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Sujithk,HSST History,GVHSSKayyoor Kasargod

Theme 5.Nomadic Empires

.(Imperial formations constructed by nomadic groups)

The Mongols under the leadership of Genghis Khan built a transcontinental empire spanning Europe and Asia during
the 13th and 14th centuries.

Sources
The Mongols produced little literature on their own. So we have to rely on chronicles ,travelogues and documents
produced by city based littérateurs. These authors often produced extremely ignorant and biased reports of nomadic life.
The imperial success of the Mongols attracted many travellers. They came from a variety of backgrounds-
Buddhist,Confucian,Christian,Turkish and Muslim. Many of them produced sympathetic accounts and others hostile. The
earliest narrative on Genghis khan was The Secret History of the Mongols.

Mongols-Background
The mongols were a diverse body of people and spoke similar languages. Some of the Mongols were pastoralists while
others were hunter-gatherers. They nomadised in the steppes of Central Asia. The Mongols were divided into patrilineal
lineage. The richer families owned more animals and pasture lands .Hence, they had large followers and and were
influential in local politics. When ever there were harsh winter or drought conditions then there were conflicts among the
families over pasture lands. Predatory raids were occurred in search of livestock. Groups of families form alliance in
defence or offence during these occasions. But these alliances were for a short period.

Genghis Khan's Political System(Comparison with Attila's)

The size of Genghis Khan's confederation of Mongol and Turkish tribes perhaps matched in size to that of the
confederation in the fifth century by Attila. Genghis Khan's political system was different from Attila's. It was more durable
as it survived its founder. It was stable enough to counter large and better equipped armies of China,Iran and Eastern
Europe. They also administered complex agrarian economies and urban settlements far from their home.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China was a visual testament to the disturbance and fear that brought by the nomadic raids on the
agrarian societies of north China and Central Asia.

Genghis Khan
Early Career
Genghis Khan was born in1162 near the Onon river in the north of present day Mongolia. Originally named
Temujin('blacksmith'),Genghis was the third son of the minor chieftain Yesugei.(kiyat).He was 9 when his father was
assassinated by the neighbouring Tatars. He along with his brothers and step-brothers ,was brought up by his mother. The
next ten years were fullof hardships. He was captured and enslaved at one occasion. Soon after his marriage he had to fight
to recover his wife (Borte)who was kidnapped. He also formed alliances with Boghurchu,a friend;Jamuqa,his brother,and
his old uncle,Ong Khan. Betwen 1180 and 1190 ,he used his alliance with Ong Khan against Jamuqa. After this he gained
confidence and moved against other tribes. He defeated the Tatars ,the Naimans,the Keraits etc. Finally he defeated the
powerful Jamuqa in 1206.Then the assembly of Mongol chieftains(quriltai),declared Genghis Khan the Great Khan of the
Mongols. He took the title Genghis Khan:'Oceanic ruler' or Universal Ruler.

Campaigns of Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan united the Mongol people in to a more effective,disciplined military force. The first of his concern was to
conquer china. At this time ,China was divided in to three kingdoms. Chin the north,the His Hsia in the north west and the
Sung in the south. By 1209,the His Hsia was defeated. The Great Wall of China was breached until 1213 and Peking sacked
in 1215.Long-drawn out battles against the Chin continued until 1234.But Genghis Khan was satisfied enough with the
progress of his campaigns to return to his Mongolian homeland in 1216 and leave the military affairs of the reign to his
subordinates.
Defeated Qara Khita who controlled the the Tien Shah mountains Northwest of China in 1218,Mongol dominions
reached the Amu Darya and the states of Transoxiana and Khwarazm. Muhammad,Shah of Khwarazm in central Asia
executed Mongol ambassadors. Genghis had to respond to their execution. The Mongols destroyed cities such as
Samarqand,Nishapur,Bokhara,and Herat.
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Genghis Khan and India
Mongol forces in pursuit of Khwarazm Shah pushed into Azerbaijan and defeated Russian forces. Another wing followed
the Shah's son,Jalaluddin, into Afghanistan and Sindh province. At the banks of the Indus,Genghis Khan considered
returning to Mongolia through North India and Assam. But because of heat,natural habitat and ill omens that were reported
to him by his soothsayer which made him change of his mind. Thus India escaped from the visit of Genghis Khan. He died
in 1227.
Causes for the Success of Ghengis Khan
The military achievements of Genghis Khan were astounding. He had achieved all the military victory by his ability to
innovate and transform various aspects of steppe combat into effective military strategies. The horse riding and hunting
skills of Mongols and Turks provided speed and mobility to the army. Their abilities as rapid shooting archers from horse
back were further perfected during regular hunting expeditions which doubled the chance of victory over the enemies. They
carried out campaigns in the depths of winter by using frozen river as highway to enemies'cities and camps. They brought
their knowledge of moving light in terrain as an effective military strategy. He learnt the importance of siege engines and
naphtha bombardment quickly. His engineers built light portable equipments which he used against his opponents.
Military Organisation under the 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 army of Genghis Khan was composed of different people which complicated the relatively small
undifferentiated army into a mixed mass of people. He altered the old steppe system of decimal units system.i.e,divisions of
10s,100s,1,000s and 10,000 soldiers. He divided the old tribal groupings and distributed their members into new military
units. No individual could move from his allotted group without permission. If they did so they were punished severely.
Thus ,the largest unit of soldiers(10,000 soldiers(tumen) now included different tribes and clans. The military units were to
serve under his four sons and specially chosen captains of his army units called noyan. A band of followers who had served
Genghis Khan loyally through grave adversity for many years also became important within the new realm.

