History Class XI

Chapter - V
Nomadic Empire
The First Khan and the Mongol Empire
Genghis Khan was born in1162 near the Onon River in the north of
present-day Mongolia.
His original name was Temujin, he was the son of Yesugei, the
chieftain of the Kiyat clan.
His father was murdered at an early age and his mother, Oelun-eke,
raised Temujin, his brothers and step-brothers in great hardship.
Temujin was captured and enslaved for many years.
Soon after his marriage, his wife, Borte,was kidnapped, and he had to
fight to recover her.
During these yearsof hardship he also managed to make important
friends. The young Boghurchu was his first ally and remained a trusted
friend; Jamuqa,his blood-brother was another.
Temujinbecame the dominant personality in the politicsof the steppe
lands, a position that was recognised at an assembly ofMongol
chieftains,where he was proclaimed the ‘Great Khan of the Mongols’
with the title Genghis Khan, the ‘Oceanic Khan’or ‘Universal Ruler’.
Sources to understand Mongol history

• 1. The steppe dwellers themselves usually produced no literature,

so our knowledge of nomadic societies comes mainly from chronicles,
travelogues and documents produced by city-based litterateurs.
• 2. These authors often producedextremely ignorant and biased
reports of nomadic life. Theimperial success of the Mongols attracted
many travelers. Theseindividuals came from a variety of backgrounds
– Buddhist,Confucian, Christian, Turkish and Muslim. Many of
them produced sympathetic accounts and others hostile.
Genghis Khan

• Genghis Khan ruled between 1206 and 1227

• expanding trade across Asia and into eastern Europe
• enacting relatively tolerant social and religious laws,
• leading devastating military campaigns that left local populations
depleted and fearful of the brutal Mongol forces.
Wars and Expansion of Mongols under Genghiz Khan
First of all his concerns was to conquer China, divided at this time into three
realms:the Hsi Hsia dynasty in the north-western provinces,Chin dynasty ruled
north China and the Sungdynasty in south China.
By 1209, the Hsi Hsia were defeated,the ‘Great Wall of China’ was breached
in 1213 and long drawn-out battles against the Chin continued until 1234
butGenghis Khan was satisfied enough with the progress of his campaigns
toreturn to his Mongolia
SultanMuhammad, the ruler of Khwarazm, executed Mongol envoys worried
of Mongol invasion. In the campaigns between1219 and 1221 the great cities –
Otrar, Bukhara, Samarqand, Balkh,Gurganj, Merv, Nishapur and Herat –
surrendered to the Mongol forces.
Towns that resisted were devastated by Mongols. At Nishapur, where a
Mongolprince was killed during the siege operation, Genghis Khan
commandedthat the ‘town should be laid waste in such a manner that the
sitecould be ploughed upon and not even cats and dogs should be left
alive’.
Mongol forces in pursuit of Sultan Muhammad pushed intoAzerbaijan and
defeated Russian forces. Another wing followed the Sultan’s son, Jalaluddin,
intoAfghanistan and the Sindh province.
At the banks of the Indus, Genghis Khan considered returning to Mongolia
through North India andAssam, but the heat, the natural habitat and the ill
portents reportedby his Shaman soothsayer made him change his mind and
he returned to Mongolia without touching India.
 Social and Political Background of Mongols
 The Mongols were a diverse body of tribal people,

spoke similar languages.

