The Rise And Fall Of The Mongol Empire

The rise and fall of the Mongol Empire is one of the most profound events that have occurred in human history. The empire, one of the most extensive empires, was established in the 13th century under the leadership of Genghis Khan. The empire, which spanned Eastern Europe and East Asia, left a lasting effect on the world, influencing trade, culture, and geopolitics.

Even though the empire would soon disintegrate into several regional powers, the impact that the Mongols left behind would outlast their real dominion. The Mongols were not only brilliant combat innovators, but they also ushered in a lengthy period of peace and stability in Central Asia, China, the Middle East, and, Russia.

Before the foundation of the empire, the Mongols were made up of hundreds of tribes that all lived in the lands to the northwest of China. These tribes spoke the same language and practiced similar cultural traditions and beliefs, but they were more devoted to their tribal members than to any concept or vision of a unified Mongol nation.

The Mongols were known for their nomadic lifestyle, as they did not reside in permanent settlements and instead traveled around several times a year, either in pursuit of herd animals or in quest of fresh grazing pastures for their sheep and goats. The Mongol diet consisted primarily of sheep and goats, but they were also known to eat horses.

The horse was an essential part of Mongol society. Horses made it possible for Mongol tribes to travel across the steppe with relative ease and to hunt wild animals. Archery and horsemanship were highly prized talents. The Mongol horse archer was their most powerful weapon against their adversaries who were mostly foot soldiers.

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan, born Temüjin in the early 1160s, was the oldest child of Yesugei, a Mongol leader of the Borjigin clan, and his wife Hö’elün of the Olkhonud tribe, was born between 1155 and 1167. Temüjin was eight years old when Yesugei died, and his family was abandoned by their tribe in the Mongol steppe.

Temüjin slowly grew a small following and joined forces with Jamukha and Toghrul, two other Mongol chieftains, in battles against other Mongol tribes. Temüjin unified the Mongolian tribes through a combination of military strength, strategic alliances, and imaginative leadership. After solidifying authority in 1206, he was dubbed Genghis Khan, the “Universal Ruler,” by a gathering of Mongol chieftains. Genghis Khan’s military methods, such as the adept employment of cavalry and psychological warfare, were critical to the empire’s early triumphs.

Genghis launched a conquest war, with the tribes fully unified behind him. He invaded the Jin dynasty in northern China after vassalizing the Western Xia state in 1211, compelling Jin Emperor Xuanzong to evacuate the northern half of his domain in 1214. In 1218, Mongol forces seized Qara Khitai, a Central Asian khanate, allowing Genghis to lead an assault on the neighboring Khwarazmian Empire the next year. The invading Mongols deposed the Khwarazmian empire and ravaged Transoxiana and Khorasan, while another expedition reached Georgia and Kievan Rus’. Genghis died in 1227 while besieging the rebellious Western Xia; his third son and successor, Ögedei, replaced him two years later.

Early Life Of Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan’s childhood was difficult. When Genghis was eight years old, his father was killed by a rival tribe, and his people disowned him, along with his mother and six siblings. He and his family struggled for several years, living alone in the vast Mongol desert. It is not known, but historians generally agree that Genghis killed his brother in a “hunting accident” in order to acquire complete control of his household. He married his first wife, Borte, while he was a teenager.

Genghis gained enough status in Mongol society as a result of his marriage to Borte to begin negotiating partnerships with other tribes. During his early adult life, Genghis established a reputation as a competent and daring warrior, and he gradually began to conquer and assimilate neighboring tribes into his domain. Khan broke with convention by appointing generals and other critical positions in his government based on aptitude rather than family ties or kinship. Khan frequently assassinated the governing members of an opposing tribe after defeating them and then merged the hostile tribesmen into his army.

Death Of Genghis Khan

The exact cause of the Khan’s death has sparked several discussions. Rashid al-Din and Yuán Sh both state that he was sick, probably with malaria, typhus, or bubonic plague. Marco Polo claims that the Khan was killed with an arrow during a siege, while Carpini claims that Genghis was hit by lightning. Legends arose surrounding the event, the most famous of which describes how Gurbelchin, the Xia emperor’s previous wife, castrated Genghis with a hidden knife during sexual intercourse. According to popular mythology, Genghis fell from his horse while hunting. He became gravely ill as a result of internal injuries that were not curable with the medicine available at the time and succumbed to his injuries on August 18, 1227.

