Certainly, there’s a good amount of literature. The stuff pre-Genghis is somewhat more eclectic in nature, as most of the tribes and people of the steppes were illiterate prior to adoption of the Uighur script by the Mongol Empire. Still, there’s plenty of good information to be had.

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• Christian, David. A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Vol. 1: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire

• Christian, David. A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Volume II: Inner Eurasia from the Mongol Empire to Today, 1260-2000
  It’s hard to go wrong with Cambridge series if you have the coin and the patience for fairly dry reads:

  • I. Sinor, Denis (ed). The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia
  • II. Di Cosmo, Nicola and Peter B. Golden (eds). The Cambridge History of The Chinggisid Age.
    The Cambridge History of China (much of what’s written about the steppe nomads, especially pre-Genghis, comes from what’s written by the Chinese of their longtime neighbors, trading-partners, and frequent foes):
  • V. Twitchett, Denis and Paul Jakov Smith (eds). The Sung Dynasty and its Precursors, 907–1279, Part 1
  • VI. Twitchett, Denis and Herbert Franke (eds). Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368.
  • VII. Twitchett, Denis and Frederick W. Mote (eds). The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part 1
  • VIII. Twitchett, Denis and Frederick W. Mote (eds). The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part 2

• Grousset, Rene. Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia – this is kind of like the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for Central Asia… old, large segments out of date, but still a massive work well worth considering, as it’s la major basis of many of the subsequent works on the topic.

• Onon, Urgunge. The Secret History of the Mongols: The Life and Times of Chingghis Khan. There are any number of translations of the seminal work, but why not the version actually translated by a Mongolian?

• Sanders, Alan J. K. Historical Dictionary of Mongolia.

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• The following trilogy will raise some eyebrows I’m sure, airport pop-history as it is… but it at least can serve as an introduction to the topic, and a brief summation of the broad strokes of the immediate before, during, and legacy of the Mongol Empire
  • Weatherford, Jack. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.
  • Weatherford, Jack. Genghis Khan and the Quest for God.
  • Weatherford, Jack. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens.

~~~Podcasts:There are some good podcasts that cover Mongol/Central Asian History!Some that come to mind:

• The History of the Mongols (28 eps)
• Kings and Generals (s2 specifically, 37 eps)
• The Timur Podcast (36 eps, focuses on the successor state built by Tamurlane)

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… and then, of course, there is my own contribution to the cause:

• The History of China Podcast(The Northern steppe peoples really start becoming a part of the main narrative during the Song period, which runs 38 eps [½ of which they’ve taken over northern China], then there’s 17 eps devoted to the Mongols themselves, from the birth of Temujin through the Mongols’ defeat at Ain Jalut a century later, rounding back into the Yuan Dyn (16 episodes of the Mongols ruling over China entirely under the House of Khubilai)... and then we’re now deep (24 eps) into the Ming Dyn, which is constantly battling the Mongol remnant along their northern borders.... (all in all, about 95 eps and counting, or sth like 70-80hrs)

Hope that helps!

干杯!

баяр хүргэе!