Some of the Mongols were pastoralists while others
were hunter gatherers.The pastoralists tended horses,
sheep and cattle, goats and camels.
They lived nomadic life in the steppes of Central
Asiain a tract of land in the area of the modern state of
Mongolia.
This was a majestic landscape with wide horizons,
rolling plains, ringed by the snow-capped mountains,
Gobi desert and drained by rivers and springs.
They were a humbler body of peoplethan the
pastoralists, making a living from trade in furs of
animals trapped in the summer months.
There were extremes of temperature in the entire
region: harsh, long winters followed by brief, dry
 Hunter-Gatherer People
 Agriculture was possible in the pastoral regions but the
Mongols did not take to agriculture.
 The Mongols lived in tents and travelled with their herds
from their winter to summer pasture lands.
 Mongols had scarce resources. The richer families were
larger, possessed more animals
and pasturelands.
 Periodic natural calamities – either unusually harsh, cold
winters when game and stored provisions ran out, they
conflicted over pasture lands and predatory raids in
search of livestock.
 The scant resources of the steppe lands drove Mongols
and other Central Asian nomads
to trade and barter with their sedentary neighbours in
China.
 This was mutually beneficial to both parties: agricultural
produce and iron utensils from China were exchanged for
horses, furs and game trapped in the steppe.
MONGOLIAN
....GERS
Innovations,,, Under Genghis Khan
• As a ruler over a vast network of tribal groups, Genghis Khan
innovated the way he ruled and garnered power as he expanded his
holdings.
• These unprecedented innovations encouraged a relatively peaceful
reign and helped to develop stabler trading routes and alliances
• He also successfully brought technology, language, and goods farther
west. Some of his major accomplishments include:
• Organizing his army by dividing it into decimal subsections of
10,100,1,000, and 10,000, and discarded the lineage-based, tribal
bands that once dominated warfare.
• Founding the Imperial Guard and rewarding loyalty with high
positions as heads of army units and households no matter the class
of the individual.
• Proclaiming a new law of the empire, called the Yasa, which
outlawed the theft of property, fighting amongst the population, and
hunting animals during the breeding season, among many other
things.
Other works of Genghis khan
• Forbidding the selling of women.
• He also encouraged women to discuss major, public
decisions. Unlike other leaders in the region, Ghengis
allowed his wives to sit at the table with him and
encouraged them to voice their opinions.
• Appointing his adopted brother as supreme judge,
ordering him to keep detailed records of the empire.
• Decreeing religious freedom and exempting the poor
and the clergy from taxation.
• Encouraging literacy and adopting the Uyghur script,
which would form the Empire’s Uyghur-Mongolian
script.
 Genghis Khan –
as Dark historical figure
• Genghis Khan generally advocated literacy,
religious freedom, and trade, although many local
customs were frowned upon or discarded once
Mongol rule was implemented.
• In terms of social policy, he forbade selling of
women, theft of property, and fighting.
• This ruler used groundbreaking siege warfare and
spy techniques to understand his enemies and
more successfully conquer and subsume them
under his rule.
• Genghis Khan led merciless conquests of the
Western Xia Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty in 1234, the
Kara-Khitan Khanate, and the Khwarazmian
Empire.
• Many local people across Asia considered Genghis
Khan a dark historical figure.
Causes for the success of Genghis Khan
 His military achievements were astounding and they were
largely a result of his ability to innovate and transform
different aspects of steppe combat into extremely effective
military strategies.
The horse-riding skills of the Mongols and the Turks provided
speed and mobility to the army.
Their abilities as rapid-shooting archersfrom
horseback were further perfected during regular hunting
expeditions which doubled chance of victory over the enemies.
The steppe cavalry had always travelled light and moved
quickly, but now it brought all its knowledge of the terrain.
They carried out campaigns in the depths of winter, treating
frozen rivers as highways to enemy cities and camps.
Genghis Khan learnt the importance of siege. His engineers
prepared light portable equipment, which was used against
opponents with devastating effect.
The Mongols after Genghis Khan
1. We can divide Mongol expansion after Genghis Khan’s death
into two distinct phases: the first which spanned the years 1236-
42 when the major gains were in the Russian steppes, Bulgaria,
Poland and Hungary.
2. The second phase including the years 1255-1300 led to the
