The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia. Edited by Timothy May. Empires of the World. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2016. 2 vols. Acid free $198 (ISBN 978-1-61069-339-4). E-book available (978-61069-340-0), call for pricing.

Timothy May is a scholar and historian of the Mongol Empire, and currently is the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of North Georgia. As the editor and main contributing author of the The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia, it is his hope that this reference source “will lay a foundation for further investigation” (xiii). As he explains in the preface, “With an empire the size of the Mongol Empire, invariably something must be omitted. Two volumes are simply not enough to include everything that could be included” (xiii). That being said, May and the eighteen contributors did a remarkable job of addressing the broad and complex subject of Mongolian history from the twelfth through fifteenth centuries, and created an encyclopedia that is all-encompassing and full of very rich and interesting history.

The 192 entries are organized into eight topical sections. Volume 1 contains the “Government and Politics,” “Organization and Administration,” “Individuals,” and “Groups and Organizations” sections; volume 2 includes “Key Events,” “Military,” “Objects and Artifacts,” and “Key Places” sections. Each section provides an “Overview Essay,” which introduces the topic and how it relates to the Mongol Empire, and the entries are arranged alphabetically under each section.

Each article is accompanied by “see also” cross-references that direct the reader to related topics in the encyclopedia and a short bibliography of suggestions for further reading. Both volumes include a comprehensive index and volume 2 contains a glossary and fifteen-page bibliography. Volume 2 also contains forty-eight brief primary documents spanning the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, beginning with the Arab historian Ibn al-Athir’s early-thirteenth-century report of the “Mongol Invasion of the Islamic World,” and concluding with an “Account of the Battle of the Ugra River from the Nikonian Chronice (1480).” Fifteen of the primary documents are Marco Polo’s descriptions of his travels to Mongolia in the thirteenth century.

The “Individuals” section highlights twenty-nine key figures who “demonstrate not only their own importance within the Mongol Empire but also how historians of the empire have emphasized them” (volume 1, 124). Five of the notable rulers or khans (Chagatai, Chinggis, Khubilai, Mongke, and Tolui) are represented, as well as four khatuns, or female nobility (Chabi, Doquz, Oghul Qaimish, and Orghina). Because this encyclopedia may be used by students who are just beginning their research on the Mongol Empire, a “see also” note about Chinggis Khan also being known as Genghis Khan would have been helpful to add in either the introduction where he is first mentioned or in the “Chinggis Khan” entry, and in the index.

Christopher P. Atwood’s one-volume Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire (Facts on File, 2004) is arranged like a standard encyclopedia with entries organized alphabetically. Atwood’s source is larger in scope, covering some historical events and people through the twentieth century, yet does not provide as detailed a historical account as May’s The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia. May’s encyclopedia would be a welcome and valuable addition to any academic library, especially those libraries which support Asian, Islamic, or Mongolian programs.—Megan Coder, Associate Librarian, State University of New York at New Paltz