The Mongol Empire

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The Middle Ages

(1101-1406)
The Mongol Empire

Halog, Loremar Ellen D.


Maps of the Mongol Empire
 The Mongol Empire expanded through brutal raids and invasions, but also established
routes of trade and technology between East and West.

From 1206 CE-1294 CE.


Mongol empire
• empire founded by Genghis Khan in 1206.
Originating from the Mongol heartland in the Steppe of
central Asia, by the late 13th century it spanned from
the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Danube River and
the shores of the Persian Gulf in the west. At its peak, it
covered some 9 million square miles (23 million square
km) of territory, making it the largest contiguous land
empire in world history.
Origin And Growth
• The year 1206, when Temüjin, son of
Yesügei, was elected Genghis Khan of a
federation of tribes on the banks of the
Onon River, must be regarded as the
beginning of the Mongol empire. This
federation not only consisted of
Mongols in the proper sense—that is, 
Mongol-speaking tribes—but also
included tribes of Turkish descent.
Before 1206 Genghis Khan was but one
of the tribal leaders fighting for
supremacy in the steppe regions south
and southeast of Lake Baikal; his
victories over the Kereit and then the
Naiman Turks, however, gave him
undisputed authority over the whole of
what is now Mongolia. A series of
campaigns, some of them carried out
Genghis Khan, ink and colour on silk; in the
simultaneously, followed. National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan.
Initial conquests
• The first attack (1205–09) was directed
against the Tangut kingdom of Hsi Hsia (
Xi Xia), a northwestern border-state of 
China, and ended in a declaration of 
allegiance by the Xi Xia king. A
subsequent campaign was aimed at
north China, which at that time was
ruled by the Tungusic Jin dynasty. The
fall of Beijing in 1215 marked the loss of
all the territory north of the Huang He
 (Yellow River) to the Mongols; during
the following years the Jin empire was
reduced to the role of a buffer state
between the Mongols in the north and
the Chinese Song empire in the south.
Other campaigns were launched against
central Asia. In 1218 the Khara-Khitai Silk Road; Mongol empirePortion of the ruins of the
state in east Turkistan was absorbed ancient city of Jiaohe, Uygur Autonomous Region of
into the empire. Xinjiang, China. The city lay along the ancient Silk Road
and was destroyed by Genghis Khan in the 13th century
The assassination of Muslim subjects of Genghis Khan by the
Khwārezmians in Otrar led to a war with the sultanate of Khwārezm
 (Khiva) in west Turkistan (1219–25). Bukhara, Samarkand, and the
capital Urgench were taken and sacked by Mongol armies (1220–21).
Advance troops (after crossing the Caucasus) even penetrated into
southern Russia and raided cities in Crimea (1223). The once
prosperous region of Khwārezm suffered for centuries from the effects
of the Mongol invasion which brought about not only the destruction
of the prosperous towns but also the disintegration of the 
irrigation system on which agriculture in those parts depended. A
similarly destructive campaign was launched against Xi Xia in 1226–27
because the Xi Xia king had refused to assist the Mongols in their
expedition against Khwārezm. The death of Genghis Khan during that
campaign (1227) increased the vindictiveness of the Mongols. The Xi
Xia culture, a mixture of Chinese and Tibetan elements, with 
Buddhism as the state religion, was virtually annihilated.
• In 1227 the Mongol dominions stretched over the vast regions between the Caspian and China
 seas, bordering in the north on the sparsely populated forest belt of Siberia and in the south on
the Pamirs, Tibet, and the central plains of China. This empire contained a multitude of different
peoples, religions, and civilizations, and it is only natural to seek the motivating force behind this
unparalleled expansion. Certainly the traditional antagonism between pastoral, nomadic steppe-
dwellers and settled agricultural civilizations has to be taken into account. Raids by nomads from
the steppe had always occurred from time to time wherever powerful nomadic tribes lived in the
proximity of settled populations, but they had not usually taken on the dimensions of a bid for
world hegemony or domination as in the case of Genghis Khan’s invasions.

Cai WenjiA Mongol encampment, detail from the


Cai Wenji scroll, a Chinese hand scroll of the Nan
(Southern) Song dynasty.
The idea of a heavenly mission to rule the world was certainly present in Genghis Khan’s
own mind and in the minds of many of his successors, but this ideological imperialism had
no foundation in nomadic society as such. It was most probably due to influences from
China where the “one world, one ruler” ideology had a long tradition. The creation of
nomad empires in the steppes and the attempts to extend their rule over the more settled
parts of central Asia and finally over the whole known world may also have been influenced
by the desire to control the routes of intercontinental land trade. The desire for plunder also
cannot be ignored, and it was certainly not by accident that the first attacks by nomad
federations were usually directed against those states which benefited from the control of
trade routes in central Asia such as the famous Silk Road.

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.

Mongol warriors, miniature from


Rashīd al-Dīn's History of the World,
1307; in the Edinburgh University

• 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.

