A typical
understanding of the Mongols--especially Mongols during the era of Genghis Khan (Ghengis the
Chief or Ruler)--stems from reports written by eyewitnesses or contemporaneous historians
through whom their advent is portrayed as a bloody "bolt from the blue"--a sudden,
swift, unexpected surprise from quarters previously unknown thus unfeared--that left only
destruction, death, horror and lasting grief as the sign of its devastation. A medieval Russian
chronicle from Novgorod vividly describes Mongol impact on the region:
No one exactly knows who they are, nor whence they came out, nor
what their language is, nor of what race they are, nor what their faith is . . . God alone knows
(Mitchell and Forbes, p. 64).
A thirteenth-century
Persian eyewitness in Iran summarized the initial impact of their attack in Iran: "They
came, they sapped, they burnt, they slew, they plundered and they departed" (Juwayni,
1916/1997, p. 107). The Arab chronicler ibn al-Athir, although not an eyewitness, chronicled his
reaction to the stories that reached him and his fellow Arab countrymen about Genghis Khan's
attacks and rise to power. His emotion-filled, half hysterical words have set the tone and
perception throughout the ages of history and throughout the peoples of the world of the
Eurasian Mongol attacks on the world from the Red Sea to the China Sea and from the steppes to
the desserts:
O would that my mother had never borne me,
that I had died before and that I were forgotten [so] tremendous disaster such as had never
happened before, and which struck all the world, though the Muslims above all . . . Dadjdjal
[Muslim Anti-Christ] will at least spare those who adhere to him, and will only destroy his
adversaries. These [Mongols], however, spared none. They killed women, men, children, ripped
open the bodies of the pregnant and slaughtered the unborn (Spuler, 1972, pp. 290).
Once Genghis Khan had begun attacking surrounding peoples, he
described himself as "the punishment of God"--implying the demon of hell being
released upon Muslims and Christians who were ready to believe the appellation--and was pleased
that others perceived him in fiendish, destructive this role. The religion of the Mongols--a
congregate of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes with groups and subgroups loosely united under a
"khan" who could bring goods and security to the group through raids and defenses--was
shamanic. This means they worshiped spirits whom they perceived to be indwelling in elements of
nature and that allowed interaction and channeling through a chosen religious shaman who had the
authority, right and responsibility of entering an altered state to correspond with the spirits
for guidance, help, healing and protection. Knowing the clash of religious systems--monotheism
of Muslim and Christian versus pan-spirit shamanism--makes the appellation of "punishment
of god" more easily understood.
Besides brutal barbarity, the Mongol
conquests gave birth to a plethora of historians and chronicles reporting eyewitness or hearsay
accounts. These many historical scribe chroniclers, both within the Mongol nation and without,
were happy to accommodate the Mongols' desire for notoriety and a rising reputation for
barbarism and cruelty. Primary sources in a wealth of languages allow for critical analysis and
comparison between these various sources that yields a more balanced account of what actually
occurred during the Mongol conquest of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Since Bernard
Lewis questioned the basis of the Mongols' tainted reputation in 1995, scholarly opinion has
grown more sympathetic toward the legacy of Genghis Khan.
Genghis Khan, the
leader of the "people of the felt-walled tents" and the "the peoples of the Nine
Tongues" (Onon, 1993, p. 102), was born Tem¼jin and endured a brutal and merciless
childhood. His father was murdered when he was young, and his mother and her offspring were
abandoned by their clan to survive in a very harsh and unforgiving environment. later, as a
young man, Tem¼jin's wife Borte was kidnapped by a raiding tribe; woman kidnapping was a common
part of tribal raids. The virtue of compassion was expressed in non-Western modes on the harsh
steppes. Tem¼jin became the khan of his family, then rose as khan over a small alliance of
other family tribes. In a culture that gave power to men who could promise prosperity through
successful raids, during hard times, on neighboring tribes to gain goods and land, not to kill
opponents (this cultural distinction is important to remember when considering how Genghis later
spread his power through Eurasia), Tem¼jin came to the notice of the overlord of khans, Ong
Khan, who made Tem¼jin his successor--leading to the anger of Ong's son, Senggum, who expected
to be successor and who gathered forces to try to assassinate Tem¼jin--and the future Genghis
Khan. Ghengis's first acts were to unify the families and tribes around him with a strengthened
military operation and to make kidnapping of women in raids illegal. In an act of steppe
compassion, he also legitimized all children so none were born illegitimate and he made it
illegal to sell women as brides. The stage was set on all levels--military, tolerance, reward
and punishment--for conquering the world, which Genghis began to do in response to drought, to
restrictions from China imposed on trade with the Mongols and, possibly, in response to a
shamanic call to conquer the world under one ruler.
