The Mongol Storm

“A remarkable scholarly achievement.” 

“The Mongol Storm is an elegant reproach to the sort of academic history seen in narrow studies that are of interest only to other academic historians, exclude the general reader and, worst of all, are frankly unreadable. It is a reminder that the best history writing…is eminently readable. What is the point of it otherwise?” 

"A sobering account told with a stark Hobbesian realism, yet with a light writerly touch for all that.”
 

“[An] erudite, often thrilling and much-needed study…This is imperial history at its most ‘complex and messy’, but Morton passes little judgement…instead, he scrupulously contextualises all the actors within the belief systems of their day, and the harsh realities of their lives.”

“With powerful prose, Morton leads readers through the complicated affairs of the Medieval Near East…A virtue of Morton’s book is that it doesn’t simplify anything but makes the most complicated parts understandable. For anyone who loves history, especially with military and diplomatic focuses.” 

“A tremendous book. This is, at heart, a timeless story about the power of the survival instinct.”
 

“This expert study casts the Middle Ages in a new light.”

“This is the most exciting study of the Mongols and their encounters with the peoples of the Near East I have ever read. It is a story of epic proportions demanding much from an historian. Morton rises to the challenge. His scholarship is impeccable, and his judgments are judicious and compelling. He has an exceptional facility for finding the apt quotation to underscore his points, and his prose is precise, clear, and elegant. I found it extremely difficult to put this marvelous book down.”

“When Mongol armies arrived in the Near East in the later Middle Ages, they transformed the region utterly and irreversibly. Nicholas Morton’s new history of their extraordinary deeds and conquests is deeply researched and elegantly written—essential reading for anyone interested in the descendants of Genghis Khan in the age of the Crusades.”

“Morton’s The Mongol Storm is a well-researched and lucidly written book that will transform thinking about the great transitions of the Middle Ages. The phenomenon of Mongol expansion in the thirteenth century is usually told from the perspective of its Central Asian origins. Here, readers find the story of how the largest land empire in human history pushed westward into the Middle East, almost reaching Egypt itself. As medieval studies expands its focus onto more global connections, Morton’s book enables readers to see how war and trade, fear of violence, and desire for material goods tied this vast expanse together. This is a history we’ve been needing for some time."

“This outstanding book takes a deep look at Mongol history and the Islamic world over two centuries. Rulers of the largest land empire in history, extending from Korea to Poland, the Mongols are today often associated with conquest and destruction. In The Mongol Storm, Morton complicates these misconceptions, unearthing a wealth of references to their religious tolerance and their dissemination of revolutionary Asian technologies and cultures to the Middle East. He brilliantly examines the conflicts and alliances between the Mongols, Crusaders, Byzantines, and innumerable Muslim powers. Morton’s invaluable book shows how the Muslim world was profoundly reconfigured, and the broader history of our planet influenced for centuries to come, by the mandate from heaven.”

“An accessible and gripping narrative of the most important developments of the late medieval Near East.”