The Big Tent

By: Santiago Machain

Narrated by: Santiago Machain

This book reveals how a nomadic empire engineered the most ambitious peace of the medieval world—and what it cost to keep it.

From the relay-station highways of the yam to the cosmopolitan capitals of Dadu, Tabriz, and Sarai, this volume shows how the Mongols turned conquest into governance, revived the Silk Roads, and moved people, ideas, and technologies at unprecedented speed. Readers meet rulers like Ögedei and Khubilai, merchants underwriting caravans with paper money, monks and qadis negotiating pluralism, and engineers dredging canals to feed cities.

Across chapters on law, daily life, diplomacy, and long-distance trade, the book reconstructs a functioning imperial system—bold, pragmatic, and often surprisingly humane—before charting the stresses that strained it by the late 13th century: fiscal overreach, environmental shocks, regional rivalries, and administrative fatigue.

Grounded in vivid scenes and careful analysis, this is a sweeping, accessible history of how the Mongol order worked on the ground—and why it began to creak even as it transformed Eurasia.

©2025 Santiago Machain (P)2025 Santiago Machain