Genghis KhanDetail of a statue of Genghis Khan, near Ulaanbaatar (Ulan


Bator), Mongolia
The central power rested with the khan, who was assisted by military and political
councilors. No departmental administration was, however, established during the
early stages of Genghis Khan’s empire. The highly hierarchized military
organization of the Mongols had no political or administrative counterpart. The
influence of the councilors, who were appointed by the khan regardless of their
nationality, was nevertheless great. It was a former Jin subject, the Khitan Yelü
Chucai (1190–1244), a man of high talents with an excellent Chinese education,
who dissuaded Genghis from converting the whole of north China into
pastureland. Other councilors were Uighurs, and for some time the 
Uighur language was as much used in the court chancery as Mongol. The Uighur
script was also adopted for writing Mongol. The oldest known document in the 
Mongol language is a stone inscription carved in approximately 1224.
 The economy of the conquered areas was not properly organized
during the period of conquest. The abolition of highly organized
governments gave an opportunity for the exploitation of local
production by the Mongol appanage-holders who relied to a great
extent on non-Mongol tax-farmers. There was no single financial
system for the whole empire or even for large parts of it. The
absence of civil organization at the top, the great independence of
the various appanages, and the high priority accorded to military
affairs had a strongly disintegrating effect and were, at least in the
early phases of Mongol rule, detrimental to economic progress and
prosperity. The Mongol empire was, under Genghis and his
successors, not yet a state in the normal sense of the word but a
vast agglomeration of widely different territories held together by
military domination.  This general tendency, together with the
absence of an original Mongol concept
 As the empire grew through new conquests after Genghis’s death, for ruling a settled population, accounts
the same pattern repeated itself: a period of military, and at the for the entirely different development
same time decentralized, rule marked the first stage of Mongol that occurred in various countries. This
domination. The result was a noticeable variation of practice within resulted in an empire that may not have
the empire. Newly conquered areas were still subject to direct been “Mongol” but was a Chinese,
exploitation bearing the imprint of a nomadic and military mentality, Persian, or central Asian empire with a 
Mongol dynasty. This trend was
but, in those areas which had been subjugated earlier, attempts
expressed more in some locations than
were made to build up a state machinery and bureaucracy in order
others because the absorptive power of
to consolidate Mongol rule. This was done mostly in accordance the various civilizations differed in
with the traditional administrative system of the individual territory. intensity. In China, for instance, the
Mongols could maintain their rule better
than elsewhere because the strong
Chinese tradition of centralized state
power supplied a stable framework of
governmental organization.
The original absence of a state concept on the part of the Mongols is reflected in the ruling
clan’s attitude to the empire. The empire was considered to be not the khan’s personal
property but the heirloom of the imperial clan as a whole. Already in Genghis’s lifetime the
empire was divided among his four favourite sons into ulus, a Mongol word which denotes
the supremacy over a certain number of tribes rather than a clearly defined territory. Tolui,
the youngest, received the eastern part—the original homeland of the Mongols together
with the adjacent parts of north China. Ögödei became ruler of the western part of the
steppes (modern northern Xinjiang and western Mongolia). Chagatai received the lands of
Khara-Khitai (modern northern Iran and southern Xinjiang). The eldest son, Jöchi, followed
by his son Batu, ruled over southwest Siberia and west Turkistan (an area later known as the
territory of the Golden Horde). To these four Mongol empires a fifth was added when 
Hülegü, a son of Tolui, completed the conquest of Iran, Iraq, and Syria and became the
founder of the Il-Khanid dynasty in Iran. The unity of the Mongol empire was therefore from
the beginning undermined by disintegrating factors, and the history of the empire after
Genghis’s death may consequently be subdivided into two periods, the first being
characterized by relative unity in the empire ruled by a great khan who was recognized by
all branches of the royal clan, the second showing a more or less complete independence of
the separate empires, which thereafter had no common history.
The Period Of Relative Unity (1227–60)

• After the death of Genghis Khan, a kuriltai (“general


assembly”) of Mongol nobles was convoked in order
to elect the new great khan according to traditional
custom. Jöchi, the eldest of Genghis’s heirs, had
predeceased his father by six months, and the law of 
primogeniture was usually observed by the Mongols.
Chagatai, the oldest surviving son, was passed over,
however, and Ögödei was eventually appointed great
khan (1229–41). His residence was Karakorum, on
the Orhon River in central Mongolia, whence he
directed his campaigns. Yelü Chucai continued to act
as his chief adviser, and Chinkai, a Kereit 
Nestorian Christian, served as head of chancery.
Ögödei himself is described in contemporary sources
as a man of stern temper, energetic but given to
pleasure, and a heavy drinker. His campaigns, like Ancient stone tortoise (foreground)
those of his father, were carried out simultaneously and in the distance the monastery
under generals acting independently in the field but of Erdenezuu (Erdene Zuu),
always directed by orders emanating from the khan Karakorum, north-central Mongolia.
himself and transmitted by a messenger system
covering practically the whole of Asia.
In east Asia a war was launched against the remnant of the Juchen Jin state in north China.
The Jin emperor found himself in a hopeless position because he was attacked from both
sides. During the preceding century, the Jin had taken north China from the Song, but the
Song subsequently allied themselves with the Mongols. In 1234 the Jin capital of Kaifeng fell
through a combined attack by Mongols and Chinese; Aizong, the last Jin emperor,
committed suicide.

