MONGOL MYTHBUSTERS   

  

Bottom Side Notes: Write down any evidence beyond the documents/ missing perspectives that can further the argument made 

by this document/author. 

MONGOLS ARE BARBARIANS  

THE MYTH| The Mongols created the largest contiguous empire in world history stretching from China and Korea in the East to Poland and Hungary in the West. Their massive empire was established in just a few decades during the 13th century. Accounts of the Mongol conquests were written by several contemporaries, many of whom wrote in great detail of their destructive nature thus establishing the common belief that the Mongols were barbarians. Your task is to either bust or confirm this popularized Mongol myth using the sources provided and relevant outside information. 

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SOURCE A| Excerpts from The Chronicle of Novgorod  

The Chronicle of Nogorod, which spans the period from 1016 to 1471, is a valuable source of information on Russia during the Mongol era. Because Mongol forces did not occupy or devastate Novgorod, its documents and archives survived. The Chronicle, an ecclesiastical work, reveals Russian attitudes towards the Mongols, which were almost entirely negative and can best be characterized by the phrase “Tartar yoke.” The text portrays the Mongols as destructive invaders from the East and lashes out particularly at the Tartars for damage inflicted on cities and sacred sites.  

Curiously, Novgorod was spared such damage due to Alexander Nevsky’s policies. Nevsky (1221-1263), the great Russian hero who stopped a Swedish attack at the Neva River in 1240 and defeated Teutonic knights’ invasion at the Battle of the Ice in 1242, adopted a conciliatory approach toward the Mongols. Recognizing their awesome power, he maintained good relations by paying homage and sending tribute to them. He also cultivated a solid relationship with Batu Khan’s son Sartakh, thus averting any Mongol attacks.   

And when the lawless ones had already come near and set up battering rams, and took the town and fired it on Friday before Sexagesima Sunday the Knyaz and Knyaginya [Princesses] and Vladyka [Lords], seeing that the town was on fire and that the people were already perishing, some by fire and others by sword, took refuge in the Church of the Holy Mother of God and shut themselves in the Sacristy. The pagans breaking down the doors, piled up wood and set fire to the sacred church; and slew all, thus they perished, giving up their souls to god. Others went in pursuit of Knyaz Yuri to Yaroslavl. And Knyaz Yuri sent out Dorozh to scout with 3,000 men; and Dorozh came running, and said “They have already surrounded us, Knyaz.” And the Knyaz began to muster his forces about him, and behold, the Tartars came up suddenly, and the Knyaz, without having been able to do anything, fled. And it happened when he reached the river Sit they overtook him and ended his life. And God knows how he died; for some say much about him. And Rostov and Suzhdal went each its own way. And the accursed ones having come thence took Moscow, Pereyaslavl, Yurev, Dmitrov, Volok, and Tver; there also they killed the son of Yaroslav. And thence the lawless ones came and invested Torzhok on the festival of the first Sunday in Lent. They fenced it all round with a fence as they had taken other towns, and here the accursed ones fought with battering rams for two weeks… 

 _________ Source: Unknown author, Chronicle of Novgorod, 13th centruy, THe Golden Horde   

SOURCE B| Rashid al-Din on Mongol Soldiers   A Jewish physician who converted to Islam in his thirties, Rashid al-Din (ca. 1247-1317) was the quintessential Renaissance man. After a brief career as a doctor, he impressed the Mongol overlords of the Middle East and was recruited, possibly as a steward to one of the Il-Khans. He rose rapidly in government, eventually reaching the highest position of vizier. During the era of the Il-Khan Ghazan (r. 1295-1304), he played a vital role in introducing economic reforms designed to benefit the native population, not simply the Mongols, and to foster interests of peasants and merchants. His success translated into positions of governors for eight of his sons and the establishment in the Il-Khanate capital of Tabriz of his own endowment, which housed a mosque, a hospital, and other public buildings. Here and in other locations throughout the Mongol domains, he developed his wide-ranging interests in everything from agriculture to the arts. Like nearly all the Il-Khanate’s viziers, he met an untimely death. With power came enemies, one of whom accused him of poisoning the Il-Khan Öljeitü (r. 1304-1316) and had him executed.   

His reputation rests on his Compendium of Chronicles. Ghazan Khan, concerned that the Mongols in the Middle East would lose touch with their heritage, commissioned him to write a history of the Mongols. Gathering around him informants, assistants, and texts, Rashid al-Din started with that assignment but eventually enlarged it to include the histories of Iran, the Muslim world, China, India, the Franks, and others. In short, he wrote the first world history and provided funds to his endowment for illustrations as well as for an annual copying in Persian and Arabic of his work.   

When he [Genghis Khan] reached Samarkand, the princes and officers who had been sent to Otrar and other territories had completed their conquests. They and they levies that had been sent there came, Kök Saray was chosen as a place for the court, and as the various contingents arrived they camped encircling the city.   

Genghis Khan himself road around the ramparts and outer walls for a day or two, contemplating tactics for taking them. During that time news arrived that the Khwarazmshah was in his summer place. Jäbä Bahdadur and Sübätäi Bahadur, both great generals, were dispatched with thirty thousand men, and Alaq Noyan and Yisa’u[r] were sent to Wakhsh and Taligan.   

After that, at dawn of the third day, more Mongol soldiers and levies than could be numbered encircled the city walls. The next day Alpär Khan, S[hay]kh Khan, Balan Khan, and a host of khans did battle outside, and many were killed on both sides. That night all returned to their bases. The next day Genghis Khan himself mounted, stationed all the soldiers around the perimeter of the city, and with arrow and blade forced the city fighters into the plain and battlefield. The citizens, scared by the battle that day, divided into factions.   

The next day the Mongols, itching to fight, and the citizens, hesitant, began battle again. Suddenly the cadi and the shayku’l-islam came to Genghis Khan with a group of people and then went back to the city, having been given promises. The next morning at prayer time they opened the gates to let the soldiers in. That day the Mongols got to work destroying the ramparts and outer fortifications, leveling them to the ground. The men and women were driven out to the plain by the hundreds, accompanied by Mongols, but the cadi and shayku’l-islam and their dependents were exempted from 

the exodus. Nearly fifty thousand men remained safe under their protection. It was heralded that anyone who hid would be killed, and as the Mongols were busy looting they killed many they found hidden in nooks and crannies. The elephant drivers took their elephants before Genghis Khan and asked for fodder for them. He ordered them turned loose in the plains to forage for themselves. The elephants were turned loose, but they perished of hunger.   

That night the Mongols came out of the city, and the defenders of the fortress were in great fear. Alp[är] Khan and a thousand warriors ready to die attacked the army, emerged from the fortress, and took flight. The next morning the soldiers again stood encircling the citadel, and arrows and stones were sent flying from both sides. The ramparts and outer works of the fortress were destroyed, and the water canal were also ruined. By evening they had taken the gates and gotten inside. A thousand warriors and champions took refuge in the mosque, from the inside which they fought hard with arrows and naphtha. The Mongols also hurled naphtha, took the mosque and everyone in it, and burned the lot. They drove the people of the citadel out into the plain, separating the Turks from the Tajiks, and dividing them into groups of hundreds and tens. For the Turks they made mughula [side locks] and forelocks, and they put the rest to death—all Qanqlis, more than thirty thousand under the command of Barishmas Khan, Taghayi Khan, Sarsigh Khan, Ulagh Khan, and some twenty-odd of the sultan’s others commanders whose names Genghis Khan wrote in detail to Ruknuddin Kurt. 

  

When the city and fortress alike lay in ruins, and many officers and soldiers had been executed, the next day those who were left were counted. Of the total, thirty thousand registered as craftsmen were distributed among the officers, commanders, and ladies. An equal number was assigned to the levy. The remainder were given permission to depart, and as a token of appreciation for their safety they were levied an amount of 200,000 dinars, which Siqatul-mulk and Amir Amid Buzurg, two high-office-holding dignitaries of Samarkand, were ordered to collect. He assigned a shahna and took some of the levy with himself to Khurasan and sent others to his sons in Khwarazm. Several other times after that they requested levies, and few persons escaped from those levies because that region was totally devastated.   