conquest of all of China, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
3. The Mongol military forces met with few reversals in the
decades after the 1260s the original impetus of campaigns could
not be sustained in the West.
4. There were two facets to this: the first was a consequence
of the internal politics of succession within the Mongol family
where the descendants of Jochi and Ogodei allied to control the
office of the greatKhan in the first two generations.
5. The second compulsion occurred as the Jochi and Ogodei
lineages were marginalised by theToluy’s lineage. With the
accession of Mongke, a descendant of Toluy, militarycampaigns
were pursued energetically in Iran but as Toluyid interests in the
conquest of China.
Military Organisation under Mongols
Among the Mongols all the able-bodied, adult males of the tribe bore
arms: they constituted the armed forces when the occasion demanded.
The unification of the different Mongol tribes and subsequent campaigns
against diverse people introduced new members into Genghis Khan’s
army. It included groups like the Turks, Chinese and Arabs who had
accepted his authority willingly.
Genghis Khan worked to systematically erase the old tribal identities of
the different groups who joined his confederacy.
His army was organised according to the old steppe system of decimal
units: in divisions of 10s, 100s, 1,000s and 10,000 soldiers. He divided
the old tribal groupings and distributed their members into new military
units. Any individual who tried to move from his allotted group without
permission received harsh punishment.
He divided the army into four units and they were required to serve under
his foursons and specially chosen captains of his army units called noyan.
These soldiers who had served Genghis Khan loyally through grave
adversity for many years were publicly honoured some of these
individuals as his ‘blood-brothers’ and others were given special
ranking as his bondsmen , a title that marked their close relationship with
their master.
Political Organisation under Genghis Khan
 Genghis Khan assigned the responsibility of governing
the newly-conquered people to his four sons. These
comprised the four ulus.
 The eldest son,Jochi, received the Russian steppesand it
extended as far west as his horses could roam.
 The second son, Chaghatai, was given the Transoxanian
steppe and lands north of the Pamir Mountain adjacent to
those of his brother.
 Genghis Khan hadindicated that his third son, Ogodei,
would succeed him as the Great Khan and on accession
the Prince established his capital at Karakorum.
 The youngest son, Toluy, received the ancestral lands of
Mongolia. Genghis Khan envisaged that his sons would
rule the empire collectively, and to underline this point,
military contingents of the individual princes were placed
in each ulus.
 The sense of a dominion shared by the members of the
family was underlined at the assembly of
chieftains, quriltais, where all decisions relating to the
family or the state for the forthcoming season campaigns,
distribution of plunder, pasture lands and succession were
collectively taken.
 Development in Trade and communication
 Genghis Khan had already fashioned a rapid courier system(yam) that connected
the distant areas of his regime. Fresh mounts and despatch riders were placed in
outposts at regularly spaced distances.
 For the maintenance of this communication systemthe Mongol
nomads contributed a tenth of their herd – either horses or livestock – as
provisions. This was called the qubcur tax, a levy that the nomads paid willingly for
the multiple benefits that it brought.
 Once the campaigns had settled, Europe and China were territorially linked with
Mongolia. Commerce and travel along the Silk Route reached its peak under the
Mongols but, the trade route extended up to Mongolia.
 Communication and ease of travel was vital to retain the coherence of the Mongol
regime and travellers were given a pass for safe conduct. Traders paid the baj tax
for the same purpose, all acknowledging thereby the authority of the Mongol
Khan.
 Mongols waged their successful wars against China, Persia, Russia etc there was a
strong pressure group within the Mongol leadership that advocated the massacre
of all peasantry and the conversion of their fields into pasture lands.
 But by the 1270s, Genghis Khan’s grandson, Qubilai Khan appeared as the
protector of the peasants and the cities.
 Yasa (legal code of Genghis Khan)
 Yasa, the code of law that Genghis Khan was supposed to have promulgated at the
Assembly of Mongol Chieftains (quriltai)of 1206, has elaborated on the complex
ways in which the memory of the Great Khan was fashioned by his successors.
 In its earliest formulation the term was written as yasawhich meant
‘law’,‘decree’ or ‘order’. Yasa concern administrative regulations: the
organisation of the hunt,the army and the postal system.

