MONGOL
EMPIRE
Mongol
Empire
Ikh
Mongol Uls
1206
- 1368
Expansion
of the Mongol Empire 1206 - 1294 superimposed on a modern political
map of Eurasia
Status
: Nomadic empire
Capital
: Avarga (1206 - 1235), Karakorum (1235 - 1260)
and Khanbaliq/Dadu (1271 - 1368)
Common languages
: Mongolian, Turkic, Chinese and Persian and other
languages
Religion
: Tengrism, Shamanism, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity
and Islam
Government
: Elective monarchy, Later also hereditary
Great
Khan (Emperor)
•
1206
- 1227 : Genghis Khan
• 1229
- 1241 : Ögedei Khan
• 1246
- 1248 : Güyük Khan
• 1251
- 1259 : Möngke Khan
• 1260
- 1294 : Kublai Khan (nominal)
• 1333
- 1368 : Toghan Temür, Khan (nominal)
Legislature
: Kurultai
History
• Genghis
Khan proclaims the Mongol Empire : 1206
• Death
of Genghis Khan : 1227
• Pax
Mongolica : 1250 - 1350
• Empire
fragments : 1260 - 1294
• End
of Golden Horde rule in Russia : 1480
• Fall
of Yuan dynasty : 1368
• Collapse
of the Chagatai Khanate : 1687
Area
1206
(unification of Mongolia) : 4,000,000 km2 (1,500,000 sq mi)
1227
(Genghis Khan's death) : 12,000,000 km2 (4,600,000 sq mi)
1294
(Kublai's death) : 23,500,000 km2 (9,100,000 sq mi)
1309
(last formal reunification) : 24,000,000 km2 (9,300,000 sq mi)
Currency
: Various
Preceded
by
Khamag
Mongol
Khwarazmian
Empire
Qara
Khitai
Jin
dynasty
Song
dynasty
Western
Xia
Abbasid
Caliphate
Nizari
Ismaili state
Kievan
Rus'
Volga
Bulgaria
Cumania
Alania
Dali
Kingdom
Kimek
- Kipchak confederation
Goryeo
Sultanate
of Rum
Yenisei
Kyrgyz Khaganate
Succeeded
by
Chagatai
Khanate
Golden
Horde
Ilkhanate
Yuan
dynasty
Northern
Yuan dynasty
Timurid
Empire
Anatolian
beyliks
Mamluk
Sultanate
Kingdom
of Poland
Grand
Duchy of Lithuania
Ming
dynasty
Grand
Duchy of Moscow
The
Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous
land empire in history. Originating in Mongolia in East Asia, the
Mongol Empire eventually stretched from Eastern Europe and parts
of Central Europe to the Sea of Japan, extending northward into
parts of the Arctic; eastward and southward into the Indian subcontinent,
Mainland Southeast Asia and the Iranian Plateau; and westward as
far as the Levant and the Carpathian Mountains.
The
Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of several nomadic tribes
in the Mongol homeland under the leadership of Genghis Khan (c.
1162–1227), whom a council proclaimed as the ruler of all
Mongols in 1206. The empire grew rapidly under his rule and that
of his descendants, who sent out invading armies in every direction.
The vast transcontinental empire connected the East with the West,
the Pacific to the Mediterranean, in an enforced Pax Mongolica,
allowing the dissemination and exchange of trade, technologies,
commodities and ideologies across Eurasia.
The
empire began to split due to wars over succession, as the grandchildren
of Genghis Khan disputed whether the royal line should follow from
his son and initial heir Ögedei or from one of his other sons,
such as Tolui, Chagatai, or Jochi. The Toluids prevailed after a
bloody purge of Ögedeid and Chagatai factions, but disputes
continued among the descendants of Tolui. A key reason for the split
was the dispute over whether the Mongol Empire would become a sedentary,
cosmopolitan empire, or would stay true to the Mongol nomadic and
steppe-based lifestyle. After Möngke Khan died (1259), rival
kurultai councils simultaneously elected different successors, the
brothers Ariq Böke and Kublai Khan, who fought each other in
the Toluid Civil War (1260–1264) and also dealt with challenges
from the descendants of other sons of Genghis. Kublai successfully
took power, but civil war ensued as he sought unsuccessfully to
regain control of the Chagatayid and Ögedeid families.
During
the reigns of Genghis and Ögedei, the Mongols suffered the
occasional defeat when a less skilled general received the command.
The Siberian Tumeds defeated the Mongol forces under Borokhula around
1215–1217; Jalal al-Din defeated Shigi-Qutugu at the Battle
of Parwan in 1221; and the Jin generals Heda and Pu'a defeated Dolqolqu
in 1230. In each case, the Mongols returned shortly after with a
much larger army led by one of their best generals, and were invariably
victorious. The Battle of Ain Jalut in Galilee in 1260 marked the
first time that the Mongols would not return to immediately avenge
a defeat, due to a combination of the death of Möngke Khan
in 1259, the Toluid Civil War between Ariq Böke and Kublai
Khan, and Berke Khan of the Golden Horde attacking Hulagu Khan in
Persia. Although the Mongols launched many more invasions of the
Levant, briefly occupying it and raiding as far as Gaza after a
decisive victory at the Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar in 1299, they
withdrew due to various geopolitical factors.
By
the time of Kublai's death in 1294 the Mongol Empire had fractured
into four separate khanates or empires, each pursuing its own separate
interests and objectives: the Golden Horde khanate in the northwest,
the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, the Ilkhanate in the southwest,
and the Yuan dynasty in the east, based in modern-day Beijing.
In
1304 the three western khanates briefly accepted the nominal suzerainty
of the Yuan dynasty, but in 1368 the Han Chinese Ming dynasty took
over the Mongol capital. The Genghis rulers of the Yuan retreated
to the Mongolian homeland and continued to rule there as the Northern
Yuan dynasty. The Ilkhanate disintegrated in the period 1335–1353.
The Golden Horde had broken into competing khanates by the end of
the 15th century and was defeated and thrown out of Russia in 1480
by the Grand Duchy of Moscow while the Chagatai Khanate lasted in
one form or another until 1687.
Name
:
What is referred to in English as the Mongol Empire was called the
Ikh Mongol Uls (ikh: "great", uls: "state";
Great Mongolian State). In the 1240s, one of Genghis's descendants,
Güyük Khan, wrote a letter to Pope Innocent IV which used
the preamble "Dalai (great/oceanic) Khagan of the great Mongolian
state (ulus)".
After
the succession war between Kublai Khan and his brother Ariq Böke,
Ariq limited Kublai's power to the eastern part of the empire. Kublai
officially issued an imperial edict on 18 December 1271 to name
the country Great Yuan (Dai Yuan, or Dai Ön Ulus) to establish
the Yuan dynasty. Some sources state that the full Mongolian name
was Dai Ön Yehe Monggul Ulus.
History
:
Pre-empire context :
Mongolian tribes during the Khitan Liao dynasty
(907 – 1125)
The Old World on the eve of the Mongol invasions, c. 1200
The
area around Mongolia, Manchuria, and parts of North China had been
controlled by the Liao dynasty since the 10th century. In 1125,
the Jin dynasty founded by the Jurchens overthrew the Liao dynasty
and attempted to gain control over former Liao territory in Mongolia.
In the 1130s the Jin dynasty rulers, known as the Golden Kings,
successfully resisted the Khamag Mongol confederation, ruled at
the time by Khabul Khan, great-grandfather of Genghis Khan.
The
Mongolian plateau was occupied mainly by five powerful tribal confederations
(khanlig): Keraites, Khamag Mongol, Naiman, Mergid, and Tatar. The
Jin emperors, following a policy of divide and rule, encouraged
disputes among the tribes, especially between the Tatars and the
Mongols, in order to keep the nomadic tribes distracted by their
own battles and thereby away from the Jin. Khabul's successor was
Ambaghai Khan, who was betrayed by the Tatars, handed over to the
Jurchen, and executed. The Mongols retaliated by raiding the frontier,
resulting in a failed Jurchen counter-attack in 1143.
In
1147, the Jin somewhat changed their policy, signing a peace treaty
with the Mongols and withdrawing from a score of forts. The Mongols
then resumed attacks on the Tatars to avenge the death of their
late khan, opening a long period of active hostilities. The Jin
and Tatar armies defeated the Mongols in 1161.
During
the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, the usually cold,
parched steppes of Central Asia enjoyed their mildest, wettest conditions
in more than a millennium. It is thought that this resulted in a
rapid increase in the number of war horses and other livestock,
which significantly enhanced Mongol military strength.