Genghis was returned to Mongolia after his death and buried on or near the revered Burkhan Khaldun peak in the Khentii Mountains, a location he had personally chosen years earlier. The specifics of the funeral procession and burial were not made public; the mountain, dubbed ikh khorig (lit. “Great Taboo”; i.e. forbidden zone), was off-limits to all bars its Uriankhai guard. When Ogedei gained the throne in 1229, he honored the tomb with three days of offerings and the sacrifice of thirty maidens. Ratchnevsky speculates that the Mongols, who had no knowledge of preservation procedures, may have buried the khan in the Ordos to prevent his body from rotting in the summer heat; Atwood vehemently refutes this theory.

Legacy Of Genghis Khan

Genghis’ empire was far from its zenith in terms of power and influence. Soon after Khan’s death, the Xi Xai was crushed, and Khan’s sons were perfectly capable of carrying out their own invasions. In the following decades, Mongol rule extended to China, Korea, Vietnam, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Russia.

Conquests and Expansion

The Mongol Empire developed fast under Genghis Khan and his successors, particularly his grandsons Kublai Khan and Hulagu Khan. With Mongolia now united under a single ruler, it was only a matter of time before the Mongols moved outside their borders to undertake attacks and capture new territory.

The Xi Xia kingdom in Northern China was the first to fall victim to the Mongols. The Mongols assaulted the Xi Xia capital of Yinchuan and besieged it in 1209. The Mongol army was nearly completely composed of horses and lacked siege engines such as catapults and mangonels. Despite this obvious disadvantage, the Mongols surrounded the city and eventually forced Yinchuan’s ruler to surrender and become a tributary.

The Mongols ruled over enormous swaths of Central Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. The Khwarazmian Empire, the Song Dynasty in China, and the Abbasid Caliphate were all notable conquests—the Mongol military machine, comprised of trained riders and strong siege engines, instilled fear in enemies.

The neighboring Jin Dynasty, conscious of the increasing power to its north, asked that Genghis Khan surrender to the authority of the Chinese Emperor. Between 1211 and 1214, Khan retaliated by assaulting the Chinese and launched a series of destructive assaults deep into Jin territory.

By 1214, the Mongols had arrived in Zhongdu, modern-day Beijing. The Jin monarch pledged to pay the Mongols tribute in gold and silk but then relocated his capital from Zhongdu to Kaifeng, which Genghis Khan considered a breach of their agreement. In retaliation to this alleged treason, the Mongols stormed Zhongdu and massacred or enslaved the majority of its population with the help of Jin deserters.

Central Asia

Along with his traditional domains in Mongolia, Genghis Khan now ruled most of China. Khan intended to establish friendly relations with the Persian rulers of the Khwarezm Empire, which reigned over much of Central Asia and Iran. The two countries established a trade pact. When the first Mongol caravan arrived, however, the commodities it was bringing were stolen, and the merchants and envoys were executed and their heads were returned to Khan.

Khan was enraged by this treachery and marched his army into the Khwarezm Empire, inflicting horrific crimes on its people. Skilled workers were frequently spared, but the remainder of the population was massacred. While the Mongols had struggled to besiege walled cities only a few years before, they had no such problems in Persia due to the competent Chinese engineers they recruited from their newly captured provinces. The Mongols decimated the fortified cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, killing thousands of their residents.

The Mongols had taken control of the whole Khwarezm Empire only two years after the invasion began in 1219. It is thought that about 2.5 million people died as a result of this invasion, but specific figures are unknown.

South Asia

The Khilji Dynasty, which dominated a large portion of modern-day Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, presented the Mongols with a formidable foe that prevented them from conquering South Asia. But later on, the Timurids—who are thought to be descended from Genghis Khan—took control of a greater portion of Asia.

Born in Central Asia, Babur the Mughal Empire’s founder (regimen 1526–1530) was descended on his mother’s side from Genghis Khan and on his father’s side from Timur, the Turco–Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire. Babur was of Mongol descent and a member of the Turkicized Barlas tribe. After being driven from his native lands in Central Asia, Babur looked to India to fulfill his dreams.

The term “Mughal” and “Moghul” were used to emphasize the Mongol roots of the Timurid dynasty, and they came from the Arabic and Persian distortion of the word “Mongol”. Although the phrase became popular in the 19th century, Indologists continue to contest it. The empire had been referred to by similar transliterations, such as “Mogul” and “Moghul”. However, Babur’s forebears stood out from the traditional Mongols in that they were more inclined toward Persian culture than Turko-Mongol culture. 

Battle Tactics

The Mongol army was generally outnumbered, but they used their greater mobility and speed to their advantage. Every time they attacked a city or a fortified town, the mounted Mongol soldiers fled before the enemy could respond. In the subsequent decades and centuries, these hit-and-run tactics became a well-known mainstay of Mongol philosophy.

