The Mongol Empire: Was Its Importance Mainly as the Creator of a Stable Eurasian World System or as a Brutal State that Tyrannized Asia, Europe, and the Middle East?
The Issue
From around 1250 to 1350 C.E, the Mongols carved out the largest contiguous land empire in world history. They instituted what some historians call the Pax Mongolica, or Mongolian Peace, a safe and vibrant zone of travel, trade, and cross-cultural exchange across Eurasia and the Middle East, constituting one of the world’s first global systems and one of the most tolerant empires. But they were also, other historians argue, brutal, murderous conquerors who established despotic and oppressive states that terrorized people across thousands of miles. Was the Mongol Empire’s main legacy one of stability and prosperity or violence and tyranny?
Overview
The 13th and 14th centuries C.E. were a momentous period in Asian and European history, marked by a series of tumultuous events that began in present-day Mongolia and culminated in the establishment of the Pan-Eurasian Mongol Empire. These events were set in motion by the “eruption of the Moguls [Mongols] and Tartars,” historian Edward Gibbon wrote in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the 1700s, “whose rapid conquests may be compared with the primitive convulsions of nature, which have agitated and altered the surface of the globe.” (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Vol 6, Chapter 44). Such “rapid conquests” would interest “a philosophic mind in the history of blood,” Gibbon noted, referring to the rivers of blood that Mongol and Tartar warriors unleashed as they marched across China, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Persia, and the Middle East.
Led by Genghis Khan and his successors in the 1200s and 1300s, the Mongols believed they had a heaven-mandated mission to unify the East and West under their rule. During his lifetime, from 1162 to 1227, Genghis Khan conquered more people than any other ruler in world history and inflicted mass carnage over the continents of Asia and Europe. By the late 1200s, the Mongols had created the world’s largest contiguous land empire, encompassing 9 million square miles (23 million square kilometers)—nearly five times the size of the then-declining Roman Empire at its height—and stretching from China to Hungary.
After the Mongols solidified their rule by the 1250s, they established what historians label the Pax Mongolica, or Mongolian Peace, a century of stability that brought order to the vast region they conquered. The Mongol Empire and Pax Mongolica left a rich and complicated legacy, noted for its brutality and cruelty, as well as religious tolerance and progress. A thousand years after its remarkable rise, the Mongol Empire remains a subject of dispute and contention among historians and students. Still, no one doubts its enduring impact on world civilization.
The Origin and Rise of Genghis Khan
The extraordinary life, career, and triumphs of Genghis Khan and his emergence as a pivotal historical figure had their origins in the vast steppes of Mongolia, where he was born on the “sixteenth day of the fourth lunar month” in 1162, amidst turbulent times. The Mongolian steppe—averaging 1580 meters above sea level—has been a grassy cradle-like region in the center of Inner Asia for millennia. Its visually awe-inspiring and physically challenging grasslands, surrounding mountains, and rivers have provided geographic refuge and sustenance for its human and animal inhabitants through the centuries. The Mongolian plain was around 1,000 kilometers wide. Seasonal mountain rivers and summer thunderstorms abundantly watered it, along with winter snows, nurturing the pastoral nomadic tribes of the steppes, including the Kiyad group of the Borjigin clan, into which Temujin—the future Genghis Khan—was born.
The Borjigin was a relatively minor clan among the various tribes actively contending for power and supremacy in the Mongolian steppes during the 12th century. It was a chaotic period when the Mongolian people “had neither ruler nor leader,” according to the Persian historian Atâ-Malek Juvayni. The Muslim scholar and historian worked in the Mongol administration and wrote his history while living in the Mongol capital—Karakorum—several decades following the death of Genghis Khan. In the 12th century, the Tatars were one of the five major tribal confederations, or khanate, who lived among the fertile pastures surrounding the Hulun and Buir lakes along a major trade route to China. The Russians and Eastern Europeans often confounded the name of Tatars [from the Greek Tartarus: Hell]—who were often in the vanguard of the Mongol armies—with the Mongols, often using the terms interchangeably. Another prominent Mongol-Turkic clan was the Karaites, who had established themselves between the mountain ranges of Khangai and Khentii along the Tuul River (near present-day Ulaanbaatar, capital of the Mongolian Republic). The other tribes were:
● The Merkid clan lived in the basin of the Selenge and Orkhon rivers.
● The Naiman clan had their homes between the Altai and Khangai mountain ranges.
● The Ongut tribe lived north of the Gobi desert, the vast, arid region in southern Mongolia and northern China.
There was also the Onggirad (Khongirad/Qongirat) clan, whose homeland was near Lake Hulun and the Khalkha River in Inner Mongolia. Most Mongolian tribes practiced some form of Shamanism, a religious practice involving the shaman engaging with the “spirit world” through trance states. However, the Karaite and Ongut clans practiced Nestorian Christianity, imported from an Eastern Christian Church based in Syria and Iraq.
During the period when Temujin made his impact, alliances between pastoral nomads were fluid and shifted based on which clans vied for power and which groups preferred to avoid unnecessary conflict. In these nomadic societies, the strong often got their way, while the
not-so-strong often migrated rather than get embroiled in battles they could not win. The primary sources of conflict included disputes over hunting rights and the control of summer and winter pastures for their livestock. Increases in herd size led to the need for more grazing land for their cattle, and the herders who were not strong enough to seize it migrated to other pasture lands rather than fight.
Boyhood of Temujin
At the age of nine, Temujin was betrothed to ten-year-old Borte, the daughter of a leader of the Onggirad clan. Temujin’s father, Yesugei, accompanied him to his future bride’s family, where Temujin was expected to reside until he was old enough to marry his betrothed. On his return journey, Yesugei was poisoned when he accepted a dinner invitation from a group of Tatars who had a grudge against him. When news of Yesugei’s death became known, many of his followers abandoned his widow Hoelun, prompting her to send for Temujin. Having lost their support group, Hoelun, Temujin, and his brothers were in great difficulty, barely surviving by gathering nuts and roots and hunting rodents to feed themselves. Nonetheless, this was the formative period when Hoelun instructed Temujin and his brothers on basic martial skills (based on the hunting tactics of the steppe nomads) required in the challenging environment of the Mongolian steppes. She also instilled in them the need to form close bonds with other people for mutual strength and survival.
Around 14 or 15, the ambitious Temujin committed a fratricidal act to establish his supremacy in the clan that would tolerate no challenge to his future leadership. He treacherously surprised and killed one of his half-brothers, Bekter, who appeared to be his rival. Having very few supporters and allies, Temujin traversed a turbulent path to adulthood. He was captured and tortured by rival clans, at one point being imprisoned with a canque (wooden yoke)—a symbol of humiliation and subjection—around his neck. His repeated escapes from captivity and the evading of his captors became legendary.
The Path to Genghis Khan
As he grew up, Temujin adhered to his mother’s counsel regarding the need for allies and creating clannish bonds in his future strategy and actions. His rise to power during chaotic times owes much to his forming "blood brotherhoods" (anda), which the Mongols recognized as vital for survival. At 11, Temujin had developed a blood brotherhood with Jamukha, a boy with a noble lineage. They had ceremonially pledged (by sleeping together under the same blanket) to help each other against their enemies.
Temujin, now aged 16, decided to complete his nuptials with his betrothed, Boerte, which was duly solemnized and provided Temujin with a powerful ally in his father-in-law and the Onggirad clan. However, events that occurred decades before now impacted with jarring effect on the marital bliss of Temujin. His mother, Hoelun, belonged to the Merkit tribe. Temujin’s
father, Yesugei, had abducted Hoelun while she was traveling with her newlywed husband. She became Yesugei’s wife and, in due course, gave birth to the future Genghis Khan, among others.
However, when the Merkits heard about Temujin’s wedding, they decided to take their long-delayed revenge. A 300-strong party of Merkit warriors struck when Temujin was on his way home with his bride. Temujin narrowly escaped with his mother and companions, leaving Boerte behind, thinking she would have a chance of survival alone. Boerte became the concubine of a Merkit leader. Temujin and his surviving group escaped to the sacred mountain Burkhan Khaldun. Temujin now believed he had been shielded by Tengri (literally, Blue Heaven), the god of the Mongols.
Temujin turned to his ally Toghrul (Ong Khan), leader of the Karaits, and also appealed for help from his anda (blood brother) Jamukha, who had become an influential leader. With their army of 20,000, the allies attacked the Merkit camp at night and defeated them. Temüjin was reunited with Boerte and returned home. Boerte soon after gave birth to a child who was named Jochi (meaning visitor). As it was nearly nine months since her abduction, the paternity of Jochi would come into dispute, which would later preclude him from succession after the death of Genghis Khan. Although Jamukha would stay allied to Temujin for some time, Jamukha’s friendship would become increasingly deceptive until it would end in open hostility and conflict.
Temujin disappeared from historical references for nearly eight years until he assumed the title of Khan between 1187 and 1189. Whatever may have happened during those absent years, he reemerged around 1195, determined to defeat and destroy his adversaries. The Secret History of the Mongols (one of the primary sources) cautiously reproaches him for his utter ruthlessness and cruelty in those bloody battles where he indulged in merciless slaughter. The Secret History also praises his positive qualities, such as dividing up the war booty equally among his followers: a clever strategy that probably led many Mongol warriors and skilled civilian leaders to accept Temujin as their overlord.
The Karait clan collaborated with Temujin between 1201 and 1202 to conquer the Tatars who had poisoned Yesugei, Temujin’s father. It was not long before a rupture occurred between Temujin and Ong Khan. The Secret History (probably commissioned by Genghis Khan’s son and successor, Mongke Khan) blames Ong Khan’s duplicity and his over-ambitious son for the breach. The challenge soon came from Ong Khan, who, with Jamukha’s support, inflicted a humiliating defeat on Temujin in 1203, forcing him to retreat to Baljuna Lake in southeastern Mongolia with just a few thousand men. Temujin gathered the remnants of his followers and gave an emotional and stirring speech, later celebrated as the Baljuna Covenant. Drinking a ceremonial cup of salty water from the lake, which his men also partook in, Temujin made a solemn oath to his loyal followers. Henceforth, he would share the fruits of his conquests equally with his men when he had destroyed his enemies and unified the Mongol tribes under his hegemony. News of the Baljuna Covenant soon spread abroad and captivated many Mongol
tribes and their leaders, who welcomed Temujin’s vision of Mongol unity and a more equitable division of spoils.
