The first section of this volume brings together five studies on the Mongol empire. The accent is on the ideology behind Mongol expansion, on the dissolution of the empire into a number of rival khanates, and on the relations between the Mongol regimes and their Christian subjects within and potential allies outside. Three pieces in the second section relate to the early history of the Delhi Sultanate, with particular reference to the role of its Turkish slave (ghulam) officers and guards, while a fourth examines the collapse in 1206-15 of the Ghurid dynasty, whose conquests in northern India had created the preconditions for the Sultanate's emergence. The final three papers are concerned with Mongol pressure on Muslim India and the capacity of the Delhi Sultanate to withstand it.

Contents: Preface; The Mongol Empire: The dissolution of the Mongol empire; From ulus to khanate: the making of the Mongol states, c.1220-c.1290; Hÿlegÿ Khan and the Christians: the making of a myth; The Mongols and the faith of the conquered; World-conquest and local accommodation: threat and blandishment in Mongol diplomacy. The Formation of Muslim India: The fall of the Ghurid dynasty; Turkish slaves on Islam's Indian frontier; The Mamluk institution in early Muslim India; Sultan Radiyya bint Iltutmish. The Mongols and the Delhi Sultanate: Jalal al-Din, the Mongols and the Khwarazmian conquest of the Panjab and Sind; The Mongols and the Delhi Sultanate in the reign of Muhammad Tughluq (1325-1351); Delhi: the problem of a vast military encampment; Index.

Peter Jackson is Professor of Medieval History in the School of Humanities (History) at Keele University, UK.