Saunders, J. J.;
The History of the Mongol Conquests
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001, 275 pages
ISBN 0812217667, 9780812217667
topics: | mongolia | history | medieval | genghis
This well-researched and eminently readable history starts with the relatively little-known Gok-Turk empire that stretched from China to the Black Sea in the 6th c., goes through the era of Genghis Khan and the following zenith of the Mongol empire, and ends with the rise of Timur. Saunders's uses a very well-crafted, interest-holding narrative, presenting details and facts and smoothing these with analysis, and elaborating on various points through detailed footnotes. Occasionally however, his generalizations seem airy and lacking a strong argument, e.g. that the Khitan aped the superior Chinese, 43 or how the Mongols could not subdue all of China until they had "developed an appreciation of Chinese civilization" 76. Also, some other remarks, e.g. [Buddhism] "has oscillated between the loftiest theosophy and the most debasing superstition" 179, appears to have eurocentric bias, but on the whole he makes a great story, substantiated by considerable links to the literature. Also assesses the effects of the conquest on the major religions, and other aspects of East-West interaction.
The first chapter, Eurasian nomadism, considers the nature of pastoral
cultures and their frequent incursions into more settled and "civilized"
agrarian territories.
The speed with which the nomad horseman could move gave him for 2000
years the mastery of the Eurasian steppe and rendered him a
formidable threat to settled societies of the south. His principal
weapon was the bow, which the archer learnt to shoot from horseback,
and the invention of the stirrup (perhaps orig a Chinese device)
enabled him to fire at the enemy while riding away from him. 12
In terms of organization, the leader was no hereditary monarch, but a tested
warrior who could hold the tribe together.
Invention of the stirrup (footnote p.204):
... not much before the start of the Christian era. A metal stirrup
would not have been a nomadic invention; the word orig meant "step up" by
putting one's foot in a loop or leather thong. It's coming led to a
shortening of the saddle between pommel and cantle, so the rider could
twist and turn and fire arrows to the side and rear without falling off.
Nomadic empires rose and fell with astonishing swiftness, but the essential
features of the pastoral societies of the steppes remained unchanged for
ages, and the desccription by Herodotus of the Scythians of the 5th c. BCE
still apply to the Mongols of the 13th c. as they are depicted by John of
Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck.
Religion: nature-based: Sky and heavenly bodies. Tengri, an old Turkish name
meaning eternal blue firmament, is an almost personal god and holy protector.
Shamans in ecstatic trances learned the will of the deity. 13
notable achievements in art: carved from bone, horn, or hard wood - spirited
representations of lions and tigers, horses, deer, eagles and falcons,
display an enviable skill and accuracy, and their art forms have been
diffused, by conquest or influence, over a great portion of the Old World
from China to Britain. 13
The languages of the people in the Steppes belong to four families: A. Indo-European': from Iranian contact. Mostly extinct: "Tokharian and Sogdian have been disinterred from the sand-buried ruins of Turkestan in modern times." B. Turkic : an agglutinative language - origins in the Altai region much older than the name. Spoken in N Asia by the Yakuts of Lena valley, the most northerly users of the lg In 500-1500 Turkish language people made major conquests from C Asia to SE Europe. C. Mongolic: archaic tongue probably rose in the region NE of Lake Baikal, but although the conquests of GK made it known over a wide area, never displaced Turkish D. Tungusic - group of dialects confined to E Siberia, Amnur basin and Manchuria, only one of which, Manchu, has a written form. no organic reln has been established [but it is possible] that Turkish and Mongolic language families may have originated in a proto-Altaic lg. p.14
In earlier eras, different steppe-based equestrian nomadic tribes, controlled
different swathes of territory:
Scythians [India:Saka] and Sarmatians: plains of Russia, Asia minor;
fl. 600BC-300BC. Saka: name used in Persia and India (Herodotus "Sacae
or Scyths"). related to the Kushan (Yuezhi) tribes from the Tarim
basin. Penetrated into Punjab / Kashmir ~ 85 BC, and again in 1st c
AD. Ruled some parts of India till 5th c.
