Northern transcontinental tradein the Mongol epoch (XIII-XV centuries)

The article discusses issues related to the functioning of the Northern transcontinental trade route in the era of the Mongol Empire and the States formed after its disintegration. The aim of this work is to establish the route of the Northern way in the Mongol era, as well as localization of the territories referred to in Muslim sources (“Chulyman land”, “Siberia”, “Ibir”), through which passed the route. The main written sources on this issue are the writings of the Arab geographer Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari, the Persian chronicler Rashid ad-Din, the Armenian historian Kirakos of Gandzinatcti, ancient Mongolian “Secret history”, China-Mongolian chronicle “Yuan-Shi”, the information of the Austrian diplomat Sigismund Herberstein, as well as ancient Chronicles and geographical treatise of the XVI century “the Book of Big Drawing”. In addition, the author used the wide data of archaeological reseaches of L.R. Kyzlasov, A.P. Mozya, A.H. Khalikov, A.M. Belavin, N.A. Tropin, M.I. Gonyani, G.N. Belorybkin, Yu.S. Khudyakov, A.B. Borisenko, etc. Forst part of the article provides a historiographical review of these problems, and examines trade-economic policy of the authorities of the Mongol Empire and the Jochi Ulus in the XIII-XIV centuries, aimed at the revival of transcontinental Eurasian trade. The second part of the work attempts to localize the Northern trade routes, as well as changes to its status in connection with the processes of desintegration a single economic and political space of Nortern Eurasia. Based on the analysis of written sources and archeological data, the author came to the conclusion that the Northern trade route passed from the lands of Yenisei Kyrghiz (Khakas) - “Chulyman land”, through the Baraba steppe, then near Irtysh and Ishim rivers regions (“Ibir”) in the direction of Tyumen (Siberia). From Tyumen merchant caravans went on the South Ural route to Bulgar, and from there along the riverbeds of the Volga, Oka, Proni, Don, Bistraya Sosna, through a die in the lakes Ivan and Samodurovka (which existed in the middle ages), Poseimye (Kursk, Putivl) and middle Dnieper (Kiev) in the Byzantine-Horde (bass) and Italian (Kaffa) trading posts. The heyday of the Northern trading routes in the second half of XIII - first half of XIV centuries is associated with a pan-Mongolian policy to promote a transcontinental Eurasian trade, integration into a single system of trade routes, as the parties existed in the pre-Mongol era. From the end of XIV century the decadence of the Northern trade route due to changes in the military-political situation in Eurasia (the collapse of the Mongol States, the campaigns of Timur Lenge, the Turkish expansion in the Northern black sea). In the XVI century in connection with the expansion of Moscow in the Volga region and Siberia the path finally goes into decline, becoming one of the local trade routes of the West Siberian region.

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