cilicia where there was a real State submission.
The fourth chapter, Mongol Administration in Greater Armenia (pp. 99-119) focuses on
the earliest evidence of cohabitation between the new ruling class and the local nobility.
Of particular interest is the section on the census that took place in the fifties of the
thirteenth century, on the initiative of the Great Khan Mngke and which gives us the
news monaco Kirakos Ganzakets'i , author of a valuable chronicle . The next three
chapters (pp. 121-189) unfold through the wars that characterized the Caucasus between
1258 and 1295. At the eighth chapter (pp. 193-217) is entrusted with the analysis of the
end of the Mongol - Armenian relations when the on - Ghazan Khan decided to convert to
Islam and imposed this way for his kingdom. An alliance with the Christian neighbor was
not granted. The author investigates the reasons for the end of this collaboration based on
solid documentation.
Reading this book is very enjoyable and informative. Browsing through the pages one
gets the impression of a well-conducted research and well written. The only relief that I
would make is the lack of a broader perspective on some topics, such as analysis of the
consequences of the Mongol invasion of cities and rural areas in the region would be
considered the final completion of the fourth chapter, but are minutiae in the face of an
extraordinary work that deserves only praise.
In conclusion we can definitely say that the search for B. Dashdondog is valuable for
many reasons, but two in particular seem worthy of note: the author has made very
difficult task, i.e. to reconstruct the history of relations between Armenia and the
Mongols in a complex period, full of events narrated by sources written in different
languages to understand which require a great knowledge, experience and caution.
Secondly B. Dashdondog conducted its study without bias and with the rigor that befits a
historian who has sailed in the heart of the past without being too influenced by this. In
other words, the Book of Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog fills a gap in studies on the Mongols
and the Caucasus and does so with skill and precision. Of this we cannot but express our
sincere gratitude to the author.

Lorenzo Pubblici
SRISA, Firenze