Genghis Khan spent that summer and autumn in the vicinity of Samarkand.  ________ Source: Rashid al-Din, Compendium of Chronicles, late 13th century, Il Khanate 

    

SOURCE C| The History of the World Conqueror  Juvaini (1226-1283) was born to an elite family in Central Asia, was an official in the Il-Khanate from the beginning of its conquests in Iran and Iraq. Recruited by the Il-Khan Hülegü, who led the campaigns, he witnessed the Mongol khan’s attack on the Ismaili (Order of the Assassins) center at the mountain fortress of Alamut. Before its complete destruction, Hülegü permitted Juvaini to gather and preserve the most valuable manuscripts in the Ismaili library. Once Hülegü occupied Baghdad, he appointed Juvaini as its governor…Juvaini’s History of the World Conqueror is as important as his government responsibilities. He started on the work before Hülegü recruited him, and he recounted the Mongol campaigns through the assault on Alamut. He relied principally on eyewitnesses because most of the incidents he described occurred before his birth. Because he was an official in the Mongol administration, he was somewhat constrained in his criticisms of their invasions of Central Asia and Iran. Yet he was loyal to his native land and was appalled at the damage inflicted on his people and their territories. Such ambivalence gives his work added credibility because he records the invaders’ destruction and massacres while at the same time praising the Mongols for their tolerance of many religions, their support for Islam, and their brilliant military strategy and tactics.   

…Of the Qanqli no male was spared who stood higher than the butt of a whip and more than thirty thousand were counted amongst the slain; whilst their small children, the children of the nobles and their womenfolk, slender as the cypress, were reduced to slavery.   

When the town and the citadel had been purged of rebels and the walls and outworks levelled with the dust, all the inhabitants of the town, men and women, ugly and beautiful, were driven out on the field of the musalla. Chingiz-Khan spared their lives; but the youths and full-grown men that were fit for such service were pressed into a levy (hasbar) for the attack on Samarqand and Dabusiya…   

Now one man had escaped from Bokhara after its capture and had come to Khorasan. He was questioned about the fate of the city and replied ‘They came, they sapped, they burnt, they slew, they plundered and they departed.’ 

 ________ Source: Juvaini, The History of the World Conqueror, 13th century, Mongolia    

SOURCE D| The ‘owl of misfortune’ or the ‘phoenix of prosperity’?  

… Juvaini’s account, which in many ways can be appreciated as one of the most honest contemporary responses to the establishment of the Mongol Empire, encapsulates many of the apparent contradictions we face in attempting even today to assess the impact of the Mongols. Despite a great deal of scholarship which has called for a balanced assessment of that impact, it is still all too common to portray the Mongols in negative terms, in particular, I argue, because of the compression of immediate impacts of invasion and war with subsequent developments. One popularizing website indicates that Chinggis Khan is tied with Mao Zedong with 40 million victims in second place on the list of the greatest human-caused disasters inflicted on humanity in history (WorldWar II earns first place on that list). While we should not dismiss such numbers as total nonsense, in the case of the Mongols, we need to realize that to a considerable degree they are estimates arrived at by an uncritical reading of written sources which tend to be biased or incomplete. Underlying such sources is the more general problem that their authors tend to be formally educated members of sedentary societies who lacked any understanding of nomads. Few of the most damning sources are contemporary with the events they describe and thus present a retrospective imagining of what happened.   If we are to attempt to assess the impact of the creation of the Mongol Empire, we need, first of all, to critique carefully the written sources (and in the process may discover important evidence not previously cited), and find ways to test them against other evidence. In particular here, we need to look closely at the evidence from archeology, which too often has been neglected or misunderstood by historians. In some cases, it confirms what the written sources tell us, in others it contradicts them, and in general it suggests we need a much more nuanced approach to determining the consequences of Mongol conquest and rule. We are talking here of complexity, where no simplistic calculus of good vs. evil is going to provide an objective framework for answering the question…   To a considerable degree, this then means looking at evidence from urban sites, both those we might label as cities, or others which may have been but small villages around them. Just as the written sources require critical scrutiny, so also does the archeological evidence. We always must ask how selective excavation has been (leaving open the possibility that new excavation may in fact force us to reconsider earlier conclusions based on limited evidence), and we must consider carefully the degree to which it is possible to establish an accurate chronology. Excavations may reveal evidence of destruction or its opposite, flourishing, but then can we always know who was responsible and when? We need to avoid generalizing from the immediate events of military invasion – any wars involve destruction, after all. What is the picture which emerges from a longer perspective? […]   

… Juvaini proceeds to describe in some detail the Mongol campaign in Central Asia, which first brought Chinggis’ army to the walls of Otrar. In the end, the Mongols leveled the walls and took off into captivity those who had survived the siege, in particular seizing artisans who could be put to work elsewhere. Such was the “Otrar catastrophe,” the allegedly complete destruction of one of the most important Central Asian cities.   The degree to which the Mongol invasion left a path of destruction through Central Asia is a matter of dispute… Recently though, another respected Kazakh archeologist, Erbulat Smagulov (2011, 74–77), already quoted regarding the archeology in Taraz, rather bluntly questioned whether archeology in fact confirms the picture of devastation:   [In Otrar], another major city of southern Kazakhstan which suffered from the Mongol invaders…no trace of the “Otrar catastrophe” was found. In the later excavations of the medieval sites of southern Kazakhstan (Turkestan, Sairam, Sygnak, the Shymkent fort, Aktobe…etc.) similarly no layers were uncovered with the remains of fire and mass destruction which could unequivocably be attributed to the Mongol conquest.   The absence of traces of the tragic events of the beginning of the 13th century connected with the Mongol conquest or with other, earlier events…which in the written sources are characterized as “destructive” or “devastating” but are not reflected in the stratigraphy of cultural layers, to date has not been explained in the archaeological literature… [So, one must ask:] Why have not the destructive and devastating historical events recorded in the written sources left any trace in the stratigraphy of the cultural layers of medieval cities?   One can propose several possible answers: 

1. The conquests in fact were not so catastrophic for the physical fabric of cities which consisted mainly of the inhabitants’ residences; 

2. The medieval authors exaggerated for “rhetorical effect” the degree of destruction caused by one or another event; 

3. Archaeology is incapable of identifying layers which can be matched with the results of any destruction caused by the conquests. 

 ________ Source: Daniel C. Waugh, “The ‘owl of misfortune’ or the ‘phoenix of prosperity’? Rethinking the impact of the Mongols,” Journal of Eurasian Studies 8 (January 2017): 10-21.      

SOURCE E| Willem J. Vogelsang on Chinese Influence on Iranian Art in the Mongol Empire  

There were many parallels between the hemispheres of the Mongol world. Both the Mongols in China (the Yuan dynasty) and the Mongols in Iran (the Ilkhanids) preferred to hire administrators and other servants from outside. The Yuan rulers preferred non-Chinese administrators, hence many Persian-speaking Muslims were employed in China. One flourishing fourteenth-century Chinese seaport, modern Quanzhou, had a Muslim quarter with mosques and a Muslim cemetery. The Ilkhanid rulers employed many Buddhists like Christian Nestorians, and Jews. Hülegü married a Nestorian woman; one of his sons, later Ilkhan Abaqa, married an illegitimate daughter of Michael VIII, the Byzantine emperor. Famous Ilkhanid administrators included the Jewish-born physician Rashid al-Din (1247-1318), who composed the famous Compendium of Chronicles (Jami’al-Tavarikh), commissioned by Ilkan Ghazan and completed in 1310 during the reign of his brother Öljeitü (r. 1304-16). The multicultural citizenry of Mongol Iran formed a cosmopolitan market eager for “foreign” artistic motifs and techniques…. 

 __________ Source: William W. Fitzhugh, Morris Rossabi, and William Honeychurch, Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. W.W. Norton & Company, 2013, 234-235  

   SOURCE F| Morris Rossabi on Khubilai Khan and the Chinese Economy  

Artisans were still another group he sought to protect. Like earlier Mongol khans, he recognized the need for craftsmen. Because they had few of their own artisans, the Mongols relied on foreigners, particularly Chinese, Iranians, or Central Asians, for basic goods as pots, dishes, and textiles. Infrastructure projects such as the building of a capital city also demanded the services of highly skilled craftsman. Khubilai thus offered substantial pay and food and clothing rations to artisans, and relieved them of the burdern of forced labor. 