From the despair at Baljuna Lake, it only took three years for Temujin to erase his past humiliation and become the supreme leader of the Mongols. He launched a surprise attack on the complacent Kareyit tribe, defeating them and killing Ong Khan as he tried to escape. This spectacular reversal in his fortunes spurred Temuujin to challenge the Naiman clan, one of the last remaining opponents to his supremacy in Mongolia. Temujin’s warriors attacked and routed the Naimans. There was only one more threat in the Mongolian steppes for Temujin to neutralize: Jamukha, his anda of over twenty-five years. Jamukha was betrayed by two of his followers and handed over to Temujin, who killed the betrayers saying, "How can we let men live who laid their hands on their own master?" Temujin granted Jamukha an honorable death given only to Khans: without spilling blood (by breaking the victim’s back).
After defeating the powerful tribes in Mongolia, Temujin had now accomplished, at the age of 40, his lifelong ambition of becoming master of the Mongolian steppes. He convened a kurultai or Grand Council of the Mongol nobility in the spring of 1206 at the source of the Onon River in northeastern Mongolia to legitimize his spectacular achievement. The kurultai crowned Temijin as the Khagan, Great Khan or supreme leader, of the Mongols with the title of "Genghis Khan," a baffling term that scholars have variously translated as "Strong Ruler" or "Ruler of the Ocean."
Genghis Khan Invades China
Genghis Khan had finally become the undisputed leader of the Mongols. The fierce ambition of Genghis extended far beyond the steppes and mountains of his homeland. He had under his control a great army, a group of brave warriors who had been transformed into a well-trained, highly-disciplined fighting machine. A combination of the bitter lessons he imbibed in his turbulent career as a military leader, the extraordinary skills of his generals, and the development of his long-term strategic vision—all these combined to open the next chapter in the life and career of Genghis Khan.
The Mongolian steppes did not have enough plunder to keep the growing army of Genghis content, as his soldiers were paid in the spoils collected in raids or battles. Away to the east were the rich settled lands of China, where many affluent city-dwellers lived, surrounded by luxury and movable goods readily available for seizure. When Genghis was coming to power, China was roughly divided into three states. On the border with Mongolia was the Hsi-Hsia (Xia Xia) state, also known as the Tangut empire. It was invariably the first to feel the weight of the Mongol onslaught due to its geographical location. In the north, there was the Chin (or Jin) dynasty (Chin means “golden”) with its capital in Zhongdu (near modern-day Beijing), and in the south, the Song dynasty with its capital in Nanjing (or Nanking).
Invasion of Hsia Hsia
Genghis Khan began his campaign to invade Hsia Hsia in 1209. After defeating a Hsia Hsia army outside Wulahai city, Genghis proceeded along the Huang He (Yellow River), invading several towns until he reached the fortress that guarded the pass through the Helan Mountains to Yinchuan, the capital of Hsia Hsia. Although the fort proved too challenging to capture at first, Genghis used deception to lure the garrison out onto the open field, where Mongol soldiers destroyed their enemy without much difficulty.
Genghis then advanced to the well-fortified capital of Hsi Hsia, Yinchuan, guarded by nearly 150,000 soldiers, twice the size of the Mongol forces. Lacking expertise and equipment for prolonged siege warfare, Genghis diverted the river and its network of irrigation canals, thereby flooding the capital. The walls of Yinchuan were nearly breached by the beginning of 1210. Despite the setback caused by the collapse of the dyke, used to divert water, flooding the Mongol camp and forcing the Mongols to take to higher ground, the forces of Genghis Khan continued to pose a significant threat to Hsia Hsia. Following the destruction of the country’s crops from flooding, Li Anquan, leader of the Hsia Hsia, agreed to submit to Mongol rule. The Hsia Hsia leader demonstrated his submission by paying a large tribute that included camels, falcons, textiles, and his daughter Chaka in marriage to Genghis Khan.
Mongol Invasion of the Chin Dynasty
The Mongol conquest of the Chin dynasty, which commenced in 1211, continued for over 23 years until the Mongols completely conquered them in 1234, a decade after the death of Genghis Khan. The first major battle between the Mongols and the Chin dynasty was the Battle of Yehuling in 1211 at a mountain pass in Zhangjiakou bordering present-day Beijing. The Mongol army, consisting of over 100,000 soldiers, crushed the Chin forces, containing a similar number of men, and broke through Juyong Pass near Beijing towards the end of 1213. After pillaging the entire North China plain from 1213 to early 1214, Genghis Khan’s forces surrounded the Chin emperor’s court in Zhongdu. The emperor agreed to become a vassal, gave one of his sisters to Genghis as his wife, and presented a sizable tribute, including 3,000 horses and 500 enslaved children.
Genghis retreated with his many prisoners, including Chinese engineers, scientists, and artisans, who were spared their lives to use their skills and expertise in the service of their new Mongol masters. Prisoners who were of no use to the Mongols were mercilessly slaughtered. The Chin emperor, whose spirit was broken by the surrender, deserted his capital and fled to the city of Kaifeng (now Nanking). The total subjugation of the Chin dynasty would have to wait for another day and would not be achieved in Genghis’s lifetime.
Invasion of the Qara Khitai
Kuchlug, the former Khan of the Naiman tribe, whom Temujin had defeated, had escaped west and usurped the Qara Khitai khanate (or Western Liao). Genghis and the Mongol army were exhausted after ten years of continuous military campaigns in China against the Hsia Hsia, and
the Chin dynasty. So he sent his able general Jebe with two tumen (20,000 soldiers) for the conquest of Qara Khitai. Because of their relatively small numbers, the Mongols were forced to use deception and incite a revolt among Kuchlug’s followers, making the Qara Khitai vulnerable to Mongol attack. The Mongols assailed and defeated the army of Kuchlug, who fled until he was hunted down and executed by Jebe’s soldiers. By 1218, the reach and control of the Mongol Empire had extended as far west as Lake Balkhash, bordering Khwarazmia: the prosperous Muslim empire that extended to the Caspian Sea to the west and the Arabian Sea to the south.
Mongol Conquest of Khwarazmia
Genghis Khan now turned his gaze towards the wealthy regions of Islamic Khwarazmia, which he viewed as a potential trading partner along the celebrated Silk Road. (The renowned network of Eurasian trade routes had been active from the second century BCE until the middle of the 15th century CE). Ruled by Sultan Ala ad-Din Muhammad of the Anushteginid dynasty, the Khwarazmian Empire in the 13th century encompassed large regions of present-day Central Asia, Iran, and Afghanistan.
Sultan Mohammed ruled over riches of immense proportions with all the great trade routes from the East crossing his lands, adding to the wealth of the legendary cities of Bukhara and Samarkand. Genghis first sent a caravan of 500 merchants to explore this trade route to establish commercial ties with the Muslim merchants in the Khwarazmian region. The Khagan had also invested, along with his family, nobles, and generals, in the caravan that carried silk, silver, gold, and several kinds of fabrics, textiles, and pelts.
However, the Khwarazmians were about to bring disaster upon themselves through their treacherous actions that flouted all diplomatic conventions of the period. The greedy governor of the Khwarazmian city of Otrar, Inalchuq, seized the caravan and killed the merchants sent by Genghis, accusing the merchants of being spies conspiring against Khwarazmia. Still trying for a diplomatic solution, Genghis Khan sent a second group of three envoys consisting of two Mongols and a Muslim merchant to meet directly with Sultan Mohammed, bypassing the corrupt governor Inalchuq. However, instead of making reparations, the Sultan exacerbated the situation by having the heads of all the envoys shaved, the Muslim envoy beheaded, and his head sent back along with the two remaining envoys.
The wrath of Genghis Khan was inflamed, and he decided to unleash his fury upon the treacherous Khwarezmian Empire. He set one of the most extensive Mongol invasions in motion by organizing ten tumens (around 100,000 soldiers), along with his ablest commanders and sons. His eldest son Jochi and the brilliant commander Subotai led the first army division into the northeast regions of Khwarezmia. General Jebe took the second army group to the southeast part of Khwarezmia to launch a pincer attack on Samarkand in conjunction with the first group. The third army group, commanded by Genghis and his youngest son Tolui, attacked Khwarezmia from the northwest.
The Mongol army, using superior strategy, soon seized the town of Otrar, where the Mongol caravan had been attacked and the merchants killed. Genghis Khan ordered the mass slaughter of most of the town’s civilians. Governor Inalchuq, who had set in motion the tragic fate of the city, had a gruesome end awaiting him as retribution for his actions: molten silver was poured into his ears and eyes.
Genghis Khan besieged the city of Bukhara next. Leaders of the inadequately fortified city opened the gates to the Mongol conqueror despite the town’s citadel being defended by a squad of Turkish soldiers for 12 days. Those who had taken refuge in the stronghold were slaughtered, skilled artisans and craftsmen were kept alive to be sent back to Mongolia, young men were inducted into the Mongolian army, and the rest of the population, including women and children, were enslaved. After the surrender of Bukhara, Genghis Khan gathered together the aristocrats and imams in the city’s mosque. He reproached them for their wrongdoings and made the famous proclamation: I am the Scourge of God who has been sent forth to punish the great evils committed by you.
The capture of Bukhara paved the way for the Mongols to advance on and besiege the capital Samarkand, which had better fortifications and a larger garrison than Bukhara. Samarkand was a city of unimaginable wealth and surpassing architectural grandeur that was the jewel in the crown of Sultan Mohammed. Juvaini writes: it was the greatest of the countries of the Sultan’s empire...the most pleasant in the fertility of the soil and the most delectable of the paradises of this world among the four Edens.
The Mongols descended on the city from the north, south, east, and west. They used intense psychological warfare to conquer the city, such as using Khwarazmian prisoners as human shields. The Mongols soon breached the fortress and gathered enormous amounts of loot. Genghis ordered the slaughter of every soldier who had fought against him. Juvayni states that the Mongols ordered the people of Samarkand to assemble outside the city, where they were massacred, and pyramids of their severed heads were raised as victory trophies. Mass slaughter of the defeated also took place in Termez, near Samarkand, as a custom, according to Juvayni.