Rise
of Genghis Khan :
Genghis Khan, National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan
Known during his childhood as Temüjin, Genghis Khan was a son
of a Mongol chieftain. As a young man he rose very rapidly by working
with Toghrul Khan of the Kerait. The most powerful Mongol leader
at the time was Kurtait; he was given the Chinese title "Wang",
which means King. Temujin went to war against Kurtait (now Wang
Khan). After Temujin defeated Wang Khan he gave himself the name
Genghis Khan. He then enlarged his Mongol state under himself and
his kin. The term Mongol came to be used to refer to all Mongolic
speaking tribes under the control of Genghis Khan. His most powerful
allies were his father's friend, Khereid chieftain Wang Khan Toghoril,
and Temujin's childhood anda (blood brother) Jamukha of the Jadran
clan. With their help, Temujin defeated the Merkit tribe, rescued
his wife Börte, and went on to defeat the Naimans and the Tatars.
Temujin
forbade looting of his enemies without permission, and he implemented
a policy of sharing spoils with his warriors and their families
instead of giving it all to the aristocrats. These policies brought
him into conflict with his uncles, who were also legitimate heirs
to the throne; they regarded Temujin not as a leader but as an insolent
usurper. This dissatisfaction spread to his generals and other associates,
and some Mongols who had previously been allies broke their allegiance.
War ensued, and Temujin and the forces still loyal to him prevailed,
defeating the remaining rival tribes between 1203 and 1205 and bringing
them under his sway. In 1206, Temujin was crowned as the khagan
(Emperor) of the Yekhe Mongol Ulus (Great Mongol State) at a Kurultai
(general assembly/council). It was there that he assumed the title
of Genghis Khan (universal leader) instead of one of the old tribal
titles such as Gur Khan or Tayang Khan, marking the start of the
Mongol Empire.
Early
organization :
Genghis
Khan ascended the throne in the Ikh Khuraldai region in the Onan
river, from the Jami' al-tawarikh
Genghis Khan introduced many innovative ways of organizing his army:
for example dividing it into decimal subsections of arbans (10 soldiers),
zuuns (100), Mingghans (1000), and tumens (10,000). The Kheshig,
the imperial guard, was founded and divided into day (khorchin torghuds)
and night (khevtuul) guards. Genghis rewarded those who had been
loyal to him and placed them in high positions, as heads of army
units and households, even though many of them came from very low-ranking
clans.
Compared
to the units he gave to his loyal companions, those assigned to
his own family members were relatively few. He proclaimed a new
code of law of the empire, Ikh Zasag or Yassa; later he expanded
it to cover much of the everyday life and political affairs of the
nomads. He forbade the selling of women, theft, fighting among the
Mongols, and the hunting of animals during the breeding season.
He
appointed his adopted brother Shigi-Khuthugh as supreme judge (jarughachi),
ordering him to keep records of the empire. In addition to laws
regarding family, food, and the army, Genghis also decreed religious
freedom and supported domestic and international trade. He exempted
the poor and the clergy from taxation. He also encouraged literacy,
adopting the Uyghur script, which would form the Uyghur-Mongolian
script of the empire, and he ordered the Uyghur Tatatunga, who had
previously served the khan of Naimans, to instruct his sons.
Push
into Central Asia :
Mongol Empire circa 1207
Genghis quickly came into conflict with the Jin dynasty of the Jurchens
and the Western Xia of the Tanguts in northern China. He also had
to deal with two other powers, Tibet and Qara Khitai. Then, he moved
towards the west, gaining claim to parts of Russia, Ukraine, and
whole countries in Central Asia, such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan
and other countries.
Before
his death, Genghis Khan divided his empire among his sons and immediate
family, making the Mongol Empire the joint property of the entire
imperial family who, along with the Mongol aristocracy, constituted
the ruling class.
Religious
policies :
Prior to the three western khanates' adoption of Islam, Genghis
Khan and a number of his Yuan successors placed restrictions on
religious practices they saw as alien. Muslims, including Hui, and
Jews, were collectively referred to as Huihui. Muslims were forbidden
from Halal or Zabiha butchering, while Jews were similarly forbidden
from Kashrut or Shehita butchering. Referring to the conquered subjects
as "our slaves," Genghis Khan demanded they no longer
be able to refuse food or drink, and imposed restrictions on slaughter.
Muslims had to slaughter sheep in secret.
Among
all the [subject] alien peoples only the Hui-hui say "we do
not eat Mongol food". [Chinggis Qa’an replied:] "By
the aid of heaven we have pacified you; you are our slaves. Yet
you do not eat our food or drink. How can this be right?" He
thereupon made them eat. "If you slaughter sheep, you will
be considered guilty of a crime." He issued a regulation to
that effect ... [In 1279/1280 under Qubilai] all the Muslims say:
“if someone else slaughters [the animal] we do not eat".
Because the poor people are upset by this, from now on, Musulman
[Muslim] Huihui and Zhuhu [Jewish] Huihui, no matter who kills [the
animal] will eat [it] and must cease slaughtering sheep themselves,
and cease the rite of circumcision.
Genghis
Khan arranged for the Chinese Taoist master Qiu Chuji to visit him
in Afghanistan, and also gave his subjects the right to religious
freedom, despite his own shamanistic beliefs.
Death
of Genghis Khan and expansion under Ögedei (1227 – 1241)
:
Coronation
of Ögedei Khan in 1229 as the successor of Genghis Khan. By
Rashid al-Din, early 14th century
Genghis Khan died on 18 August 1227, by which time the Mongol Empire
ruled from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea, an empire twice
the size of the Roman Empire or the Muslim Caliphate at their height.[citation
needed] Genghis named his third son, the charismatic Ögedei,
as his heir. According to Mongol tradition, Genghis Khan was buried
in a secret location. The regency was originally held by Ögedei's
younger brother Tolui until Ögedei's formal election at the
kurultai in 1229.
Among
his first actions Ögedei sent troops to subjugate the Bashkirs,
Bulgars, and other nations in the Kipchak-controlled steppes. In
the east, Ögedei's armies re-established Mongol authority in
Manchuria, crushing the Eastern Xia regime and the Water Tatars.
In 1230, the great khan personally led his army in the campaign
against the Jin dynasty of China. Ögedei's general Subutai
captured the capital of Emperor Wanyan Shouxu in the siege of Kaifeng
in 1232. The Jin dynasty collapsed in 1234 when the Mongols captured
Caizhou, the town to which Wanyan Shouxu had fled. In 1234, three
armies commanded by Ögedei's sons Kochu and Koten and the Tangut
general Chagan invaded southern China. With the assistance of the
Song dynasty the Mongols finished off the Jin in 1234.
Many
Han Chinese and Khitan defected to the Mongols to fight against
the Jin. Two Han Chinese leaders, Shi Tianze, Liu Heima (Liu Ni),
and the Khitan Xiao Zhala defected and commanded the 3 Tumens in
the Mongol army. Liu Heima and Shi Tianze served Ogödei Khan.
Liu Heima and Shi Tianxiang led armies against Western Xia for the
Mongols. There were four Han Tumens and three Khitan Tumens, with
each Tumen consisting of 10,000 troops. The Yuan dynasty created
a Han army from Jin defectors, and another of ex-Song troops called
the Newly Submitted Army.
In
the West Ögedei's general Chormaqan destroyed Jalal ad-Din
Mingburnu, the last shah of the Khwarizmian Empire. The small kingdoms
in southern Persia voluntarily accepted Mongol supremacy. In East
Asia, there were a number of Mongolian campaigns into Goryeo Korea,
but Ögedei's attempt to annex the Korean Peninsula met with
little success. Gojong, the king of Goryeo, surrendered but later
revolted and massacred Mongol darughachis (overseers); he then moved
his imperial court from Gaeseong to Ganghwa Island.
Invasions
of Kievan Rus' and central China :
The
sack of Suzdal by Batu Khan in 1238, miniature from a 16th-century
chronicle
Meanwhile, in an offensive action against the Song dynasty, Mongol
armies captured Siyang-yang, the Yangtze and Sichuan, but did not
secure their control over the conquered areas. The Song generals
were able to recapture Siyang-yang from the Mongols in 1239. After
the sudden death of Ögedei's son Kochu in Chinese territory
the Mongols withdrew from southern China, although Kochu's brother
Prince Koten invaded Tibet immediately after their withdrawal.