Merchants also prospered during Khubilai’s reign, becoming a significant factor in global interconnections and history. The Chinese dynasties had imposed numerous restrictions on merchants because Confucian Chinese scholar-officials disapproved of trade, asserting that merchants did not produce anything of value and simply exchanged goods, a parasitic pursuit.   Like his grandfather Chinggis, Khubilai elevated the status of merchants and issued more paper currency, offered loans for merchants engaged in long-distance trade, built roads and canals to facilitate travel and established a postal station system, which merchants were permitted to use on their journeys. Such Mongol assistance led to considerable 

commerce across Eurasia, both by land and by sea, and, perhaps as important, led to technological, cultural, religious, and artistic interrelations among civilizations.   Indeed, unprecedented contact between East and West was one of the most important Mongol contributions. The Pax Mongolica, or Mongolian peace, facilitated the exchanges of people, ideas, and technologies. The various Eastern and Western civilizations, which were exposed to foreign techniques and views, chose and modified whatever they borrowed from others to suit their own needs. Iranians introduced chickpeas, carrots, eggplants, and pasta to China; they translated Iranian medical texts into Chinese while a Chinese agricultural text was translated into Iranian, and Chinese motifs and techniques in porcelain influenced Iranian pottery. The Mongols themselves prized craftsmen and experts, and moved them from one part of their domains to another to produce high-quality textiles using gold thread, blue-and-white porcelains, and gold artifacts. 

Doctors were still another group who fared better under the Mongols than under the Chinese emperors. During earlier Chinese dynasties, doctors, many of whom had little training, were relegated to low social positions. The pragmatic Mongol rulers valued medicine and emphasized it as a suitable and attractive profession. Khubilai, who was himself afflicted with goat and other ailments, was a particularly strong supporter of the profession. In 1285, 1288, and 1290, he dispatched envoys to South India to seek not only precious goods but skilled doctors. Throughout his reign, he invited Nestorian and Muslim physicans from Central Asia and Iran, as well as doctors from Korea, to his court. In 1262 he ordered that medical schools be founded in circuits throughout China. Such strong support from the government induced a few sons of the Chinese elite to study medicine. Because young Chinese men had been blocked from taking the civil service examinations, which traditionally provided entrance into the bureaucracy, medical careers became more attractive. The founding of intellectually demanding medical schools, a dramatic increase in the publication of medical textbooks, and higher status for physicians motivated many Chinese to enter the previously lowly regarded profession.   Similarly, Khubilai and other Mongol khans esteemed astronomers for their practical advice about when to begin and end activities thus recruited Chinese and foreign experts, eventually founding an Office of Muslim Astronomy at the court. They invited Iranian astronomer Jamal al-Din to bring diagrams of astronomical instruments from Iran to China and to assist in constructing them. Jamal al-Din also offered diagrams and calculations, which helped the Chinese scientist Guo Shoujing in devising a new and more accurate Chinese calendar. The Chinese generally preserved their theories of astronomy, but the Yuan court adopted and modified specific Iranian instruments. Similarly, exposure to Iran helped the Chinese to devise better maps, with color coding and grids. 

__________ Source: Rossabi, Morris. The Mongols: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, 70-72.  

WOMEN WERE OBJECTIFIED 

THE MYTH| The Mongols are forever remembered as great conquerors, known for raping and pillaging in each community engulfed into their great empire. This legacy has caused the Mongols to be portrayed as oppressors of women in popular culture and media today. We see women in Mongol-inspired communities being objectified and often victimized in shows like Game of Thrones, movies like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and other modern works and media. Your task is to either bust or confirm this popularized Mongol myth using the sources provided and relevant outside information. 

 

SOURCE A| Djami al-Tawarikh 

Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb, also known as Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlullāh Hamadānī, was a statesman, historian and physician in Ilkhanate-ruled Iran. In his painting below, Genghis Khan’s son, Tului, is depicted with his wife, Queen Sorgaqtani, mother of Kublai Khan.  

   _________ Source: Rashid al-Din, "Djami al-Tawarikh", 14th century, Il Khanate    

SOURCE B| John of Plano Carpini on Mongol Marriage Customs  The Mongol attacks on Hungary and Poland in 1241 had alerted the Europeans to the power of the Mongols and so frightened them that, in 1245, the Pope in Rome called an Ecumenical Council to deliberate on a response to the Mongols. Two Franciscan missionaries were eventually dispatched to the East. The first, who left Europe in 1245, was John of Plano Carpini, and the second was William of Rubruck, who traveled through the Mongol domains during 1253-1255. Both sought to achieve a kind of rapprochement with the Mongols, attempting to deter them from further attacks and invasions on Europe, as well as seeking to convert them to Christianity. Though they succeeded in neither their religious nor diplomatic missions, they were able to bring back the first accurate accounts of the Mongols to Europe. Here, John of Plano Carpini writes an account of observed marriage laws and customs.  

Each man has as many wives as he can keep, one a hundred, another fifty, another ten one more, another less. It is the general custom for them to marry any of their relations, with the exception of their mother, daughter and sister by the same mother. They can however take in marriage their sisters who have only the same father, and even their father's wives after his death; also a younger brother may marry his brother's wife after his death; or another younger relation is expected to take her. All other women they take as wives without any distinction and they buy them at a very high price from their parents. After the death of their husbands the women do not easily enter into a second union, unless a man wishes to take his stepmother to wife.  … 

 

The clothes of both the men and the women are made in the same style … The married women have a very full tunic, open to the ground in front. On their head they have a round thing made of twigs or bark … and without this headgear they never go into the presence of men and by it they are distinguished from other women. It is hard to tell unmarried women and young girls from men, for they are dressed in every respect like them. The caps they have are different from those of other nations, but I am unable to describe what they are like in such a way as you would understand.  … 

 

They also have a law or custom of putting to death any man and woman they find openly committing adultery; similarly if a virgin commit fornication with anyone, they kill both the man and the woman … There is no distinction between the son of a concubine and the son of a wife, but the father gives to each what he will; and if they are of a family of princes, then the son of a concubine is a prince just the same as the son of a legitimate wife. When a Tartar has many wives, each one has her own dwelling and her household, and the husband eats and drinks and sleeps one day with one, and the next with another. One, however, is chief among the others and with her he stays more often than with the others. In spite of their numbers, they never easily quarrel among themselves. 

_________ Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, 1254, Mongolia    

SOURCE C| Kublai Khan Hunting  This famous painting by the celebrated Yuan court artist Liu Guandao shows Kublai and his empress during a casual moment on a hunting excursion. They pause to watch one of the royal party shoot a bird from the sky. Kublai wears a Chinese rather than a Mongol style hat and an elegant fur robe. His empress is more simply attired. The hunting party is of mixed ethnic origin and its animals include horses, a hound, a trained leopard, and a hunting eagle.   

  _________ Source: Liu Kuan-tao, “Kublai Khan Hunting,” late 13th century, Yuan Dynasty       

SOURCE D| The Secret History of the Mongols on Marriage Customs  The Secret History of the Mongols is the only genuine Mongolian account of Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan) and his family’s history and was most likely assembled a few decades after his death in 1227. The original text of the Secret History of the Mongols was written in the vertical Uighur script which the Mongols had adopted from the Turkic Uighurs at about the turn of the 13th century. The only extant copies of this work are in Chinese titled Yüan pi-shih or Secret History of the Yüan Dynasty from the archives of the Ming government.  