Turco-Mongol Unity
Mongol tribal khans
maintained power, thus unity, only by delivering on promises of wealth and plenty. If the
promise was not met, then the khan fell or was forced to join an alliance with another khan who
could meet the promises required by the tribe. By 1206 the Turco-Mongol clans of the steppe,
which were originally brought together by Ong Khan, were united under the charismatic rule of
Genghis Khan who had a size, unity and dedication of military force and endurance that
distinguished it from past steppe armies. Prior to Genghis the tribes had often been manipulated
by the Chinese and other settled agrarian peoples that had often commanded the Mongol nomads'
predatory raids. According to Mongol cultural ideology as described above, Genghis first raided
for the booty (the goods and land or "turf") with which to satisfy his followers and
placate his rivals, because a ruler who could not bring the goods promised would soon be removed
from power, and with which he amassed prestige and power that supported him against challengers
to his rule, such as the defeated Senggum. The initial raids into northern China for goods
during the early decades of the thirteenth century were thereafter followed by attacks, with
killings, that were the first actions to be characterized by the barbarity with which Genghis
Khan of the Mongols has become identified. Once Mongol power was established, Mongol rule during
the reigns of Genghis Khan's grandsons, H¼leg¼ in Iran (ruled 1256265) and Qubilai Qa'an in
China (ruled 1260294), represented scholarship, art, culture and the rule of fair law with
rewards being distributed for merit regardless of ethnicity, religion or nation.
The Mongols themselves were few in number, but from the outset Genghis absorbed other
Turkish tribes and conquered troops into his armies. He used traditional steppe military
tactics, with light cavalry, feigned retreats, and skillful archery, to conduct what were
initially raids to plunder from bases in the steppes into the agriculturally developed and
settled lands as opposed to into the steppe grasslands that were home to neighboring tribal
nomads. In the phase following raids for plunder, raids that were without the objective of
killing (Columbia University), in 1211 the Mongols invaded the independent Chin of northern
China, helped by renegade semi-nomadic Khitans, in a mighty struggle for supremacy that
continued after Genghis's death finally ending in 1234. It was the defeat of the Chin capital,
Zhangdu, (the site of modern Beijing) that gave rise to one of the most notorious stories of
Mongol atrocities:
[An envoy from the Khwarazmshah] saw a
white hill and in answer to his query was told by the guide that it consisted of bones of the
massacred inhabitants. At another place the earth was, for a long stretch of the road, greasy
from human fat and the air was so polluted that several members of the mission became ill and
some died. This was the place, they were told, where on the day that the city was stormed 60,000
virgins threw themselves to death from the fortifications in order to escape capture by the
Mongols (Raverty, 1995, p. 965).
The
World-Conqueror
Genghis then turned his attention westward in
campaigns against the ethnically Chinese Qara Khitai, whose Muslim merchants and administrators
came to form the backbone of his emerging empire. Following a failed trade envoy mission,
Genghis then reluctantly attacked Khwarazm (corresponding to present-day Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan), which was the first Muslim state to experience the full fury of the Mongol
onslaught. This devastating invasion occurred in retaliation for the murder of a commercial and
political trade delegation composed of Mongols, Chinese, and Muslims, who had sought to gain
peaceful relations between the two peoples. As proof of his appellation "punishment of
God," Genghis Khan unleashed the bloody attacks and merciless devastation on the Islamic
West that has made his name synonymous with barbaric mass slaughter.
