Sources for Post-Mongol TC&TC Games

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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Howdy, folks! I've been gearing up for my own game starting in 1260s Maragha (inside modern day Iranian Azerbaijan) - capital of the Ilkhanate and home to the great Nasir al-Din Tusi's advanced new observatory with its vast library and impressive collection of scholars in residence - and I thought it might be worth sharing the resources I've been using. The Ilkhanate in particular is really poorly served in pop histories and "recieved wisdom", both Western and non-Western, and hopefully these contemporary academic texts will be of use anyone interested in doing a better job than that with their own games using The Cradle and The Crescent.

  • New Approaches to Ilkhanid History edited by Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog and Christopher P. Atwood ·

  • Power, Politics, and Tradition in the Mongol Empire and the Īlkhānate of Iran by Michael Hope

  • The Mongols' Middle East: Continuity and Transformation in Ilkhanid Iran edited by Bruno De Nicola and Charles Melville

  • Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia by Jonathan Brack and Francesca Fiaschetti

  • Early Mongol Rule In Thirteenth-Century Iran by George Lane

  • The Idea of Iran Series published by SOAS - particularly The Coming of the Mongols [Vol 7] edited by David O. Morgan and Sarah Stewart and Iran after the Mongols [Vol 8] edited by Sussan Babaie

  • The Mongols in Iran: Qutb Al-Din Shirazi's Akhbar-i Moghulan by George Lane

  • Women in Mongol Iran: The Khatuns, 1206-1335 by Bruno De Nicola

  • Holy War and Rapprochement: Studies in the Relations Between the Mamluk Sultanate and the Mongol Ilkhanate (1260-1335) by Reuven Amitai

  • Islamic Chinoiserie: The Art of Mongol Iran by Yuka Kadoi

  • Libraries, Books, and Transmission of Knowledge in Ilkhanid Baghdad by Michal Biran

  • The Wonders of Creation and the Singularities of Painting: A Study of the Ilkhanid London Qazvīnī by Stefano Carboni

  • Islamic Manuscripts of Late Medieval Rum: 1270s to 1370s by Cailah Jackson

  • The Mongols In Iran: Chingiz Khan to Uljaytu (1220–1309) by Judith Kolbas (primarily economic history)

  • Islam, Literature, and Society in Mongol Anatolia by Andrew A. C. S. Peacock

  • Women and the Making of the Mongol Empire by Ann Broadbridge

  • The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System by Timothy May

  • Mediating Sacred Kingship: Conversion and Sovereignty in Mongol Iran by Jonathan Brack

  • Rebuilding Anatolia after the Mongol Conquest Islamic Architecture in the Lands of Rūm, 1240–1330 by Patricia Blessing

  • Prophets of the East: The Ilkhanid Historian Rashid al-Din on the Buddha, Laozi and Confucius by Francesca Fiaschetti

  • Tamta’s World
    : The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the
    Middle East to Mongolia     by Antony Eastmond

  • The Jalayirids and Dynastic State Formation in the Mongol Ilkhanate by Patrick Wing

  • The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality: Studies in Anthropological History by Denise Aigle

  • The Mongols and the Armenians by Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog

  • Nasir Al-Din Tusi: A Philosopher for All Seasons by Sayeh Meisami

  • Alā’ Al-Dawla Al-Simnānī Between Spiritual Authority and Political Power: A Persian Lord and Intellectual in the Heart of the Ilkhanate by Giovanni Maria Martini

  • Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th - 15th Century Tabriz edited by Judith Pfeiffer

  • Mongol Court Dress, Identity Formation, and Global Exchange by Eiren L. Shea

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Quickest bookmark ever! :laughing:

This list looks fantastic, I'd been meaning to run a game using TC&TC but That Whole Mongol Thing kept me from doing so, I just didn't know enough to extrapolate realistically. Now I have somewhere to start!

Long book lists really make me want to go on a shopping spree and surround myself with new books, even if academic publishing prices can be frightfully expensive.