  [on marriage] When you elect a new khan, we take our loveliest daughters and place them on carts. Harnessing a black camel to the cart, we have him trot off to the khan’s tent. We offer our daughters to sit there beside him and be his khatun. We don’t challenge empires; we don’t go to war with our neighbors. We just bring up our daughters and place them in the front of the carts. Harnessing a black camel to the cart, we lead them off to the khan’s tent. We offer our daughters to sit by the khan, and he places them up on the throne. Since the days of old the Ungirad have had khatun as their shields. We’ve survived by the loveliness of our granddaughters, by the beauty of our daughters. When one of our boys wants to marry you can judge the wealth of our camp to decide if you want him. But as for our girls you only have to look at their beauty. My friend Yesugei, “let’s go to my tent. I’ve got a young daughter there. My friend should meet her.” Dei the Wise led Yesugei’s horse to his tent and helped him dismount. When Yesugei saw Dei’s daughter he was impressed. She was a girl whose face filled with light, whose eyes filled with fire, and he began to consider her father’s proposal. She was ten years old, a year older than Temujin, and her name was Borte. After spending the night in the tent,15 the next morning Yesugei asked Dei for his daughter. “I could let you have her after a while, waiting for you to ask me again and again, but who’d praise me for stalling? I could let you have her right away, just waiting for you to ask me twice, and who’d curse me for replying too quick? No, this girl’s fate is not to grow old by the door of the tent she was born in. I’ll be happy to give you my daughter.  … 

 

[on Mongol widows] The following spring Ambaghai’s widows, Orbei and Sokhatai, the senior women of the Tayichigud clan, performed the ceremony of sacrifice to the ancestor’s spirits. By the time Hogelun Ujin arrived for the service they’d already burnt all the meat and divided it between them, leaving her nothing. Hogelun said to them: “You must be saying to yourselves, ‘Yesugei the Brave is dead now and his sons are still boys.’ So you think you can just leave me out of the ceremony and keep it all for yourselves! You think you can divide up the meats and leave nothing for me? I see what you’re up to. You think that I’ll just sit here while you’re feasting from now on, that you don’t even have to invite me to join you. And one morning you’ll break camp and move on, and not even wake me.” Orbei and Sokhatai, the two old khatun, answered her: “Obviously you live by some rule that says, ‘I don’t need to be offered some food before I take something to eat.’ You have the custom of eating whatever you can find. You seem to have a rule that says, ‘I don’t need to be invited to take part in a feast.’ Your custom is to just come uninvited and take for yourself. Tell us, Hogelun, do you say to yourself, ‘Ambaghai Khan is dead now,’ is that why you think you can insult us this way?” Later the old women conferred among themselves and said: “The best thing to do is abandon these people, these mothers and sons. We should break camp and leave them behind.” 

 _________ Source: Secret History of the Mongols, early 13th century, Mongolia    

SOURCE E| Ibn Battuta on the Wives of Uzbeg Khan  

On his travels through Africa and Asia, Ibn Battuta encountered Uzbeg Khan, the khan of the Golden Horde of southern Russia, under whom it attained its greatest power. Uzbeg was a convert to Islam, and hence a Sultan within his realm, but he also welcomed Christian missionaries from western Europe into his empire. He reigned from 1312 to 1341 and was visited by Ibn Battuta in his capital New Sarai during the height of his rule in the 1330s. Here, Ibn Battuta describes his encounters with four of Uzbeg’s wifes.  

Ibn Battuta meets Uzbeg's wives, the khatuns 

On the morrow of my interview with the sultan I visited the principal khatun Taytughli, who is the queen and the mother of the sultan's two sons. She was sitting in the midst of ten aged women, who appeared to be servants of hers, and had in front of her about fifty young maidens with gold and silver salvers filled with cherries which they were cleaning … The third khatun Bayalun is the daughter [almost certainly an illegitimate daughter] of the Emperor of Constantinople the Great. On visiting her we found her sitting on a throne set with jewels, with about a hundred maidens, Greek, Turkish and Nubian, standing or sitting in front of her … She ordered food to be served and we ate in her presence, and when we desired to leave she said "Do not sever relations with us, but come often to us and inform us of your needs." She showed great kindness to us and after we had gone sent us food, a great quantity of bread, butter, sheep, money, a magnificent robe and thirteen horses … It was with this khatun that I made my journey to Constantinople the Great, as we shall relate hereafter …   

Ibn Battuta leaves the steppe kingdom of Uzbeg Khan with the retinue of Uzbeg's wife the khatun Bayalan, a Byzantine princess 

We set out . . . in the company of the khatun Bayalun and under her protection. The sultan [Uzbeg] escorted her one stage then returned, he and the queen [the khatun Taytughli] and the heir to the throne; the other khatuns accompanied her [the khatun Bayalan] for a second stage and then returned. The amir Baydara with five thousand troops travelled with her, and her own troops numbered about five hundred horsemen, two hundred of whom were her attendant slaves and Greeks, and the remainder Turks. She had with her also about two hundred maidens, most of whom were Greeks, and about four hundred carts and about two thousand draught and riding horses, as well as three hundred oxen and two hundred camels. She had also ten Greek youths and the same number of Indians …   

The khatun declines to return to her husband Uzbeg Khan 

When it became clear to the Turks who were in the khatun's company that she professed her father's religion and wished to stay with him, they asked her for leave to return to their country. She made them rich presents and sent them an amir called Saruja with five hundred horsemen to escort them to their country. She sent for me, and gave me three hundred of their gold dinars, called barbara, which are not good money, and a thousand Venetian silver pieces, together with some robes and pieces of cloth and two horses, which were a gift from her father, and commended me to Saruja ... 

_________ Source: Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354, The Golden Horde 

SOURCE F| Morris Rossabi on On Chabi, Second Principal Wife of Khubilai Khan  

Chabi was Khubilai Khan's second and principal wife … she and Khubilai were married just before 1240 … she had a great impact on Khubilai, influencing, for example, his views on religion. She was an ardent Buddhist and was, in particular, attracted by Tibetan Buddhism, which promotes a level of gender equality.   

Chabi was the ideal helpmate in Khubilai's effort to rule China. It was she, for instance, who urged him to return to the North from his campaign against the Song and counter the threat of [his brother] Arigh Boke. Without her timely warning, Khubilai would have been in a weaker position to cope with his brother. She aspired to be the empress of a powerful state, not simply the wife of a tribal chieftain. She had wide-ranging interests and was not limited by Mongol pastoral traditions. In the early years of Khubilai's reign, for example, four members of the Imperial Guard, according to the Yuan shi, proposed that the areas around his capital be turned into pastureland for the Mongol horses. This proposal fit in with the traditional Mongol economy, but it made little sense in the agrarian economy of North China. Chabi sensed the folly of the proposal and objected violently. She reprimanded Liu Bing-Zung, one of the most influential of Khubilai's Chinese advisors, for not speaking up against the proposal, noting, "You Chinese are intelligent. When you speak, the emperor listens. Why have you not remonstrated him?" Khubilai quickly rejected the proposal. The Mongol nobles were thus not permitted to encroach on the agricultural land of the Chinese peasants who lived around the capital.  

Chabi's personality, interests, and activities eventually initiated trends at court. She was regarded as extremely frugal and rarely threw anything out, and numerous perhaps stereotyped anecdotes about her parsimoniousness appear in her biography in the Yuan shi. With her encouragement, the court ladies collected the strings from old bows and made them into thread, which could then be woven for cloth. She salvaged old animal pelts and used them as rugs. Her practicality is also evident in the new fashions she introduced. Khubilai was concerned that Mongol hats were "without a front" and that those who wore them received little protection from the blazing desert sun. So Chabi designed hats with a rim, and Khubilai ordered all new hats to be modeled on Chabi's creation. Later she designed a sleeveless garment that could be worn comfortably in combat.  

She was also in fashion when she expressed an interest in earlier rulers of China. Like Khubilai, she was entranced by the great Emperor Tai-tsung of the Tang dynasty, and she prodded a Chinese scholar to explain the exploits and the character of the Tang ruler of the court. Since Tang Tai-tsung was the most renowned emperor of the last truly powerful Chinese dynasty, it is only natural that Khubilai would wish to emulate him and that Chabi would invite comparisons between her husband and the illustrious Tang ruler. Chabi and Khubilai must have realized that it would be easier for Khubilai to govern the Chinese if he succeeded in identifying himself with a major figure in the Chinese tradition. In sum, Chabi was just as anxious as her husband to set up a government in China. 

_________ Source: Morris Rossabi, Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times, 1988, Berkeley: University of California Press 

CHINGGIS KHAN WAS A MILITARY GENIUS THE MYTH| Chinggis Khan is considered an innovative and effective military leader. He is often portrayed in popular culture as a general who created a ruthless Mongol army that succeeded during destructive campaigns. This legacy of the Mongol military has given Chinggis Khan the credit for creating an effective military unit in organization and tactics. Your task is to either bust or confirm this popularized Mongol myth using the sources provided and relevant outside information.  