Campaigns in the west


In 1236 new campaigns were launched against the west, apparently with the intention
of subjugating Russia and even eastern Europe and adding them to the ulus allotted to Batu
 Khan. The empire of the Volga Bulgars was annihilated in 1237/38, a victory which opened
the way to Russia proper. Central and northern Russia at this time consisted of city-states
and independent princedoms which fell one by one to the fierce attacks of the Mongol
armies. The Mongol advance toward the Baltic Sea was brought to a standstill only by the
Russian winter; the rich trading centre of Novgorod was thus one of the few Russian towns
not to be sacked. Resistance in Russia ceased after the fall of Kiev (December 1240). Further
raids hit Poland, Galicia, and Volhynia; advance parties even reached Breslaù (Wrocław) in 
Silesia. A joint force of German and Polish knights under Duke Henry II of Silesia suffered a
crushing defeat near Legnica (April 9, 1241), but the Mongols preferred not to penetrate
farther into central Germany. Instead, they turned south in order to join forces with their
armies operating in Hungary.
The attack on Hungary did not come as a
surprise to King Béla IV. The Kipchaks, a
Turkish nomad people in southern Russia,
had been subject to Mongol rule, but
under their chieftain Kuten a great part of
them had fled from the Don and Dnieper
 steppes into Hungary and placed
themselves under the protection of the
Hungarians. Batu claimed that the Kipchaks
were his vassals and asked the king of
Hungary to send them back to Russia,
announcing his intention to fight Hungary if
his request was not granted. When he
received no reply, he sent his southern
army against Hungary.

Batu Batu, statue in Söğüt, Turkey.