Batu
Khan, another grandson of Genghis Khan, overran the territories
of the Bulgars, the Alans, the Kypchaks, Bashkirs, Mordvins, Chuvash,
and other nations of the southern Russian steppe. By 1237 the Mongols
were encroaching upon Ryazan, the first Kievan Rus' principality
they were to attack. After a three-day siege involving fierce fighting,
the Mongols captured the city and massacred its inhabitants. They
then proceeded to destroy the army of the Grand Principality of
Vladimir at the Battle of the Sit River.
The
Mongols captured the Alania capital Maghas in 1238. By 1240, all
Kievan Rus' had fallen to the Asian invaders except for a few northern
cities. Mongol troops under Chormaqan in Persia connecting his invasion
of Transcaucasia with the invasion of Batu and Subutai, forced the
Georgian and Armenian nobles to surrender as well.
Giovanni
de Plano Carpini, the pope's envoy to the Mongol great khan, travelled
through Kiev in February 1246 and wrote:
They
[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 took it and 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 had
been a very large and thickly populated town, but now it 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.
Despite
the military successes, strife continued within the Mongol ranks.
Batu's relations with Güyük, Ögedei's eldest son,
and Büri, the beloved grandson of Chagatai Khan, remained tense
and worsened during Batu's victory banquet in southern Kievan Rus'.
Nevertheless, Güyük and Buri could not do anything to
harm Batu's position as long as his uncle Ögedei was still
alive. Ögedei continued with offensives into the Indian subcontinent,
temporarily investing Uchch, Lahore, and Multan of the Delhi Sultanate
and stationing a Mongol overseer in Kashmir,though the invasions
into India eventually failed and were forced to retreat. In northeastern
Asia, Ögedei agreed to end the conflict with Goryeo by making
it a client state and sent Mongolian princesses to wed Goryeo princes.
He then reinforced his kheshig with the Koreans through both diplomacy
and military force.
Push
into central Europe :
The
battle of Liegnitz, 1241. From a medieval manuscript of the Hedwig
legend
The advance into Europe continued with Mongol invasions of Poland
and Hungary. When the western flank of the Mongols plundered Polish
cities, a European alliance among the Poles, the Moravians, and
the Christian military orders of the Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights
and the Templars assembled sufficient forces to halt, although briefly,
the Mongol advance at Legnica. The Hungarian army, their Croatian
allies and the Templar Knights were beaten by the Mongols at the
banks of the Sajo River on 11 April 1241. Before Batu's forces could
continue on to Vienna and northern Albania, news of Ögedei's
death in December 1241 brought a halt to the invasion. As was customary
in Mongol military tradition, all princes of Genghis's line had
to attend the kurultai to elect a successor. Batu and his western
Mongol army withdrew from Central Europe the next year.
Post-Ögedei
power struggles (1241 – 1251) :
Following the Great Khan Ögedei's death in 1241, and before
the next kurultai, Ögedei's widow Töregene took over the
empire. She persecuted her husband's Khitan and Muslim officials
and gave high positions to her own allies. She built palaces, cathedrals,
and social structures on an imperial scale, supporting religion
and education. She was able to win over most Mongol aristocrats
to support Ögedei's son Güyük. But Batu, ruler of
the Golden Horde, refused to come to the kurultai, claiming that
he was ill and that the Mongolian climate was too harsh for him.
The resulting stalemate lasted more than four years and further
destabilized the unity of the empire.
Batu Khan consolidates the Golden Horde
When Genghis Khan's youngest brother Temüge threatened to seize
the throne, Güyük came to Karakorum to try to secure his
position. Batu eventually agreed to send his brothers and generals
to the kurultai convened by Töregene in 1246. Güyük
by this time was ill and alcoholic, but his campaigns in Manchuria
and Europe gave him the kind of stature necessary for a great khan.
He was duly elected at a ceremony attended by Mongols and foreign
dignitaries from both within and without the empire — leaders
of vassal nations, representatives from Rome, and other entities
who came to the kurultai to show their respects and conduct diplomacy.
Güyük Khan demanding Pope Innocent IV's submission.
The 1246 letter was written in Persian
Güyük took steps to reduce corruption, announcing that
he would continue the policies of his father Ögedei, not those
of Töregene. He punished Töregene's supporters, except
for governor Arghun the Elder. He also replaced young Qara Hülëgü,
the khan of the Chagatai Khanate, with his favorite cousin Yesü
Möngke, to assert his newly conferred powers. He restored his
father's officials to their former positions and was surrounded
by Uyghur, Naiman and Central Asian officials, favoring Han Chinese
commanders who had helped his father conquer Northern China. He
continued military operations in Korea, advanced into Song China
in the south, and into Iraq in the west, and ordered an empire-wide
census. Güyük also divided the Sultanate of Rum between
Izz-ad-Din Kaykawus and Rukn ad-Din Kilij Arslan, though Kaykawus
disagreed with this decision.
Not
all parts of the empire respected Güyük's election. The
Hashshashins, former Mongol allies whose Grand Master Hasan Jalalud-Din
had offered his submission to Genghis Khan in 1221, angered Güyük
by refusing to submit. Instead he murdered the Mongol generals in
Persia. Güyük appointed his best friend's father Eljigidei
as chief commander of the troops in Persia and gave them the task
of both reducing the strongholds of the Nizari Ismailis and conquering
the Abbasids at the center of the Islamic world, Iran and Iraq.
Death
of Güyük (1248) :
In 1248, Güyük raised more troops and suddenly marched
westward from the Mongol capital of Karakorum. The reasoning was
unclear. Some sources wrote that he sought to recuperate at his
personal estate, Emyl; others suggested that he might have been
moving to join Eljigidei to conduct a full-scale conquest of the
Middle East, or possibly to make a surprise attack on his rival
cousin Batu Khan in Russia.
Suspicious
of Güyük's motives, Sorghaghtani Beki, the widow of Genghis's
son Tolui, secretly warned her nephew Batu of Güyük's
approach. Batu had himself been traveling eastward at the time,
possibly to pay homage, or perhaps with other plans in mind. Before
the forces of Batu and Güyük met, Güyük, sick
and worn out by travel, died en route at Qum-Senggir (Hong-siang-yi-eulh)
in Xinjiang, possibly a victim of poison.
A Stone Turtle at the site of the Mongol capital, Karakorum
Güyük's widow Oghul Qaimish stepped forward to take control
of the empire, but she lacked the skills of her mother-in-law Töregene,
and her young sons Khoja and Naku and other princes challenged her
authority. To decide on a new great khan, Batu called a kurultai
on his own territory in 1250. As it was far from the Mongolian heartland,
members of the Ögedeid and Chagataid families refused to attend.
The kurultai offered the throne to Batu, but he rejected it, claiming
he had no interest in the position. Batu instead nominated Möngke,
a grandson of Genghis from his son Tolui's lineage. Möngke
was leading a Mongol army in Russia, the northern Caucasus and Hungary.
The pro-Tolui faction supported Batu's choice, and Möngke was
elected; though given the kurultai's limited attendance and location,
it was of questionable validity.
Batu
sent Möngke, under the protection of his brothers, Berke and
Tukhtemur, and his son Sartaq to assemble a more formal kurultai
at Kodoe Aral in the heartland. The supporters of Möngke repeatedly
invited Oghul Qaimish and the other major Ögedeid and Chagataid
princes to attend the kurultai, but they refused each time. The
Ögedeid and Chagataid princes refused to accept a descendant
of Genghis's son Tolui as leader, demanding that only descendants
of Genghis's son Ögedei could be great khan.
Rule
of Möngke Khan (1251 – 1259) :
When Möngke's mother Sorghaghtani and their cousin Berke organized
a second kurultai on 1 July 1251, the assembled throng proclaimed
Möngke great khan of the Mongol Empire. This marked a major
shift in the leadership of the empire, transferring power from the
descendants of Genghis's son Ögedei to the descendants of Genghis's
son Tolui. The decision was acknowledged by a few of the Ögedeid
and Chagataid princes, such as Möngke's cousin Kadan and the
deposed khan Qara Hülëgü, but one of the other legitimate
heirs, Ögedei's grandson Shiremun, sought to topple Möngke.
Shiremun
moved with his own forces toward the emperor's nomadic palace with
a plan for an armed attack, but Möngke was alerted by his falconer
of the plan. Möngke ordered an investigation of the plot, which
led to a series of major trials all across the empire. Many members
of the Mongol elite were found guilty and put to death, with estimates
ranging from 77–300, though princes of Genghis's royal line
were often exiled rather than executed.