  SOURCE A| The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System 

 Although decimal organization appeared in Inner Asia before the 

Mongols, its adoption by Chinggis Khan allowed them to restructure Mongolian society, with the minqan as the primary unit of tribal and military organization. Through this process Chinggis Khan created a new structure better suited to the needs of his state and army, since it increased the central control over the formerly independent tribes. By means of this transformation from tribal army to rationalized military system, nomadic society was remolded through the imposition of such institutions as decimal units. This led to the standardization of Mongol military institutions, from bodyguards to subject peoples. To a certain extent these reforms also transformed the lives of the Mongols’ sedentary subjects. In terms of taxation and military conscription, the sedentary population was likewise organized according to a decimal system. Non-nomadic forces could still fight in their accustomed manner, but they were now integrated into the Mongol command structure. (40-41)  

The military dominance of the steppe nomad horse-archer lasted until the widespread introduction of gunpowder weapons. Although man-to-man comparisons of soldiers are a useful exercise, the Mongol warrior must be examined in his social, cultural, and administrative environments. At the same time he needs to be seen not only as an individual but as a component of a highly organized army. The development of the Mongol warrior also needs to be considered, for his role in the thirteenth century differed from his contemporary nomadic peers as well as his predecessors. Although the Mongols inherited many of the military traditions of previous nomadic empires, they also developed a more refined system of raising the army and developing it… In order to carry out their conquests and maintain their military advantages, the Mongols created a system of regular training rather than simply assembling a mass army. This process fostered a strong sense of discipline that gave them a considerable edge against their opponents, particularly at moments of defeat. They could maintain their composure and regain the advantage whereas their opponents often dispersed in route or in order to loot rather than pursuing victory. 

 __________ Source: Timothy May, The Mongol Art of War 

SOURCE B| Map of Chinggis Khan’s Campaigns   

 

SOURCE C| Friar John of Plano Carpini on Mongol Warfare  Following the capture of Russian territory and the devastating raids in Eastern Europe in 1240-1242, fear and trepidation could be found among the courts of many rulers in Europe. In 1245, Pope Innocent IV dispatched two Franciscans, Lawrence of Portugal and John of Plano Carpini, to travel to the Mongol, or 'Tartar' as the Christians called them, kingdom. This journey is recounted by Friar John in his work, History of the Mongols. The passages from this work given below are two chapters in which the Franciscan describes the ways the Mongols conduct war, as well as giving advice on how they could be successfully fought, in case they invaded Europe again. 

 CHAPTER 15: HOW THE TARTARS CONDUCT THEMSELVES IN WAR 

Genghis Khan divided his Tartars by captains of ten, captains of a hundred, and captains of a thousand, and over ten millenaries, or captains of a thousand, he placed one colonel, and over one whole army he authorized two or three chiefs, but so that all should be under one of the said chiefs. When they join battle against any other nation, unless they do all consent to retreat, every man who deserts is put to death. And if one or two, or more, of ten proceed manfully to the battle, but the residue of those ten draw back and follow not the company, they are in like manner slain. Also, if one among ten or more be taken, their fellows, if they fail to rescue them, are punished with death. Moreover they are required to have these weapons: two long bows or one good one at least, three quivers full of arrows, and one axe, and ropes to draw engines of war. But the richer have single-edged swords, with sharp points, and somewhat crooked. They have also armed horses, with their shoulders and breasts protected; they have helmets and coats of mail. Some of them have jackets for their horses, made of leather artificially doubled or trebled, shaped upon their bodies. The upper part of their helmet is of iron or steel, but that part which circles about the neck and the throat is of leather. Some of them have all their armour of iron made in the following manner: They beat out many thin plates a finger broad, and a hand long, and making in every one of them eight little holes, they lace through three strong and straight leather thongs. So they join the plates one to another, as it were, ascending by degrees. Then they tie the plates to the thongs, with other small and slender thongs, drawn through the holes, and in the upper part, on each side, they fasten one small doubled thong, that the plates may firmly be knit together. These they make, as well for their horses as for the armour of their men; and they scour them so bright that a man may hold his face in them. Some of them upon the neck of their lance have a hook, with which they attempt to pull men out of their saddles. The heads of their arrows are exceedingly sharp, cutting both ways like a two-edged sword, and they always carry a file in their quivers to sharpen their arrowheads. They are most efficient in wars, having been in conflict with other nations for the space of these forty-two years. When they come to any rivers, the chief men of the company have a round and light piece of leather. They put a rope through the many loops on the edge of this, draw it together like a purse, and so bring it into the round form of a ball, which leather 

they fill with their garments and other necessaries, trussing it up most strongly. But upon the midst of the upper part thereof, they lay their saddles and other hard things; there also do the men themselves sit. This, their boat, they tie to a horse's tail, causing a man to swim before, to guide over the horse, or sometimes they have two oars to row themselves over. The first horse, therefore, being driven into the water, all the others' horses of the company follow him, and so they pass through the river. But the common soldiers have each his leather bag or satchel well sewn together, wherein he packs up all his trinkets, and strongly trussing it up hangs it at his horse's tail, and so he crosses the river. 

 Chapter 16: OF THEIR SPIES AND HOW THEY MAY BE RESISTED 

No one kingdom or province is able to resist the Tartars; because they use soldiers out of every country of their dominions. If the neighbouring province to that which they invade will not aid them, they waste it, and with the inhabitants, whom they take with them, they proceed to fight against the other province. They place their captives in the front of the battle, and if they fight not courageously they put them to the sword. Therefore, if Christians would resist them, it is expedient that the provinces and governors of countries should all agree, and so by a united force should meet their encounter. 

Soldiers also must be furnished with strong hand-bows and crossbows, which they greatly dread, with sufficient arrows, with maces also of strong iron, or an axe with a long handle. When they make their arrowheads, they must, according to the Tartars' custom, dip them red-hot into salt water, that they may be strong enough to pierce the enemies' armour. They that will may have swords also and lances with hooks at the ends, to pull them from their saddles, out of which they are easily removed. They must have helmets and other armour to defend themselves and their horses from the Tartars' weapons and arrows, and they that are unarmed, must, according to the Tartars' custom, march behind their fellows, and discharge at the enemy with longbows and crossbows. And, as it has already been said of the Tartars, they must dispose their bands and troops in an orderly manner, and ordain laws for their soldiers. Whosoever runs to the prey or spoil, before the victory is achieved, must undergo a most severe punishment. For such a fellow is put to death among the Tartars without pity or mercy. 

The place of battle must be chosen, if it is possible, in a plain field, where they may see round about; neither must all troops be in one company, but in many, not very far distant one from another. They which give the first encounter must send one band before, and must have another in readiness to relieve and support the former in time. They must have spies, also, on every side, to give them notice when the rest of the enemy's bands approach. They ought always to send forth band against band and troop against troop, because the Tartar always attempts to get his enemy in the midst and so to surround him. Let our bands take this advice also; if the enemy retreats, not to make any long pursuit after him, lest according to his custom he might draw them into some secret ambush. 

For the Tartar fights more by cunning than by main force. And again, a long pursuit would tire our horses, for we are not so well supplied with horses as they. Those horses which the Tartars use one day, they do not ride upon for three or four days after. Moreover, if the Tartars draw homeward, our men must not therefore depart and break up their bands, or separate themselves; because they do this also upon policy, namely, to have our army divided, that they may more securely in–vade and waste the country. Indeed, our captains ought both day and night keep their army in readiness; and not to put off their armour, but at all time to be prepared for battle. The Tartars, like devils, are always watching and devising how to practice mischief. Furthermore, if in battle any of the Tartars be cast off their horses, they must be captured, for being on foot they shoot strongly, wounding and killing both horses and men. 

 _________ Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, 1254, Mongolia  

SOURCE D| All the Khan’s Horses  The Mongols prized their horses primarily for the advantages they 

offered in warfare. In combat, the horses were fast and flexible, and Genghis Khan was the first leader to capitalize fully on these strengths. After hit-and-run raids, for example, his horsemen could race back and quickly disappear into their native steppes. Enemy armies from the sedentary agricultural societies to the south frequently had to abandon their pursuit because they were not accustomed to long rides on horseback and thus could not move as quickly. Nor could these farmer-soldiers leave their fields for extended periods to chase after the Mongols. 