The assault on the wealthy trading city of Urgench, which was still in the hands of Khwarazmian forces, proved to be the most difficult battle for the Mongol invaders. The city was overwhelmed after the defenders fought to the bitter end. Like on former occasions, skilled artisans were sent back to Mongolia, young women and children were enslaved, and the rest of the population was slaughtered without pity. Juvayni claims that 50,000 Mongol warriors were tasked with killing twenty-four Urgench citizens each, which would place the death toll of those killed at 1.2 million. However, modern scholars dispute these numbers as logistically implausible, although the slaughter was considerable and relentless.
Before the fall of Samarkand, Sultan Mohammed had fled rather than surrender to the Mongols. Genghis Khan entrusted his ablest generals, Subutai and Jebe, with two tumens (20,000 soldiers)
and two years to eradicate the remains of the Khwarezmian Empire. Sultan Mohammed retreated with his remaining loyal forces to a small island in the Caspian Sea, where he was known to have died under mysterious circumstances. The brave Jalal ad-Din, Sultan Mohammed’s son, was pursued to the borders of India by Genghis and his soldiers. From there, the Khwarezmian warrior escaped with a small group of followers, crossing the Indus River by swimming to take refuge in the Sultanate of Delhi. Jalal ad-Din’s bravery in swimming the turbulent waters of the Indus was said to have been witnessed and praised by Genghis. The heat of the Indian plains was too much for the Khagan, who broke off his pursuit at Peshawar (present-day Pakistan) and returned to Central Asia.
The Invasion of Russia
Following the defeat of the Khwarezmian Empire, Genghis Khan gathered his forces in Armenia and Persia to return to the Mongolian steppes. While Genghis led the main army through Afghanistan and the border of northern India towards Mongolia, his generals Subutai and Jebe, with two tumens (20,000 soldiers), marched through the Caucasus into Russia and pushed deep into Armenia and Azerbaijan. After defeating the kingdom of Georgia, the Mongol army sacked the trade fortress of Caffa in Crimea, run by Genoese merchants and overwintered by the Black Sea. On their way home, the forces of Subutai attacked the allied forces of the Cumans and Kipchaks and the 80,000 poorly coordinated troops of Kievan Rus (a loose Slavic/Norse federation) led by Mstislav the Bold of Halych and Mstislav III of Kyiv.
The ambassadors sent by Subutai to the Slavic princes calling for a separate peace were executed. Subutai’s forces engaged and defeated the larger Kievan force at the Battle of the Kalka River in 1223. According to Mongol custom regarding defeated nobles, the Russian princes were subjected to a bloodless death. Subutai and his other generals dined on a large wooden platform while six Russian princes, including Mstislav III of Kyiv, were crushed beneath the wooden platform where they were placed.
Genghis Khan recalled the two divisions of his army back to Mongolia in 1225. He had learned from captives about the vast green pastures beyond the Bulgar county, which would allow for the planning and preparation for the future conquest of Hungary and Europe, a cherished ambition of Genghis. The unparalleled cavalry expedition conducted by generals Subutai and Jebe in which they circled the entire Caspian Sea, defeating all armies along their path, had become legendary. These invasions added the regions of Transoxiana (consisting of eastern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kazakhstan, and southern Kyrgyzstan) and Persia to an already vast empire while destroying any challenge or resistance. The news of the triumphs of the army of Genghis Khan gradually began to reach and alarm other nations, especially in Europe.
In northern China, Genghis had unfinished business with his vassal emperor of the Tanguts (Hsi Hsia). Although the Tangut emperor had allied with Genghis and had given ample tribute, he had refused to supply troops for the Mongol chieftain’s expedition. In 1226, Genghis commenced a
retaliatory attack on the Tanguts, his forces quickly capturing Heisui, Ganzhou, and Suzhou and seizing Xiliang-fu in the autumn. After defeating Tangut generals in a battle near the Helan Mountains, Genghis laid siege to the city of Lingzhou, crossed the Huang He (Yellow River), and defeated the Tangut relief army. It was in this place that Genghis Khan, according to legend, glimpsed a line of five stars positioned in the sky that he interpreted as an omen of his triumph. The army of Genghis Khan attacked and destroyed the Tangut capital of Ning Hia in 1227 and continued to advance, seizing several provinces in quick succession. Although the Tangut emperor and his officials surrendered to the Mongols, because of their earlier betrayal and resistance, Genghis Khan ordered the execution of the entire imperial family, practically ending the Tangut royal lineage.
The Death of Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan still had to subdue significant powers in China: the unfinished business of the Chin empire in the north and the invasion of the vast Song empire in the south, which had a land area of 690,000 square miles (1,800,000 square kilometers) and a population of over 100 million (mid-13th century)). Before he could embark on his expedition, he encountered another adversary he could not defeat: death. The specter of death had been haunting Genghis Khan for some time. The Secret History (primary source) states he died suddenly at age 60 in 1227, apparently after an illness (internal bleeding and fever) lasting eight days, after Genghis was thrown from his horse during a hunting expedition.
There have been numerous contradictory accounts regarding the death of Genghis Khan, invented a long time after his death. The Galician–Volhynian Chronicle (13th-century Ukrainian source) alleges that the Hsia Hsia killed Genghis during battle. According to the Venetian traveler Marco Polo, the Khan died of an infection from an arrow wound he received during his final military campaign. Later Mongol chronicles (from the early 17th century) allege Genghis Khan was castrated and killed by a Hsia Hsia princess he had received as war booty. A more plausible 2021 study suggests that the great Khan probably died from bubonic plague, based on reports of the clinical symptoms exhibited by both the Khan and his troops, which correlates with the symptoms associated with the strain of plague present in Hsia Hsia during that period.
The Mongols kept the news of Genghis Khan’s death secret for some time. His loyal and devoted followers secretly traveled to the Kentei mountains for the burial ceremony. In this mountain, sacred to the Mongols, young Temujin had first made his solemn compact with the Supreme Deity of the Eternal Blue Sky: Tengri. Those escorting the funeral procession slaughtered all they met along the way, shouting: Serve the Great Khan, our master, in the afterlife. All those who participated in the burial work were also said to have been slain. Genghis Khan’s tomb became a forbidden place, soon covered with dense forest protecting it from the outside world. The exact location of Genghis Khan’s tomb remains unknown to this day.
Genghis had assigned his third son Ögedei as his successor, bypassing his second son Chagatai. The latter had displeased the Kaghan by questioning eldest son Jochi’s paternity and opposing Jochi’s succession. Genghis Khan left behind an army of around 130,000 men, distributed to his various sons and brothers. Since the youngest son inherited the largest share of his father’s property by Mongol tradition, Tolui received over 100,000 men of the bulk of the superior Mongol cavalry. The title of Khagan (Great Khan) was passed on to Ögedei, making him the second Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
Genghis Khan: Legacy
Genghis Khan is stereotypically portrayed as the greatest conqueror in history, widely celebrated for his martial genius. His accomplishments, however, went considerably beyond the military sphere. After he had subjugated regions beyond Mongolia, he set in motion an administrative system and modes of governance that included a standard method of taxation. Since the nomadic, largely illiterate Mongols had no sophisticated organizational framework, Genghis employed foreigners, mainly captured Turks and Chinese, who had the skills and experience in orderly government practices. He recognized the necessity for better communication in the vast territories he had conquered, so he set up a courier system with postal stations to enable the expeditious transmission of vital messages from one part of his domains to another. (More about this later).
The most significant administrative innovation launched by Genghis Khan was the Jasagh, a set of rules and regulations regarding the Mongol army, administration, and justice systems. Genghis added to the Jasagh over his lifetime whenever new legal issues and problems arose. Most provisions related to the regulations and lifestyle affecting the Mongol, Turkic, and other nomadic peoples who threw in their lot with Genghis and the Mongols. The Jasagh began as the codification of customary laws to bind and regulate the Mongols. Many of its provisions deal with agriculture, ownership of land, contractual obligations, and other problems facing settled societies that the Mongols would eventually subjugate. Genghis Khan needed a written script for the Mongol language to enshrine his laws and regulations on paper, as there was no developed script for the Mongol language until then. So as early as 1204, Genghis instructed one of his Turkic advisors to devise a script for the Mongol language, which they did by adapting the advanced Uyghur script for the Mongol tongue. The Turkic secretaries of Genghis began to record Genghis’ laws, edicts, and pronouncements in the Mongol language, newly fortified with the Uyghur script.
Genghis Khan early recognized the importance of commerce for his nomadic peoples, who needed a steady supply of goods from the sedentary civilizations of China and the Islamic regions for their necessities and luxuries. This favorable outlook on trade led to support for merchants and efforts to promote commerce, another significant legacy of Genghis Khan and adopted by all his successors. In China, his grandson Kublai Khan increased the quantity of paper money in circulation and reduced the punitive taxes merchants had to pay. The Mongol
sovereigns of Iran showed their hospitality to foreign merchants by constructing caravanserais to accommodate trading caravans. Mongol support of commerce initiated by Genghis Khan resulted in the most significant flow of people, goods, and scientific knowledge until that period, facilitating the first direct cultural and economic exchanges between Europe, Central Asia, and China.
Genghis Khan’s interest in new military technologies led to widespread adoption throughout the Mongol territories. Chinese and Muslim engineers of Genghis devised battering rams, catapults, and scaling ladders, which proved invaluable to his troops in besieging the larger cities and fortifications in the sedentary empires. The Khagan’s interests did not stop at military technology. The demanding lifestyle of his soldiers required superior medical care and skill in treating wounds and setting bones. He employed skilled physicians to cure various illnesses, including gout and liver disease that resulted from obesity and alcoholic excess, conditions to which Genghis and his followers were susceptible.
Another practical scientific field Genghis patronized was astronomy, which could help his people to gather information about climate and weather conditions that could support their economic activity and enable taking precautions against natural calamities. Genghis supported and encouraged the manufacture of craft articles and strictly instructed his warriors not to harm captured artisans and craftsmen. Mongol soldiers are said to have spared 30,000 artisans and craftsmen after Samarkand’s fall, where most adult males were slaughtered. Some of them were moved to northern China, contributing to an artistic efflorescence during the Mongol period. The descendants of Genghis also treated artists and artisans generously, promoting a renaissance in Chinese textiles and porcelain, intricate Persian tile work, and illustrated manuscripts in the 14th century.