Möngke
confiscated the estates of the Ögedeid and the Chagatai families
and shared the western part of the empire with his ally Batu Khan.
After the bloody purge, Möngke ordered a general amnesty for
prisoners and captives, but thereafter the power of the great khan's
throne remained firmly with the descendants of Tolui.
Administrative
reforms :
Möngke was a serious man who followed the laws of his ancestors
and avoided alcoholism. He was tolerant of outside religions and
artistic styles, leading to the building of foreign merchants' quarters,
Buddhist monasteries, mosques, and Christian churches in the Mongol
capital. As construction projects continued, Karakorum was adorned
with Chinese, European, and Persian architecture. One famous example
was a large silver tree with cleverly designed pipes that dispensed
various drinks. The tree, topped by a triumphant angel, was crafted
by Guillaume Boucher, a Parisian goldsmith.
Hulagu, Genghis Khan's grandson and founder of the Il-Khanate.
From a medieval Persian manuscript
Although he had a strong Chinese contingent, Möngke relied
heavily on Muslim and Mongol administrators and launched a series
of economic reforms to make government expenses more predictable.
His court limited government spending and prohibited nobles and
troops from abusing civilians or issuing edicts without authorization.
He commuted the contribution system to a fixed poll tax which was
collected by imperial agents and forwarded to units in need. His
court also tried to lighten the tax burden on commoners by reducing
tax rates. He also centralized control of monetary affairs and reinforced
the guards at the postal relays. Möngke ordered an empire-wide
census in 1252 that took several years to complete and was not finished
until Novgorod in the far northwest was counted in 1258.
In
another move to consolidate his power, Möngke assigned his
brothers Hulagu and Kublai to rule Persia and Mongol-held China
respectively. In the southern part of the empire he continued his
predecessors' struggle against the Song dynasty. In order to outflank
the Song from three directions, Möngke dispatched Mongol armies
under his brother Kublai to Yunnan, and under his uncle Iyeku to
subdue Korea and pressure the Song from that direction as well.
Kublai
conquered the Dali Kingdom in 1253 after the Dali King Duan Xingzhi
defected to the Mongols and helped them conquer the rest of Yunnan.
Möngke's general Qoridai stabilized his control over Tibet,
inducing leading monasteries to submit to Mongol rule. Subutai's
son Uryankhadai reduced the neighboring peoples of Yunnan to submission
and went to war with the kingdom of Ðai Viet under the Tran
dynasty in northern Vietnam in 1258, but they had to draw back.
The Mongol Empire tried to invade Ðai Viet again in 1285 and
1287 but were defeated both times.
New
invasions of the Middle East and Southern China :
Mongol invasion of Baghdad
After stabilizing the empire's finances, Möngke once again
sought to expand its borders. At kurultais in Karakorum in 1253
and 1258 he approved new invasions of the Middle East and south
China. Möngke put Hulagu in overall charge of military and
civil affairs in Persia, and appointed Chagataids and Jochids to
join Hulagu's army.
The
Muslims from Qazvin denounced the menace of the Nizari Ismailis,
a well-known sect of Shiites. The Mongol Naiman commander Kitbuqa
began to assault several Ismaili fortresses in 1253, before Hulagu
advanced in 1256. Ismaili Grand Master Rukn al-Din Khurshah surrendered
in 1257 and was executed. All of the Ismaili strongholds in Persia
were destroyed by Hulagu's army in 1257, except for Girdkuh which
held out until 1271.
Fall of Baghdad, 1258
The center of the Islamic Empire at the time was Baghdad, which
had held power for 500 years but was suffering internal divisions.
When its caliph al-Mustasim refused to submit to the Mongols, Baghdad
was besieged and captured by the Mongols in 1258 and subjected to
a merciless sack, an event considered as one of the most catastrophic
events in the history of Islam, and sometimes compared to the rupture
of the Kaaba. With the destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate, Hulagu
had an open route to Syria and moved against the other Muslim powers
in the region.
His
army advanced toward Ayyubid-ruled Syria, capturing small local
states en route. The sultan Al-Nasir Yusuf of the Ayyubids refused
to show himself before Hulagu; however, he had accepted Mongol supremacy
two decades earlier. When Hulagu headed further west, the Armenians
from Cilicia, the Seljuks from Rum and the Christian realms of Antioch
and Tripoli submitted to Mongol authority, joining them in their
assault against the Muslims. While some cities surrendered without
resisting, others, such as Mayafarriqin fought back; their populations
were massacred and the cities were sacked.
Death
of Möngke Khan (1259) :
The extent of the Mongol Empire after the death of Möngke
Khan (reigned 1251 – 1259)
Meanwhile, in the northwestern portion of the empire, Batu's successor
and younger brother Berke sent punitive expeditions to Ukraine,
Belarus, Lithuania and Poland. Dissension began brewing between
the northwestern and southwestern sections of the Mongol Empire
as Batu suspected that Hulagu's invasion of Western Asia would result
in the elimination of Batu's own dominance there.
In
the southern part of the empire, Möngke Khan himself led his
army did not complete the conquest of China. Military operations
were generally successful, but prolonged, so the forces did not
withdraw to the north as was customary when the weather turned hot.
Disease ravaged the Mongol forces with bloody epidemics, and Möngke
died there on 11 August 1259. This event began a new chapter in
the history of the Mongols, as again a decision needed to be made
on a new great khan. Mongol armies across the empire withdrew from
their campaigns to convene a new kurultai.
Disunity
:
Dispute over succession :
The
Mongols at war
Möngke's brother Hulagu broke off his successful military advance
into Syria, withdrawing the bulk of his forces to Mughan and leaving
only a small contingent under his general Kitbuqa. The opposing
forces in the region, the Christian Crusaders and Muslim Mamluks,
both recognizing that the Mongols were the greater threat, took
advantage of the weakened state of the Mongol army and engaged in
an unusual passive truce with each other.
In
1260, the Mamluks advanced from Egypt, being allowed to camp and
resupply near the Christian stronghold of Acre, and engaged Kitbuqa's
forces just north of Galilee at the Battle of Ain Jalut. The Mongols
were defeated, and Kitbuqa executed. This pivotal battle marked
the western limit for Mongol expansion in the Middle East, and the
Mongols were never again able to make serious military advances
farther than Syria.
In
a separate part of the empire, Kublai Khan, another brother of Hulagu
and Möngke, heard of the great khan's death at the Huai River
in China. Rather than returning to the capital, he continued his
advance into the Wuchang area of China, near the Yangtze River.
Their younger brother Ariqboke took advantage of the absence of
Hulagu and Kublai, and used his position at the capital to win the
title of great khan for himself, with representatives of all the
family branches proclaiming him as the leader at the kurultai in
Karakorum. When Kublai learned of this, he summoned his own kurultai
at Kaiping, and nearly all the senior princes and great noyans in
North China and Manchuria supported his own candidacy over that
of Ariqboke.
Mongolian
Civil War :
Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan's grandson and founder of the
Yuan dynasty
Battles ensued between the armies of Kublai and those of his brother
Ariqboke, which included forces still loyal to Möngke's previous
administration. Kublai's army easily eliminated Ariqboke's supporters
and seized control of the civil administration in southern Mongolia.
Further challenges took place from their cousins, the Chagataids.
Kublai sent Abishka, a Chagataid prince loyal to him, to take charge
of Chagatai's realm. But Ariqboke captured and then executed Abishka,
having his own man Alghu crowned there instead. Kublai's new administration
blockaded Ariqboke in Mongolia to cut off food supplies, causing
a famine. Karakorum fell quickly to Kublai, but Ariqboke rallied
and re-took the capital in 1261.
In
southwestern Ilkhanate, Hulagu was loyal to his brother Kublai,
but clashes with their cousin Berke, the ruler of the Golden Horde,
began in 1262. The suspicious deaths of Jochid princes in Hulagu's
service, unequal distribution of war booty, and Hulagu's massacres
of Muslims increased the anger of Berke, who considered supporting
a rebellion of the Georgian Kingdom against Hulagu's rule in 1259–1260.
[full citation needed] Berke also forged an alliance with the Egyptian
Mamluks against Hulagu and supported Kublai's rival claimant, Ariqboke.
Hulagu
died on 8 February 1264. Berke sought to take advantage and invade
Hulagu's realm, but he died along the way, and a few months later
Alghu Khan of the Chagatai Khanate died as well. Kublai named Hulagu's
son Abaqa as new Ilkhan, and nominated Batu's grandson Möngke
Temür to lead the Golden Horde. Abaqa sought foreign alliances,
such as attempting to form a Franco-Mongol alliance against the
Egyptian Mamluks. Ariqboqe surrendered to Kublai at Shangdu on 21
August 1264.