• This army, led by Subutai, an able
general, succeeded in defeating the
Hungarians at Mohi in April 1241.
King Béla IV was forced to flee into 
Croatia. It does not seem that the
Mongols ever intended to establish
themselves permanently in Silesia
and Moravia. In Hungary, however,
they began to create a nucleus of
Mongol administration and even
struck coins, some of which have
survived. The Hungarian plains may
have appealed to them as possible
pasturelands because of their
similarity to the grasslands of
southern Russia where the Mongols
installed themselves permanently
(as the later Golden Horde). Extent of the Eurasian steppes.
During the preceding years Mongol armies had also been operating in Iran, 
Georgia, and Greater Armenia. The Khwārezm sultan, who had fled before
Genghis Khan’s attacks, became ruler of a kingdom in northwestern Iran and
tried in vain to defend himself against the Mongols. He was murdered in
1231. Georgia had to recognize Mongol sovereignty in 1236. The advance of
the Mongols in Europe and the Near East was, however, stopped by the
death of the great khan Ögödei (December 11, 1241). The necessity to be
present at the kuriltai, which had to elect a successor, and the necessity to
assert their claims made some of the descendants of Genghis change their
plans. Batu and his generals gave up whatever territory they had held in
eastern Europe. The year 1241 therefore marks a turning point of the
greatest importance in European history because in all probability Hungary
at least would have become a Mongol dominion but for the sudden death of
Ögödei.
Electing a new Khan
• The election of a new great khan proved difficult because no
agreement could be reached. In the meantime Töregene, Ögödei’s
widow, ruled by common consent of the Mongol nobles (1242–46).
She wished the appointment of her son Güyük but met with bitter
opposition from Batu, who believed he had a better claim, as a
descendant of Genghis’s eldest son. She succeeded in securing
Güyük’s election in 1246. There is an eyewitness account of this
election by Giovanni da Pian del Carpini, who happened to be in
Karakorum at that time as papal envoy. Güyük himself was, as a
• Thefrom
person, very different empirehis
wasrival Batu.toHeGüyük’s
entrusted was strongly influenced
widow Ogul-Gaimish,
by Nestorianism andwho ruled as regent for three years before
favoured Christian advisers, whereasthe nobles
Batucould
still
reach agreement. Batu himself still showed some eagerness to
adhered to traditional Mongol shamanism and was entirely indifferent
assume the supreme power of great khan but gave up in the
to any outside religion. The two
end because rivals
of old began
age and to prepare
persuaded for war
the Mongol nobles to
against each other, give
but their
Güyük’s
votespremature death
to Möngke Khan, son (1248)
of Tolui. ended both
This meant that
the family feud withthe overlordship
Batu and theofchance
the empire
of apassed
Mongol awaycourt
from the house of
Ögödei and went to the descendants of Genghis’s youngest
dominated by Christian influence.
son. The Chagatai branch of the family felt slighted after
Möngke’s election (1251), and bitter hostility soon developed
between the two families.
The reign of Mongke
• Möngke himself had won fame during Batu’s • In 1255 Hülegü started his offensive. He wiped
western campaigns and distinguished himself in the out the resistance of the powerful Assassin sect
field. He was a benevolent monarch and continued
in 1256 and advanced toward Iraq. Baghdad, the
Güyük’s policy of universal tolerance toward all
capital of the caliphate, fell to the Mongols in
religions. In his reign the capital Karakorum reached
1258, and the last ʿAbbāsid caliph was put to
a splendour which reflected the vastness of the
death. These events had a far-reaching influence
empire. A European guest at the court in January
1254, the French friar Willem van Ruysbroeck left
on the religious situation in the Near East.
an interesting account of the Mongol capital, where Christians and Shīʿites welcomed the Mongols
Christian churches, Muslim mosques, and Buddhist because they had been antagonized by the Sunni
temples flourished and envoys from the whole  orthodoxy of the caliphate. In Syria, Palestine,
known world met. At the same time, Möngke and Asia Minor the Christians hoped for a further
continued to expand the empire and prepared for advance by Hülegü, who was regarded as a
the conquest of hitherto unsubdued neighbouring protector against their Islamic rulers and whose
countries. In this he was assisted by his two wife was a Nestorian Christian. In 1259 Hülegü’s
brothers Hülegü and Kublai. To Hülegü he entrusted armies moved into Syria, took Damascus and 
the campaign against Iran, of which only a northern Aleppo, and reached the shores of the 
province had come firmly under Mongol control. Mediterranean Sea. The road to Egypt seemed
open, but in 1260 the Mamlūk army inflicted a
crushing defeat on the Mongols at the Battle of
ʿAyn Jālūt. Egypt was saved and the further
expansion of the Mongol empire was blocked.
Election of Kublai
At the other end of Asia a campaign with similar success took place against China. The leader was
Kublai, whose generals outflanked the Chinese defenses by moving toward Annam via the
southwest of China which was occupied by the independent Tai kingdom of Nan-chao. Later on
Möngke himself took command of the China campaign (1257). Again, as in 1241, fate intervened
and brought Mongol operations to a temporary standstill. Möngke died in August 1259 in the field
during the siege of a provincial town in Sichuan. There followed, as usual, an internal feud between
various claimants to the title of great khan. Kublai secured his own election while still in the field
(1260), but his younger brother Arigböge proclaimed himself khan in Karakorum. Hülegü was too
far away and moreover too immersed in his Syrian campaign to exert any influence over the
election. He seems, however, to have favoured Kublai, and these two brothers at least remained
friendly, although (or because) Kublai’s dominion was so distant and his overlordship therefore
more or less nominal.

Kublai Khan; in the National Palace Museum, Taipei


The year of Kublai’s accession to the throne marks, in any case, a turning
point in the history of the Mongol empires. In theory Kublai was, as
grand khan, the ruler of an empire stretching from China and Korea to
Iran and southern Russia, but the diversity of the subjugated countries
made itself more and more felt. Kublai came to regard himself as a
Chinese emperor more than anything else, and similarly the other
dominions developed on lines which were less and less Mongol. This
tendency may be regarded as concomitant with the conversion of the
various khans to other religions, chiefly Islam and Buddhism. In Kublai’s
case this conversion from Mongol to Chinese civilization was
accentuated by the transfer of his capital to Beijing (1260), which he
began to rebuild in 1267. Mongolia was no longer the real centre of the
empire, not even of Kublai’s dominions.

Mongol empire
The extent of the Mongol empire at various points in history.
The Yuan Dynasty In China (1279–1368)

• Kublai Khan was one of China’s greatest


emperors. He achieved the unification of
that country by annihilating the national
Song empire (1279). Contrary to former
custom, he treated the deposed imperial
family well and forbade his generals from
resorting to indiscriminate slaughter. After
1279 no new territories were added to the
Mongol-Chinese empire, and a pair of
attempts to expand Mongol rule to Japan
were thwarted by the 
Kamikaze of 1274 and 1281. None of the
later Yuan emperors reached the stature of
Kublai. His immediate successor was his
grandson, Temür (1295–1307), who was
able to keep Mongol rule intact and
maintain his position against repeated
attacks from the Ögödei branch of  Polo, Marco; Kublai Khan
Genghis Khan’s family. The rival khan Kaidu Marco Polo, his uncle, and his father presenting the
 was defeated in 1301 and peace was pope's letter at the court of Kublai Khan, detail of
an illuminated manuscript; in the Bodleian Library,
restored in the northwestern parts of the
Oxford, England.
empire.
Although minor rebellions against the government could be still
quelled by Mongol troops, the power of the court gradually began to
decline. Family feuds and court intrigues weakened the power of later
emperors. In several cases boys were enthroned who were nothing but
puppets in the hands of ambitious ministers. The decline of the emperors
is reflected in their surviving portraits. The influence of Chinese culture
 made itself more and more felt at court and among some of the Mongol
nobility, although other Mongols remained hostile to everything Chinese.
The last Mongol emperor, Togon-temür (reigned 1333–68), had become
emperor at the age of 13. He had received the rudiments of a Chinese
education and was, like some of his predecessors, a pious Buddhist and
a benevolent though weak ruler. During the first years of his reign,
however, power was in the hands of Bayan, a minister who belonged to
the anti-Chinese faction and whose measures deepened the resentment
of the educated Chinese against Mongol rule.
Decline of Mongol power in China

