• Acta Via Serica
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.25-49
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• 2020

This essay, based on an oral presentation, provides the non-specialist, with an evaluation of the Mongols' influence and China and, to a lesser extent, on Russia and the Middle East. Starting in the 1980s, specialists challenged the conventional wisdom about the Mongol Empire's almost entirely destructive influence on global history. They asserted that Mongols promoted vital economic, social, and cultural exchanges among civilizations. Chinggis Khan, Khubilai Khan, and other rulers supported trade, adopted policies of toleration toward foreign religions, and served as patrons of the arts, architecture, and the theater. Eurasian history starts with the Mongols. Exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art confirmed that the Mongol era witnessed extraordinary developments in painting, ceramics, manuscript illustration, and textiles. To be sure, specialists did not ignore the destruction and killings that the Mongols engendered. This reevaluation has prompted both sophisticated analyses of the Mongols' legacy in Eurasian history. The Ming dynasty, the Mongols' successor in China, adopted some of the principles of Mongol military organization and tactics and were exposed to Tibetan Buddhism and Persian astronomy and medicine. The Mongols introduced agricultural techniques, porcelain, and artistic motifs to the Middle East, and supported the writing of histories. They also promoted Sufism in the Islamic world and influenced Russian government, trade, and art, among other impacts. Europeans became aware, via Marco Polo who traveled through the Mongols' domains, of Asian products, as well as technological, scientific, and philosophical innovations in the East and were motivated to find sea routes to South and East Asia.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.101-120
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• 2023

In March 1245, Pope Innocent IV authorized three missions to the Mongols, seeking information about this menace from the East and summoning Eastern Christian support against an anticipated Mongol onslaught. Only one of the missions, led by John of Plano Carpini, reached Mongolia-the first-known Western European party to reach East Asia by a land route. Traveling along the Silk Road's new "Grasslands Route," John and his companion Benedict reached the camp of Güyüg Khan, where they witnessed his installation as the Great Khan. Upon their return to the papal court in 1247, they delivered Güyüg's letter demanding the submission of the pope and all the West's princes. John also presented a detailed report on what he and Benedict had learned. A close reading of it reveals a master intelligence operative at work. In addition to presenting an overview of Mongol history and culture, Friar John's report provides detailed information on the Mongols' grand strategy, their military organization and armaments, and their battle tactics. Turning from intelligence gathering to military operations, he offered practical advice on how to meet and defeat the coming Mongol onslaught, an attack that, providentially for the West, never came. What did occur was a modest but significant migration of Western missionaries and merchants to East Asia in the century following this pioneering journey.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.7-27
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• 2017

The present study aims to do a documental study of the Mongol invasion and the fall of Baghdad (the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate) in 1258 CE. It is a case study on a document and two comments on it, which were originally recovered from the burial shroud of a person killed during $H{\ddot{u}}leg{\ddot{u}}^{\prime}s$ conquest of Baghdad. This document was later inserted by someone (possibly by one of its two commentators) in a section of a primary manuscript of Kitab al-Wara'a (written in 1147 CE). Then Osman ibn ${\dot{G}}{\bar{a}}nim$ al-Hiti and Ṭahir ibn '$Abd-All{\bar{a}}h$ ibn Ibrahim ibn Aḥmad, as commentators, wrote their comments about the document. Although these documents are in the form of fragmentary notes, they are rare primary sources that depict the events and the conditions of the siege, the conquest of Baghdad and the collapse of Abbasid Caliphate. This article, while providing images, revised texts, and translations of the documents, aims to introduce them and to explore the civil factors contributing to the fall of Baghdad.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.26
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• pp.163-173
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• 1995

The purpose of this study is to investigate the Ku which was worn by nomadic tribes which was Khitai, Mongols and Manchus. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. 1. The fur clothes were very important clothes that nomadic tribes put on in order to protect them against the cold. The Ku was an outfit for protection against the cold. It was made of ani-mal fur and its style was tight sleeve and long dress. 2. The Ku was worn in all social classes including emperor, nobles and the masses in ancient China and Asia dynasty. After the nomadic tribes estabilished dynasty in China the style of Ku was changed. All kinds of animal fur was used to make the Ku but the volume of fur, kinds and colors were classified severely by their social position. In Khitai dynasty the Ku was worn in same style. But the emperor wore the Ku of silver marten. The noble class wore the Ku of purple, black and blue marten and silver squirrel skin. The masses wore the Ku of the other colors marten, sheep, squirrel and dessert fox skin. In Mongol dynasty, the emperor wore the Ku of purple marten, silver squirrel, silver fox and black fox skin. The nobles wore the Ku of the other colors marten and squirrel. The masses wore the Ku of degraded animal fur. Before the Manchus estabilished the varient races dynasty in China, the rich man preferred the Ku of marten, squirrel, fox, goat furs. But the poorman preferred the Ku of cow, horses, pig, sheep, cat, dog, snake and deer skin. After the manchus conquered the China, the manners of dress were changed. Generally the fur did not appear in right side of garment, but high quality or noble fur appeared outside. Sometimes the inside or outside of Ku was made of silk fabrics and sleeves, neck-band was made of the high quality fur.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.141-164
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• 2021

