Given the predominantly non-literate civilizations that comprised the ancient Near East, I've been wondering about how they may have actually been closer to Indigenous cultures than they are to more modern, literate Western culture.

Perhaps he shouldn't dismiss them so readily here, but rather tie them more directly into his broader thesis.

Ur on Mesopotamia

After the collapse of the Ilkhanate, several Mongol dynasties set up petty rump states in the Ilkhanate's previous territory. The area depicted seems to be a mixture of territory claimed by the Turkoman Artuqids, the Mongol Jalayirids(?), and the Egyptian Mamluks. While there are what seems to be borders depicted on the image, they only seem to correspond to the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate to the south without explanation of what lies further East.