Campaigns
of Kublai Khan (1264 – 1294) :
The samurai Suenaga facing Mongol's bomb and Goryeo's arrows.
Moko Shurai Ekotoba, circa 1293
In the south, after the fall of Xiangyang in 1273, the Mongols sought
the final conquest of the Song dynasty in South China. In 1271,
Kublai renamed the new Mongol regime in China as the Yuan dynasty
and sought to sinicize his image as Emperor of China to win the
control of the Chinese people. Kublai moved his headquarters to
Dadu, the genesis for what later became the modern city of Beijing.
His establishment of a capital there was a controversial move to
many Mongols who accused him of being too closely tied to Chinese
culture.
The
Mongols were eventually successful in their campaigns against (Song)
China, and the Chinese Song imperial family surrendered to the Yuan
in 1276, making the Mongols the first non-Chinese people to conquer
all of China. Kublai used his base to build a powerful empire, creating
an academy, offices, trade ports and canals, and sponsoring arts
and science. Mongol records list 20,166 public schools created during
his reign.
Mongol warrior on horseback, preparing a mounted archery
shot
After achieving actual or nominal dominion over much of Eurasia
and successfully conquering China, Kublai pursued further expansion.
His invasions of Burma and Sakhalin were costly, and his attempted
invasions of Ð?i Vi?t (northern Vietnam) and Champa (southern
Vietnam) ended in devastating defeat, but secured vassal statuses
of those countries. The Mongol armies were repeatedly beaten in
Ðai Viet and were crushed at the Battle of Bach Ðang (1288).
Nogai
and Konchi, the khan of the White Horde, established friendly relations
with the Yuan dynasty and the Ilkhanate. Political disagreement
among contending branches of the family over the office of great
khan continued, but the economic and commercial success of the Mongol
Empire continued despite the squabbling.
Disintegration
into competing entities :
The funeral of Chagatai Khan
Major changes occurred in the Mongol Empire in the late 1200s. Kublai
Khan, after having conquered all of China and established the Yuan
dynasty, died in 1294. He was succeeded by his grandson Temür
Khan, who continued Kublai's policies. At the same time the Toluid
Civil War, along with the Berke–Hulagu war and the subsequent
Kaidu–Kublai war, greatly weakened the authority of the great
khan over the entirety of the Mongol Empire and the empire fractured
into autonomous khanates, the Yuan dynasty and the three western
khanates: the Golden Horde, the Chagatai Khanate and the Ilkhanate.
Only the Ilkhanate remained loyal to the Yuan court but endured
its own power struggle, in part because of a dispute with the growing
Islamic factions within the southwestern part of the empire.
After
the death of Kaidu, the Chatagai ruler Duwa initiated a peace proposal
and persuaded the Ögedeids to submit to Temür Khan. In
1304, all of the khanates approved a peace treaty and accepted Yuan
emperor Temür's supremacy. This established the nominal supremacy
of the Yuan dynasty over the western khanates, which was to last
for several decades. This supremacy was based on weaker foundations
than that of the earlier Khagans and each of the four khanates continued
to develop separately and function as independent states.
Nearly
a century of conquest and civil war was followed by relative stability,
the Pax Mongolica, and international trade and cultural exchanges
flourished between Asia and Europe. Communication between the Yuan
dynasty in China and the Ilkhanate in Persia further encouraged
trade and commerce between east and west. Patterns of Yuan royal
textiles could be found on the opposite side of the empire adorning
Armenian decorations; trees and vegetables were transplanted across
the empire; and technological innovations spread from Mongol dominions
toward the West. [citation needed] Pope John XXII was presented
a memorandum from the eastern church describing the Pax Mongolica:
"... Khagan is one of the greatest monarchs and all lords of
the state, e.g., the king of Almaligh (Chagatai Khanate), emperor
Abu Said and Uzbek Khan, are his subjects, saluting his holiness
to pay their respects." However, while the four khanates continued
to interact with one another well into the 14th century, they did
so as sovereign states and never again pooled their resources in
a cooperative military endeavor.
Development
of the khanates :
A
European depiction of the four khans, Temür (Yuan), Chapar
(House of Ögedei), Toqta (Golden Horde), and Öljaitü
(Ilkhanate), in the Fleur des histoires d'orient
In spite of his conflicts with Kaidu and Duwa, Yuan emperor Temür
established a tributary relationship with the war-like Shan people
after his series of military operations against Thailand from 1297
to 1303. This was to mark the end of the southern expansion of the
Mongols.
When
Ghazan took the throne of the Ilkhanate in 1295, he formally accepted
Islam as his own religion, marking a turning point in Mongol history
after which Mongol Persia became more and more Islamic. Despite
this, Ghazan continued to strengthen ties with Temür Khan and
the Yuan dynasty in the east. It was politically useful to advertise
the great khan's authority in the Ilkhanate, because the Golden
Horde in Russia had long made claims on nearby Georgia. Within four
years, Ghazan began sending tribute to the Yuan court and appealing
to other khans to accept Temür Khan as their overlord. He oversaw
an extensive program of cultural and scientific interaction between
the Ilkhanate and the Yuan dynasty in the following decades.
Ghazan's
faith may have been Islamic, but he continued his ancestors' war
with the Egyptian Mamluks, and consulted with his old Mongolian
advisers in his native tongue. He defeated the Mamluk army at the
Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar in 1299, but he was only briefly able
to occupy Syria, due to distracting raids from the Chagatai Khanate
under its de facto ruler Kaidu, who was at war with both the Ilkhans
and the Yuan dynasty.[citation needed]
Struggling
for influence within the Golden Horde, Kaidu sponsored his own candidate
Kobeleg against Bayan (r. 1299–1304), the khan of the White
Horde. Bayan, after receiving military support from the Mongols
in Russia, requested assistance from both Temür Khan and the
Ilkhanate to organize a unified attack against Kaidu's forces. Temür
was amenable and attacked Kaidu a year later. After a bloody battle
with Temür's armies near the Zawkhan River in 1301, Kaidu died
and was succeeded by Duwa.
Hungarian King Béla IV in flight from the Mongols
under general Kadan of the Golden Horde
Duwa was challenged by Kaidu's son Chapar, but with the assistance
of Temür, Duwa defeated the Ögedeids. Tokhta of the Golden
Horde, also seeking a general peace, sent 20,000 men to buttress
the Yuan frontier. Tokhta died in 1312, though, and was succeeded
by Ozbeg (r. 1313–41), who seized the throne of the Golden
Horde and persecuted non-Muslim Mongols. The Yuan's influence on
the Horde was largely reversed and border clashes between Mongol
states resumed. Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan's envoys backed Tokhta's
son against Ozbeg.[citation needed]
In
the Chagatai Khanate, Esen Buqa I (r. 1309–1318) was enthroned
as khan after suppressing a sudden rebellion by Ögedei's descendants
and driving Chapar into exile. The Yuan and Ilkhanid armies eventually
attacked the Chagatai Khanate. Recognising the potential economic
benefits and the Genghisid legacy, Ozbeg reopened friendly relations
with the Yuan in 1326. He strengthened ties with the Muslim world
as well, building mosques and other elaborate structures such as
baths. [citation needed] By the second decade of the 14th century,
Mongol invasions had further decreased. In 1323, Abu Said Khan (r.
1316–35) of the Ilkhanate signed a peace treaty with Egypt.
At his request, the Yuan court awarded his custodian Chupan the
title of commander-in-chief of all Mongol khanates, but Chupan died
in late 1327.
Civil
war erupted in the Yuan dynasty in 1328–29. After the death
of Yesün Temür in 1328, Tugh Temür became the new
leader in Dadu, while Yesün Temür's son Ragibagh succeeded
to the throne in Shangdu, leading to the civil war known as the
War of the Two Capitals. Tugh Temür defeated Ragibagh, but
the Chagatai khan Eljigidey (r. 1326–29) supported Kusala,
elder brother of Tugh Temür, as great khan. He invaded with
a commanding force, and Tugh Temür abdicated. Kusala was elected
khan on 30 August 1329. Kusala was then poisoned by a Kypchak commander
under Tugh Temür, who returned to power.
