Primary sources are what historians use for deciphering the past, and are important to consider when analyzing any historical topic. Events may change between sources, depending on the writers, why they were writing and for whom they were writing. For historians of the Mongol Empire, there are a number of sources (of varying quality) from Arab and Persian writers in the aftermath of the Mongol advance. In this video, we have a look at some of these sources - ibn al-Athir, al-Nasawi, Juzjani and 'Ata-Malik Juvaini- and what they have to say on one of the most important events in the history of the Mongol Conquests: the massacre at Otrar in 1218, discussed in detail in a previous video.

My video on the Otrar Massacre: [ Ссылка ]

PRIMARY SOURCES:

‘Ala-ad-Din ‘Ata-Malik Juvaini, The History of the World-Conqueror. Vol. I. Translated by John Andrew Boyle. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1958. [ Ссылка ]

de Rachewiltz, Igor. The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century. Translated by Igor de Rachewiltz. Edited by John C. Street. University of Wisconsin: Madison, 2015.
[ Ссылка ]

“Temujin and the Rise of the Mongol Empire,” in Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources, edited by Scott C. Levi, Ron Sela, 115-137. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009. Contains excerpts from a few primary sources of the period, such as the Secret History of the Mongols. Includes section of Nasawi discussing the Otrar Massacre.

SECONDARY SOURCES:

Barthold, W. Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion. Translated by H.A.R. Gibb. London: Oxford University Press, 1928. [ Ссылка ]

Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017. Has a chapter which discusses all of these sources, and more, in some detail.

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