While historians of the Mongol empire have focused on the Mongols' impact on China, Iran, and Russia, many other smaller peoples had dramatic experiences in the Mongol empire. Among the most important of these smaller peoples, and one whose historical experience in the Mongol empire is best documented, are the Armenians. In this new history, Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog, currently of the National University of Mongolia, tells how the nobles of Greater Armenia (the historic Armenian homeland) and the kingdom of Lesser Armenia (in Cilicia in today's southern Turkey) attempted to survive, manage, and even profit from the Mongol conquest. (In line with current official Mongolian practice, but rather confusingly, Bayarsaikhan's seeming surname, Dashdondog, is actually a patronymic, and is never used socially except for official identification purposes.)
Bayarsaikhan's work is a traditional political history. After an introduction on the sources, particularly Armenian, but also Mongolian, Persian, and Arabic, she gives background...