Hiung-Nu (Xiongnu, origin of word "hun"): controlled Mongolia and adj
regions; Great wall constructed 220-206BC by Qin emperor Qin Shi Huang
to stop their raids.
Huns of Attila: From Danube to Volga, from the Rhine to Black sea ; may be
descended from the Hiung-Nu. moved into europe 4th-5th c. AD - may
have spoken a language connected to Chuvash, a Turkic language of the Oghur branch
[w]
Ephthalites or White Huns [India: Huna, China:Hoa-Tun, one of the Yuezhi /
Yue-chi tribes]: from Aral sea to Hindu Kush felt tents and polyandry.
Chinese: lived in Xinjiang. Persians: originated in NE persia / NW
India ==> Baluchistan. Already establ in NWFP / Afghanistan w capital
at Bamiyan by 5th c AD. Skandagupta fought them off in 455. Indian
incursions in late gupta, capital at Sialkot ("Sakala") under
Mihirakula. Disappeared in Indian sources after 6th c AD.
[Also the Juan-Juan or Avar': Central and Eastern Europe in 6th c
AD. Language may have been similar to Huns. ]
The interbreeding and wide dispersion of peoples across these large plains
created a considerable cultural similarity (possibly the same "people")
across this broad region.
The Turkish khaganate or the Gok-Turk (Chinese Tūjué) empire was the first
major empire of the equestrian nomads - ruled across the Eurasian steppes
from the Great Wall of China to the Black Sea.
5th c. BC: pastures N of China populated by the Juan-Juan (Chinese name,
plausibly means to squirm - likened to wriggling vermin]. Possibly
of Mongol origin. Chiefs were called khan / khagan.
Among the sinisized princes of barbarous origin, N of the yellow river, were
the Tobas or T'opa, Chinese name: Wei. Among their slaves or dependents
was a clan of ironsmiths whom the Chinese annalists call T'ou-kiue or
T'u-ch\"ueh, and claim these were the descendants of the Hiung-Nu.
The name Turk: abstract n. meaning 'force' or 'strength' or a concrete n
meaning helmet, from a hill in the Altai range which was their earliest
habitat.
Towards the year 546, the Turks led by their chieftain Bumin (Chinese: Tumen, 土門)helped the Juan-Juan's suppress a revolt by a subject tribe. They then fell on the Juan-Juan and broke their power. The title Il-Khagan was appropriated by the former slave at a meeting at the sacred Mt. Ötüuken. Bumin was clearly a leader of merit, but his personality is dim, and he lived but a few months to enjoy his triumph. 19 The khanate was divided into two after the death of Bumin. The western khanate went to his brother Istami and the eastern to his son Muhan Khan. Within a century, it had grown considerably to cover all of Central Asia from N. China to the Crimea, but subsequently it was also quick to fade away. A late 6th c. Khagan of the western Khanate, in an alliance letter to the Byzantines, styled himself "the master of the seven races and seven climates of the world", but by then the empire was already in decline.
With the rise of the T'ang dynasty (618-907) in China, and particularly under legendary military leader Li Shih-min, son of the dynasty founder (particularly noted is a charge he initiated while it was raining, when the mongols found it hard to fire their wet arrows), the the eastern khanate became a Chinese dependency. The four oases-cities or 'kingdoms' of the Tarim basin - Kashgar, Khotan, Yarkand and Kucha - received Chinese garrisons and Chinese arms, carried as far as the Pamirs. p.24 The western khanate recovered from Arab and Chinese attacks under Kutluk or 'happy') and continued to scourge China but this group faded by the mid-8th century. 24 Arab conquests: Kutayba, b. Muslim, in ten years 705-15 overran the whole of Transoxiana, penetrated Ferghana, and threatened Kashgar. The Turks asked for Tang help but the Tang (at the time under the Dowager empress, ex-concubine Wu), were engaged w the aggressive Tibetans, who had seized the region of Gilgit in the Hindu Kush, and not till 747 was Chinese power restored along the Silk Road (by the Korean general Kao Hsien-chih) and the onrush of the Arabs halted. In 751 the Arabs, with some aid from the Karluks, destroyed the forces of Hsien-chih, and the Chinese relinquished for ever their hold on the land later to be known as Western Turkestan. Thus two centuries after the overthrow of the Juan-Juan by Bumin the Turkish confederacy was shivered into fragments and the steppes were abandoned to a multitude of tribes... 27
After the fall of the Tang in 907, power in China was divided among the
Tanguts, the Ch'ii-tan, the Chin, and the Sung; the spread of Islam into the
lands of the western turks and the collapse of teh Arabo-Persian barrier
against Turkish expansion after the overthrow of the Samanid dynasty in 999,
and the entry of the Kara-Khitay, or black Katyayans into Muslim Transoxiana,
which presaged the irruption of the pagan Mongols into the same regions a
century later.
