Originally published: London : Routledge & K. Paul, 1971.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-263) and index.

"J. J. Saunder's landmark book is a carefully documented history of the rise and fall of the great Mongol empire. Beginning in the early 1200s, the Mongols led by Chingis Khan began their insatiable assault on all the kingdoms and peoples around them, killing entire populations, forcing mass migrations, and permanently changing the distribution of the world's major religions. The Mongols were finally checked along the edges of Europe and forced out of the Middle East by rejuvenated Muslim factions." "It is fortunate that western Europe escaped the Mongol slaughter, and it is simple luck that the Mongols never attacked and captured Constantinople, saving that repository of Greek knowledge. As Saunders concludes, one of the major legacies of the Mongol conquests was the transfer of the intellectual and scientific accomplishments of the Old World from Islamic socieites to western Europe, thus paving the way for the Renaissance."--Jacket.

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