Genghis generally adopted a policy of toleration toward all foreign religions, most probably to make himself acceptable to clerics who could help appease people in the regions he had subjugated. He did not aim to impose a particular religion or doctrine or did not intrude on the values, beliefs, and customs of the conquered peoples as long as they did not create civil disturbances in his domains. Many of Genghis’s successors also practiced religious toleration. Kublai Khan declared he believed in different Chinese religions, such as Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The first Mongol Khans in Persia employed Jewish, Nestorian Christian, and Buddhist officials among their predominantly Muslim population. Khans throughout the Mongol realms financed the building of mosques, churches, and monasteries. They also encouraged translations of significant religious texts belonging to various creeds.
It is not easy to summarize the remarkable accomplishments of a monumental personality like Genghis Khan, who united, through force or strategy, the diverse Turco-Mongol nomads who occupied the vast landmass of Mongolia. Utilizing the counsel of a multiethnic group of advisors, he established a hierarchical civil and military administrative structure, ordered the creation of a writing script for the Mongol language, and instituted regulations, the Jasagh, that
eventually became a legal code. His subjugation of Russia and Central Asia paved the way for establishing the largest contiguous land empire in history, facilitating the most extensive commercial and cultural exchanges between Asia and Europe until that time. Although living a relatively simple life despite being the overlord of such a vast domain, Genghis Khan married many wives and took innumerable concubines, mostly from his defeated enemies. He did not take a disproportionate share of the enormous war booty he amassed during his career but ensured an equitable division of such riches among his followers.
The reader of Genghis Khan’s life and career—with its extraordinary accomplishments—cannot ignore the enormous loss of life he caused, often through deliberate, cold-blooded slaughter and the destruction of cities, towns, settlements, and oases, that resulted from his conquests and occupation. Although many contemporary sources—particularly Juvaini and other Islamic scholars—often inflated the numbers killed and the destruction inflicted, we cannot overlook the devastation Genghis Khan’s military campaigns produced in many regions of Central Asia, Persia, and China. If his words quoted in The Secret History are genuine, Genghis Khan sometimes expressed his utter contempt for human life.
The Mongol Empire After the Death of Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan had transformed the nomadic Mongols from being the underdogs of the steppes into the most extraordinary military power in Asia and Europe. The spectacular achievement of the Khagan made his followers, allies, and enemies wonder whether, upon his demise, the superstructure of Mongol supremacy Genghis built with strategy and slaughter would come crashing down. Although Genghis had designated Ögedei as his heir, it would take another two years before the Kurultai (Grand Council) would formalize his succession. However, his elevation did not immediately make Ögedei supreme ruler, as Genghis had divided his empire between his sons. Ögedei would be the Khagan over all his brothers, but he would be, in actual practice, the first amongst near equals. His brothers would have a considerable degree of autonomy and wield immense power.
There were no disagreements on the endowment of the khanate to Ögedei and the Mongol empire’s division according to Genghis Khan’s wishes. The symbolically sacred Mongol homeland was assigned to Genghis’ youngest son from his principal wife, Börte, Tolui (Genghis had many other children from other wives and concubines). The regions to the southwest of the empire, including the enormously wealthy areas of Khwarezm, were given to Chagatai, the second son of Genghis, who had been bypassed for leadership in favor of Ögedei. The western steppes in the Russian territories (known as the Golden Horde) were divided between Orda and Batu, sons of Jochi, the deceased eldest son of Genghis.
Building of Karakorum
The next order of business for Ögedei was building a capital city for the expanding Mongol Empire. The new capital, built of stone instead of tents, according to the practice of the nomads,
would be an enduring statement of Mongol power where the Khagan, his families, ministers, and officials would live. It would also be where ambassadors would pay their respects in suitable splendor, and merchants would establish their trading posts. Ögedei chose a home for his capital city on the Mongolian steppes at Karakorum (meaning Black Boulders in Turkish), located in the Övörkhangai Province of present-day Mongolia. Ögedei commissioned artists and artisans from all over Asia and Europe to build the splendid (according to Mongol standards) capital city of Karakorum, an unprecedented development in the nomadic society of Mongolia.
Final Conquest of the Chin Empire
Genghis Khan had left precise directions in his will urging his sons to finish what he had started, including the complete conquest of the Chin empire. Although the new Khagan was nominally the head of the army that left for China, the acclaimed general Subotai designed the overall strategy for the campaign and was the de facto leader in the field. The Chin emperor planned to take his last stand at heavily-fortified Kaifeng, the capital of the Chin empire and the target for the Mongols’ campaign.
According to his plan, Subotai launched a powerful attack from the north as the Chin had expected him to do. He duly laid siege to several major river fortresses of the Chin, while the Chin emperor sent reinforcements to counter the Mongol attack. Meanwhile, a major Mongol force commanded by Tolui commenced their onslaught from the west. In an audacious campaign, Tolui and his troops crossed the Gobi desert and the mountains of Western China with the tacit approval of the southern Song empire, whose land had to be crossed. Tolui’s bold move created a state of panic among the Chin in Kaifeng, who had to rush reinforcements down from the north, allowing Subotai to resume his attack from the north. Tolui set off in pursuit of the fleeing Chin troops, which soon degenerated into a rout.
Realizing that the campaign was virtually over, Ögedei left the final conquest of Kaifeng in the hands of Subotai and returned to Mongolia along with his brother Tolui. General Subotai executed his orders ruthlessly. The Mongols relentlessly pounded the fortress of Kaifeng with siege engines and firebombs, techniques in which they had become highly proficient. They finally broke through amidst the report of a plague outbreak. Believing his position hopeless, the Chin emperor fled, leaving the city to its fate, and later committed suicide at Caizhou (modern Henan). Initially, Subotai wanted to hand over Kaifeng to his men to be sacked and pillaged. However, the Chinese officials of the Mongols counseled Ögedei that it was better to let the people of Kaifeng live so they could be a source of lucrative tax revenues in the future. So Kaifeng was spared.
Invasion of Kievan Rus
Meanwhile, Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, invaded the nations of the southern Russian steppes, including the Bulgars, the Alans, the Kypchaks, the Mordovians, and the Chuvash (Turkic group in the Volga-Ural region). In 1237, the Mongols captured the Kievan Rus city of
Ryazan after a three-day siege and fierce fighting and slaughtered its inhabitants. Most of Kievan Rus was captured by the Mongols by 1240. Meanwhile, Mongol forces led by general Chormaqan invaded Transcaucasia in conjunction with the troops of Batu and Subutai and forced the Georgian and Armenian chieftains to surrender.
Following are the words of Giovanni de Plano Carpini, the Pope’s ambassador to the Mongol Kaghan, who traveled through Kyiv in 1246:
[The Mongols] attacked Russia, where they made great havoc, destroying cities and fortresses and slaughtering men, and they laid siege to Kiev, the capital of Russia, after they had besieged the city for a long time, they… put the inhabitants to death. When we were journeying through that land we came across countless skulls and bones of dead men lying about on the ground. Kiev … has been reduced almost to nothing, for there are at the present time scarce two hundred houses there and the inhabitants are kept in complete slavery. [Primary source: "The Destruction of Kiev." Tspace.library.utoronto.ca]
Dissension continued within the Mongol ranks despite their military successes. The relations between Batu, the son of Gengis’s elder son Jochi, and Güyük, the eldest son of Ögedei, and Büri, grandson of Chagatai (second son of Genghis), deteriorated during Batu’s victory celebration after the conquest of Kievan Rus. Meanwhile, the invasions of Ögedei Khan of the Indian subcontinent, including Uchch, Lahore, and Multan, belonging to the Delhi Sultanate and Kashmir, failed, and the Mongols were forced to retreat. In northeastern Asia, Ögedei agreed to end the conflict with Goryeo (a Korean state) by making it a vassal state in exchange for Mongolian princesses marrying Goryeo princes.
Mongol Invasion of Europe
It was the turn of Eastern Europe to face the onslaught of the Mongols, who advanced toward Poland and Hungary. The Mongol army’s western flank invaded and plundered Poland’s cities. The Poles, the Moravians, and several Christian military orders, such as the Teutonic Knights, Hospitallers, and the Templars, formed a European alliance to counter the invaders. The Christian army briefly halted the Mongol advance at Legnica (southwestern Poland). However, the Mongol forces defeated the Hungarian army and their Croatian and Knights Templar allies on the banks of the Sajo River in 1241. Before the army of Batu could advance towards Vienna and northern Albania, the invasion was halted by the news of the death of Ögedei Khan in December 1241.
The military tradition of the Mongols prescribed that all princes of the bloodline of Genghis Khan were obligated to attend the Kurultai to elect the new Khagan. So Batu withdrew his western Mongol army from Eastern Europe at the beginning of 1242. Since Batu did not immediately return to Mongolia, the new Khagan was elected four years later, in 1246. Modern historians are not convinced that the only reason for the withdrawal of the Mongols from Europe was the death of Ögedei. The strong castles and fortifications of Europe and the prevailing climatic and environmental factors unfavorable to the Mongols may have played a crucial role in the decision of the Mongol forces to withdraw from Eastern Europe.
Succession After Ögedei
After the death of the Ögedei Khan, his widow Toregene took over the empire as regent until the next Kurultai. She was an astute woman who won over the support of most of the Mongol nobles in favor of her son Guyuk. She persecuted her husband’s followers and Muslim officials and installed her allies in influential positions. But Batu did not attend the Kurultai, claiming that he was not well and that the Mongolian climate would harm his health. Guyuk, alcoholic and ill, came to the Karakorum to attend the Kurultai convened in 1246 by Toregene. Brothers and generals of Batu attended the Kurtalai on his behalf. The Kurtalai duly elected Gayuk at a ceremony attended by Mongol and foreign dignitaries, leaders of vassal nations, envoys from Rome, and others who wanted to pay their respects and conduct diplomacy.
Guyuk promised to continue his father Ögedei’s policies instead of his mother Toregene’s. He took action to reduce corruption in the Mongol administration and punished many of Toregene’s supporters. He restored his father Ögedei’s officials to their former positions. He surrounded himself with able Uyghur, Naiman, and other Central Asian officials, especially favoring Han Chinese generals who had helped Ögedei subdue Northern China. Guyuk continued military operations in Korea, made incursions into Song Chinese territory in the south, and advanced into Iraq in the west. He also ordered a census of the whole Mongol empire.
Guyuk gathered his troops and marched westward from the Mongol capital Karakorum in 1248. It was either to recuperate at his estate, Emyl, or to join Eljigidei, the Mongol general in Persia, to invade the Middle East or perhaps to make a surprise attack on his rival and cousin Batu Khan of the Golden Horde in Russia. Sorghaghtani Beki, the widow of Genghis’s fourth son Tolui, was suspicious of Guyuk’s motives and secretly warned her nephew Batu of the approach of Guyuk and his troops. Before the forces of Guyuk and Batu could meet, Guyuk died en route at Qum-Senggir ( Xinjiang province), either through illness and fatigue or through poison.