The
trail of blood and massacre that followed the crumbling of the Khwarazm empire in 1220 led
westward from Central Asia through Iran to the Caucasus then north into the plains of Russia.
The chronicles have told us that 1,600,000 or possibly as many as 2,400,000 were put to the
sword in Herat (a city in present-day western Afghanistan), while in Nishapur, the city of Omar
Khayy¡m, 1,747,000 were slaughtered. The two Mongol noyans (generals) Jebe and S¼bedei led an
expedition in pursuit of the fleeing Khwarazmshah (died 1221), demanding submission to,
assistance with and human shields from all they encountered for the resolutely and ruthlessly
advancing Mongol armies that brought slavery, destruction and death. Outside every town they
reached, the Mongols would deliver a chilling message: "Submit! And if ye do otherwise,
what know we? God knoweth" (Juwayni, 1916, p. 26).
This epic Mongol
cavalry mission--the Mongols were excellent horsemen bred from childhood to ride and hunt on the
small, light, fast horses of the steppes--was perhaps the greatest reconnaissance effort to
gather strategic information of all time. It included intelligence gathering about the region,
the enemy and the local geographical features, which led to the informed conquest, defeat and
massacre of all lands neighboring the Caspian Sea and beyond. Noyans Jebe and S¼bedei's
expedition of pursuit, terror, and reconnaissance represents the Mongols at their destructive
peak; thereafter their armies were both the invincible wrath of God and the emissaries of the
biblical Gog and Magog (Revelations 20), a notoriety the Mongols wore like a khil
Eat (a robe of honor).
Khorasan in particular suffered grievously
for the sins of its deluded leader, the Khwarazmshah. Although the massacres and ensuing
destruction were widespread, there was compassion and method in the Mongols' march to power.
Artisans and craftsmen, with their families, were often spared the Great Khan's fury. Separated
from their less fortunate fellow citizens, they were transported east to practice their crafts
in other parts of the empire. While it is said that in Khwarazm (Kiva) in 1221, each of the
50,000 Mongol troops was assigned the task of slaughtering 24 Muslims before being able to loot
and pillage, it is reported that Genghis Khan personally implored the famed Sufi master and
founder of the Kubrawiya order, Najm al-Din Kubra, to accept safe passage out of the condemned
city of Khorasan. The master refused to flee, but allowed his disciples to go. Even at this
early stage, the "barbarian" Tatars demonstrated a respect for and knowledge of
scholars and learning (although previously they had been a Turco-Mongol tribe rivaling Genghis,
the Tatars came to be a generic term for the Genghisids in Europe and western Asia; Tartarus in
Greek mythology was Hades or Hell).
The World Ruler
Although Genghis died in 1227, unlike other steppe empires,
his survived through his progeny who succeeded in maintaining and extending his power and
territories. Genghis Khan rode out of the steppe as a nomadic ruler intent on expanding his
power by keeping his cultural promises to his followers and, combining traditional steppe
practices with dexterous political and military skill, he became unstoppable. Cities were razed,
walls were demolished, the qanat system of underground irrigation was damaged physically and,
perhaps more serious, allowed to fall into disrepair through neglect. Nonetheless, Genghis was
astute enough to recognize that continued destruction would be counterproductive and eventually
destructive to the source of the Mongol wealth. He had wreaked havoc and horror on an
unprecedented scale, but it was only as long as he could deliver the prosperity to his followers
that he and his progeny would reign unchallenged.