The final decline of Mongol power in China and the chaotic


conditions during Togon-temür’s reign were but one of the many
“times of trouble ” in Chinese history. There was widespread unrest
which often took the form of local rebellions against the Mongol
authorities. The reasons for this development were chiefly economic,
and it was, as usual in China, in the countryside that insurgents first
ventured their attacks on the local administration. The situation of
the peasantry was in many areas desperate; small farmers and
tenants had to shoulder the burden of excessive taxation and corvée
duties. The arbitrariness of Mongol nobles and officials caused
general resentment among all Chinese.
It appears that the Mongol ruling class was never able to establish satisfactory
relations with the agricultural population of China. Their lack of sympathy for agricultural
problems was also reflected in the Mongol legislation on hunting: the peasants were
forbidden to protect their crops against game animals and had moreover to assist the
Mongols in hunting expeditions which invariably caused great damage in the fields. In the
large towns, relations between Mongols and Chinese were usually better than in the
countryside. Conditions became particularly strained in 1351 when the government
proceeded to carry out an enormous plan for water conservation in the Huang He (Yellow
River) region, which had been suffering from catastrophic floods. The leaders of local
rebellions came without exception from the lower strata of society. They included salt
smugglers, petty officials, sectarian leaders, monks, and shamans. In the southeastern
provinces, agriculturally the richest and therefore most ruthlessly exploited region of the
whole empire, rebellions were particularly numerous. The province of Zhejiang had for
centuries been the greatest rice surplus area and Beijing, with its sizable population, had
always been dependent on supplies from this region. When the lines of communication
between north and south were cut by rebellions, the situation in the capital became
precarious. The paper money on which the currency was based became entirely valueless,
and the treasury was soon depleted. This again impaired the military efforts of the
government.
It is a remarkable feature of the history of these years that at first the
various rebellions, occurring independently of each other, were not
motivated by nationalist feeling among the oppressed peasants but were
directed against the upper classes regardless of their nationality.
Contemporary sources provide abundant evidence that the Chinese gentry
had as much to fear from the insurgents as had the Mongols. This explains
why so many Chinese continued to assist the government. They apparently
preferred the harsh rule of the foreigners to the violent popular movements
of their compatriots. These rebels committed atrocities which for a number
of years proved a great obstacle to a more widespread uprising. Gradually,
however, more and more educated Chinese were won over to the cause of
the rebels, who in their turn learned from them how to tackle the problems
of administration and warfare.
The most successful rebel leader was the former monk Zhu Chongba.
Born to a family of poor peasants, he showed more energy, patience, and
military talent than his rivals. He succeeded not only in establishing himself
firmly in the key economic areas but also in eliminating his rivals in the
struggle for power. Zhu finally drove the Mongols out of Beijing (1368) and
made himself emperor of a new dynasty, the Ming. He adopted the 
reign name Hongwu and, assisted by able generals, extended his rule over the
whole of northern China by 1359. Mongol provincial commanders in the
southwest continued their resistance, however, and Ming power was not
established there until much later (Szechwan, 1371; Yünnan, 1382). The last
Mongol emperor, Togon-temür, fled into the steppes and died there in 1370.
Thus ended more than a century of Mongol rule over China, The Mongols’
defeat cannot, however, be attributed to degeneracy or corruption by the
mollifying influences of life in a highly civilized Chinese atmosphere. Subsequent
events showed that the Mongols had lost nothing of their military vigour, and they
remained a menace to the northwest Chinese frontier. A realization of this
potential danger possibly made the Hongwu emperor at first establish his capital
not in Beijing, which was more or less a frontier town, but in the heart of China,
in Nanjing, where he had set up his residence already in 1364. Zhu Chongba’s rise
to imperial power and the re-establishment of Chinese rule led to the elimination
of political and economic activity not only among the Mongols but also among the
many non-Mongol foreigners who had held office or made fortunes as merchants
under the Mongols. Those foreigners who chose to stay in China changed their
family names and gradually became assimilated. Foreign religions such as Islam
 and Christianity lost their privileges. Christianity was in fact completely wiped out
as a consequence of the strong nationalist feelings of the Chinese.
Effects of Mongol Rule
The general impact of Mongol domination over China is difficult to
assess. The suspension of literary examinations, the exclusion of
Chinese from higher offices, and the resulting frustration of the former
