The “Bon Sauvage” and the Man of the Millennium: A Historiography of Western Studies on the Mongol Empire

The establishment of the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history, had a profound impact on the conquered regions and marked the end of a historical era for many of them. Modern studies of the Mongol Empire look at it from conflicting perspectives including history, politics, culture, and the Mongols' impact on the conquered world. Since the study of the Mongol Empire spans three centuries, there are different approaches and methods to examine it. This historiographical study places the research on the Mongol Empire in the historical and political context of the period in which it was written, and articulates the methodological and intellectual developments that have been applied to the historical study of the empire. The findings show that since the first historical works in the 18th century, the main interpretation has been an uncritical narrative of Mongol savagery combined with the idea of the enlightened ruler. The Soviet Marxist historiography of the, 20th century, on the other hand, focused on class relations and Mongol social evolution. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, new works in Britain and America examined global exchange, cultural/economic integration and the emergence of international trade under Mongol rule and rejected the earlier interpretations of Mongol destruction. This historiographical article evaluates and critically formulates the approaches and methods used to study the Mongol Empire over three centuries using a descriptive-analytical approach and a chronological sequence.