The Khitans were a Turco-Mongol clan who dominated China north of the Yangtze River during the early mediaeval period. They adopted and then adapted many of the cultural traditions of their powerful neighbours to the south, the Song Chinese. However, before their absorption into the Mongol Empire in the late 13^th century they proved pivotal, firstly in the eastward expansion of the armies of Chinggis Khan, secondly, in the survival of the Persian heartlands after the Mongol invasions of the 1220s and thirdly, in the revival and integration of the polity of Iran into the Chinggisid Empire. Da Liao, the Khitans, the Qara Khitai, names which have served this clan well, strengthened and invigorated the hosts which harboured them. The Liao willingly assimilated into the Chinggisid Empire of whose formation they had been an integral agent and in doing so they also surrendered their identity but not their history. Recent scholarship is now unearthing and recognising their proud legacy and distinct identity. Michal Biran placed the Khitans irrevocably and centrally in mediaeval Asian history and this study emphasises their role in the establishment of the Mongol Empire.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.79-95
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• 2019

This article presents a brief reconstruction of the historic journey of Benedict the Pole and John of Pian de Carpine, the first known Europeans after A.D. 900 who completed a successful return journey east of Baghdad and gave surviving accounts of their travels. The article, which focuses mainly on the role of Benedict the Pole, is divided into five parts: the reasons and organization of the deputation sent to the Mongols by Pope Innocent IV from 1245-1248, the route travelled by the Papal envoys, the existing versions of the two surviving accounts of the mission, the role of Benedict the Pole as the secretary and translator to the papal legate Pian de Carpine, and the outcome of the journey as seen from the perspective of Europe-Asia contacts.

• Asian review of World Histories
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.231-256
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• 2016

This paper presents a case study of the Muslim diaspora through comparative analysis of Islamic tombstones from the Southeast Coast of China under Mongol rule. The locations of the nisbas in the Islamic tombstones are widely dispersed, covering Xinjiang, Transoxiana, Iran, Khorasan, Khwarazm, Armenia, Syria, Palestine, and Arabia. Unexpectedly, we did not find a single named location from India or Southeast Asia. It is well known that notable descendants of distinguished families traditionally produced officials, intellectuals, and wealthy merchants, and surrendered to the Mongols during the war against the Qara Khitai Khanate and the Khwarazm Empire. There were a great number of appointed officials with Muslim names in the Jianghuai (around Lower Yangtze) and Fujian regions. This is consistent with the concentration of epitaphs written in Arabic on the southeast coast of China. The frequent use of the specific tradition of the prophet Muhammad associating the death of the exile with martyrdom in Islamic tombstones in Quanzhou, Hangzhou, and Yangzhou indicates that the Muslims in these port cities eventually established an interregional or diasporic identity of Muslim foreighners whoimmigrated into the region.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.187-198
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• 2020

This paper is devoted to the examination of the identity of the Sogdian descendants and their historical role in the second millennium CE. More specifically, it discusses the Sogdian connection to the later Iranic-speaking peoples of Central Asia, namely, the Sarts and the Tajiks. It then discusses the symbiotic relationship between the Sogdian descendants and the Mongols and the Mongol descendants (Chaghatays and Uzbeks) in Central Asia. In sum, this paper argues that the Sogdians did not perish after the Arab conquest of Central Asia in the eighth century CE. They survived under new exonyms Sart and Tajik. Like the Sogdians in pre-Islamic Central Asia, the Tajiks or Sarts played important historical roles in the Mongol and post-Mongol states of Central Asia, maintaining a symbiotic relationship with the nomad elites.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.29-52
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• 2022

This study investigates why Khwārazmshāh's rulers abandoned Khwārazm, their capital before the Mongols invaded this city. From a local dynasty in Khwārazm under the Saljuqs, the Khwārazmshāh dynasty (ca.469-628/1077-1231) rapidly expanded in the region. After conquering the Saljuqs (ca.429-590/1037-1194), they extended their territory from Hamedān in western Iran to Samarqand in Transoxiana and beyond that to Otrār to become one of the world's great medieval empires. During this critical time, Khwārazm remained their central hub of power. However, the split in the power of the Khwārazmshāh dynasty under Sultan Muhammad (ca.596-617/1200-1220) contributed to their failure to recognize the strategic role of Khwārazm in retaining and reconstructing their power. In essence, the Khwārazmshāh state was divided before the Mongol Invasion.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.300-307
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• 2007

We have studied the history of the introduction of Ayurveda medicine in Mongolia. During the periods of the Hunnu (400 BC-200 AD), Ikh Nirun (400-600 AD), and Uigur Dynasty (800-1,000 AD), Ayurveda (Indian Medicine) was introduced to Mongolia along with Buddhism from the Middle Asian countries Kushan, Khotan, Sogd and Uigar. Ayurveda was fully introduced to Mongolia under the deep influence of Tibetan Buddhism from the 13th century. Mongolia's first Medical School, following the Tibetan tradition, was established in 1662. In Mongolia more than 40 Medical Schools were established from 1662-1937. 26 Ayurvedic treatises were translated into the Mongolian language and published in 1742-1749. Since the $14^{th}$ century Mongols have been translating Tibetan Medical books into the Mongolian language, of which we have today found more than ten. Over the centuries, Mongolian scholars have written many commentaries to these medical texts.