The widow of Guyuk, Oghul Qaimish, attempted to take control of the empire. But she was not capable enough to wield power like Toregene, her mother-in-law. Besides, her authority was challenged by her young sons Khoja and Naku, and other Mongol princes. The leader of the Golden Horde, Batu Khan, called a Kurultai in his territory to elect a new great Khan in 1250. Members of the Ögedei and Chagatai families refused to attend Batu’s Kurtalai, as it was not conducted in the Mongolian heartland. After declining the throne offered by this Kurtalai, Batu instead nominated Mongke, Genghis Khan’s grandson and the son of Tolui. With the support of the pro-Tolui faction, Mongke was elected as the Khagan. However, the validity of the election was questionable, given the location and limited attendance of the kurultai. The supporters of Mongke repeatedly invited Ögedei and Chagatai princes to endorse the election of Mongke at a
more formal kurultai in the Mongol heartland. But they refused, asserting that only the lineage of Genghis Khan’s son Ögedei could be the Khagan.
Mongke Khan’s Rule
The accession of Mongke Khan marked a significant transition in the leadership of the Mongol dominions, shifting power from the lineage of Ögedei to the offspring of Genghis Khan’s fifth son Tolui. The decision of the disputed Kurtalai was not accepted by the Chagataid and Ögedei princes. Ögedei’s grandson Shiremun, one of the legitimate heirs, hatched a plot to topple Mongke, for which he moved with his forces toward the nomadic palace of Mongke Khan, intending to attack. The plot was discovered and led to a series of trials resulting in the conviction and execution of many Mongol nobles (an estimated 77 to 300 Individuals), except for princes belonging to Genghis Khan’s royal lineage, who were exiled and their estates confiscated and shared with Mongke’s ally Batu Khan.
The administration of Mongke Khan was carried out chiefly by Muslim and Mongol officials, along with a substantial Chinese contingent. Following their counsel, Mongke launched a series of economic reforms to stabilize the government finances, including rationalizing various taxes and reducing tax rates for the common people. His administrative reforms included a centralized finance system and reinforcement of the vast Mongol postal network with additional guards at the postal relays. Mongke also ordered an empire-wide census in 1252, completed in 1258.
To consolidate his power, Möngke assigned his brother Hulagu to rule Persia and the youngest brother, Kublai, to oversee Mongol-held regions of China. He continued the struggle of his predecessors against the Song dynasty in the southern part of the Mongol empire. In 1253, Kublai invaded the Dali Kingdom in Yunnan province after the defection of Dali King Duan Xingzhi, who helped the Mongols to conquer all of Yunnan. Meanwhile, Qoridai, Mongke’s commander, took control of Tibet, achieving the submission of leading monasteries there to Mongol power. Uryankhadai, the son of Genghis’s famous general Subutai, brought the neighboring regions of Yunnan under subjection. In 1258, he went to war with the Dai Viet kingdom (Tran dynasty) in northern Vietnam but was forced to withdraw. The Mongol’s attempts to invade Dai Viet two decades later (in 1285 and 1287) would also fail.
Mongke Khan Resumes Expansion of the Mongol Empire; His Death
After stabilizing the finances of the Mongol empire, Mongke Khan decided to resume the expansion of the empire’s borders. The Kurultais held in 1253 and 1258 at Karakorum approved his new invasion plans for the Middle East and southern China. Hulagu was put in charge as overall commander. The Muslims of Qazvin (a Persian province) had long been suffering from the menace of the infamous Shiite sect of the Nizari Ismailis, historically known by their more notorious moniker of Hashashins or Assassins. After intense assaults of several Ismaili fortresses starting from 1253 by the Mongol Naiman commander Kitbuqa, the Ismaili Grand Master Rukn
al-Din Khurshah was captured and executed in 1257. Hulagu’s forces destroyed all of the Ismaili strongholds in Persia.
Baghdad was the center of the Abbasid Islamic Caliphate at that time. After 500 years of holding power, the Caliphate was riven by internal divisions. After the Caliph al-Mustasim refused to submit, the Mongol forces besieged and captured Baghdad in 1258. In an occurrence regarded as one of the most horrendous events in the history of Islam, Baghdad, and its environs were subjected to relentless pillage, slaughter, and devastation. With the ruin of the Abbasid Caliphate, Hulagu had an open route to move toward Syria and other Muslim powers in the Middle East. Hulagu’s forces advanced toward Ayyubid-ruled Syria, which had accepted Mongol supremacy two decades earlier. The Ayyubid sultan Al-Nasir Yusuf, however, declined to appear before Hulagu. When Hulagu headed west, the Armenians of Cilicia, the Seljuks of Rum, and the Christian domains of Antioch and Tripoli submitted to Mongol supremacy and joined forces against the Muslims. The populations of cities that did not surrender but fought back were pitilessly slaughtered, and their cities were sacked and razed.
In the northwestern areas of the Mongol empire, Berke, the younger brother and successor of Batu Khan sent punitive expeditions to the regions of Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland. There was friction between Batu, who controlled the northwestern portion of the empire, and Hulagu, who ruled the southwestern part. Batu feared Hulagu’s invasion of Persia and the Middle East would undermine his dominance.
Meanwhile, Mongke Khan, commanding his army himself, struggled to achieve the conquest of China. After a relatively successful but prolonged military operation, the Mongol army did not return to the colder climate of the north as was customary whenever the temperature turned hot. The Mongol army was ravaged by disease and epidemics, resulting in the death of many, including Mongke Khan, on August 11, 1259. This critical event opened the next chapter in Mongol history, necessitating the election of a new Khagan. Mongol armies throughout the empire began to suspend their military campaigns to prepare for the convening of a new Kurultai.
Disputes Over Succession and Civil War
Hearing of the death of Mongke Khan, his brother Hulagu halted his military operations in Syria. He withdrew most of his troops to Mughan (northern Iran and southern Azerbaijan), leaving only a small contingent under his commander Kitbuqa. The Muslim Mamluk Army, consisting of enslaved and freed Turkic and Caucasian soldiers, advanced from Egypt in 1260. It engaged the forces of Kitbuqa at the Battle of Ain Jalut, north of Galilee. The Mamluks had the tacit support of their traditional enemy, the Christian Crusaders in Palestine, with both groups regarding the Mongols as the more significant threat. The Mamalukes utterly defeated the Mongol forces, and Hulagu’s general Kitbuqa was executed in this pivotal battle, which ended any further expansion of the Mongols in the Middle East beyond Syria.
In the other part of the empire by the Huai River in China, Kublai Khan, brother of Möngke and Hulagu, had received the news of the Khagan’s death. Instead of returning to the capital Karakorum, Kublai continued his passage into China’s Wuchang region near the Yangtze River. Meanwhile, the younger brother of Kublai and Hulagu, Ariqboke, who was present at Karakorum, used his position at the capital and the absence of Hulagu and Kublai to convene a Kurtalai and take the title of Khagan for himself, with members of the various family clans proclaiming him as the leader. Hearing this, Kublai called his kurultai at Kaiping (Guangdong province), where most of the great noyans (Mongol nobles) in North China and Manchuria confirmed Kublai’s candidacy of Khagan over that of his brother Ariqboke.
In the ensuing clashes, Kublai’s army quickly destroyed Ariqboke’s followers (which included forces still loyal to Mongke’s administration) and took control of the civil government in southern Mongolia. Kublai sent his loyal supporter and Chagataid prince Abishka to take charge of Chagatai’s realm, where challenges against Kublai had arisen. But Abishka was captured and executed by Ariqboke, who crowned his own man Alghu in Chagatai’s domains. Kublai’s forces blockaded and cut off food supplies to the Mongolian region controlled by Ariqboke, which caused a famine. Although Kublai quickly seized the city of Karakorum, Ariqboke retook the capital in 1261.
Kublai had a loyal brother in Hulagu, who ruled over the southwestern sector of the Mongol empire. However, clashes with their Muslim cousin Berk, the then ruler of the Golden Horde, began in 1262. Berk had major issues with Hulagu, such as the unequal distribution of war booty, suspicious deaths of Jochid princes in Hulagu’s administration, and Hulagu’s slaughter of Muslims. Berke was also planning to forge an alliance with the Mamluks of Egypt against Hulagu, besides supporting Kublai’s rival claimant Ariqboke to the throne. Now, a series of providential deaths took place, which paved the way for the ascension of Kublai Khan as the undisputed leader of the Mongols. Hulagu died in early 1264, Berke died while he was on the way to invade Hulagu’s realms, and Alghu Khan of the Chagatai Khanate died a few months later. Meanwhile, Kublai’s brother Ariqboke, after he had sought and failed to forge foreign alliances, surrendered to Kublai Khan at Shangdu (later renowned as Xanadu) on August 21, 1264.
Kublai Khan Establishes the Yuan Dynasty in China
Having become the Great Khan of the Mongols in 1271, Kublai Khan renamed his new regime in China the Yuan dynasty. He attempted to sinicize his image as Emperor of China to win over the Chinese people. Kublai moved his capital to the city of Khanbaliq, which later became present-day Beijing. These actions were controversial among many Mongol notables who were unhappy with Kublai aligning himself too closely with Chinese culture. After the Xiangyang (Hubei province) invasion in 1273, Kublai Khan and his Mongol forces embarked on their final conquest of the Song dynasty in South China. The Mongols were eventually successful against
their Chinese adversaries. The Song imperial family surrendered to Kublai Khan in 1276, a historical moment that made Mongols the first non-Chinese to conquer all of China.
After establishing the Yuan dynasty in China and the nominal overlordship of much of Eurasia, Kublai Khan embarked on further expansion of his empire with limited success. His advances into Burma and the Sakhalin territories were costly, and his campaigns against Dai Viet (northern Vietnam) and Champa (southern Vietnam) ended in humiliating defeat. The Dai Viet utterly crushed the Mongol forces at the Battle of Bach Dang in 1288. The Mongols, however, managed to pick up a few vassal states in these territories.
