Forced Migrations and Slavery in the Mongol Empire (1206–1368)

doi:10.1017/9781139024723.004

Chapter 4 - Forced Migrations and Slavery in the Mongol Empire (1206–1368)

from Part I - Captivity and the Slave Trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2021

Michal Biran

Edited by

Craig Perry ,

David Eltis ,

Stanley L. Engerman and

David Richardson

Show author details

Craig Perry: Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
David Eltis: Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Stanley L. Engerman: Affiliation:
University of Rochester, New York
David Richardson: Affiliation:
University of Hull

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Summary

The Mongol Empire (1206-1368) had a tremendous impact on slavery across Eurasia. While slaves played a minor role in pre-Imperial Mongolia, the Mongols saw people as a resource, to be distributed among the imperial family and used for imperial needs, like material goods. This view created a whole spectrum of dependency running from free men to full slaves. More specifically, the huge conquests of the United Empire (1206-60) resulted in huge supply of war captives, many of whom eventually sold in the Eurasian slave markets. With the dissolution of the Empire and the halt of its expansion, the demand for slaves remained high, and other means were sought for supplying it. The chapter discusses slavery among the pre-imperial Mongols; the general context of slavery caused by Mongol mobilization and redistribution policies; the various ways of becoming a slave in the Mongol Empire; and the slaves’ dispersion, uses, conditions as well as manumission mechanisms and opportunities for social mobility. It highlights the different types of slavery (extrusive versus intrusive) in China and the Muslim and Christian worlds and argues that in Mongol Eurasia slavery was not always a social death.

Keywords

Mongol Empire Migrations Military Slaves Captives Yuan China Ilkhanid Iran Medieval Islamic World

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge World History of Slavery , pp. 76 - 99

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139024723.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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References

A Guide to Further Reading

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Allsen, Thomas T., “Population Movements in Mongol Eurasia,” in Amitai, Reuven and Biran, Michal (eds.), Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change (Honolulu, 2015), pp. 119–151.Google Scholar

Amitai, Reuven and Cluse, Christoph (eds.), Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean (c. 1000–1500 CE) (Turnhout, 2017).Google Scholar

Biran, Michal, “Encounters among Enemies: Preliminary Remarks on Captives in Mongol Eurasia,” Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi, 21 (2014–2015): 27–42.Google Scholar

Biran, Michal, “The Mongol Empire and Inter-Civilizational Exchange,” in Kedar, Benjamin Z. and Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. (eds.), The Cambridge World History, Vol. V, Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500 CE–1500 CE (Cambridge, 2015), pp. 534–558.Google Scholar

Bossler, Beverly Jo, Courtesans, Concubines, and the Cult of Female Fidelity: Gender and Social Change in China, 1000–1400 (Cambridge, MA, 2013).Google Scholar

Ebisawa, Tetsuo, “Bondservants in the Yüan,” Acta Asiatica, 45 (1983): 27–48.Google Scholar

Golden, Peter B., “The Terminology of Slavery and Servitude in Medieval Turkic,” in DeWeese (ed.), Devin, Studies on Central Asian History in Honor of Yuri Bregel (Bloomington, IN, 2001), pp. 27–56.Google Scholar

Hoffman, Birgit, “Rashiduddin Fazlullah as Perfect Organizer: The Case of the Endowment Slaves and Gardens of the Rab-i Rashidi,” in Fragner, Bert (ed.), Proceedings of the Second European Conference of Iranian Studies Held in Bamberg 30th September to 4th October 1991 (Rome, 1995), pp. 287–296.Google Scholar

Irinchin, Yekemingghadai, “Regarding the Mongol Bo’ol in the 11th and 12th Centuries,” in Xin, Luo (ed.), Chinese Scholars on Inner Asia (Bloomington, IN, 2012), pp. 315–330.Google Scholar

Skrynnikova, T. V., “Boghol, a Category of Submission at the Mongols,” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 58 (2005): 313–319.Google Scholar

Tolmateva, Marina A., “Concubines on the Road: Ibn Battuta’s Slave Women,” in Gordon, Matthew S. and Hain, Kathryn A. (eds.), Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History (Oxford, 2017), pp. 163–189.Google Scholar