Genghis was a man of
vision. The spread of terror had been in the tradition of the conflict between the nomadic
steppe and the settled agrarian towns. Although the steppe had won, Genghis knew that its future
depended on the sown (the agrarian). The portable felt tents of his childhood had been
transformed into the lavish silk and pavilions of his kingdom. The ragged nomadic tribal camps
of old had been replaced by mobile cities of wealth, splendor, and sophistication. The infamy he
now enjoyed served as his security. In fact, the death tolls recorded and descriptions of the
desolation his armies had caused are now considered to be beyond credibility. The province of
Herat, neither the city, could not have sustained a population of two million, and the logistics
involved in actually murdering this number of people within a matter of days are inconceivable.
The already mentioned chronicler ibn al-Athir did much to perpetuate the mythology of the Mongol
rule of terror. He recounts that so great was people's fear that a single Mongol could leisurely
slaughter a whole queue of quaking villagers too afraid to resist, or that a docile victim would
quietly wait, head outstretched, while his executioner fetched a forgotten sword (Browne, 1997,
p. 430).
Successors
Before
his death Genghis Khan had appointed his second son ¶dei as his successor and divided his
empire among the others. By 1241 Batu, his grandson, had overrun the principalities of Russia,
subdued eastern Europe, and reached the coastline of Croatia. The year 1258 witnessed the fall
of Baghdad and another grandson, H¼leg¼, was firmly established in western Asia. Qubilai QaDan
was able to proclaim himself not only Great Khan (QaDan means "Khan of Khans"), but
also in 1279 the emperor of a united China. War and conquest had continued, but the nature of
the conquerors and rulers had changed.
Qubilai QaDan is quoted in
contemporary Chinese sources as declaring that "having seized the body, hold the soul, if
you hold the soul, where could the body go?" to explain his support and cultivation of
Tibetan Buddhism (Bira, 1999, p. 242). The new generation of Mongols were essentially settled
nomads, living in semipermanent urban camps, educated, sophisticated, and appreciative of life's
fineries and luxuries. Qubilai QaDan has been described as "the greatest cosmopolitan ruler
that has ever been known in history" (Bira, 1999, p. 241). His brother H¼leg¼ and the
Ilkhans in Iran received other praises for their rule: justice, farsightedness, and
statesmanship.
Once in power, the Mongol princes sought to rule their
subjects with justice and tolerance, and for the prosperity of all. Their contemporaries
differentiated between the "barbarian" nomads of the past and their ruling masters now
residing in fabulous imperial courts. The remains of the ragged Khwarazmshah's army, led by the
bandit king Jalal al-Din Mangkaburti, now inspired far more fear and loathing than the
disciplined Mongol troops. The Mongols had never targeted specific groups for persecution on
religious, nationalistic, or ethnic grounds. When Baghdad was attacked, it was with the advice
of Muslim advisers such as Nasir al-Din Tusi while supporting Muslim armies were led by Muslim
rulers. Co-option was the desired result of the threat of attack or of conquest. Top
administrators in all parts of the empire were Mongol, Chinese, Persian, Uighur, Armenian,
European, or Turkish. Loyalty and ability were prized above ethnicity or religion. A center of
learning was established around 1260 in Iran's first Mongol capital, Maragheh. It attracted
scholars from around the world who flocked, in particular, to see the observatory built for the
court favorite, Tusi. The Syriac cleric Bar Hebraeus used the libraries, stocked from the ruins
of Baghdad, Alamut, and other conquered cultural centers, to research his own acclaimed studies
and historical accounts.
Most of what is now known of the Mongols comes from
non-Mongol sources, among them Persian, Arabic, Armenian, European, and Chinese observers and
commentators, who betrayed a degree of anti-Mongol bias, even from loyal proponents and
servants, such as the Persian Muslim Juvaini (died 1282), who expresses a sense of disdain and
condescension for these new rulers, the Mongols. It thus seems that the Mongols may have become
victims of their own propaganda. The impact of their conquest was of such might that their
achievements have been drowned till now in a sea of blood.
Sources: "Mongol Conquests." Genocide and Crimes
Against Humanity. Ed. Dinah L. Shelton. Vol. 2. Gale Cengage, 2005.
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