ruling class of scholar-officials led to a sort of intellectual eremitism.
Traditional forms of Chinese literature and art continued to be practised
by a class which was barred from participation in political affairs. The
only branches of the civil service where the cooperation of educated
Chinese was absolutely indispensable had been those concerned with
ritual and historiography. The Mongol language never wholly replaced 
Chinese as the medium for historiography or for official documents, and
most of the inscriptions surviving from the Mongol period are bilingual.
Chinese literary life remained remarkably free, perhaps because the
ruling minority was indifferent to, or even unable to read, what their
subjects wrote in Chinese. It is surprising to see how freely Chinese
writers after 1280 expressed their national, loyalist, and anti-Mongol
feelings.
The period of Mongol rule over China is, in the field of literature, also marked by a
considerable output of drama and of popular novels, written in the vernacular. This
phenomenon is, however, not directly connected with Mongol rule, for it is difficult to
visualize a Mongol audience in front of a Chinese stage. A social cause, the growing influence
and prominence of the merchant class, may have been instrumental. The traders and
merchants were among the very few groups in the population who actually benefited from
Mongol rule. Another such group comprised the priests of non-Chinese religions (Islam, 
Christianity, Judaism) who enjoyed the exemption from taxes which was customary in China
for the Buddhist and, to a lesser extent, the Daoist clergy. The Mongols themselves, at least
at court, gave up their traditional forms of worship and became to a great extent converts to 
Tibetan Buddhism, which was already flourishing in China under Kublai Khan. The growing
influence of Tibetan Buddhism can be seen in the increasing number of Mongols who were
given Buddhist names derived from Tibetan. Chinese Buddhism, on the other hand,
remained on the whole hostile toward the Tibetan clergy, who were despised not only for
their creed but also for being a favourite ally of the invaders. Furthermore, many Chinese
Buddhist monasteries were strongholds of Chinese traditional culture. The same is true of 
Daoism. Although the Daoist clergy had originally been granted the same privileges as the
Buddhists, the Daoist religion had already under Kublai begun to suffer from official
persecution, chiefly perhaps because the Buddhist clergy regarded Daoism as a dangerous
rival and because Daoist sects and monasteries were, not without justification, looked on as
centres of secret activities and unbridled nationalism.
All things considered, it may safely be said that Chinese civilization as a
whole was influenced surprisingly little by Mongol rule. It was, however,
responsible for a certain deviation from accepted standards of ethical
 behaviour as far as the law and government were concerned. The autocratic
and totalitarian features of China under the Ming dynasty are perhaps to be
attributed to the fact that the country had been under barbarian rule for more
than a century.
The Mongols themselves, taken as a group, remained largely aloof from
Chinese culture. A number became proficient Chinese scholars, however, and
their poems and calligraphy were on par with native Chinese. The later
emperors, after some initial efforts under Kublai, encouraged translations from
Chinese into Mongol, and the earliest specimens of printing in Mongol were
produced in China. Most of these translations are now lost as a consequence of
Ming nationalism, but the few existing fragments, mostly Buddhist texts, are of
the highest importance for the history of the Mongol language. The Mongols
were expelled from China in or soon after 1368. For the next two centuries
they lived in Mongolia just as they had before their conquests: a warlike nomad
people with only a few traces of their long sojourn among the Chinese.
Later history of the Mongols
For several centuries after 1368 the Mongols were confined to their original
homeland in the steppes, but the memory of their past grandeur and of their
domination over China led to intermittent attempts to regain their lost position.
The Ming emperors on the other hand regarded the Mongols as their subjects and
Mongolia as a part of their empire. The history of the Mongols in these years is,
apart from the usual feuds between rival clans, dominated by their relations with
China. The early Ming emperors tried repeatedly, but without lasting success, to
occupy the plains of Mongolia. In 1388 Toquz Temür, grandson of Togon-temür,
was defeated by a Chinese expeditionary force in northeastern Mongolia near Lake
Buir. A generation later, in 1410, another Chinese expedition reached the Onon
River and defeated Oljai Temür (reigned 1403–12). Oljai later lost his hegemony to
the Oirat clan. The power of the Oirats reached its height in the mid-15th century
when Esen Taiji (reigned 1439–55) launched a campaign against the Ming empire
(1449). Esen succeeded in capturing the Ming emperor Zhengtong and took him as
a prisoner of war to Mongolia. He even besieged Beijing, but the stubborn
resistance of the Chinese garrison, together with dissension in the Mongol camp
and skilful Chinese diplomacy, brought about a turning of the tide.
Mongol Empires In Central Asia

