At the death of Genghiz Khan, the Mongol Empire stretched throughout 11 nations (of today's era) - Mongolia, North Korea, Kazakhstan, China, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and parts of Russia, Iran and Afghanistan. If one observes that history is proof of an interesting fact about multi-cultural empires that were once spread across various ethnicities, are now squared up as a single nation, losing all its previous powers and remaining as just a sovereign state. The Roman Empire originated from Italy and spread across the Mediterranean coast, covering a total number of 53 nations (roughly) of the modern world, today simply concentrated as the 9th largest metropolitan city of Europe. Going further back in time, Alexander the Great's empire touched roughly 19 nations of today's times, and yet Macedonia is landlocked between Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Kosovo. Moreover, its official name changed from the Republic of Macedonia to North Macedonia in 2019 since Macedonia itself is a region spread across several Balkan nations. The Ottoman Empire can be counted as another example that once stretched from the Balkan to the Levant and northern Africa, today's Turkey is a single entity, although not as powerless as other counterparts.
An exception to this pattern would be Russia. The Russian Empire once stretched from Finland to Siberia and covered entire Central Asia with the predecessor state of the USSR. Although it broke up in 1991 into 15 Republics, Russia still is the largest country in the world area wise. Talking about the Mongol Empire, which was technically not the usual empire with provinces or an administrative structure like that of the Romans or the Russians, the country today is landlocked between Russia and China and is barred from any multi-ethnocentric atmosphere that it had created several millennia ago. Although the Mongol Empire's existence was largely between 1206 to 1368 (a total of 162 years), its successor descendants of the Timurid Dynasty and the Mughal Empire existed for another 137 and 332, a total of 469 years roughly. Although the Mughal Empire was famished in 1858 by the British on the Indian subcontinent, the Mughal lineage continued even after India's independence in 1947, and ended only with the surrender of Hyderabad's Nizam - a Muslim Princely State formed during the downfall of the Mughals - to the Indian Army in September 1948.
But the Mongol Empire itself got disintegrated in the 14th century into various Khanates, an entity in the Islamic world on the lines of Sultanates and Caliphates, only to be later engulfed by the mighty Chinese Empire. Although there existed a couple of Sultanates under a single Caliph (mostly in the Indian subcontinent), the Khanates are synonyms only to the Mongol entities. The Mongol Empire was largely divided into four Khanates, populated by various ethnic Eurasian tribes - from Cumans in the west to the Nioutchs (Manchus) in the east. The Khanate of the Golden Horde (Ulug Ulus) encapsulated the western borders lying in today's European Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Caucasus. The Khanate of Turan (or Sibir) in Siberia and Golden Horde inhabited tribes such as the Kipchaks, the Kirghiz, Bulgars (originating near Kazan, Russia), Bashkirs, Ugrians and Samoyedes, all part of today's Russia.
The Chagatai Khanate (Chagatai Ulus) was stretched throughout Turkestan and had key Mongol strongholds such as Samarkand, Tashkent and Bukhara that would occupy key positions in shaping the post-medieval Indian history as well. Mainland China, Mongolia and Manchuria consisted of the eastern wing having capitals shifted at various times at different locations. A special mention to the Karakoram here, as this was the capital of the Mongols between 1235 to 1260 and another geographical entity with the name Karakoram exist as a mountainous range spread across today's India, China and Pakistan, although the two names may have different etymologies. But it's interesting to know that even today, a part of the Mongol name exists as part of an entity unrelated to Mongolia or the Mongols.
The Mongols were nomadic tribes, hence finding a definite political boundary of the empire is nearly impossible. Different sources state differently, but mostly between the 13th to 14th centuries, the frontiers of the empire touched the Delhi Sultanate of India in the south, the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia, in the west, medieval European monarchies of Poland, Lithuania and the Russian Republic of Novgorod in far west. The Il Khanate of Iran (their territory was literally called Iranzamin) was another wing of the Mongols that stretched from Tigris-Euphrates valley (in the west) to the Indus in the east. The Timurids, successors to the Il Khanate, would be a Persian dynasty that would continue to stretch the Mongol bloodline, this time on the Indian subcontinent in the form of the Mughal Empire.
The spread of Islam under the Mongols strengthened the Muslim presence in almost entire Asia. While Islam was the dominant religion in West, South, Central and North Asia, the East Indies and the Indo-China peninsula had maintained their Hindu-Buddhist lineage. The Deccan region and northeast hilly areas of India and the Rajput kingdoms around the Thar desert also added to the Hindu hegemony. As time would proceed, East Indies would slowly become the largest Islamic populated country in the world, now known as Indonesia. The Indo-China peninsula retained its non-Islamic state even to this day with various Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, Lao and Khmer kingdoms which were either Buddhist or Hindu in nature. The Japanese forever retained their culture, ethnicity and religion, never to get influenced by any other empire or a political entity.
Since the Mongols were nomadic tribes in nature, there wasn't a competition for a particular territory or a city, as compared to other Islamic kingdoms that aimed for capital to be conquered, thus resulting in ownership of the entire political administration of that region. But still, there were certain towns of key importance. Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Karakoram, Khanbalig (modern-day Beijing), Astrakhan, Almaliq (in China) etc. are some examples. Then there was one Tangut, referring to the Tangut people that populated the area between Tibet and Mongolia (modern borders), terms such as Manzi and Cathay referring to China by various medieval travellers, and the various tribes of Mongolia-Manchuria belt such as the Khalkas, Niuches (Manchus), Tunguses, Keraits, Naimans etc.
Ending this post with a mention to the Tatars, a political entity heavily used by European mapmakers to denote the entire Central Asian powers. In fact, the name Tatary was used to denote these Khanates between the Caspian Sea and Lake Balkhash (in Kazakhstan) for several millennia, even though factually the Tatars (with respect to the ethnic location) were absorbed by Genghiz Khan in the 13th century. Another classic example of misinformed nomenclature by European cartographers to non-European lands. Below here is a recreation of a Mongol Empire map, originally sketched by a Dano-Frenchman Conrad Malte-Brun (1775-1826) in 1837. It's interesting to note how the dried Aral Sea is mentioned as Lake Kharism, while the longe-shaped Lake Balkhash is replaced with patches of lakes, the largest being Lake Tenghiz. Among establishments, it's noteworthy how the map-maker mentions Samarkand and Bukhara, but skips Tashkent, although the three have always been Uzbek strongholds.
@mapsbysagar
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