The successor states of the Mongol Empire in 1335: the Ilkhanate,
Golden Horde, Yuan dynasty and Chagatai Khanate
Tugh Temür (1304–32) was knowledgeable about Chinese
language and history and was also a creditable poet, calligrapher,
and painter. In order to be accepted by other khanates as the sovereign
of the Mongol world, he sent Genghisid princes and descendants of
notable Mongol generals to the Chagatai Khanate, Ilkhan Abu Said,
and Ozbeg. In response to the emissaries, they all agreed to send
tribute each year. Furthermore, Tugh Temür gave lavish presents
and an imperial seal to Eljigidey to mollify his anger.
Relict
states of the Mongol Empire :
With the death of Ilkhan Abu Said Bahatur in 1335, Mongol rule faltered
and Persia fell into political anarchy. A year later his successor
was killed by an Oirat governor, and the Ilkhanate was divided between
the Suldus, the Jalayir, Qasarid Togha Temür (d. 1353), and
Persian warlords. Taking advantage of the chaos, the Georgians pushed
the Mongols out of their territory, and the Uyghur commander Eretna
established an independent state (Eretnids) in Anatolia in 1336.
Following the downfall of their Mongol masters, the loyal vassal,
the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, received escalating threats from
the Mamluks and were eventually overrun in 1375.
The Battle of Blue Waters in 1362, in which Lithuania successfully
pushed the Golden Horde from the Principality of Kiev
Along with the dissolution of the Ilkhanate in Persia, Mongol rulers
in China and the Chagatai Khanate were also in turmoil. The plague
known as the Black Death, which started in the Mongol dominions
and spread to Europe, added to the confusion. Disease devastated
all the khanates, cutting off commercial ties and killing millions.
Plague may have taken 50 million lives in Europe alone in the 14th
century.
As
the power of the Mongols declined, chaos erupted throughout the
empire as non-Mongol leaders expanded their own influence. The Golden
Horde lost all of its western dominions (including modern Belarus
and Ukraine) to Poland and Lithuania between 1342 and 1369. Muslim
and non-Muslim princes in the Chagatai Khanate warred with each
other from 1331 to 1343, and the Chagatai Khanate disintegrated
when non-Genghisid warlords set up their own puppet khans in Transoxiana
and Moghulistan. Janibeg Khan (r. 1342–1357) briefly reasserted
Jochid dominance over the Chaghataids. Demanding submission from
an offshoot of the Ilkhanate in Azerbaijan, he boasted that "today
three uluses are under my control".
Crimean Tatar khan, Mengli Giray
However, rival families of the Jochids began fighting for the throne
of the Golden Horde after the assassination of his successor Berdibek
Khan in 1359. The last Yuan ruler Toghan Temür (r. 1333–70)
was powerless to regulate those troubles, a sign that the empire
had nearly reached its end. His court's unbacked currency had entered
a hyperinflationary spiral and the Han-Chinese people revolted due
to the Yuan's harsh impositions. In the 1350s, Gongmin of Goryeo
successfully pushed Mongolian garrisons back and exterminated the
family of Toghan Temür Khan's empress while Tai Situ Changchub
Gyaltsen managed to eliminate the Mongol influence in Tibet.
Increasingly
isolated from their subjects, the Mongols quickly lost most of China
to the rebellious Ming forces and in 1368 fled to their heartland
in Mongolia. After the overthrow of the Yuan dynasty the Golden
Horde lost touch with Mongolia and China, while the two main parts
of the Chagatai Khanate were defeated by Timur (Tamerlane) (1336–1405),
who founded the Timurid Empire. However, remnants of the Chagatai
Khanate survived; the last Chagataid state to survive was the Yarkent
Khanate, until its defeat by the Oirat Dzungar Khanate in the Dzungar
conquest of Altishahr in 1680. The Golden Horde broke into smaller
Turkic-hordes that declined steadily in power over four centuries.
Among them, the khanate's shadow, the Great Horde, survived until
1502, when one of its successors, the Crimean Khanate, sacked Sarai.
The Crimean Khanate lasted until 1783, whereas khanates such as
the Khanate of Bukhara and the Kazakh Khanate lasted even longer.
Military
organization :
Reconstruction of a Mongol warrior
The number of troops mustered by the Mongols is the subject of some
scholarly debate, but was at least 105,000 in 1206. The Mongol military
organization was simple but effective, based on the decimal system.
The army was built up from squads of ten men each, arbans (10 people),
zuuns (100), Mingghans (1000), and tumens (10,000).
The
Mongols were most famous for their horse archers, but troops armed
with lances were equally skilled, and the Mongols recruited other
military talents from the lands they conquered. With experienced
Chinese engineers and a bombardier corps which was expert at building
trebuchets, catapults and other machines, the Mongols could lay
siege to fortified positions, sometimes building machinery on the
spot using available local resources.
Mongol general Subutai of the Golden Horde
Forces under the command of the Mongol Empire were trained, organized,
and equipped for mobility and speed. Mongol soldiers were more lightly
armored than many of the armies they faced but were able to make
up for it with maneuverability. Each Mongol warrior would usually
travel with multiple horses, allowing him to quickly switch to a
fresh mount as needed. In addition, soldiers of the Mongol army
functioned independently of supply lines, considerably speeding
up army movement. Skillful use of couriers enabled the leaders of
these armies to maintain contact with each other.
Discipline
was inculcated during a nerge (traditional hunt), as reported by
Juvayni. These hunts were distinctive from hunts in other cultures,
being the equivalent to small unit actions. Mongol forces would
spread out in a line, surround an entire region, and then drive
all of the game within that area together. The goal was to let none
of the animals escape and to slaughter them all.
Another
advantage of the Mongols was their ability to traverse large distances,
even in unusually cold winters; for instance, frozen rivers led
them like highways to large urban centers on their banks. The Mongols
were adept at river-work, crossing the river Sajó in spring
flood conditions with thirty thousand cavalry soldiers in a single
night during the Battle of Mohi (April 1241) to defeat the Hungarian
king Béla IV. Similarly, in the attack against the Muslim
Khwarezmshah a flotilla of barges was used to prevent escape on
the river.[citation needed]
Traditionally
known for their prowess with ground forces, the Mongols rarely used
naval power. In the 1260s and 1270s they used seapower while conquering
the Song dynasty of China, though their attempts to mount seaborne
campaigns against Japan were unsuccessful. Around the Eastern Mediterranean,
their campaigns were almost exclusively land-based, with the seas
controlled by the Crusader and Mamluk forces.
All
military campaigns were preceded by careful planning, reconnaissance,
and the gathering of sensitive information relating to enemy territories
and forces. The success, organization, and mobility of the Mongol
armies permitted them to fight on several fronts at once. All adult
males up to the age of 60 were eligible for conscription into the
army, a source of honor in their tribal warrior tradition.
Society
:
Law and governance :
The executed – the long and full beard probably means
he is not a Mongol – has been thrown off a cliff
The Mongol Empire was governed by a code of law devised by Genghis,
called Yassa, meaning "order" or "decree". A
particular canon of this code was that those of rank shared much
the same hardship as the common man. It also imposed severe penalties,
e.g., the death penalty if one mounted soldier following another
did not pick up something dropped from the mount in front. Penalties
were also decreed for rape and to some extent for murder. Any resistance
to Mongol rule was met with massive collective punishment. Cities
were destroyed and their inhabitants slaughtered if they defied
Mongol orders. [citation needed] Under Yassa, chiefs and generals
were selected based on merit. The empire was governed by a non-democratic,
parliamentary-style central assembly, called kurultai, in which
the Mongol chiefs met with the great khan to discuss domestic and
foreign policies. Kurultais were also convened for the selection
of each new great khan.
Genghis
Khan also created a national seal, encouraged the use of a written
alphabet in Mongolia, and exempted teachers, lawyers, and artists
from taxes.[citation needed]
The
Mongols imported Central Asian Muslims to serve as administrators
in China and sent Han Chinese and Khitans from China to serve as
administrators over the Muslim population in Bukhara in Central
Asia, thus using foreigners to curtail the power of the local peoples
of both lands. The Mongols were tolerant of other religions, and
rarely persecuted people on religious grounds. This was associated
with their culture and progressive thought. Some historians of the
20th century thought this was a good military strategy: when Genghis
was at war with Sultan Muhammad of Khwarezm, other Islamic leaders
did not join the fight, as it was seen as a non-holy war between
two individuals.[citation needed]
Religions
:
Persian miniature depicting Ghazan's conversion from Buddhism
to Islam
At the time of Genghis Khan, virtually every religion had found
Mongol converts, from Buddhism to Christianity, from Manichaeism
to Islam. To avoid strife, Genghis Khan set up an institution that
ensured complete religious freedom, though he himself was a shamanist.
