In this novel perspective on a much-maligned figure, Michal Biran explains the monumental impact Chinggis Khan has had upon the Islamic World, both positive and negative.

This series is devoted to the men and women throughout history who have made a significant contribution to the political, intellectual and religious landscape of the Muslim world. Each title combines first-rate scholarship with a strong emphasis on readability, and will serve as a perfect introduction for general readers and academics alike.

Chinggis Khan (c.1162 – 1227) was perhaps the most influential man of the last millennium, and although often criticised as a mass-slaughterer, pillager, and arch-enemy of Islam, his monumental impact upon the Muslim world, past and present, is impossible to deny.

In this new perspective on a much maligned figure, Michal Biran stresses that aside from death and destruction, Chinggis Khan’s constructive influence upon Islam was also considerable. Covering Chinggis Khan’s early career, his conquests, and the enduring power of his descendents, Biran shows how Chinggis and his heirs contributed to booming international trade, cultural and scientific exchange, as well as new forms of legitimacy and law, thereby shaping the new ethnic map of Eurasia. No less fascinating is the subsequent story of the ongoing reinvention of the image of Chinggis Khan in Islamic and non-Islamic historiography. Informative and far-reaching, Chinggis Khan provides a fascinating insight into one of history’s most significant individuals.

Michal Biran is Associate Professor at the Institute of Asian and African Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the author of The Qara Khitai Empire in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World.