Conferring titles
Genghis Khan conferred title of 'blood brothers' publicly to military persons. He also honoured humbler persons as
bondsmen a title that indicated their close relationship with Genghis Khan. It did not preserve the rights of old clan
chieftains and new aristocracy derived its status from its closeness to Genghis Khan.

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.,a term that did not originally mean fixed territories.
• Genghis Khan envisaged that his sons would rule the empire collectively.
• 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.
• 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.
• A rapid courier system connected distant areas.
• For the maintenance of this communication system the Mongol nomads contributed a tenth of their herd.
• This was called the qubcur tax,a levy that the nomads paid willingly for the multiple benefits that it brought.
Communication and Trade Under the Mongols
Courier System
Genghis Khan had formed a rapid courier system that connected the distant areas of his regime. Fresh mounts and
despatch riders were placed in outposts at regularly spaced distances. The Mongol nomads contributed a tenth of their hard-
either horsed or livestock-as provisions for the maintenance of this communication system. This was called the qubcur tax,a
levy that the nomads paid willingly for the multiple benefits that it brought. The courier system(yam)was further refined
after Genghis Khan's death and its speed and reliability surprised travellers. It enabled the Great Khan to keep a check on
developments at the farthest end of their regime across the continental land army.
Trade
When peace was established after Mongol conquest (Pax Mongolica),trade connections matured. Travel and trade
along silk route increased under the authority of Mongols. It continued north of Mongolia and to Kara
korum. Communication and ease of travel was essential to maintain the authority of the Mongol regime. Travellers were
given a pass (paiza in Persian;gerege in Mongolian) for safe conduct. Traders paid by tax for the same purpose ,there by
acknowledging the Mongol authority.
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Administrative features of Genghis Khan's Rule

During the reign of Genghis Khan,civil administrators were recruited from the conquered lands. But they were deployed
in distant areas. Chinese Secretaries were posted in Iran,and Persians in China. These administrators retained the
confidence of their masters till the time they continued to increase the revenues for them. These administrators could
sometimes command considerable influence.

Yasa(Legal code of Genghis Khan)

It is believed that Yasa was officially proclaimed by Genghis Khan at the Quariltai of 1206.In its earliest formulation ,the
term was written as 'yasaq' which meant 'law'.'decree' or 'order'.By the middle of the thirteenth century, Mongols started
using the term yasa in a more general sense to mean the 'legal code of Genghis Khan'.The yasa was most probably a
compilation of the customary traditions of the Mongol tribes. The yasa served to join together the Mongol people around a
body of shared believes. It recognised the affinity to Genghis Khan and descendants and ,even as they absorbed different
aspects of sedentary life style ,it gave them the confidence to retain their ethnic identity and impose their 'law' upon their
defeated subjects. It was an extremely empowering ideology inspired by Genghis Khan's vision and was vital in the
construction of a Mongol universal dominion.

Situating Genghis Khan and the Mongols in World History

Genghis Khan is remembered in the history as a conqueror, destroyer of cities and a person responsible for the death
of thousands of people. But for the Mongols ,Genghis Khan was the greatest leader of all time. He united the Mongol
people,freed them from wars ,brought them prosperity and restored trade routes and markets.
Mongols were a diverse body of people. Inspite of their own faith in Buddhism,Christianity,Islam etc. the Mongol
rulers never allowed their personal beliefs to dictate the public policy. They recruited administrators and armed contingents
from various conquered lands. All this was unusual for the time when they were ruling. Mongols provided ideological
models for the Mughals of India. Timur ,another monarch who aspired to universal dominion ,hesitated to declare himself
monarch because of Genghis Khan.
After decades of Soviet control,the country of Mongolia is recreating its identity as an independent nation. Genghis
Khan has appeared as an iconic figure for the Mongol people,mobilising memories of a great past in the foraging of national
identity that can carry the nation into future.

Key Wo rds
➢ Barbarians:The term barbarian is derived from the Greek barbaros which meant a non-Greek,someone whose
language sounded like a random noise:'barbar'.Cruel,greedy and politically unable to govern.
➢ Yasa:Genghis Khan's code of law
➢ Tama:The military contingents of the individual princes
➢ Quriltais:The assembly of chieftains where all decisions relating to the family or the state-campaigns,distribution
of plunder,pasture lands and succession -were collectively taken.
➢ Anda: Blood brothers of Genghis Khan.
➢ Naukar:Special ranking as his bondsmen,a title that marked their close relationship with their masters.
➢ Qanats: Underground canals
➢ Yam:A courier system introduced by Genghis Khan
➢ Qubcur Tax:A levy that few the nomads paid willingly for the multiple benefits that it brought.

Prepared by Sujith.K,HSST History GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod