The Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire
(1101-1406)
The Mongol Empire
Silk Road
• Military practices
The amazing military achievements of the Mongols under Genghis Khan and his successors were due to
superior strategy and tactics rather than to numerical strength. Mongol armies were chiefly composed of
cavalry which afforded them a high degree of mobility and speed. Their movements and maneuvers were
directed by signals and a well-organized messenger service. In battle they relied mainly on bows and arrows
and resorted to man-to-man fighting only after having disorganized the enemy’s ranks. Mongol armaments
and tactics were more suited to open plains and flat countries than to mountainous and wooded regions. For
the siege of walled cities they frequently secured assistance from artisans and engineers of technically
advanced conquered peoples such as Chinese, Persians, and Arabs.
• Another factor contributing to the overwhelming success of their expeditions was the skilful use of spies and propaganda. Before
attacking they usually asked for voluntary surrender and offered peace. If this was accepted, the population was spared. If, however,
resistance had to be overcome, wholesale slaughter or at least enslavement invariably resulted, sparing only those whose special skills
or abilities were considered useful. In the case of voluntary surrender, tribesmen or soldiers were often incorporated into the Mongol
forces and treated as federates. Personal loyalty of federate rulers to the Mongol khan played a great role, as normally no formal
treaties were concluded. The “Mongol” armies, therefore, often consisted of only a minority of ethnic Mongols. Library, Scotland.
Organization Of Genghis Khan’s Empire
• During the early stages of Mongol supremacy, the empire established by Genghis absorbed civilizations in
which a strong, unified, and well-organized state power had developed. The social organization of the
Mongols was, however, characterized by pastoralism and a decentralized patrilineal system of clans.
Antagonism existed between a society of this nature and the subjugated advanced civilizations, between
a relatively small number of foreign conquerors and a numerically strong conquered population. In the
early phases of conquest, the Mongols usually attempted to impose the social structure of the steppes
upon their new subjects. It was customary for the Mongols to enslave a conquered tribe and to present
whole communities to distinguished military leaders as a sort of personal appanage. These slaves became
sooner or later an integral part of the conquering tribe. In the conquered areas a similar procedure was
adopted. Groups of the settled population, usually those living in a certain territory, became the personal
property of Mongol military leaders who exploited the local economic forces as they liked. No use was
made of the existing state machinery or bureaucracy, and the former political divisions were entirely
disregarded. Nor was there any attempt to organize the numerous local Mongol leaders who enjoyed a
high degree of independence from the court of the khans. Ruthless exploitation under strong military
pressure was therefore characteristic of the early phase of Mongol domination, which may be said to
have lasted until about 1234, some seven years after Genghis Khan’s death.
Mongol empire
The extent of the Mongol empire at various points in history.
The Yuan Dynasty In China (1279–1368)
Timur
An artist's rendering of Timur with his courtiers, 17th
century.
Another kingdom which, though ruled by the descendants of Genghis
Khan, must be regarded as basically Turkish was that of the Shaybānid dynasty.
Shaybān, a son of Juchi and a grandson of Genghis, ruled over the territories
east and southeast of the Ural range. One of his descendants, Abul Khair
(reigned 1428–68), made himself ruler of the Turkish Uzbeks. His grandson
Muḥammad Shaybānī took Bukhara and Herāt from the Timurids, and his
descendants continued to rule in Bukhara until 1599. Other branches of the
same family, such as the Nogay khans and the Astrakhan khans, ruled over
parts of Transcaspia. All of these states were Mongol only insofar as their
sultans were patrilineal descendants of Genghis. Otherwise they showed no
Mongol features at all. Their language was Turkish, their culture Islamic with a
strong admixture of Persian elements. The khanate of Khiva was from 1512 in
the hands of the Shaybānids, and its last khan, Abdullah, was deposed by the
Soviet government as late as 1920, although Russian domination had already
been established over the whole region in the 1860s and 1870s.
The Il-Khans In Iran
The ulus of Hülegü were from the beginning in a peculiar political
situation as a consequence of the religious tendencies of the Mongol
rulers in Iran. The negative attitude of Hülegü toward Islam and his
attack against the caliphate led to a breach with the Golden Horde in
southern Russia, where Berke, Batu’s brother, had adopted Islam. The
Il-Khans (“regional khans”) in Iran, on the other hand, remained at first
loyal allies of the great khan Kublai in China, whereas Berke supported
the pretender Arigböge who rose against Kublai. Hülegü remained
hostile toward Egypt, the chief Islamic power in the Near East, so that
the alliance between Berke and the Mamluks in Egypt, concluded in
1261, followed almost naturally. For the first time in history a Mongol
ruler allied himself with a foreign power against another Mongol. Even
European powers became partners of this political constellation. The
Christian states of Tripoli and Acre, founded by the Crusaders, enjoyed
the protection of the pope and the kings of France. It is therefore not
surprising that in Rome and Paris the Il-Khans were regarded as
potential allies against Islamic Egypt.
Hülegü’s son Abagha succeeded his father in 1265. Abagha’s wife
was a Byzantine, a daughter of the emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus,
and he tried to establish closer political and military ties with the Holy
See, England, and France through the Nestorian patriarchs whom he
favoured greatly. His repeated attempts to conquer Syria and Egypt,
however, failed conspicuously, as no cooperation with Byzantium or the
Christian powers could be effected. Abagha died in 1282, and under
Arghūn (1284–91)—who was himself inclined toward Buddhism—the
tolerant policy toward the Christians was continued. He, too, favoured
the Nestorians and sent the Nestorian ecclesiastic Rabban bar Sauma
as his ambassador to Europe in order to establish closer contact with
the Christian powers. Bar Sauma went first to Byzantium and then to
Paris, where he was received by Philip the Fair (1287). In Bordeaux he
met King Edward I of England, and in Rome he was granted an audience
by Pope Nicholas IV (1288). No tangible results followed, however.
Arghūn’s subsequent letters to Philip of France (1289) and to Pope
Nicholas IV (1290) are documents of great linguistic and historic
interest.
In domestic affairs, Arghūn relied greatly on the
services of the Jewish physician Saʿd al-Dawlah, who was
appointed inspector general of the treasury in 1288.
Resistance to Saʿd soon materialized and even provoked
anti-Jewish riots. The financial situation of the empire
became even more precarious when Arghūn’s successor
Gaykhatu (1291–95) introduced paper currency on the
Chinese model. This paper money proved a failure and
resulted in complete economic confusion.
After Ghāzān’s premature death at the age of 31 (1304), his brother Öljeitü (1304–16) became khan. He
had originally been a Christian and was baptized Nicholas but later became a Muslim. He continued the
reform policy of Ghāzān and also kept his advisers, among them the statesman and historian Rashid al-Din.
The capital of the Il-Khans had hitherto been Tabriz, but Öljeitü moved his residence to Solṭāniyyeh near
Qazvīn (1307). In foreign policy the new khan followed the pattern set by his predecessors: he decided to
resume contact with European powers. His letter of 1307 addressed to Philip IV of France offering to
continue friendly relations has survived. Both Ghāzān and Öljeitü were distinguished patrons of the arts
and literature. Under the influence of Islam, the absorption of the Mongols by Iranian civilization became
more and more pronounced. Although Öljeitü’s letter to Philip was written in Mongol, he calls himself not
khan but sultan and uses a Muslim date along with the traditional Mongol designation of years arranged
according to the animal cycle. The seals, like those on Arghūn’s letters, are in Chinese. This coexistence of
Mongol, Turkish, Iranian, and Chinese elements in the Il-Khan empire lasted for more than half a century,
but finally Islamic and Iranian influences proved to be the strongest.
Mausoleum of Öljeitü
Mausoleum of Öljeitü in Solṭāniyyeh,
Iran.
Nevertheless, Iran remained for a long time under the influence of Chinese
culture. Its miniature paintings of the 13th and 14th centuries, most notably
those of the so-called Demotte Shāh-nāmeh, are clearly modeled on Chinese
traditions. Iran produced under Mongol rule a historian who was perhaps the
first ever to try to write a real world history. This was Rashid al-Din’s Jāmiʿ al-
tawārīkh (“The Collection of Chronicles”), which incorporated not only the
history of the Mongols but also that of India, China, and even Europe (the
Franks). This universality could be expected only in a country like Iran where
cultural and political ties existed simultaneously with China, the European
powers, and the other Mongol empires.
Bahrum Gur
killing a dragon, illustration from the Shāh-
nāmeh, 1320–60; in the Cleveland Museum
of Art.