The Chagatai line of Genghis Khan’s family had received the ulus consisting


of the former Khara-Khitai empire stretching east of Lake Balkhash, including the
whole Tarim Basin as well as Transoxania and Afghanistan. Their empire had a
predominantly Turkish population, and there the traditions of the steppe
remained much stronger than in the contemporary Mongol empire in China. The
civilization of the Muslim oasis-dwellers influenced the nomadic character of the
Chagatai empire only to a very limited degree, and the expansionist tendencies
inherited from the earlier rulers made themselves repeatedly felt. The history of
the Chagatai empire seems rather confused because there are few reliable
sources; even the reign dates of the khans cannot always be ascertained. From
1267 to 1301 the Chagatai empire was subject to Ögödei’s descendant Kaidu,
and it was only after the fall of the latter that the Chagatai khans regained their
independence.
In foreign policy the Chagatai empire was notable for its continuous
attempts to conquer India by way of Afghanistan and the Punjab Plain.
The conquest of India had been one of the aims of Genghis himself but
was soon abandoned in favour of other campaigns. The Chagatai rulers
on various occasions sent their armies through Afghanistan into India,
chiefly because on all other frontiers relatively stable states—the Yüan
empire in the east and the Il-Khan state in the west—prevented a policy
of aggression. This left the south as the only promising direction of
attack. For several decades the Mongols remained a dangerous enemy
for the Muslim sultans of Delhi. The Mongol invasions from Afghanistan
became particularly fierce under Duwa Khan (1301–05), and the Delhi
sultan ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Khaljī was able to defend his capital only with great
difficulty against the Chagatai expeditionary forces.
The situation of Islam had, in spite of the
conversion of earlier khans, remained precarious. When,
after a short period of internal stability (1301–25), the 
khan Tarmashirin again adopted Islam (1326), there
followed a temporary division between the eastern and
western parts of his empire. Some sources even state
that Tarmashirin was murdered by the adherents of 
Buddhism and shamanism because of his conversion to
Islam. Under Tughluq Temür (1347–63) the empire was
reunified, but his successors were mere puppets. Actual
power lay in the hands of the amir Timur (Tamerlane,
1336–1405) who continued the Chagatai rule although
he was not a Mongol himself. Turkish influence had
become very strong during the 14th century, but Mongol
was still used as an official language in the Turfan region
as late as 1369. In Timur’s reign, however, the
Chagatai ulus had effectively ceased to be a Mongol
empire and had become a Turkish and Islamic state.
Nevertheless, there remain to this day traces of Mongol
rule over Afghanistan; the Moghol people still speak a
Mongol dialect with some archaic features dating back to
the period of the Mongol conquest in the 13th century. 
Persian supplanted Mongol and, to a certain degree,
even Turkish as the official and literary language.

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.

The reign of Maḥmud Ghāzān (1295–1304) brought changes in several


fields. He introduced fiscal and monetary reforms and reorganized the
administration of the whole empire. His conversion to Islam marks a
definite break in Mongol and Iranian history. Buddhism was persecuted as
idolatry, and even the Jews and Christians suffered. The adoption of Islam
by the Mongols facilitated the assimilation of Mongols and Turks in north
Iran by eliminating their religious differences. Ghāzān also declared himself
formally independent of the court in Beijing, and any reference to the great
khans in coin inscriptions or official documents was dropped. He no longer
called himself Il-Khan but khan in order to underline his sovereignty. This
emergence of Iran as an independent state was perhaps prompted by the
death in 1294 of Kublai Khan, whose relations with his nephews and great-
nephews in Iran had always been friendly.
Maḥmūd Ghāzān
Receiving the nobles of Khorāsān, detail of
an illumination from the Mongol
manuscript Jāmiʿ at-tawārīkh, c. 1307; in the
University of Edinburgh Library (MS. Or.20)

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.

Öljeitü’s son and heir, Abū Saʿīd, was the first of


the Il-Khan rulers to bear a Muslim name. As he was
only 12 years old when he came to the throne (1317),
actual power remained largely in the hands of local
amirs. There followed two decades of internal
struggles and gradual disintegration. When Abū Saʿīd
died childless in 1335, the Il-Khan empire practically
ceased to exist as a political unity.
The Golden Horde

