Final answer:
The Mongol Empire facilitated technological exchange between China and the Islamic world through improved infrastructure like bridges and the örtöö network, adopting Chinese siege warfare technology, and creating standardized legal and economic systems.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Mongol Empire played a pivotal role in the exchange of technologies between China and the Islamic world. The empire's establishment of extensive infrastructure, such as bridges, improved the already existing Silk Road, facilitating safer and more efficient trade and movement of people. This included the örtöö network, a series of relay stations spread across the route where traders could rest and exchange goods and information. These stations were about thirty kilometers apart and were maintained by local families as a form of tax payment.
Additionally, the Mongols supported technological exchange by recruiting Chinese engineers who advanced siege technology. They constructed siege engines, such as catapults and trebuchets, enhancing warfare strategies. The standardized legal and institutional infrastructures, like weights and measures, coinage, calendars, and the issuance of paper money, supported a unified economic system and thus technology transfer.
Mongol leadership also bolstered a multiethnic society, with merchants enjoying a higher status, and adopted and spread Chinese administrative practices. These policies, under the Pax Mongolica, created an environment conducive to the exchange of not only goods but also cultures and technologies - from papermaking to astronomy - across the vast empire.