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Glad they're helpful. Fair warning, some (ok most) of these books are kinda dense and jargony, but I'm very willing to talk through one or more of them and how the info presented could be implemented in Mythic Iran if anyone wants.

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Man, there are. Times. When I wonder if I am just not smart or dedicated enough for this hobby. This is definitely one of those times, because damn that is a lot of seriously heavy reading just for background for a game. I'm impressed and also slightly terrified :thinking:

That said- while I will continue to run my own game firmly in my ignorant Eurocentric comfort zone- I would absolutely love to read a campaign journal or AP report or what have you, if one's available when your game gets underway, because it sounds amazing.

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It's sort of cheating, Ilkhanid studies is a field adjacent to the one I actually study in a lot of ways. It's more like crowbar-ing my own interests into the game - it just happens to line up pretty well in this case. To be honest, this is more work than I would normally put in even for another MENA campaign but there's just so much bizarre bad history floating around on this period that I feel like the obligation to keep things as accurate as possible is a lot higher, especially for those people in the game who are completely new to things. The good news is that an authentic Ilkhanate is a way more fun setting anyways, so you aren't sacrificing anything (except a lot of time but that's the hobby ain't it.)

Certainly planning to! Might try to write up some of the prep work in a more readable form to anticipate that...

The Cradle and the Crescent Part II: 2Cradle 2Crescent.

Can't help but be reminded of In Praise of Books here, ha.

A book is a receptacle filled with knowledge, a container crammed with good sense, a vessel full of jesting and earnestness...Moreover, have you ever seen a garden that will go into a man's sleeve, an orchard you can take on your lap, a speaker who can speak of the dead and yet be the interpreter of the living? Where else will you find a companion who sleeps only when you are asleep, and speaks only when you wish him to? ...To my mind, there is no pleasanter neighbour, no more fair-minded friend, no more amenable companion, no more dutiful teacher, no comrade more perfect and less prone to error, less annoying or importunate, of a sweeter disposition, less inclined to contradiction or accusation, less disposed to slander or backbiting, more marvellous, cleverer, less given to flattery or affectation, less demanding or quarrelsome, less prone to argument or more opposed to strife, than a book...The price is insignificant in comparison! Even if its kindness to you and its benevolence towards you consisted merely in saving you from the tedium of sitting on your doorstep watching the passers-by—with all the aggravations that posture entails: civilities to be paid, other people's indiscretions, the tendency to meddle in things that do not concern you, the proximity of boorish people, the need to listen to their bad Arabic and their mistaken ideas and put up with their low behaviour and their shocking ignorance—even if a book conferred no other advantage but this, it would be both salutary and profitable for its owner. - al-Jahiz, Kitab al-Hiyawan

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I , too, would be very interested in seeing that. Would that I could play in that game!

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I love that this kind of books exists. I once got Ruling from the Dragon Throne: Costume of the Qing Dynasty : Costumes of the Qing Dynasty by John E. Vollmer in a museum book shop for only 10 euros and I do not regret it. If I ever learn how to use a sewing machine, I'll make myself such courtly garments (there are patterns inside, for the skilled and motivated).

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I'm a sucker for these sorts of books as well. This one is mostly theory (very useful though) with only a smallish set of images to display the development of styles following contact with the Islamicate and the diffusion of Mongol court dress in Western Eurasia, but the ones the author did include are fantastic.

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Oh that's sick, kinda wishing there was a Borjigid princely felt hat instructional guide in this book now. :grin:

Gonna have to make sure my notes are not just semi-literate gibberish now, lmao. Things are still pretty early and a confluence of events have sort of put the original squad collected for it on hold in a way, so maybe there'll be space?

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If you need any help in turning it into a PDF, I'm more than happy to help. (I'm the one who did the Animals of Mythic Europe)

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That was really good work! I'll keep the offer in mind, thank you kindly.

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