The Nogai (Turkic group of the Northern Caucasus) and Konchi, descendants of Jochi and the Khan of the White Horde (bordering the Balkans), established cordial relations with Kublai Khan and the Yuan dynasty. Despite lingering political disagreement and squabbling among contending parties of the family over the position of Khagan, the economic and commercial activities of the Mongol Empire progressed considerably. Although Kublai Khan attempted the invasion of Japan in 1274 and 1281, his dream of conquering the Japanese island failed, mainly due to the stormy Sea of Japan, the stubborn resistance of the Japanese, and the Mongols’ failure to fully master naval warfare.
Kublai Khan died in 1294 after a memorable reign, having conquered all of China, establishing the Yuan dynasty, expanding commerce and trade enormously, and enabling a cultural and artistic renaissance in China.
Mongol Military Organization and Tactics
The Mongols have been pictured in popular imagination mainly as a horde of fierce nomadic warriors on horseback who spread devastation across the Eurasian landmass, conquering settled civilizations by mercilessly killing, raping, and plundering their victims. Historically, the Mongols were indeed great warriors (the greatest in history, according to some historians) whose stupendous military achievements were based on superior organization and skillful execution of military strategy and tactics. The military was also the training ground for the leaders in the top echelons of command, such as Genghis Khan, his son Ögedei Kahn (the second Khagan), and the generals Subotai and Jebe.
The nomadic lifestyle of the Mongols, and the Turkic nomads inducted into the Mongol army, had natural skills for war and fighting, derived mainly from their excellent horsemanship and ability to bear hardship in the harsh climatic conditions of the steppe. All adult males aged 14 up to 60 were eligible to be inducted into the army as soldiers, which according to Mongol tribal tradition, was the most honorable profession for a Mongol. According to the Persian historian Juvaini and others, the Mongol soldiers learned their formidable discipline and fighting skills when they participated in the traditional hunt (nerge). The battle tactics of the Mongol forces were based on their hunting methods and skill in using their primary weapon used in hunting and battle: the composite bow, which had a range of over 350 yards (the contemporaneous Englishlongbow had a range of only 250 yards). These hunts were elaborate affairs in which Mongol archers on horseback would spread out and surround an entire area, driving all of the game animals within, allowing none of the animals to escape while horse riders slaughtered them all. Nerge was the template the Mongol Army often used in their battles, where they would drive their human prey into the trap instead of the game animals of the steppes.
The Mongol military was organized according to decimal units:
● Arbans: squad: 10 soldiers
● Zuuns: company: 100 soldiers,
● Mingghans: battalion:1000, and
● Tumens: division: 10,000 soldiers
Genghis Khan had a personal bodyguard (kesbik) of a tumen fiercely loyal to the Khagan. Most of Genghis’s great commanders rose from the ranks of the kesbik.
Before embarking on a large expedition, the Mongols gathered in a Kurultai to establish their strategic goals and course of action. Individual field commanders were given the autonomy to adapt and respond according to the political, geographic, and climatic circumstances they encountered. Instead of fighting on the frontlines of a battle, Mongol commanders generally remained at a vantage point, often on high ground, where they directed the fighting with the help of signal flags, drums, whistling arrows (a Mongol specialty), and messengers.
The forces of the Mongol Empire were organized, trained, and equipped for mobility and speed. They undertook all military expeditions after meticulous planning and gathering accurate information using spies regarding the territories and forces of the enemy. The organization, tactics, and mobility of the Mongol armies allowed them to fight on several fronts simultaneously. The lightly armored Mongol soldiers often operated independently of their supply lines, giving them excellent maneuverability and speed. Mongol warriors generally traveled with multiple horses, allowing them to replenish their mounts when needed. The different wings of the Mongol army maintained contact with each other through the skillful use of couriers. Although famous for their lethal archers on horses, the nomadic Mongol soldiers were also equally adept in the use of lances and swords. The Mongols also utilized the skills and experience of their (often captured) Chinese and Muslim engineers to build and deploy trebuchets, catapults, explosives, and other incendiary devices, to lay siege to the fortified defenses of the enemy.
However, one element of war the Mongols did not master was naval warfare. Although they deployed maritime power in the Yangtze River while conquering the southern Song dynasty, their several seaborne campaigns against Japan failed due to their deficiencies in naval warfare, inclement weather, and the stubborn resistance of the Japanese samurai warriors.
Society and Administration
Genghis Khan’s legacy, as well as that of his successors, went far beyond their military achievements. The Khagans governed the Mongol empire with the help of the parliamentary-type Kurultai, where the Khagan and the Noyens (civil/military chiefs) met to discuss and formulate domestic and foreign policies. Kurultais were also convened when a new Khagan needed to be chosen upon the death of the previous Great Khan. After conquering vast territories beyond Mongolia, Genghis established a sophisticated administrative system and reformed the tax administration in his empire. He recruited experienced Turkic, Chinese, and Muslim experts (often captured) to devise and administer a more stable bureaucracy with specialized official positions that could facilitate an orderly functioning of government. Genghis’s legal code, the Jasagh (alternatively: Yassa, Yasaq), consisted of rules and regulations about the military and civil administration and the systems of governance and justice. Genghis expanded its provisions over his lifetime whenever new legal issues emerged. Most of the provisions concern issues relevant to the Mongol, Turkic, and other people the Mongols would later conquer, such as agriculture, ownership of land, and contractual obligations.
The military provisions of the Jasagh included:
● The organization of the army by decimal units (10s, 100s, 1,000s, and 10,000);
● Punishments for negligence and cowardice (often death), examination of troops, weapons, and other equipment personally by commanders;
● The directive to establish postal relay stations by generals in their respective domains.
Provisions regarding individual behavior included the death penalty for adultery and homosexuality, for urinating in water and ashes, and for failure to return a captive to the captor. Soldiers were also not allowed to wash their clothes until worn out.
A large part of the provisions in the Jasagh relates to the social aspects of the community. These include the duty of women to take up all household chores when the men go to war, equality for children of wives and concubines in inheritance rights, equality of treatment for all religions, and provision for reparation and compensation, in place of punishment, for horse thieves and murderers. All religious faiths were treated equally without discrimination throughout the Mongol empire. The Khagans gave tax-free status to scholars, physicians, Clerics, Muslim muezzins, and those who washed the bodies of the dead. The duty to provide hospitality to all travelers was also enshrined in the provisions of the Jasagh.
Economy and Trade
The term Pax Mongolica (Latin for "Peace of the Mongols")—similar to Pax Romana of the Roman Empire—has been used to characterize the long era of peace and stability in the vast regions the Mongols, led by Genghis Khan and his successors, conquered in the 13th and early 14th centuries. Despite many turbulent episodes, this era of long peace established by Mongol rule was conducive to a vast increase in trade and commerce and an interchange of cultural ideas and scientific knowledge between distant nations.
The rapid travel and communication and the stable administration provided by the unified Mongol Empire enabled Western traders such as Marco Polo to pass unmolested through the vast regions of the empire. Marco Polo reached the domains of Kubla Khan, who had unified the whole of China and founded the Yuan dynasty there. The reader can find Marco Polo’s observations about the Mongol Empire in his celebrated book, The Travels of Marco Polo. [Primary source]. Genghis Khan and his successors valued trade and acquiring goods and resources found in the sedentary civilizations of other regions, which led to the vast expansion of material and cultural exchanges between the East and West.
The adoption of paper currency backed by precious metals and silk in the Mongol Empire began towards the end of Genghis Khan’s life before he died in 1227. His immediate successors, Ögedei Khan and Möngke Khan, took it to the next level, the latter setting up an office similar to a monetary affairs department. The use of Mongol coinage—gold, silver, and copper—also increased during the reigns of Ögedei, Güyük, and Möngke. Kublai Khan’s Yuan dynasty popularized paper money (made from mulberry bark, according to Marco Polo) backed by silver. The standardization of paper currency by the administrations of Möngke and Kublai Khan enabled Mongol officials to optimize tax collection throughout their dominions.
Yam (Örtöö.): The Mail System
The Mongols created an effective and efficient postal system, allowing messengers to swiftly carry news and dispatches across the empire. Called the Yam, the system consisted of a string of stations every 25 to 30 miles (40 to 48 kilometers) along major roads. "And at each of those stations used by the messengers," Italian traveler Marco Polo wrote around 1300, "there is a large and handsome building for them to be put up at, in which they find all the rooms furnished with fine beds and all other necessary articles in rich silk, and where they are provided with everything they can want." Each Yam, or "Horse-Post-House," as he called it, had hundreds of "horses standing ready for the use of the messengers" so that a fresh and healthy one was always available. The Mongols built these yams not just on busy thoroughfares but also along vast, desolate expanses. "Even when the messengers have to pass through a roadless tract where neither horse nor hostel exists," Polo wrote, "still there the station houses have been established just the same." To alert agents at the Yam of their pending arrival, messengers wore "a great wide belt, set all over with bells," which could be "heard jingling a long way off. And thus, on reaching the post, the runner finds another man similarly equipt and all ready to take his place, who instantly takes over whatsoever he has in charge." Clerks kept track of "the time of each courier’s arrival and departure," Polo noted, paying highly those who performed well and "punish[ing] those runners who have been slack in their work." The Mongol emperor employed such "an immense number of these runners," Polo wrote, that he could receive "news from places ten days’ journey off in one day and night." Polo marveled at the extent and efficiency of the yam system and how it spurred trade to grow and flourish across thousands of miles. "This is a thing done on the greatest scale of magnificence that ever was seen," he concluded. "Never had emperor, king, or lord, such wealth as this manifests!" [See Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, ca. 1300 (primary source)]
The Silk Road
The Silk Road was a vast artery of trade routes used by merchants for over 1,500 years, from 130 B.C.E. under the Han dynasty of China until 1453 C.E., when the Ottoman Empire closed trade relations with the West. The Silk Road reached its fullest extent and influence under the Mongol Empire. At its peak, the Silk Road traversed and serviced the largest contiguous land empire in history, built by the genius and foresight of Genghis Khan, Ögedei Khan, and Kublai Khan. Due to its political and strategic significance, the Mongol rulers engaged extensively with the network comprising the Silk Road. It facilitated the immense volume of trade between the East and West that sustained the economic development and prosperity of the Mongol Empire. The previously dangerous routes of the Silk Road network became safe havens for merchants and travelers under the Pax Mongolica that was ushered in under Mongol rule.