The Mongols were also notorious for simulating withdrawal in the face of a numerically stronger opponent. The enemy army frequently chased the Mongol force, believing they had the upper hand, only to be ambushed. It was not uncommon for the Mongols to be pursued by more traditional armies for days. The Mongols would fight only when the pursuing army was weary, disorganized, and cut off from its supply lines. The end outcome was frequently a little short of a slaughter.

Administration

At its peak, the Mongol Empire’s immense territory was hard to rule directly by one individual. The Mongols were well aware of this and made certain that the majority of governance responsibilities were delegated to local rulers who were devoted subordinates to the Mongols. As long as the remaining local rulers paid their taxes and other types of tributes on time, they were mostly left undisturbed.

Later Mongol emperors, such as Genghis Khan’s grandson Kublai Khan, administered China with remarkable efficiency. He simplified taxation, and Kublai established a strong postal service that not only allowed generals and government officials to communicate with relative ease but also made merchants’ lives considerably easier. There were around 1,400 postal stations in Kublai’s realm at the time of his death. Another triumph of Mongol control in China was agricultural reform. Kublai even established the Office for Agricultural Stimulation. This government agency was responsible for increasing the yield of Chinese agriculture and preventing hunger among its people.

Disintegration and Decline

The Mongol Empire saw significant transformations in the late 1200s. After conquering all of China and establishing the Yuan dynasty Kublai Khan died in 1294. His grandson Temür Khan replaced him and carried on Kublai’s policies. At the same time, the Toluid Civil War, as well as the Berke-Hulagu War and the subsequent Kaidu-Kublai War, greatly weakened the great Khan’s authority over the entire Mongol Empire. The empire split into autonomous khanates, the Yuan dynasty, and the three western khanates: the Golden Horde, the Chagatai Khanate, and the Ilkhanate.

Only the Ilkhanate remained faithful to the Yuan court, but it went through its power struggle, partly due to a confrontation with the expanding Islamic forces in the empire’s southwest.

Following Kaidu’s death, the Chatagai king Duwa started a peace proposal and convinced the Ögedeids to submit to Temür Khan. In 1304, the Khanates signed a peace treaty and acknowledged Yuan ruler Temür’s supremacy. This established the Yuan dynasty’s formal authority over the western khanates, which would remain for several decades. This dominance was founded on weaker roots than previous Khagans, and each of the four Khanates continued to expand independently and act as autonomous nations.

The Silk Road 

The Mongols were well aware of the importance of the “Silk Road”. They guarded the Silk Road against bandits and provided security to traders. The term “Silk Road” refers to the complicated commercial networks that existed between Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia.

Silk from China first appeared in the first century BCE and was transported overland via Central Asia, across the Middle East, and eventually into Rome or Constantinople. Other items were delivered through these trading networks, but Chinese silk was the most desired and valuable. It was practically unheard of for a single merchant or caravan to make the entire journey by themselves. Most Silk Road merchants would often travel to one or two locations, sell their wares, and then return home.

The Silk Road saw fluctuating periods throughout its long history, with its “golden age” being at the Mongol Empire’s peak in the 13th century. This period in history, known as the Pax Mongolica or Mongol Peace, saw unprecedented levels of trade and riches travel on the Silk Road. As monarchs, the Mongols made trade protection one of their major concerns. During Mongol reign, the Silk Road was so safe that a man could travel from one end of the route to the other wearing a gold plate on his head without fear of being robbed or killed. The Mongols were brutal in war, but they maintained law and order wherever they went.

The most renowned Silk Road traveler was probably none other than the Italian trader Marco Polo. While some historians argue whether Polo ever made it to China, it is fairly evident that Marco Polo and his family traveled a significant distance across Asia. Regardless, when he returned from Italy, his stories and writings made him renowned and fascinated many of Europe’s monarchs with wild tales of the Far East. The Silk Road not only carried trade but also new technologies and ideas. Because of this commerce network, the creation of gunpowder in China, as well as other technologies, made their way into Europe and the Middle East.

Legacy of the Mongol Empire

The Mongol legacy, like that of many other empires, is long and difficult. On the one hand, they caused unbelievable terror and ruin in the world around them. They not only burned entire towns and nations to the ground, but they were also to blame for the destruction of many educational institutions from this era, as well as an immeasurable amount of cultural relics. For example, the sacking of Baghdad in 1258 was so comprehensive and systematic that it arguably ruined the city to the point where it never entirely recovered, even to this day. Baghdad’s desolation also marked the end of the Islamic Golden Age in a dramatic and conclusive manner.

