Tobias Xavier Jones, Ph.D.

Areas of Interest

• Political history of the Mongol Empire
• Persian historical writing
• Gender studies

Education

• PhD, Middle Eastern Studies, Leiden University. Thesis: “Mongol Loyalty Networks: Cultural Transmission and Chinggisid Innovation”
• Master of Arts (Research), Middle Eastern Studies, Leiden University. Thesis, “‘A Pox on the Pax!’: A survey of the Pax Mongolica through Persian, Near Eastern and European sources”
• Bachelor of Arts, Mediaeval History, University of St. Andrews

Academic Career

• 2024---Post-Doctoral Researcher. Oriental Institute. Czech Academy of Sciences.
• 2023 Research Associate. Institute for Iranian Studies. Austrian Academy of Sciences.
• 2018-2024 Lecturer. Leiden University.

Courses Taught

• BA Module: History of Central Asia and Afghanistan (2020, 2021)- Co-creator and Teacher
• BA Module: Empire and Identity in the Turco-Persian World (2018)- Co-creator and Teacher
• BA Module: Thesis Seminar BA International Studies, Middle East (2023, 2024-2 Modules)- Course Creator and Teacher
• BA Module: The World of Shi’i Islam: History, Art and Culture (2023)- Lecturer
• BA Module: Media Persian (2024)- Lecturer
• BA Module: History of the Middle East (2020)- Guest Lecturer
• MA Module: Turco-Persian Empires (2021)- Course Creator and Teacher
• MA Module: Culture and Conquest: The Impact of the Mongols and their Descendants (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)- Co-creator and Teacher
• MA Module: Culture and Conquest: The Impact of the Mongols and their Descendants (2023, 2024)- Guest Lecturer

Selected Presentations

• 9^th European Conference of Iranian Studies, Freie Universität, Berlin, Sep. 2019 ‘Loyalty and Family in Ilkhanid Iran’
• Leiden University Center for Islam and Society Lecture, October 2022, ‘Concubines vs. Khatuns: Sexual Slavery and Marriage Policy in the Turco-Mongol Middle East’
• III International Multidisciplinary Conference - The Mongols: Tradition and Modernity, University of Tartu, March 2023 ‘Understanding Mongol Political Rituals in Persian Chronicles’
• International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 2023 ‘The Aqa and the Khan: A Social and Political Relationship’
• 10^th European Conference of Iranian Studies, Leiden University, The Netherlands, August 2023 ‘Sexual Slaves or Political Stakeholders? Concubines in Mongol Iran’
• Central Eurasian Studies Society 2023, University of Pittsburgh, October 2023 ‘Those Exasperating In-Laws: An Oirat Lineage in the Mongol Empire’
• Decline and Transition in the History of the Fourteenth Century Chinggisid Khanates, University of Bonn, June 2024 ‘Agents of Crisis or Crisis of Agency? The Treatment of Women in the Works of Ḥamdallāh Mustawfī Qazvīnī’
• Rulers’ Biographies in the Pre-Modern Islamicate World, Leiden University, July 2024 ‘Women in Ilkhanid Biographies: Rashid al-Din and Qashani’

Conferences Organised

• Serving the Khan, Leiden University, Feb. 2020 (Co-organiser and Speaker) https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/2020/02/serving-the-khan

 Publications

• ‘The Objects of Loyalty in the Early Mongol Empire (Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries)’, Iran, Vol. 61, No. 2 (2023), pp. 196-220, https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1915701
• ‘The Curious Case of the Iniquitous In-laws: Oirat Disloyalty in Mongol Iran’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Published online (2023), pp. 1-18, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186324000129

Media Ouputs

• ‘Getting to know the Ultimate Historical Bogeyman; the Mongols with Tobias Jones’- The Smart Cookies Podcast, December 2022. https://open.spotify.com/episode/6A8ieKGuMMpHGDfqpXGER4?si=Rz_IYjZKQAy9I7bJtd5kcg
• ‘Badass Women of the Mongol Empire with Dr. Tobias Jones’- The Smart Cookies Podcast, November 2023. https://open.spotify.com/episode/2hYomYUkioBuTBIdu087yC?si=GV8dBlmrRaShe0kL3DcbzQ