uighurs: the name is said to mean adhering to, uniting, coming together
replaced the Eastern Turks in Mongolia in 744; their khagan resided at
Ordu-Balik ('Camp City') on the ipper Orkho9n, near the ancient seat of the
Hiung- Nu and the future Karakoram of the Mongols; he was the loyal friend
and ally of the Tang... converted to the faith of Mani [Manichean], as
narrated in a
trilingual inscription in Chinese, Turkish and Sogdian around 820. The
Uighurs helped the Tang against the Tibetan, and also in suppressing a
rebellion in Lo-yang in the Honan.
The prophet Mani, after a long ministry in Persia and India, died in prison
in 276 in his 60th year, condemned by the Sassanid Shah and the Zoroastrian
clergy, but his teachings spread rapidly in the east and west; his dualistic
theology, ascribing equal authority to a good and an evil God, might satisfy
those found it diff to reconcile an omnipotent Creator with with manifold
evil. It was actively suppressed by the enshrined Zoroastrian clergy in
Persia and by the Christians under Constantine, but expanded into Mongolia.
A bried outline of the life and conquests of GK, more or less along
mainstream lines, but focuses more on the reasons behind his success.
Juzvani's description of GK when he was about sixty-five [lunar] years old:
a man of tall stature, of vigorous build, robust in body, the hair on
his face scanty and turned white, with cat's eyes, possessed of great
energy, discernment, genius, and understanding, awe-striking, a
butcher, just, resolute, an overthrower of enemies, intrepid,
sanguinary and cruel.
(sounds a bit like one of Borges' lists!)
His main innovations included the decimal system - but whereas hitherto this
had been clan-based, now GK broke it up and mixed up races and tribes.
The light cavalry wore no armour and used bow and javelin. The bow was
very heavy with a pull of 160 pounds and had a range from 200 to 300
yards. Carried 2-3 bows and 3 quivers, and files for sharpening
arrow-heads, which when dipped red-hot into brine could pierce armour. In
addition to his arms he carried his iron rations - a camp kettle and a
waterproof pouch w a change of clothes for crossing swamps and rivers. At
reviews, the troops' kit was rigorously inspected.
Also discusses the communication lines and intelligence service estd by GK.
Series of yams along main routes; envoys and emissaries showed pass and
were given a meal and allowed rest, and given fresh mounts to continue their
journey. Spies often travelled in merchant caravans - and the caravan killed
at Utrar in 1219 may have been perceived as such.
[But this argument may be weak, since at that point, GK's techniques were
not well known, at least to this detail, to the Khwarizm. On the other
hand, this may also have been a technique in use in Persia, in which case
it is a broader trait. ]
After Chingis' death, the Kuriltai elected Ogedei, whom GK had anyway indicated earlier as his successor. During the Khwarizm invasion, some parts of China had been lost to the Chin, and these were now attacked. The Chin capital of Kai-feng was taken in May 1233 by Subedei. The Chin emperor committed suicide. The Sungs had assisted in this process, but after the fall of Chin they were somewhat precipitate and annexed Kai-feng and Lo-yang without Mongol assent. At a kuriltai at Karakorum in 1235, Ogedei proclaimed war against the Sung. This struggle, opened in 1235, was concluded only 45 years later in the reign of Kubilai.
Jochi had been given the domains to the West, and after
his death these lands were divided between Orda
(western Siberia) and Batu - beyond the Volga, 'as far as ths soil has been
trod by Mongol horses'.
