However, the Mongol Empire, established in 1206 by ... Central Asian cities like Samarkand prospered as regional ...

So wondrous was the court of Khubilai Khan that its memory floated through the centuries until an English poet captured it in dreamy rhymes: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure-dome ...

The Shahnama, the Persian national epic, comes to life in an intricate illustrated 14th-century text made under the Mongols, on view at the National Museum of Asian Art.

This branch of the Mongol dynasty, which became known as the Ilkhanids (1256–1353), centered its power in northwest Iran. Although Mongol conquests initially brought devastation and affected the ...