The situation in Batu’s ulus was for a


long time dominated by antagonism to the
Il-Khan empire. For more than a century
the rulers of the Golden Horde, or Kipchak
Khanate, tried to occupy the Caucasus and
advance into Iran. This led to an anti-
Persian alliance with Egypt. In the
economic field, too, relations between the
Golden Horde and Egypt developed
remarkably, and a flourishing sea trade
carried goods between the two countries.
Artisans and artists came from Egypt to
the khan’s court at Sarai Batu on the
lower Volga, so that Egyptian influence Mongol empire; Golden Horde
can be found in many of the works of art Toda Mongke and His Mongol Horde,
and architecture of the Golden Horde watercolour on paper depicting a khan at the
head of the Golden Horde.
empire.
The religious situation differed very much from that in Iran, although both 
Mongol empires were eventually converted to Islam, which favoured the
amalgamation of Turks and Mongols. In Iran, Islam was the religion of the
subjugated population, but at the same time Nestorianism and Buddhism were
powerful rivals. In southern Russia, however, Nestorianism had never played a
prominent role, and Buddhism was practically nonexistent. This religious vacuum 
facilitated the adoption of Islam, and the native shamanism of the Mongols was
soon supplanted by the new creed. The khans, on the other hand, observed
tolerance toward the Orthodox church of their Russian subjects. The patriarchs
enjoyed a number of privileges not unlike those granted by the khans in China.
This noninterference in Russian religious life later proved a major political factor
because the Orthodox church assumed a national function under the foreign
rulers, not unlike that of the Orthodox clergy in Greece and the Balkan countries
under Turkish rule, when the Christian religion and nationalism were closely allied.
The various Russian city-states and princedoms remained under Mongol rule; the khans
contented themselves with levying tribute that was collected by specially
appointed basqaq (“officials”). An important consequence of Mongol rule was the gradual
transfer of Russian national life from Kiev to Moscow. There were contacts with western
Europe, but they were mostly of an economic nature. The republic of Genoa had as early as
1267 established a trade post at Kaffa (Feodosiya) in Crimea. In spite of several local incidents
Genoese merchants continued their activities for a long time in the Golden Horde empire.
Relations with Byzantium were mostly friendly, and Mongol rulers even occasionally sent
armies to assist the emperors of Constantinople in their wars against Bulgaria. The Mongols
themselves were deeply affected by their surroundings. The majority of their subjects in the
steppe regions of southern Russia were Turkish (Kumans, Kipchaks, etc.), and this strong
Turkish element led comparatively soon to the disappearance of distinctively Mongol
features. The Mongol language was given up in favour of Turkish, and continuous
intermarriage resulted finally in the formation of a new Islamic population, the Tatars of
Russia. In addition to Turkish and Mongol elements, there was in the Tatar population an
admixture of other indigenous populations such as the Volga Bulgars and the Volga-Finnish
peoples.
Under Mengü Temür (1267–80), Berke’s successor, the Golden Horde
khanate became virtually independent of the great khan Kublai in Beijing.
Under his successors, actual power rested with Nogay, a prince who had
distinguished himself in several campaigns and had united the eastern Tatars
against the authority of the central court. His pretensions finally led to war
and his defeat in 1299 by the legitimate khan Toqtu (1290–1312). Under Öz
Beg (Uzbek; 1312–42) the political power of the empire reached its peak, and
Islamic culture flourished under the energetic ruler whose name survives to
this day in that of Uzbekistan. He also granted to Ivan I of Moscow the title of 
grand duke for his services as a collector of tribute from the Tatars, a measure
which strengthened the predominance of Moscow in Russia. The later rulers
of the Horde were confronted with a new problem on their frontiers when the
Ottoman Turks reached the Dardanelles in 1354. This not only weakened their
maritime ties with Egypt but also cut the khanate off from the Mediterranean
and thereby from southern Europe.
This growing isolation did not prevent the khans from making several
attempts to advance toward the south. Jani Beg (1342–57) defeated the
Persians and took Tabriz in 1357, but his early death prevented the
consolidation of the Horde in Azerbaijan; the Caucasus also was given up.
Another dangerous enemy of the khanate was the 
grand duchy of Lithuania, which for some time occupied large parts of 
Ukraine. The last khan of the Golden Horde who was undisputed ruler
over the whole territory was Tokhtamysh (1378–95). He joined forces
with the White Horde, an agglomeration of clans in western Siberia
 which had been led by the descendants of Orda, Batu’s eldest brother.
Tokhtamysh also renewed the vassalage of the Moscow princes but
shortly afterward met a new enemy in Timur (Tamerlane). The latter’s
campaigns in south Russia brought no lasting results but weakened the
political and military power of the Horde.
The later history of the Mongols, or rather of the Tatars, in Russia
followed a course similar to that of the other Islamic Mongol empires:
internal struggles and feuds, disintegration, and finally division into
independent states. Meanwhile, the Moscow kingdom emerged as a major
power, and the history of the Tatars became a part of Russian history. In the
mid-15th century there remained, apart from the remnants of the Golden
Horde, three khanates: those of Astrakhan, Kazan, and the Crimea. Only
these three survived into the 16th century. In 1783 the last Genghisid ruler
in Europe, the Crimean khan Shahin Girai, was deposed by the Russians. The
long contact between Russia and the Tatars had its effect upon both nations.
For Russia, Tatar influence has been an important factor in many fields.
Turkish and Mongol loanwords are not infrequent in Russian, and the
financial, political, and military organization of medieval Russia showed
many Tatar elements.

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