The last great campaign of the unified Mongol Empire was spearheaded against the Muslim East. This onslaught brought forth the Ilkhanate, one of the four Tartar split polities, whose sway spread between the Indus and the Euphrates. The nomadic rulers of this new realm aspired to conquer the lands of Syria and Egypt governed by the novel Islamic power: the Mamluk Sultanate.
Since the balance of forces was close to a draw, the geopolitical confrontation between the rivals became locked in a stalemate. Following the classic paradigm, which they exerted from time to time in their turbulent history, the Mongols were seeking an ally to tempt him to open a second front against their foes. They thought they had found a partner among the crusader states of the Levant which struggled for their survival on the Holy Land. They also hoped to forge an alliance with the leading powers of the Latin West, promising to transfer Jerusalem under the Christian control.
My new chapter will focus on these futile attempts. That will be the last extract of Unit III. I have already completed the collection of materials and need to hatch a plan. The novel chapter will substitute two extracts in the draft. I won't do it to curtail page numbers of the book which will hopefully comprise about 90 K words. These extracts written five or six years ago, when I just launched my research, seem awfully outdated. Now I know better!
A few words about my research. When I use this word, I do not mean scientific research but a personal study of the subject. My aim is not to find an unexplored area but to write a fascinating story. My plots are always based on reality, as I see it, and sometimes I ask logical questions if I meet with awkward explanations. I like to follow new trends but only if they look promising.
When I finish this chapter, I am going to move to the realm of medieval legends, exploring the meaning of Alexander Wall designed to thwart the efforts of the enclosed nations to contaminate the "civilized" world.
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