The Mongols were nomadic people who traditionally led a pastoral life in their yurts (spacious tents). Conquest and a settled lifestyle led the Mongols to seek goods and luxuries that could be gathered through trade and exchange from the sedentary civilizations of the East and West. Consequently, the Silk Road network facilitated commerce in articles such as silk and fine porcelain by the Chinese in exchange for animal ginseng, furs, and deer horns from the Mongol regions. Merchants also traded horses, precious metals, jewelry, paper, and gunpowder along the Silk Road, which also led to the cultural and artistic renaissance in China, Persia, and other regions of the Mongol Empire during the 13th and 14th centuries. The Venetian merchant Marco Polo and other European travelers traveled in relative comfort and safety to faraway China and back thanks to the Silk Road network.
Religion
The shamanist religious practice of the Mongols was based on honoring the spiritual essence in nature and all the elements, including trees, water, rocks, etc. Above all is positioned the eternal being of Tengri: Gok Monggke Tenggeri, or Eternal Blue Heaven. Tengerism, a form of animism, consisted of honoring and looking after the spirits and maintaining harmony between oneself, the community, and the environment. When that harmony and balance are disturbed due to various troubles or evil, it is time to call upon a shaman, a holy man (bo’e) or woman (iduqan), to seek a remedy. The shaman undertakes to find an answer by performing various rituals and inducing a trance state in himself (or herself) to reach the spirit world where the solution would present itself.
Despite their shamanistic beliefs, Genghis Khan and his successors maintained tolerance towards all religions practiced in their vast empire as a matter of policy. Many Mongols kept to their original shamanistic beliefs while they practiced other religions. The sons of Genghis had wives who practiced Nestorian Christianity. Kublai Khan converted to Tibetan Buddhism when he established the Yuan dynasty in China. Mongol rulers allowed followers of other religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, or Islam, to practice their faiths freely and exempted their religious leaders from taxation. Genghis Khan regularly employed Buddhist and Muslim officials in his administration, a practice continued by his sons and grandsons.
Science and Technology
Science and technology advanced considerably in the Mongol Empire, especially during the Chinese Yuan dynasty, founded by Kublai Khan. Numerous discoveries were made in printing technology, medicine, mathematics, and military technology, including gunpowder and incendiary devices.
Printing
The Mongols had been exposed to the Chinese invention of printing during the decades they were subduing the Jin dynasty in the north of China and later the Southern Song dynasty. With the establishment of the Yuan dynasty by Kublai Khan in the whole of China, science and technology, including printing techniques, received special attention from the new rulers. Kublai and his administration utilized the technology of wooden/bronze block printing throughout the empire for printing official documents and paper currency. Printing also fueled a revival of literature and learning among educated people in the Mongol Empire, particularly in China. The Yuan administration established the Imperial Library Directorate and printing facilities throughout the empire. The government also funded schools and libraries to facilitate the publishing of printed books locally.
Medicine
The Mongols gathered medical knowledge from different lands and cultures, including the Chinese, Uyghur, Korean, Indian, Tibetan, and Islamic. Kublai Khan set up an institution to study Western medical discoveries. There were two types of doctors in the Mongol empire: non-Mongol physicians known as otachi and traditional Mongol shaman healers. During their military campaigns in China, Central Asia, Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, the Mongols traveled with a team of Chinese, Turkic, and Islamic doctors. These doctors made great strides in medical applications, including treating wounds and setting bone fractures, which were essential, life-saving treatments for soldiers. Mongol physicians, particularly Hu Sihui, recognized the importance of a proper diet for preserving health, which Hu described in his medical treatise written in 1330. Rashid al-Din (1247-1318) was a famous Persian historian and Mongol political advisor who published the first treatise on Chinese medicine outside China in 1313. Chinese/Tibetan/Indian medical practices, including acupuncture, moxibustion, pulse
diagnosis, and various herbal drugs and potions, were transmitted to other parts of the Mongol empire.
Mathematics
Muslim astronomers brought mathematical knowledge, including Arabic numerals, to Yuan China in the 13th century. Yuan mathematicians made significant contributions to polynomial algebra. Among them was Zhu Shijie (1249–1314), who solved simultaneous equations using a rectangular array of coefficients, described in his work "Jade Mirror of the Four Unknowns," written in 1303. Guo Shoujing (1271–1368), one of the first Yuan mathematicians to work on spherical trigonometry, applied mathematics to the preparation of calendars, resulting in the Shoushi Li or "Calendar for Fixing the Seasons," probably influenced by the work of Arab and Song Chinese astronomers.
Literature, Arts, and Culture
The oldest extant literary work in the Mongolian language (written with a modified Uyghur script) is The Secret History of the Mongols (author unknown), commissioned by Genghis Khan’s son and successor, Ögedei Khan, sometime after his father died in 1227. Another essential literary work from the Mongol empire is the Jami’ al-tawarikh, or "Universal History," commissioned to establish the cultural legacy of the Mongols. It was written in the early 14th century at the behest of Abaqa Khan, the second ruler of the Ilkhanate (southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire).
However, after the establishment of the Chinese Yuan dynasty by Kublai Khan, literature, especially drama, flourished in the empire. Kublai liberally patronized theater, a much-neglected literary form in Chinese culture. Mongol plays encouraged by the Yuan courtiers were elaborate affairs containing gaudy makeup, colorful costumes, emotional music, and acrobatic action. Mongol playwrights dealt with political and ethical issues along with entertaining their audience. According to estimates, about 160 Mongol plays survive out of the more than 500 plays performed during the Yuan era (1271 to 1368).
Although the nomadic Mongols did not produce many original literary works or fine art, they valued and cultivated the arts and culture of the sedentary civilizations around them. Once the Mongols reigned supreme and established the peace and tranquility of the Pax Mongolica, the Khagans and Khans became great patrons of the arts of all kinds. Hundreds of architects, stone carvers, textile workers, jewelers, and other artisans were relocated at the behest of Genghis Khan from Central Asia and the Middle East to Mongolia to build magnificent works that the Mongols craved. Genghis’s successor, Ögedei Khan, entrusted his architects and artisans to construct and decorate Karakorum, the famous capital city of the Mongols. The rule of Kublai Khan, the Yuan emperor of China, saw a renaissance in the arts and architecture of all kinds. Among the architectural accomplishments of Kublai Khan stands the summer capital of the Yuan dynasty, the legendary Xanadu (Shangdu), described by the Venetian traveler and merchant Marco Polo, who visited the place in 1275 and immortalized by the 19th-century Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his famous poem Kubla Khan.
Mongol Empire Argument
Argument: Pro
From around 1250 to 1350 CE, the Mongols carved out the largest contiguous land empire in world history. They instituted what some historians call the Pax Mongolica, or Mongolian Peace, a safe and vibrant zone of travel, trade, and cross-cultural exchange across Eurasia and the Middle East that constituted one of the world’s first global systems and most tolerant empires.
The Mongol invasion and conquest of much of Eurasia and the Middle East had tremendous positive effects in the long term. It ushered in a century of peace and progress (1280–1360)—what historians call Pax Mongolica—in the immense regions administered by Genghis Khan and his successors. The Mongolian Peace enabled the reopening of the famous trade route and original melting pot, the Silk Road, which led to a vast expansion of commerce and wealth and extensive cultural and scientific exchanges between China, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
Before the arrival of the Mongols on the Eurasian continental scene, the Chinese and Europeans were largely unaware of each other’s existence or only had vague, fabulous notions. The reopening of the Silk Road by the Mongols changed all that. The interactions between East and West became increasingly possible and were positively encouraged during the Mongol imperial expansion. There was an enormous enlargement in human migration and cross-cultural exchange of refugees, pilgrims, merchants, explorers, and soldiers. They spread diverse cultural and religious ideas; scientific and technological knowledge, including printing and gunpowder; trade goods such as silk and jewelry; and different types of plants, vegetables, fruits, and flowers from the East to the West. The Mongols set up an elaborate, unparalleled international postal system—the Yam—which covered a large portion of Eurasia and China, facilitating accessible communication and efficient administration. One explorer who benefited from the safety of the Mongol-protected Silk Road with its postal stations was the Venetian merchant and traveler Marco Polo. He reached the court of Emperor Kublai Khan at his summer capital Xanadu (Shangdu), in 1275 and wrote extensively and admiringly about what he saw and learned.
One of the grandest achievements of the Mongols was the unification of the vast landmass of China, which had historically been an array of warring states fighting among themselves. The prominent ones were the Western Hsia (Hsia Hsia), northern Jin (Chin) Dynasty, and southern Song (Sung) Dynasty. The conquest of China, started by Genghis Khan, was continued by his son Ögedei Khan and completed by his grandson Kublai Khan. The latter founded the Mongol Yuan Dynasty encompassing all of China, finally achieving an abiding dream of China’s intelligentsia and ordinary people: the unification of China. Another region that owes its
consolidation to the impact of the Mongol invasion was Russia, which used to be an aggregation of feuding city-states, the most notable being Kiev (Kyiv). The Russians, led by the Grand Duchy of Muscovy (Moscow), finally succeeded in expelling the then-declining Mongols from unified Russia in 1480.
Science and technology in China had their renaissance during the Mongol Yuan dynasty, the fruits of which soon reached the West through the Silk Road. The Khans understood the value of science, and under their patronage, mathematics, astronomy, engineering, and medicine flourished. Mongols gathered vast scientific knowledge from India, China, Persia, and the Middle East through their Muslim, Chinese, and Uighur experts. Medicine was one of the sciences close to the hearts of the Mongols, as medical skill was crucial to treating injuries and maintaining the health of Mongol warriors. Mongols created hospitals and training centers to develop and exchange medical knowledge. The Yuan administration utilized the services of Chinese, Indian, and Muslim doctors and transmitted their knowledge and expertise to European medical centers. Kublai Khan also built facilities to study Western medical techniques. Rashid al-Din (1247–1318), a Persian historian and Mongol political advisor, published the first known treatise on Chinese medicine outside China in 1313.
Many Chinese scientists made their mark during the Yuan dynasty, including Guo Shoujing, a mathematician and hydraulic engineer, and Zhu Shijie, a celebrated mathematician and writer. The Hindu/Arabic discoveries in algebra, and the “Arabic” numerals, including the numeral zero, were transmitted by the Arabs during the Mongol period to the West. Another tremendous technological discovery made by the Chinese and utilized by the Mongols with deadly effects was the invention of gunpowder and other incendiary devices, which were soon to find their way to the West, transforming the art of war and destruction forever. The violent contact of the West with the Mongol Empire and the explosion of ideas it produced was to fuel the West’s age of exploration and their quest for conquest and empire from the 16th century.