In their day, the Mongols were also accomplished diplomats and fair rulers. There was no other location on Earth that was as accommodating of strangers and tolerant of alien faiths as the Mongol Empire. They also promoted meritocracy over giving high-ranking positions based on royalty bloodlines or tribe affiliation. The economic boom brought about by their authority brought with it a degree of riches and prosperity that areas of the world had never seen before and, in certain instances, would never see again.

The Mongols’ most significant legacy was the unforeseen effects of their dominion. The Black Death would not have reached Europe if the Silk Road had not been revived. The subsequent impact of the Black Death altered Europe forever, beginning the lengthy and steady process of transitioning away from feudalism and toward the early beginnings of developing what would one day become a large prosperous middle class.

The Ottoman Turks would not have settled in Anatolia and gone on to build one of the greatest empires of the modern era had the Mongols not invaded the Middle East. The Turks eventually captured Constantinople in 1453, cutting Europe off from the Silk Road and forcing them to go west for a new overseas route to China. Although the Mongols did not build huge cities or leave us with many stunning monuments, the impact of their brief but powerful empire can still be felt and seen in the contemporary world.

Religion

Almost every faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam, had Mongol converts during the period of Genghis Khan. To avoid conflict, Genghis Khan established an organization that guaranteed complete religious freedom, despite the fact that he was a shamanist himself. All religious leaders were excused from taxation and public duty throughout his regime.

Because of the nomadic lifestyle, there were few official places of worship at first. However, major architectural projects were undertaken in the Mongol capital during the reign of Ögedei (1186-1241). Along with palaces, Ögedei constructed houses of worship for Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, and Taoist adherents. Tengrism and Buddhism were the prominent religions at the time, while Ögedei’s wife was a Nestorian Christian.

The successor nations eventually adopted the major religion of the local populations: the Mongol-ruled Chinese Yuan dynasty in the East, formerly the Great Khan’s territory, embraced Buddhism and Shamanism, while the three Western Khanates embraced Islam.

Science 

The Mongol Empire witnessed some notable advances in science. Roger Bacon ascribed the Mongols’ prowess as world conquerors primarily to their dedication to mathematics. Astronomy was one of the Khans’ personal interests in science. According to the Yuanshi, Ögedei Khan ordered the armillary sphere of Zhongdu to be restored twice (in 1233 and 1236) and also ordered the revision and adoption of the Damingli calendar in 1234.[121] Around 1236, he built a Confucian temple at Karakorum for Yelü Chucai, where Yelü Chucai developed and regulated a Chinese calendar.

Rashid al-Din recorded Möngke Khan as having solved some difficult Euclidean geometry problems on his own and writing to his brother Hulagu Khan to send him the astronomer Tusi. Möngke Khan’s ambition to have Tusi build him an observatory in Karakorum was not realized since the Khan died while on campaign in southern China.

Hulagu Khan, on the other hand, offered Tusi a grant in 1259 to erect the Maragheh Observatory in Persia and ordered him to provide astronomical tables for him in 12 years. Tusi to the Khan’s surprise completed the Ilkhanic Tables in 12 years, as well as a revised rendition of Euclid’s elements and the Tusi pair, a novel mathematical device. The Maragheh Observatory housed around 400,000 volumes acquired by Tusi during the siege of Baghdad and neighboring towns. Chinese astronomers brought by Hulagu Khan also worked there.

Kublai Khan constructed several huge observatories around China, and his library included the Wu-hu-lie-ti (Euclid) brought by Muslim mathematicians. In Yuan China, important mathematicians were Zhu Shijie and Guo Shoujing. In a 1330 medical treatise, Mongol physician Hu Sihui emphasized the necessity of a nutritious diet.

In 1295, Ghazan Khan, who could understand four languages, including Latin, established the Tabriz Observatory. Gregory Chioniades, a Byzantine Greek astronomer, trained there under Ajall Shams al-Din Omar, who had previously worked at Maragheh under Tusi. Chioniades was instrumental in spreading various inventions from the Islamic world to Europe. These include the introduction to Europe of the universal latitude-independent astrolabe and a Greek description of the Tusi-couple, which influenced Copernican heliocentrism. Choniades also translated various Zij treatises into Greek, including al-Tusi’s Zij-i Ilkhani and the Maragheh observatory from Persian. Choniades’ movements between Constantinople, Trebizond, and Tabriz were facilitated by the Byzantine-Mongol alliance and the fact that the Empire of Trebizond was an Ilkhanate vassal.

The Samarkand astronomer al-Sanjufini was patronized by Prince Radna, the Mongol viceroy of Tibet stationed in Gansu province. Al-Sanjufini completed the Arabic astronomical treatise dedicated to Prince Radna, a descendant of Kublai Khan, in 1363. It is famous for having annotations in Middle Mongolian on its margins.

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