But this yurt was potential, not actual; the raid of Jebe and
Subedei into Russia had no lasting effects, despite the annihiliating
Mongol victory at Kalka in 1223, and Batu must first conquer the
territory over which he was to rule. That territory would embrace
the steppes of Russia N of the Black Sea,m their detached extension
into the Alfold of Hungary, and those kingdoms of the West of which
Mongol ignorance of Europe gave them but a dim concept. To secure
for Batu this noble inheritance became a matter of common concern for
the entire Mongol leadership. At a kuriltai summoned in by Ogedei
1235, as soon as the final conquest of Chin had been achieved, the
western campaign was planned, the armies were mobilized...
The army, led by a host of royal GK grandsons and great grandsons, numbered
150K, and Subedei was the overall strategy head. They first met the Bulghar
people (nomadic, of Turkish speech) in the middle Volga. Their city Bulghar,
(near modern Kazan) was taken and sacked by Subedei. The subjugation of the
Bashkirs followed on the slopes of teh Urals.
Russia has withstood attacks from the W (Swedes, French and Germans) but
could not withstand from the E. Riazan and Kolomna fell in Dec 1237 ("no eye
remained open to weep for the dead"). Batu took the Grand Duchy of Suzdal in
Feb 1238. Grand Duke Vladimir was defeated and killed on the Siti river in
March. Then the attack on Novogrod fizzled out because it turned summer;
the troops retired to the pastures of Don on the south to recover. Next
winter, 6 Dec 1240, Kiev fell to the Mongols and was reduced to ashes.
Poland: entered 1241 crossing the Vistula on the ice, sacked Sandomir,
Kadan, and a Polish force under some princes (18 Mar 1241), and Cracow,
deserted by its inhabitants was taken and burnt on Palm Sunday. At the
battle of Liegnitz the chivalry of Europe was annihilated (9 Apr 1241) -
nine sacks of ears were colleccted by the victors. Then they went down to
Hungary, where at the battle of Mohi, king Bela's army was camped across
the river Sayo, but Subedei managed to cross it upstream in the night and
took the surprised Hungarian forces 11 Apr 1241. Bela escaped, but the
army perished.
Much infighting among the Mongol nobles. Batu fight with Chagatai grandson
Buri, involving also Ogedei son Kuyuk. By now, Batu was not well-liked.
And then 11 Dec 1241 Ogedei died, so everyone headed back for the Kuriltai.
After Ogedei's death, his widow Toregene wielded power until the election
of the next Khagan. She wanted son Kuyuk on the throne, and also had the
support of Chagatai, the last surviving son of GK, but he died 1242.
Grand Kuriltai convened in 1246 by Toregene. Representatives of all the
vassal states, including Europe, Egypt, Armenia. and Kuyuk [Guyuk] chosen
on 24 Jul 1246. As it happens, the Fransiscan friar, Giovanni da Pian (Plano)
del Carpini, arrived just two days earlier on 22 Jul, on a mission to the
Mongol court from the Pope. To the request that Kuyuk convert to
Christianity, the reply requested the pope to come personally, and then the
request would be considered in the light of the Yasa. Further, if the pope
disregard the command of God and disobeyed these instructions, he would be
considered as "our enemy". Later, Caprini would record his detailed
memories in the "Ystoria Mongalorum quos nos Tartaros appellamus"
("History of the Mongols, which we call Tartars"), and Liber Tartarorum
("Book of the Tartars [or Tatars]"), the first detailed Western record of
Mongol customs and territories.
Guns: Did the Mongols have guns? The answer is a qualified negative. Although guns had appeared in China during the Mongol period 1260-1368; Needham: between 1280-1320 is the key period for the appearance of the metal-barreled cannon [in China], though it may have appeared first among the Arabs or the Latins. Gunpowder: Slid unobtrusively into Chinese history - probably came to be widespread in the reign of Kublai (1260-94), and by 1280 was already being stored in arsenals, as is shown by the story of an explosion which also killed four tigercubs belonging the chief minister next door. It was already known in Europe (Roger Bacon's notes, but not as a propellant). More evidence of its use by the Sung rather than the Mongols. Was known to the arabs by the 13th c. as "barud" Like clocks and movable printing, the time and place of their origin must be recorded as unknown in the present state of our knowledge. 199