Argument: Con
The Mongols were brutal conquerors who established despotic states that terrorized populations across thousands of miles through merciless slaughter, destruction, and devastation.
Historians have documented the widespread death and destruction unleashed by the Mongols while conquering China, Russia, Central Asia, Persia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Mongols allegedly slaughtered around 37–60 million people in hundreds of cities and villages during their invasions of Eurasia in the 13th century. These were some of the deadliest instances of mass killings ever recorded by historians. The impending arrival of the Mongol armies often caused panic and terror as well as displacement of the population on a vast scale in those regions, especially central Asia and Eastern Europe, which the Mongol onslaught devastated.
Genghis Khan and his commanders repeatedly employed terror and mass extermination as a battle tactic when invading a region or attacking fortifications. They first offered the besieged
leniency and protection as vassals if they surrendered without fighting and paid tribute. Resisting cities and regions faced mass slaughter of the population and utter destruction. The bloody fate of the Khwarazmian Empire, which had earned the wrath of Genghis Khan by killing the merchants and envoys sent by him, is a case in point. Invading with 100,000 soldiers, Genghis first seized the city of Otrar (where the governor of the place had the Khan’s merchants killed) and ordered the mass slaughter of most of the town’s population. The governor Inalchuq, who had ordered the killing of Khan’s envoys, faced a gruesome death: the Mongols poured molten silver into his eyes and ears.
The unprecedented wholesale destruction unleashed by Genghis Khan and his successors is said to have caused drastic demographic shifts in China, Central Asia, and the Middle East. The Persian historian Rashid al-Din (1247–1318) estimates the number of people the Mongols slaughtered at 1,300,000 in Merv (a Persian city on the Silk Road) and more than 1,700,000 in Nishapur (Khorasan Province of Iran). The Mongol depredations—including mass extermination and famine—are said to have caused the population of Persia to drop to 250,000 from the previous 2,500,000—staggering figures even after allowing for exaggeration and error. Also, nearly half the population of Kievan Rus’ (roughly modern Ukraine) is estimated to have died during the Mongol invasions. Similarly, according to historical estimates, about half of the Hungarian population was killed or displaced during the Mongol conquest. Again, a drastic population decline occurred in China following the Mongol invasions in the 13th and 14th centuries. The population of China, which was around 120 million before the arrival of the Mongols, plunged to nearly 60 million according to the census carried out in 1300, 20 years after the Mongols completed their conquest of China.
The Mongol invasions may have led to the transmission of the Black Death—the deadly bubonic plague—which, besides decimating large numbers in China, also spread rapidly across Central Asia, even to Western Europe and Africa, two regions the Mongol power never reached. The bubonic plague may have originated in the biological warfare methods the Mongol army practiced, which involved catapulting infected corpses into the cities they were besieging. The fleas feasting on the carcasses may have acted as vectors (infectious agents) to spread the bubonic plague.
Besides the almost limitless slaughter, the Mongol invasion destroyed the monuments and cultural legacy accumulated through millennia. The places to come under the destructive arm of the Mongols included the cities of Balkh, Bamiyan, Herat (Afghanistan); Baghdad (Iraq); Nishapur, Merv (Iran); Lahore (Pakistan); Ryazan, Vladimir (Russia); Chernihiv (Ukraine), and many others. The 13-day Mongol siege of Baghdad in 1258 has become an episode of infamy in Islamic history. The fury of the Mongols was unquenchable due to the inhabitants’ resistance and refusal to surrender. Very little escaped the destruction carried out by the Mongols, who burned the city’s famous libraries—which contained hundreds of thousands of literature and science books—and hospitals indiscriminately. According to legend, the invaders threw thousands of books into the River Tigris, causing the river waters to turn black from so much ink. According to another writer, the river was so thick with books that it could bear the weight of a horse rider. The Mongols also destroyed the region’s ancient irrigation and drainage systems, leading to the loss of food production and widespread famine and starvation.
Aftermath
The roots of the decline and disintegration of the Mongol Empire lay in the internal conflicts over leadership and succession that broke out upon the death of Möngke Khan—the fourth Khagan of the Mongols—in 1259. The division of the empire started after the new (nominal) Khagan Kublai founded the Yuan Dynasty and declared himself Emperor of China in 1260. The breakup of the once-mighty Mongol Empire accelerated during the next 35 years and culminated after the death of the Yuan emperor, Kublai Khan, in 1294. The internal struggles resulted in the Mongol Empire’s division into four different sectors: the Yuan dynasty in the East, the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, and the Ilkhanate in Southwest Asia.
In the East, Kublai Khan (Yuan Emperor Shizu) ruled over vast domains comprising China, Mongolia, Tibet, and Korea. Towards the end of his otherwise successful reign, Kublai encountered defeat and humiliation when his two attempts to invade Japan with vast naval armadas ended in failure and destruction in sea storms which the Japanese called kamikazes (divine wind). When Kublai Khan died in 1294, his grandson Temür (Emperor Chengzong) succeeded him, followed by Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan in 1312. After various troubles and uprisings, including the Red Turban Rebellion (1351–1368), the Yuan dynasty ended when the Ming dynasty overthrew it in 1368, and the Mongol rulers retreated to inner Mongolia.
The Golden Horde, founded in 1243 by Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, encompassed the Volga region, the Ural mountains, the North Caucasus, the steppes around the northern Black Sea, Western Siberia, the Aral Sea (lying between Uzbekistan and Kazhakstan), the Irtysh River basin, and tributary principalities of Rus. The Golden Horde empire weakened due to rivalries among the descendants of Batu Khan and separated into several principalities during the 15th century. These included the Kazakh Khanate, the Khanate of Kazan, the Astrakhan Khanate, the Crimean Khanate, the Siberian Khanate, the White Horde, and others. A unified Rus conquered some principalities in the 15th century, including the Khanate of Kazan (1552), the Astrakhan Khanate (1556), and the Siberia Khanate (1582). Finally, the Russian Empire conquered the Crimean Khanate in 1783, thus ending Mongol rule in Eastern Europe.
The Chagatai Khanate (Chagatai Ulus) comprised the Mongol regions ruled by the second son of Genghis Khan, Chagatai Khan, and his successors. When it separated from the Mongol Empire in 1266, it covered the areas of Central Asia, Lake Balkhash and Zhetysu (southern Kazakhstan), Afghanistan, and Kashgaria (Southern Xinjiang). It was divided between the western settled regions of Ma Wara’un-Nahr (Transoxania) and the eastern nomadic areas of Moghulistan (the Moghul Khanate). Moghulistan became prominent during the rule of the famous warlord from the Barlas clan, Timur (the legendary Tamerlane), who founded the Timurid Empire (1395–1405), encompassing the regions of Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. The Timurid Empire disintegrated following the death of Timur, whose great-grandson, Babar, was to found the famed Mughal Empire in India in 1526.
The Ilkhanate comprised eastern Asia Minor and western Turkestan, Persia (Iran), present-day Iraq, and the Transcaucasus. It was formed in 1256 and ruled by the House of Hulagu, the son of Tolui and grandson of Genghis Khan. The Mongol rulers of the Ilkhanate, formerly followers of Tibetan Buddhism, converted to Islam after the enthronement of Ilkhan Ghazan (1295–1304) to become more acceptable to their Muslim subjects. The Ilkhanate disintegrated into several states after the death of Abu Sa’id (1316–35) in 1300. Chief among them was the Jalayrid dynasty (Jalayrid Sultanate), ruled by descendants of Mongo l general Mukhali of Jalair (Djalair).
What If…
What if the Mongols had not stopped at Eastern Europe’s borders and continued their invasions into Western Europe?
Historians and scholars since the Mongol period have often speculated what would have happened if the Mongol war machine had, instead of pausing at the borders of Vienna, Austria, continued its invasion into the heart of Europe. Let us recount the situation of the Mongol Army when it was poised to strike farther into Europe. The Mongol army’s western flank had invaded and plundered Poland’s cities. The Poles, the Moravians, and several Christian military orders, such as the Teutonic Knights, Hospitallers, and the Templars, had formed a European alliance to counter the invaders. The Christian army briefly halted the Mongol advance at Legnica (southwestern Poland). However, the Mongol forces defeated the Hungarian army and their Croatian and Knights Templar allies on the banks of the Sajo River in 1241. Before the army of Batu could advance towards Vienna and northern Albania, the invasion was halted by the news of the death of Ögedei Khan in December 1241.
What if the Great Khan, a hopeless alcoholic, had addressed his drinking problem, regained his health, and given the green light to Batu Khan to continue with the invasion of Europe? The outcome would not have been favorable for the Mongols, say many historians, due to various factors such as climate, terrain, and the inflamed religious reaction from the Christian West, including the influential Roman Pontiff, against the "heathen Mongol hordes." The Mongol strategy was based on the speed of their horses, which needed grasslands for foraging. The cold, wet, and bitter winter of 1241 and the spring of 1242 made the whole Pannonian plain a vast lake of mud and sludge through which the Mongol horse-mounted troops had to advance. In the absence of forageable land, the Mongol horses would have starved if they had proceeded with their invasion. Even though the Mongol forces had devastated and ravaged the Hungarian countryside, they could not capture one stone castle or fortified town, and King Bela IV was still at large.
The Mongol menace made the whole of Europe enraged. The Europeans, whom Batu Khan knew were no pushovers, started calling for a crusade against the "heathen," which the Pope, the spiritual head of Europe, supported. If the Mongols had proceeded with their invasion, they would have encountered a densely fortified terrain (13th-century Germany alone had around 60,000 castles) with innumerable mountains, hills, and waterways. These fortifications and castles were ideal for Europeans to employ the military tactic of "area denial" to impede the Mongol advance. Batu also knew that he would not be going against a monolithic empire in invading Europe but hundreds of feudal states, principalities, and fiefdoms. All these states—connected by Christianity, marriage, or alliances—Batu and his generals would have to conquer one by one, no mean feat even for the fearless Mongol warriors. A Mongol invasion of Western Europe would be a life-and-death struggle for the invaded, unleashing all the energy and fury Europeans were capable of, putting the outcome in an unfavorable light for the Mongols. So, the impending Kurtalai to choose the next Khagan gave Batu the excuse to abandon his plan to invade all of Europe.
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