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The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East

Nicholas Morton

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'Brain-stretching . . . pulsating . . . irresistable' The Sunday Times'Deeply researched and elegantly written - essential reading' Dan Jones'Erudite, often thrilling and much-needed' Daily TelegraphHow the Mongol invasions of the Near East reshaped the balance of world power in the Middle Ages.

For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As The Mongol Storm reveals, during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions.

In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia.

This is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences.

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Praise for The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East

  • Deeply researched and elegantly written - essential readingErudite, often thrilling and much-neededBrain-stretching . . . pulsating . . . irresistable . . . A reminder that the best history writing is eminently readableRevelatory, lively and stocked with colourful personalitiesAn unusual blend of serious scholarship with a narrative drive as galloping as the ferocious Mongol cavalry whose repeated battlefield triumphs Nicholas Morton recreates with relishThe most exciting study of the Mongols and their encounters with the peoples of the Near East I have ever readThis expert study casts the Middle Ages in a new lightFor anyone who loves history, especially with military and diplomatic focuses

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Nicholas Morton

Nicholas Morton

Nicholas Morton is an associate professor at Nottingham Trent University specialising in the history of the Medieval Middle East, writing extensively on topics including the Crusades, the Mongol Empire and the Seljuk Turks. An award-winning author, his books include The Mongol Storm, which the Sunday Times described as 'a reminder that the best history writing is eminently readable', and the highly anticipated The Crusader Storm: A Global History of the Wars for the Middle East, which will be published in June 2026.

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