The Mongols had developed a composite bow made out of sinew and horn and were skilled at shooting it while riding, which gave them the upper hand against ordinary foot soldiers. With a range of more than 350 yards, the bow was superior to the contemporaneous English longbow, whose range was only 250 yards. A wood-and-leather saddle, which was rubbed with sheep’s fat to prevent cracking and shrinkage, allowed the horses to bear the weight of their riders for long periods and also permitted the riders to retain a firm seat. Their saddlebags contained cooking pots, dried meat, yogurt, water bottles, and other essentials for lengthy expeditions. Finally, a sturdy stirrup enabled horsemen to be steadier and thus more accurate in shooting when mounted. A Chinese chronicler recognized the horse’s value to the Mongols, observing that “by nature they [the Mongols] are good at riding and shooting. Therefore they took possession of the world through this advantage of bow and horse.”  

Genghis Khan understood the importance of horses and insisted that his troops be solicitous of their steeds. A cavalryman normally had three or four, so that each was, at one time or another, given a respite from bearing the weight of the rider during a lengthy journey. Before combat, leather coverings were placed on the head of each horse and its body was covered with armor. After combat, Mongol horses could traverse the most rugged terrain and survive on little fodder.  

According to Marco Polo, the horse also provided sustenance to its rider on long trips during which all the food had been consumed. On such occasions, the rider would cut the horse’s veins and drink the blood that spurted forth. Marco Polo reported, perhaps with some exaggeration, that a horseman could, by nourishing himself on his horse’s blood, “ride quite ten days’ marches without eating any cooked food and without lighting a fire.” And because its milk offered additional sustenance during extended military campaigns, a cavalryman usually preferred a mare as a mount. The milk was often fermented to produce kumiss, or araq, a potent alcoholic drink liberally consumed by the Mongols. In short, as one commander stated, “If the horse dies, I die; if it lives, I survive.”  

Mobility and surprise characterized the military expeditions led by Genghis Khan and his commanders, and the horse was crucial for such tactics and strategy.  

_________ Source: Morris Rossabi, “All the Khan’s Horses,” 1994, Asian Topics in World History, Columbia University 

SOURCE| Excerpts from Compendium of Chronicles by Rashid al-Din  Baybars I (1223-1277) was a Turkic soldier who rose to become the sultan of the Mamluk dynasty. He first gained renown during the Seventh Crusade, which King Louis (St. Louis) of France launched in Egypt. His forces defeated Louis, and the Mamluks then captured and ransomed him for a large sum. He continued to climb the ranks of military commanders until his greatest triumph, the defeat of the Mongols at Ayn Jalut in 1260. In the same year, Sultan Qutuz was assassinated in a conspiracy that probably involved Baybars. He then assumed the title of sultan and strove until his death to unite Egypt and Syria while at the same time defending against additional Mongol assaults and trying to root out the crusader states from the Middle East. 

The sultan ascended the hill overlooking Analut. He and those with him stayed on horseback throughout the night, while the Mongols encamped near them. Al-Malik al-Muzaffar and the army marched on ignorant of the nearness of the enemy, till the messengers of al-Malik al-Zahir arrived and warned them, informing them of the proximity of the enemy; and they also drew their attention to the weakness of the enemy and disparaged the latter, encouraging them to take advantage of the opportunity; and this was one of the causes of the victory. Had he not undertaken to sacrifice himself, to precede and advance, and pass wakeful nights in defending the possessions (of Islam), the situation would have been—may God save us—terrible and the country would have been ruined, since the Muslims would have marched in ignorance, for the reason that the enemy had kept his whereabouts secret; but the intelligence sent by him preceded the enemy. 

When the armies reached the sultan, he stood before the enemy and bore the first shock of their onslaught. The enemy saw his bravery, the like of which was never heard of before. The Muslims saw that he stood firm among them, and so they ventured against the enemy and drove onward. Al-Malik al-Muzaffar and the Atabek advanced with the banners, and so God had ordained the victory, which was due to al-Malik al-Zahir. When the enemy, having been put to flight, climbed up the mountain, al-Malik al-Zahir followed on foot and stood facing the enemy all day long till nightfall. People everywhere heard about his stand on the mountain, and they climbed up to him from every direction, while he was fighting like one who staked his very life. The foot-soldiers bagan to climb up and collect the heads of those whom he killed and who were killed in front of him, and they carried heads of such persons as Kitbugha Nowin and others to al-Malik al-Muzaffar. Before the day passed, a great number of heads had been gathered before alMalik al-Muzaffar. When al-Malik al-Zahir came down he did not heed the fatigue which he had suffered, but rode on and pressed after the enemy, his men following him. He did not cease to ride night and day, without rest, killing or taking captive those who were unwounded, while the enemy was put to flight before him. He did not draw rein until he reached Harim. When he reached Afamiyah the enemy rallied again; and he again inflicted a smashing defeat on them at Afamiyah on Friday, and their wealth, women, children and horses were plundered. 

Ket Buqa Noyan Does Battle with the Egyptian Army, and Is Killed 

After that, the amirs agreed, and Quduz consulted with Bunduqdar, his 

chief amir, in private. “My opinion,” said Bunduqdar, “is that we should kill the emissaries and ride as one to attack Ket Buqa. Win or die, in either case we will not be blamed, and we will have people's gratitude." 

Quduz approved this plan, and by night he had the emissaries crucified. The next morning they perforce committed themselves to battle and mounted. Amir Baidar, who was the leader of the Mongol yäzäk [advance troop], sent a man named Aghlabak to Ket Buqa Noyan to inform him of the movement of the Egyptian troops. Ket Buqa sent in reply, “Stay where you are and wait for me.” 

Before Ket Buqa arrived, Quduz attacked Baidar and drove him to the banks of the Orontes. Ket Buqa Noyan, his zeal stirred, flared up like fire with all confidence in his own strength and might. Quduz stationed his troops in ambush and, himself mounted with a few others, stood waiting. He clashed with Ket Buqa and his several thousand cavalry, all experienced warriors, at Ayn Jalut. The Mongols attacked, raining down arrows, and Quduz pulled a feint and started to withdraw. Emboldened, the Mongols lit out after him, killing many of the Egyptians, but when they came to the ambush spot, the trap was sprung from three sides. A bloody battle ensued, lasting from dawn till midday. The Mongols were powerless to resist, and in the end they were put to flight. 

Ket Buqa Noyan kept attacking left and right with all zeal. Some encouraged him to flee, but he refused to listen and said, “Death is inevitable. It is better to die with a good name than to flee in disgrace. In the end, someone from this army, old or young, will reach the court and report that Ket Buqa, not wanting to return in shame, gave his life in battle. The padishah should not grieve over lost Mongol soldiers. Let him imagine that his soldiers' wives have not been pregnant for a year and the mares of their herds have not foaled. May felicity be upon the padishah. When his noble being is well, every loss is compensated. The life or death of servants like us is irrelevant.” Although the soldiers left him, he continued to strug 

“If I am killed by your hand,” said Ket Buqa, “I consider it to be God's act, not yours. Be not deceived by this event for one moment, for when the news of my death reaches Hülägü Khan, the ocean of his wrath will boil over, and from Azerbaijan to the gates of Egypt will quake with the hooves of Mongol horses. They will take the sands of Egypt from there in their horses' nose bags. Hülägü Khan has three hundred thousand renowned horsemen like Ket Buqa. You may take one of them away.” Quduz said, “Speak not so proudly of the horsemen of Turan, for they perform deeds with trickery and artifice, not with manliness like Rustam." “As long as I have lived," replied Ket Buqa, "I have been the padishah's servant, not a mutineer and regicide like you! .... Finish me off as quickly as possible.” Quduz ordered his head severed from his body. 

________ Source: Rashid al-Din, Compendium of Chronicles, late 13th century, Il Khanate  

THE MONGOLS WERE TOLERANT OF ALL RELIGIONS  THE MYTH| It has become popular in recent times to paint the Mongols as enlightened despots who were far beyond their times in tolerating various faith traditions. In the past, it was common to portrayed as ignorant shamanistic savages with no understanding or appreciation of organized religion. Your job is to read the sources below, all of which come from a variety of faith traditions, and determine just how the Mongols understood and responded to different religious practices.  

