The Mongol Storm

Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East

By: Nicholas Morton

Narrated by: Nick Biadon

How 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.

©2022 Nicholas Morton (P)2023 Tantor

A scholarly and thoughtful thrill ride!

The book proceeds at a thriller pace, but provides, what I think is the most thoughtful and scholarly analysis of the forces acting on and the motivations of all stakeholders swept up in this multi-civilization collision. So while it was a fun read, it was also informative, sobering, maturing, and despite the horrible amount of strife and suffering...oddly hopeful. Humanity is more pragmatic (albeit shortsighted) than we give ourselves credit. The richness of history is always victim to current convenient narratives that oversimplify and reduce conflicts on the basis of identity. Yesterday the Near East dynasties struggled for control of lucrative trade routes and basic power projection. These might as well be anything else nation states fight over today (with strikingly similar calculus). The true menace lying in wait then was not the Mongols but the bubonic plague just as today it's climate change. "I come to your window and you're not there, now I'm at your door and behold!". This quote carries a whole new meaning in retrospect.

Great detailed history of the Mongol invasions

I was broadly aware of the this periods history and the Mongol invasions, but this book provides so many details, makes sense of the period and gills a number of gap. What were the Mongol’s motivations for such massive conquests philosophically? How and why did they decline and who were they replaced by? How did the Ottomans rise from their ashes? How were the Mamluks able to defeat them at Ain Jalut, and how were they able to escape from their revenge afterwards? These and other questions answered in amazing detail. Great learning experience overall.

Good book, not about the Mongols

This book gave a lot of interesting insights on adjacent empires to the Mongols, but take it very seriously when they say this is about other perspectives. The Mongols haunt the narrative, often unmentioned for large stretches of time, because the focus is more about how the medieval Near East’s empires functioned and fell during the time of the Mongol campaigns. You do get some interesting tidbits on the Il Khans but more often than not the narrative is focused on the cause and effect of the Mongol conquest.

If you are looking for a book specifically on Mongolian history this may not be the book for you, if you are interested in the geopolitical scope of broader medieval near east- this IS the book for you.

In a way the title I think is misleading (by focusing so heavily on the Mongols) but I did still enjoy my listen.

I also don’t recommend this book for people looking for an intro book to the medieval near east or for those unfamiliar with the key players in the Mongol Empire. You will gain a lot more from this text by having a thorough knowledge people and places.

Good intro text

This is not an academic monograph. This is an accessibly written narrative history of how the Mongols invaded, controlled, and then saw their rule disintegrate in the Near East. This is not a deep dive into the historiography or anything, nor does it intend to do that. It is designed for novices to learn about this topic in a fun and accessible way. It does exactly that and I got exactly what I was looking for

History explained and experienced

Well organized history that immensely changed our world and still continues today. Well written and interesting.