 Situating Genghis Khan and the Mongols in World History

 For the Mongols, Genghis Khan was the greatest leader of all time: he united the
Mongol people.
 Genghis Khan freed them from interminable tribal wars and Chinese exploitation.
 Genghis Khan brought them prosperity, fashioned a grand transcontinental empire
and restored trade routes and markets that attracted distant travelers and traders.
 Genghis Khan ruled the diverse body of people and faiths. Although the Mongol
Khans themselves belonged to a variety ofdifferent faiths – Shaman, Buddhist,
Christian and eventually Islam they never let their personal beliefs dictate public
policy.
 The Mongol rulers recruited administrators and armed contingents from people of
all ethnic groups and religions. Theirs was a multi-ethnic, multilingual, multi-
religious regime that did not feel threatened byits pluralistic constitution.
 Today, after decades ofSoviet control, the country of Mongolia is recreating its identity
as an independent nation. It has seized upon Genghis Khan as a great national hero
who is publicly venerated and whose achievements are recounted with pride.
 Rise of the Mongol Empire
• The Mongol Empire: Expansion of the Mongol
empire from 1206 CE-1294 CE.
• During Europe’s High Middle Ages the Mongol
Empire, the largest contiguous land empire in
history, began to emerge.
• The Mongol Empire began in the Central Asian
steppes and lasted throughout the 13th and
14th centuries.
• At its greatest extent it included all of modern-
day Mongolia, China, parts of Burma,
Romania, Pakistan, Siberia, Ukraine, Belarus,
Cilicia, Anatolia, Georgia, Armenia, Persia, Iraq,
Central Asia, and much or all of Russia.
• Many additional countries became tributary
states of the Mongol Empire.
 Expansion of the empire
• The empire unified the nomadic Mongol and Turkic tribes of historical Mongolia
under the leadership of Genghis Khan, who was proclaimed ruler of all Mongols in
1206.
• The empire grew rapidly under his rule and then under his descendants, who sent
invasions in every direction.
• The vast transcontinental empire connected the east with the west with an
enforced Pax Mongolica, or Mongol Peace,
• Allowing trade, technologies, commodities, and ideologies to be disseminated and
exchanged across Eurasia.
• Mongol invasions and conquests progressed over the next century, until 1300, by
which time the vast empire covered much of Asia and Eastern Europe.
• Historians regard the Mongol raids and invasions as some of the deadliest and
most terrifying conflicts in human history.
• The Mongols spread panic ahead of them and induced population displacement on
an unprecedented scale.
 Destruction and Expansion Under Genghis Khan

• Despite his many successful political and social changes, Genghis was also a destructive and
intimidating leader.
• He initially forged the Mongol Empire in Central Asia with the unification of the Mongol and
Turkic confederations on the Mongolian plateau in 1206. Then Mongol forces invaded
westward into Central Asia including:
• Western Xia Dynasty in 1209
• Kara-Khitan Khanate in 1218
• Khwarazmian Empire in 1221
• These conquests seriously depopulated large areas of central Asia and northeastern Iran,
complicating the image of Genghis Khan as a peaceful ruler practicing religious tolerance.
• Any city or town that resisted the Mongols was subject to destruction. Each soldier was
required to execute a certain number of persons in cities that did not cooperate.
• For example, after the conquest of the city of Urgench, each Mongol warrior, in an army that
might have consisted of 20,000 soldiers, was required to execute 24 people.
 Decline
• decline of Mongols has been attributed to:
• a series of incompetent leaders:
• Corruption and disgust with the non-tax-paying Mongol elite by tax-
paying local people;
• Feuding between Mongol princes and generals and other divisions and
fragmentations; and
• The fact that the rivals of the Mongols had adopted Mongol weapons,
horses riding skills and tactics and were able challenge them and the
Mongols in turn had become increasing dependent on these people for
their own welfare.
• Contd….
• There were a number of reasons for the relatively rapid decline of the
Mongols as an influential power.
• One important factor was their failure to acculturate their subjects to
Mongol social traditions.
• Another was the fundamental contradiction of a feudal, essentially nomadic,
society's attempting to perpetuate a stable, centrally administered empire.
• The sheer size of the empire was reason enough for the Mongol collapse.
• It was too large for one person to administer, as Genghis had realized, yet
adequate coordination was impossible among the ruling elements after the
split into khanates.
• Possibly the most important single reason was the disproportionately small
number of Mongol conquerors compared with the masses of subject
peoples."
 IMPORTANT TERMS
• Tama: Military contingents
• Barbarian: A person who is uncultured • Quriltais: An assembly of chieftains
and behaves in a rough or cruel manner • Qubcur: A tax imposed on nomads for
and is ignorant of good taste. communication facility provided to
• Kiyat: A group of families related to the them.
Boijigid clan • Yam: Courier system
• Anda: Real or blood brother • Qanat: Underground canal in the arid
• Confederacy: A union of states, groups of plateau in Iran
people or political with the same aim. • Paiza: A pass or permit to move from
• Tuman: A group of ten thousand soldiers one place to another.
• Noyan: Captain of army unit • Bjg:A tax imposed on traders
• Naukar: Bonded man, a rank to common • Yasa: A code of law promulgated by
but intimate people Genghis Khan in 1206.