  SOURCE A| Guyuk Khan’s Letter to Innocent IV  In the year 1246, Pope Innocent IV sent a letter to Guyuk Khan via John of Carpini, demanding his submission and conversion to Christianity. Guyuk sent the following response, which was housed in the Vatican Archives until recently, when it was given to the Mongolian government as a goodwill gesture. 

 By the power of the Eternal Sky, [We] the Oceanic Khan of the whole great people; Our command. This is an order sent to the great Pope that he may know and understand it.  

We have written it in the language of the lands of the kerel (i.e. Latin?).  

Counsel was held; a petition of submission was sent; it was heard from your ambassadors.  

And if you keep to your word, thou, who art the great Pope, together with all the kings, must come in person to do homage to Us. We shall then cause you to hear every command that there is of the Yasa (‘Law’).  

Again. You have said: ‘Become Christian, it will be good.’ Thou hast made thyself wise (or thou hast been presumptuous); thou hast sent a petition. This petition of thine We have not understood.  

Again. You have sent words [saying]: ‘Thou hast taken all the lands of the Majar and the Christians; I am astonished. What was their crime? Tell us.’ These words of thine We have not understood either. The command of God, Chingiz Khan and Qa’an (=Ogodei), both of them, sent it to cause it to be heard. They have not trusted the command of God. Just like thy words they too have been reckless; they have acted with arrogance; and they killed Our ambassadors. The people of those countries, [it was] the Ancient God [who] killed and destroyed them. Except by the command of God, how should anyone kill, how should [anyone] capture by his own strength? Dost thou say nonetheless, “I am a Christian; I worship God; I despise and…? How dost thou know whom God forgives, to whom He shows mercy? How dost thou know, who speakest such words?  

By the power of God [from] the going up of the sun to [his] going down He has delivered all the lands to us; We hold them. Except by the command of God, how can one do [anything]? Now you must say with a sincere heart, 

“We shall become [your] subjects; we shall give [our] strength.” Thou in person at the head of the kings, you must all at once come together to do homage to Us. We shall then recognize your submission. And if you do not accept God’s command and act contrary to Our command We shall regard you as enemies.  

Thus We inform you. And if you act contrary [thereto], what do We know [of it][it is] God [who] knows. 

 

In the last days of Jumada II in the year six hundred and forty-four (3-11 November 1246) 

 _________ Source: Guyuk Khan, Letter to Pope Innocent IV, 1246, Mongolia      

SOURCE B| William of Rubruck’s Account of Mongol Religious Practices  William of Rubruck was a Franciscan friar who was sent by St. Louis IX as an ambassador to Mongke Khan, to explore the possibility of a military alliance against the Mamluks, as well as conversion to Christianity. While the diplomatic mission was far from successful, William’s travel accounts give us a unique insight into how the Mongols handled governance of different religious groups. Here, William describes his initial encounters with Buddhism in the Mongol realms. 

 They (the idolaters) place their temples east and west; on the north side they make an alcove projecting out like a choir, or sometimes, if the building is square, it is in the middle of the building. So they shut off on the north side an alcove in place of a choir [ if the building is square, they partition off an alcove inside, in the middle of the north side, corresponding to the choir], and there they put a coffer as long and as broad as a table, and after [i.e., behind] that coffer to the south they place the chief idol, and that which I saw at Caracarum was as large as we paint Saint Christopher. And a Nestorian who had come from Cathay told me that in that country there is an idol so big that it can he seen from two days off. And they place other idols around about (the principal one), all most beautifully gilt. And on that coffer, which is like a table, they put lamps and offerings. Contrary to the custom of the Saracens, all the doors of the temples open to the south. They also have big bells like ours: 'tis for this reason, I think, that the eastern Christians do not have any. The Ruthenians, however, have them, and so do the Greeks in Gazaria.   All the priests (of the idolaters) shave their heads [J: shave the head and beard completely], and are dressed in saffron color, and they observe chastity from the time they shave their heads, and they live in congregations of one or two hundred. On the days when they go into the temple, they place two benches, and they sit in the region of the choir but opposite the choir [J: they put down two benches and sit on the ground opposite one another in facing rows like choirs], with books in their hands, which they sometimes put down on these benches; and they keep their heads uncovered as long as they are in the temple, reading in silence and keeping silence. And when I went into one of their temples at Caracarum, and found them thus seated, I tried every means of inducing them to talk, but was unable to do so. Wherever they go they have in their hands a string of one or two hundred beads, like our rosaries, and they always repeat these words, on mani baccam, which is, "God, thou knowest," as one of them interpreted it to me, and they expect as many rewards from God as they remember God in saying this. Around their temple they make a fine courtyard well surrounded by a wall, and in the side of this facing the south, they make the main gate where they sit and talk. And over this gate they set up a long pole, which, if it be possible, rises above the whole city, and by this pole it may be known that this building is an idol temple. This practice is common to all idolaters. When I went into the idol temple I was speaking of, I found the priests seated in the outer gate, and when I saw them with their shaved faces they seemed to me to be Franks, but 

they had barbarian miters on their heads [J: but the mitres they were wearing on their heads were of paper]. These Iugur priests have the following dress: wherever they go they are always dressed in rather tight saffron-colored tunics, over which is a girdle like the Franks, and they have a stole (pallium) over their left shoulder, passed round the chest and the back to the right side, like the chasuble (casula) worn by a deacon in Lent.   When then I had sat down beside these priests, after having been in the temple and seen their many idols, great and small, I asked them what they believed concerning God. They answered: "We only believe that there is one God." Then I asked: "Do you believe he is a spirit, or something corporeal?" "We believe that he is a spirit," they said. "Do you believe that he has never taken upon him human nature?" They said: "Never." "Then," said I, "if you believe that he is one and a spirit, why do you make him bodily images, and so many? Furthermore, if you do not believe that he became man, why do you make him in human shape rather than in that of some animal?" Then they replied: "We do not make these images to (of) God [J: for God], but when some rich person among us dies, his son, or wife, or someone dear to him, has made an image of the deceased, and puts it here, and we revere it in memory of him." Then I said: "Then you only make these out of flattery for man." "Only," they said, "in remembrance." Then they asked me, as if in derision: "Where is God ? "To which I said: "Where is your soul?" "In our body," they said. I replied: "Is it not everywhere in your body, and does it not direct the whole of it, and, nevertheless, is invisible? So God is everywhere, and governs all things, though invisible, for He is intelligence and wisdom." Then, just as I wanted to continue reasoning with them, my interpreter got tired, and would no longer express my words, so he made me stop talking [J: my interpreter, who was tired and incapable of finding the right words, made me stop talking].  

 _________ Source: William of Rubruck, Records for St. Louis IX, 13th century, Mongolia       

SOURCE C| Rabban Sauma on Eastern Christians in the Mongol Empire  An Eastern Christian monk, Rabban Sauma can be seen as the Eastern equivalent of William of Rubruck. He was sent to Western Europe by the Ilkhanate to explore the possibility of an Mongol-European alliance against the Mamluks. Like William’s mission, nothing came of it, but we have, as a result, a non-European Christian’s perception of Medieval Europe. In this passage, however, we catch a glimpse of how Mongols handled conflict between religious groups, and how Christians perceived their authority. 