Under his administration, all religious leaders were exempt from
taxation and from public service.
Initially
there were few formal places of worship because of the nomadic lifestyle.
However, under Ögedei (1186–1241), several building projects
were undertaken in the Mongol capital. Along with palaces, Ögedei
built houses of worship for the Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, and
Taoist followers. The dominant religions at that time were Shamanism,
Tengrism, and Buddhism, although Ögedei's wife was a Nestorian
Christian.
Eventually,
each of the successor states adopted the dominant religion of the
local populations: the Chinese-Mongolian Yuan dynasty in the East
(originally the great khan's domain) embraced Buddhism and Shamanism,
while the three Western khanates adopted Islam.
Arts
and literature :
The oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language is
The Secret History of the Mongols, which was written for the royal
family some time after Genghis Khan's death in 1227. It is the most
significant native account of Genghis's life and genealogy, covering
his origins and childhood through to the establishment of the Mongol
Empire and the reign of his son, Ögedei.
Another
classic from the empire is the Jami' al-tawarikh, or "Universal
History". It was commissioned in the early 14th century by
the Ilkhan Abaqa Khan as a way of documenting the entire world's
history, to help establish the Mongols' own cultural legacy.
Mongol scribes in the 14th century used a mixture of resin and vegetable
pigments as a primitive form of correction fluid; this is arguably
its first known usage.
The
Mongols also appreciated the visual arts, though their taste in
portraiture was strictly focused on portraits of their horses, rather
than of people.
Science
:
A
1363 astronomical handbook with Middle Mongolian glosses. Known
as the Sanjufini Zij
The Mongol Empire saw some significant developments in science due
to the patronage of the Khans. Roger Bacon attributed the success
of the Mongols as world conquerors principally to their devotion
to mathematics. Astronomy was one branch of science that the Khans
took a personal interest in. According to the Yuanshi, Ögedei
Khan twice ordered the armillary sphere of Zhongdu to be repaired
(in 1233 and 1236) and also ordered in 1234 the revision and adoption
of the Damingli calendar. He built a Confucian temple for Yelü
Chucai in Karakorum around 1236 where Yelü Chucai created and
regulated a calendar on the Chinese model. Möngke Khan was
noted by Rashid al-Din as having solved some of the difficult problems
of Euclidean geometry on his own and written to his brother Hulagu
Khan to send him the astronomer Tusi. Möngke Khan's desire
to have Tusi build him an observatory in Karakorum did not reach
fruition as the Khan died on campaign in southern China. Hulagu
Khan instead gave Tusi a grant to build the Maragheh Observatory
in Persia in 1259 and ordered him to prepare astronomical tables
for him in 12 years, despite Tusi asking for 30 years. Tusi successfully
produced the Ilkhanic Tables in 12 years, produced a revised edition
of Euclid's elements and taught the innovative mathematical device
called the Tusi couple. The Maragheh Observatory held around 400,000
books salvaged by Tusi from the siege of Baghdad and other cities.
Chinese astronomers brought by Hulagu Khan worked there as well.
Kublai
Khan built a number of large observatories in China and his libraries
included the Wu-hu-lie-ti (Euclid) brought by Muslim mathematicians.
Zhu Shijie and Guo Shoujing were notable mathematicians in Mongol-ruled
China. The Mongol physician Hu Sihui described the importance of
a healthy diet in a 1330 medical treatise.
Ghazan
Khan, able to understand four languages including Latin, built the
Tabriz Observatory in 1295. The Byzantine Greek astronomer Gregory
Choniades studied there under Ajall Shams al-Din Omar who had worked
at Maragheh under Tusi. Chioniades played an important role in transmitting
several innovations from the Islamic world to Europe. These include
the introduction of the universal latitude-independent astrolabe
to Europe and a Greek description of the Tusi-couple, which would
later have an influence on Copernican heliocentrism. Choniades also
translated several Zij treatises into Greek, including the Persian
Zij-i Ilkhani by al-Tusi and the Maragheh observatory. The Byzantine-Mongol
alliance and the fact that the Empire of Trebizond was an Ilkhanate
vassal facilitated Choniades' movements between Constantinople,
Trebizond and Tabriz. Prince Radna, the Mongol viceroy of Tibet
based in Gansu province, patronized the Samarkandi astronomer al-Sanjufini.
The Arabic astronomical handbook dedicated by al-Sanjufini to Prince
Radna, a descendant of Kublai Khan, was completed in 1363. It is
notable for having Middle Mongolian glosses on its margins.
Mail
system :
A partially unrolled scroll, opened from left to right to show a
portion of the scroll with widely spaced vertical lines in the Mongol
language. Imprinted over two of the lines is an official-looking
square red stamp with an intricate design.
A 1305 letter (on a scroll measuring 302 by 50 centimetres
(9.91 by 1.64 ft)) from the Ilkhan Mongol Öljaitü to King
Philip IV of France
The Mongol Empire had an ingenious and efficient mail system for
the time, often referred to by scholars as the Yam. It had lavishly
furnished and well-guarded relay posts known as örtöö
set up throughout the Empire. A messenger would typically travel
25 miles (40 km) from one station to the next, either receiving
a fresh, rested horse, or relaying the mail to the next rider to
ensure the speediest possible delivery. The Mongol riders regularly
covered 125 miles (200 km) per day, better than the fastest record
set by the Pony Express some 600 years later. [citation needed]
The relay stations had attached households to service them. Anyone
with a paiza was allowed to stop there for re-mounts and specified
rations, while those carrying military identities used the Yam even
without a paiza. Many merchants, messengers, and travelers from
China, the Middle East, and Europe used the system. When the great
khan died in Karakorum, news reached the Mongol forces under Batu
Khan in Central Europe within 4–6 weeks thanks to the Yam.
Genghis
and his successor Ögedei built a wide system of roads, one
of which carved through the Altai mountains. After his enthronement,
Ögedei further expanded the road system, ordering the Chagatai
Khanate and Golden Horde to link up roads in western parts of the
Mongol Empire.
Kublai
Khan, founder of the Yuan dynasty, built special relays for high
officials, as well as ordinary relays, that had hostels. During
Kublai's reign, the Yuan communication system consisted of some
1,400 postal stations, which used 50,000 horses, 8,400 oxen, 6,700
mules, 4,000 carts, and 6,000 boats.[citation needed]
In
Manchuria and southern Siberia, the Mongols still used dogsled relays
for the yam. In the Ilkhanate, Ghazan restored the declining relay
system in the Middle East on a restricted scale. He constructed
some hostels and decreed that only imperial envoys could receive
a stipend. The Jochids of the Golden Horde financed their relay
system by a special yam tax.[citation needed]
Silk
Road :
Tuda Mengu of the Golden Horde
The Mongols had a history of supporting merchants and trade. Genghis
Khan had encouraged foreign merchants early in his career, even
before uniting the Mongols. Merchants provided information about
neighboring cultures, served as diplomats and official traders for
the Mongols, and were essential for many goods, since the Mongols
produced little of their own.
Mongol
government and elites provided capital for merchants and sent them
far afield, in an ortoq (merchant partner) arrangement. In Mongol
times, the contractual features of a Mongol-ortoq partnership closely
resembled that of qirad and commenda arrangements, however, Mongol
investors were not constrained using uncoined precious metals and
tradable goods for partnership investments and primarily financed
money-lending and trade activities. Moreover, Mongol elites formed
trade partnerships with merchants from Italian cities, including
Marco Polo’s family. As the empire grew, any merchants or
ambassadors with proper documentation and authorization received
protection and sanctuary as they traveled through Mongol realms.
Well-traveled and relatively well-maintained roads linked lands
from the Mediterranean basin to China, greatly increasing overland
trade and resulting in some dramatic stories of those who travelled
through what would become known as the Silk Road.