 And on the night of the third day of the week (Tuesday) following, which was the 27th day of ’Ilul (September), the Catholicus was buffeted the whole night long by those who had seized him. And in respect of the venerable men who were with him, the Arabs tied some of them up naked with ropes; others cast aside their apparel and took to flight, and others cast themselves down from high places [and perished]. And they suspended the Catholicus by a rope head downwards, and they took a cloth used for cleaning, that is to say, a duster, and they put ashes in it, and tied it over his mouth, and one prodded him in the breast with a skewer {bukshina), saying, “Abandon this Faith of thine that thou perish not; become a Hagaraya (Muhammadan) and thou shalt be saved.” And the Catholicus, weeping, answered them never a word. And they smote him with a stick on his thighs and seat {i.e. posterior). And they also took him up on to the roof of the Cell, saying, “Give us gold and we will let thee go; point out to us thy treasures, show us the things which thou hast hidden away, and reveal to us thy hiding-things and we will let thee go.”  And then a great tumult took place, and the peoples of the Arabs came with a great rush to destroy the great church of Mar Shalita, the holy martyr, and they destroyed it. And they took everything that was in it, the veils (or hangings), and the vessels and other objects used in the service. And the uproar made by their outcries, and the storm of their shoutings shook almost the earth itself and the inhabitants thereof. Peradventure the reader of this history, since he was not caught in the middle of that storm, may think that the writer is telling a fabulous story; but to speak the real truth, he who stateth what is here written calleth God to witness, that it is impossible for even one of the events which took place to be adequately described and written! Now when the sun had descended into the sign of the Ram, and creation was warmed a little, the Catholicus sent one of the monks of the Cell to the victorious King Kazan, to the place called Mughan, the winter station of all the Mongol Kings, to bless him and to inform [him] concerning the events that had happened to him. And when that monk arrived at the Camp, and he had taken care to see all the Amirs, they introduced him into the presence of the victorious king, and he declared unto him in their entirety all the words which Mar Catholicus had spoken to him saying, “Blessed is thy throne, O king, and it shall stand firm for ever, and thy seed shall be surely seated thereon for ever.” And the king asked, “Why did not the Catholicus come to us?” and the monk replied, “Because of the confused state [of his mind]. He was hung up, and cruelly beaten, and his head touched the 

earth. Through the severe pain which hath been roused in him he was unable to come to do homage to the king, and it is for this reason that he hath sent me to pronounce his blessing upon thee, O my lord, the king. But when the victorious king shall arrive in peace at Tabhriz, whether the Catholicus be sick or whether he be well, he will come to salute thee and do homage to thee.  And God caused these words to find mercy in the eyes of the king, and he gave to the Catholicus a Pukdana, according to custom, in which it was laid down that poll-tax should not be exacted from the Christians; that none of them shall abandon his Faith, that the Catholicus shall live in the state to which he hath been accustomed; that he shall be treated with the respect due to his rank; that he shall rule over his Throne; and shall hold the staff of strength over his dominion [i.e. that he shall wield his sceptre with vigour and determination]. And he promulgated an Edict throughout all countries, and addressed it to all the Amirs by their names, and to the soldiers, ordering them to give back everything which they had taken from the Catholicus or from the holy old men by force, and to give back to him what those men of Baghdad and their envoys, whom we have mentioned above, had taken. Moreover, he allotted and despatched to the Catholicus five thousand dinars (£2,500) for his expenses, saying, “These will serve him as a supply until he cometh to us.”  

_________ Source: Rabban Sauma, Travel Diary, late 13th Century, Il Khanate     

SOURCE D| Rashid al-Din on Chaghatai and Islam  A Persian Jew who converted to Islam, Rashid al-Din served as an advisor to the Ilkhanate, before being accused of treason and executed. During his career, he was commissioned to write a history of the Mongol rulers from Genghis Khan to the present. Writing decades after Genghis’ death, and when the Ilkhanate rulers had converted to Islam, Rashid al-Din’s depiction of pre-Islamic Mongol rulers strives to present them as noble individuals who are deserving of Muslims’ respect. 

 [i] It is the yasa and yosun of the Mongols that in spring and summer no one may sit in water by day, nor wash his hands in a stream, nor draw water in gold and silver vessels, nor lay out washed garments upon the plain; it being their belief that such actions increase the thunder and lightning, which they greatly dread and shun. One day Qa’an had been hunting with Chaghatai, and as they were returning they beheld a^Muslim sitting in midstream washing himself. Chaghatai, who was extremely precise in the enforcement of theyasa, wished to put the man to death. But Qa’an said: “Today it is late and we are tired. Let him be held in custody tonight, and tomorrow he can be tried and punished.” He handed the man over to Danishmand Hajib, telling him in secret to have a silver bdlish thrown in the water where the man had been washing and to have him instructed to say, at the time of the trial, that he was a poor man, that all the capital he possessed had fallen into the water, and that he had plunged in in order to pull it out] On the next day, at the time of the examination, the man had recourse to this excuse, and some persons were sent to the place and found the bdlish in the water. Then Qa’an said: “Who would dare to contravene the Great Yasa? But this poor man, because of his great distress and helplessness, has sacrificed himself for this wretched amount.” He pardoned him and commanded that he should be given 10 more bdlish from the treasure; and a written statement was taken from him that he would not commit a similar action again. On this account the freemen of the world became the slaves of his nature, which is better than much treasure. Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds!  [i] When they first rose to power they made a yasa that no one should cut the throats of sheep and other animals slaughtered for food but should slit open their breasts or shoulders after their own fashion. A Muslim bought a sheep in the market, took it home, closed the doors securely, and slaughtered it inside after the Muslim fashion. A Qipchaq had seen him in the market and had followed watching him. He climbed on to the roof, and when the Muslim drew the knife across the sheep’s throat he leapt down, bound him, and dragged him off to the Court of Qa’an. Qa’an sent out officials to investigate the matter. When they reported the circumstances of the case, he said: “This poor man has observed the yasa and this Turk has infringed it, for he climbed on to the roof of his house.” The Muslim was saved and the Qipchaq was put to death. 

 ________ Source: Rashid al-Din, Compendium of Chronicles, late 13th century, Il Khanate 

MONGOL MYTHBUSTERS PROJECT RUBRIC    

   5 - Primetime-worthy  4 - Daytime-worthy  3 - Youtube-worthy  2 - Thanks for your submission 

Creativity  Presentation shows a large amount of original thought. Ideas are creative and inventive. 

Presentation shows some original thought. Work shows new ideas and insights. 

Presentation shows little evidence of original thinking. 

Uses ideas found online or through other sources. 

Sourcing  For at least three sources, explains how or why the source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument. 

For at least two sources, explains how or why the source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument. 

For at least two sources, attempts to explain how or why the source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument. 

No attempt to explain how or why the source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument. 

Context  Describes a broader historical context relevant to the prompt. 

Mentions a broader historical context relevant to the prompt. 

Limited context  No context 

Quality of Evaluation 

Presents a clear evaluation of the myth assigned that establishes a line of reasoning. 

Presents an evaluation of the myth assigned that establishes a line of reasoning. 

Presents an evaluation of the myth assigned without establishing a clear line of reasoning. 

Does not present a clear evaluation of the myth assigned 

Quality of Evidence 

Covers topic in-depth with details and examples. Subject knowledge is excellent. 

Includes essential knowledge about the topic. Subject knowledge appears to be good. 

Includes essential information about the topic but there are 1-2 factual errors. 

Content is minimal OR there are several factual errors. 

Quality of Explanation 

Examples are fully developed and easily understood by the reader 

Examples are developed and understood by the reader 

Examples are somewhat developed, but unclear to the reader 

Examples are not developed 

Quality of Analysis 

Demonstrates a complex understanding of central argument, using evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the question. 

Demonstrates a basic understanding of the central argument, using evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the question. 

Demonstrates a basic understanding of the central argument, using evidence to qualify an argument. 

Demonstrates a limited understanding of the central argument. 

Presentation  Well-prepared delivery that holds audience attention. 

Well-prepared delivery that holds audience attention most of the time. 

Underprepared, but able to maintain interest of the audience most of the time. 

Delivery not smooth and audience attention often lost 

Use of Class Time 

  

Used time effectively during each class period. Always on task and engaged in group work, Never distracted others.  

Used time well during each class period. Mostly on task and engaged with groups. Occasionally was distracted or distracted others.  

Used some of the time well during each class period. Often distracted others; often off task. Did not participate in groups.  

Did not use class time effectively. Little focus on the project AND/OR often distracted others. 

Collaboration  All group members continually contributed to project. 

All group members often contributed to project.  

Somel group members occasionally contributed to project. 

Some group members minimally contributed to project 

 

Comments:  

Total Score: ______ 

Suggested Curriculum Adaptations:  ● Sources can be added or subtracted based on the amount of time available in your class.  ● Students can be assigned to read the sources, complete the source worksheet, and complete 

the argument worksheet as homework if necessary. ● Students can only research one side of the myth instead of completing an argument for both.  ● Alternative myths can be added or subtracted based on class size or time available.  ● These Mongol characteristics can be compared to other civilizations to create an Epic Rap 

Battle. ● Have more groups? Source sets can be added to dispute the concept of a Mongol “Empire,” 

the idea that the Mongols had no indigenous craftsmanship and therefore had to steal from neighbors, the idea that they were an “exception,” etc.