Western
explorer Marco Polo traveled east along the Silk Road, and the Chinese
Mongol monk Rabban Bar Sauma made a comparably epic journey along
the route, venturing from his home of Khanbaliq (Beijing) as far
as Europe. European missionaries, such as William of Rubruck, also
traveled to the Mongol court to convert believers to their cause,
or went as papal envoys to correspond with Mongol rulers in an attempt
to secure a Franco-Mongol alliance. It was rare, however, for anyone
to journey the full length of Silk Road. Instead, merchants moved
products like a bucket brigade, goods being traded from one middleman
to another, moving from China all the way to the West; the goods
moved over such long distances fetched extravagant prices.[citation
needed]
Gold dinar of Genghis Khan, struck at the Ghazna (Ghazni)
mint, dated 1221/2
After Genghis, the merchant partner business continued to flourish
under his successors Ögedei and Güyük. Merchants
brought clothing, food, information, and other provisions to the
imperial palaces, and in return the great khans gave the merchants
tax exemptions and allowed them to use the official relay stations
of the Mongol Empire. Merchants also served as tax farmers in China,
Russia and Iran. If the merchants were attacked by bandits, losses
were made up from the imperial treasury.[citation needed]
Policies
changed under the Great Khan Möngke. Because of money laundering
and overtaxing, he attempted to limit abuses and sent imperial investigators
to supervise the ortoq businesses. He decreed that all merchants
must pay commercial and property taxes, and he paid off all drafts
drawn by high-ranking Mongol elites from the merchants. This policy
continued under the Yuan dynasty.[citation needed]
The
fall of the Mongol Empire in the 14th century led to the collapse
of the political, cultural, and economic unity along the Silk Road.
Turkic tribes seized the western end of the route from the Byzantine
Empire, sowing the seeds of a Turkic culture that would later crystallize
into the Ottoman Empire under the Sunni faith. In the East, the
native Chinese overthrew the Yuan dynasty in 1368, launching their
own Ming dynasty and pursuing a policy of economic isolationism.
Legacy
:
Map showing the boundary of 13th century Mongol Empire compared
to today's Mongols in Mongolia, Russia, the Central Asian States,
and China
The Mongol Empire — at its height of the largest contiguous
empire in history — had a lasting impact, unifying large regions.
Some of these (such as eastern and western Russia, and the western
parts of China) remain unified today. Mongols might have been assimilated
into local populations after the fall of the empire, and some of
their descendants adopted local religions; for example, the eastern
khanate largely adopted Buddhism, and the three western khanates
adopted Islam, largely under Sufi influence.
According
to some [specify] interpretations, Genghis Khan's conquests caused
wholesale destruction on an unprecedented scale in certain geographic
regions, leading to changes in the demographics of Asia.
The
non-military achievements of the Mongol Empire include the introduction
of a writing system, a Mongol alphabet based on the characters of
the Uyghur language, which is still used in Mongolia today.
Tokhtamysh and the armies of the Golden Horde initiate the
Siege of Moscow (1382)
Some of the other long-term consequences of the Mongol Empire include
:
•
Moscow rose to
prominence while it was still under the rule of the Mongol-Tatar
yoke, some time after Russian rulers were accorded the status of
tax collectors for the Mongols. The fact that the Russians collected
tribute and taxes for the Mongols meant that the Mongols themselves
rarely visited the lands which they owned. The Russians eventually
gained military power, and their ruler Ivan III completely overthrew
the Mongols and formed the Russian Tsardom. After the Great stand
on the Ugra river proved that the Mongols were vulnerable, the Grand
Duchy of Moscow gained independence.
• Europe's
knowledge of the known world was immensely expanded by the information
which was brought back to it by ambassadors and merchants. When
Columbus sailed in 1492, his mission was to reach Cathay, the land
of the Grand Khan in China, and give him a letter from the monarchs
Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.[citation needed]
• Some
studies indicate that the Black Death which devastated Europe in
the late 1340s may have traveled from China to Europe along the
trade routes of the Mongol Empire. In 1347, the Genoese possessor
of Caffa, a great trade emporium on the Crimean Peninsula, came
under siege by an army of Mongol warriors under the command of Janibeg.
After a protracted siege during which the Mongol army was reportedly
withering from disease, they decided to use the infected corpses
as a biological weapon. The corpses were catapulted over the city
walls, infecting the inhabitants. The Genoese traders fled, transferring
the plague via their ships into the south of Europe, from where
it rapidly spread. The total number of deaths worldwide from the
pandemic is estimated at 75–200 million with up to 50 million
deaths in Europe alone.
Dominican
martyrs killed by Mongols during the Mongol invasion of Poland in
1260
•
Western researcher
R. J. Rummel estimated that 30 million people were killed under
the rule of the Mongol Empire. other researchers estimate that as
many as 80 million people were killed, with 50 million deaths being
the middle ground. The population of China fell by half during fifty
years of Mongol rule. Before the Mongol invasion, the territories
of the Chinese dynasties reportedly had approximately 120 million
inhabitants; after the conquest was completed in 1279, the 1300
census reported that China's total population was roughly 60 million.
While it is tempting to attribute this major decline in China's
population solely to Mongol ferocity, today scholars have mixed
opinions about this subject. Scholars such as Frederick W. Mote
argue that the wide drop in numbers reflects an administrative failure
to keep records rather than a de facto decrease, while others such
as Timothy Brook argue that the Mongols reduced much of the south
Chinese population, and very debatably the Han Chinese population,
to an invisible status through cancellation of the right to passports
and denial of the right to direct land ownership. This meant that
the Chinese had to depend on and be cared for chiefly by Mongols
and Tartars, which also involved recruitment into the Mongol army.
Other historians such as William McNeill and David O. Morgan argue
that the bubonic plague was the main factor behind China's demographic
decline during this period.[citation needed]
• The
Islamic world was subjected to massive changes as a result of the
Mongol invasions. The population of the Iranian plateau suffered
from widespread disease and famine, resulting in the death of up
to three-quarters of its population, possibly 10 to 15 million people.
Historian Steven Ward estimates that Iran's population did not reach
its pre-Mongol levels again until the mid-20th century.
• David
Nicole states in The Mongol Warlords, "terror and mass extermination
of anyone opposing them was a well tested Mongol tactic." About
half of the Russian population may have died during the invasion.
However, Colin McEvedy in Atlas of World Population History, 1978
estimates the population of Russia-in-Europe dropped from 7.5 million
prior to the invasion to 7 million afterward. Historians estimate
that up to half of Hungary's two million population were victims
of the Mongol invasion. Historian Andrea Peto says that Rogerius,
an eyewitness, said that "the Mongols killed everybody regardless
of gender or age" and "the Mongols especially 'found pleasure'
in humiliating women."
Kalmyk
migration from Russia to China in 1770 – 1771
•
One of the more
successful tactics employed by the Mongols was to wipe out urban
populations that refused to surrender. During the Mongol invasion
of Rus', almost all major cities were destroyed. If they chose to
submit, the people were generally spared, though this was not guaranteed.
For example, the city of Hamadan in modern-day Iran was destroyed
and every man, woman, and child executed by Mongol general Subadai,
after surrendering to him but failing to have enough provisions
for his Mongol scouting force.
Hamadan,
Iran
Several
days after the initial razing of the city, Subadai sent a force
back to the burning ruins and the site of the massacre to kill any
inhabitants of the city who had been away at the time of the initial
slaughter and had returned in the meantime. Mongolian armies made
use of local peoples and their soldiers, often incorporating them
into their armies. Prisoners of war sometimes were given the choice
between death and becoming part of the Mongol army to aid in future
conquests. Due to the brutal methods employed to subdue their subjects,
Mongols maintained long lasting resentment from those they conquered.
This resentment towards the Mongol rule has been highlighted as
a cause for the empire's rapid fracturing. In addition to intimidation
tactics, the rapid expansion of the empire was facilitated by military
hardiness (especially during bitterly cold winters), military skill,
meritocracy, and discipline.
The
first Mughal Emperor Babur and his heir Humayun
• The
Crimean Khanate and other descendants, such as the Mughal royal
family of South Asia, are descended from Genghis Khan: Babur's mother
was a descendant, whereas his father was directly descended from
Timur (Tamerlane). The word "Mughol" is a Persian word
for Mongol.
• The
Kalmyks were the last Mongol nomads to penetrate European territory,
having migrated to Europe from Central Asia at the turn of the 17th
century. In the winter of 1770–1771, approximately 200,000
Kalmyks began the journey from their pastures on the left bank of
the Volga River to Dzungaria, through the territories of their Kazakh
and Kyrgyz enemies. After several months of travel, only one-third
of the original group reached Dzungaria in northwest China.
• Some
Turko-Mongol Khanates lasted into recent centuries: The Crimean
Khanate lasted until 1783; the Khanate of Bukhara lasted until 1920;
the Kazakh Khanate lasted until 1847; the Khanate of Kokand lasted
until 1876; and the Khanate of Khiva survived as a Russian protectorate
until 1917.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Mongol_Empire