Mongol Empire notes

Breakout: The Mongol Empire

The Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century were just the latest in a long but intermittent series of incursions into agriculutural civilizations by pastoralists from the steppes and deserts of Eurasia and Africa. For 2,000 years or more before the Mongols burst upon the scene, pastoralists — the Xiongnu, Arabs, Turks, Berbers — had played a major role in Afro-Eurasian history and represented a standing challenge to and influence upon the agrarian civilizations on their borders. What enabled pastoral peoples to repeatedly build powerful empires despite their small numbers was their lifestyle, which was centered on herding animals in regions where farming was difficult or impossible (see Chapter 1). Their embrace of horseback and camel riding as they hunted and tended their itinerant flocks and herds provided the foundation for their mastery of mounted warfare based on mobility. (See Snapshot: Varieties of Pastoral Societies.)

SNAPSHOT Varieties of Pastoral Societies

Of all the pastoral peoples who took a turn on the stage of world history, the Mongols made the most stunning entry. Their thirteenth-century breakout from Mongolia gave rise to the largest land-based empire in all of human history, stretching from the Pacific coast of Asia to Eastern Europe (see Map 4.1). This empire joined the pastoral peoples of the inner Eurasian steppes with the settled agricultural civilizations of outer Eurasia more extensively and more intimately than ever before. It also brought the major civilizations of Eurasia — Europe, China, and the Islamic world — into far more direct contact than in earlier times. Both the enormous destructiveness of the process and the networks of exchange and communication that it spawned were the work of a population numbering only about 700,000 people. It was another of history’s unlikely twists.

From Temujin to Chinggis Khan: The Rise of the Mongol Empire

World historians are prone to focus on large-scale and long-term processes of change in explaining “what happened in history,” but in understanding the rise of the Mongol Empire, most scholars have found themselves forced to look closely at the role of a single individual — Temujin (TEM-oo-chin) (1162–1227), later known as Chinggis Khan (universal ruler, sometimes spelled Genghis Khan). In the twelfth-century world into which he was born, the Mongols were an unstable and fractious collection of tribes and clans, much reduced from a somewhat earlier and more powerful position in the shifting alliances in what is now Mongolia. “Everyone was feuding,” declared a leading Mongol shaman. “Rather than sleep, they robbed each other of their possessions…. There was no respite, only battle. There was no affection, only mutual slaughter.”

The early life of Temujin showed few signs of a prominent future. The boy’s father had been a minor chieftain of a noble clan, but he was murdered by tribal rivals before Temujin turned ten, and the family was soon deserted by other members of the clan. As social outcasts without livestock, Temujin’s small family, headed by his resourceful mother, was forced to abandon pastoralism, living instead by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild foods. It was an enormous and humiliating drop in their social status. In these desperate circumstances, Temujin’s remarkable character came into play. His personal magnetism and courage and his inclination to rely on trusted friends rather than ties of kinship allowed him to build up a small following and to ally with a more powerful tribal leader. This alliance received a boost from Chinese patrons, always eager to keep the pastoralists divided. Soon Temujin was recognized as a chief in his own right with a growing band of followers.

Temujin’s rise to power within the complex tribal politics of Mongolia was a surprise to everyone, as it took place amid shifting alliances and betrayals. Temujin achieved a mounting string of military victories, aided by the indecisiveness of his enemies, a reputation as a leader generous to friends and ruthless to enemies, and the incorporation of warriors from defeated tribes into his own forces. In 1206, a Mongol tribal assembly recognized Temujin as Chinggis Khan, supreme leader of a now unified Great Mongol Nation. It was a remarkable achievement, but one little noticed beyond the highland steppes of Mongolia. That would soon change.

The unification of the Mongol tribes raised an obvious question: what was Chinggis Khan to do with the powerful army he had assembled? Without a common task, the new and fragile unity of the Mongols would surely dissolve into quarrels and chaos; and without external resources to reward his followers, Chinggis Khan would be hard-pressed to maintain his supreme position. Both considerations pointed in a single direction — expansion, particularly toward China, long a source of great wealth for pastoral peoples.

In 1209, the first major attack on the settled agricultural societies south of Mongolia set in motion half a century of a Mongol world war — military campaigns, massive killing, and empire building without precedent in world history. In the process, Chinggis Khan, followed by his sons and grandsons (Ogodei, Mongke, and Khubilai), constructed an empire that contained China, Central Asia, Russia, much of the Islamic Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe (see Map 4.1). “In a flash,” wrote a recent scholar, “the Mongol warriors would defeat every army, capture every fort, and bring down the walls of every city they encountered. Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus would soon kneel before the dusty boots of illiterate young Mongol horsemen.”

Various setbacks marked the outer limits of the Mongol Empire — the Mongols’ withdrawal from Eastern Europe (1242), their defeat at Ain Jalut in Palestine at the hands of Egyptian forces (1260), the failure of their invasion of Japan owing to a typhoon (1281), and the difficulty of penetrating the tropical jungles of Southeast Asia. But what an empire it was! How could a Mongol confederation, with a total population of less than 1 million people and few resources beyond their livestock, assemble an imperial structure of such staggering dimensions?

Explaining the Mongol Moment

The Mongol realm grew of its own momentum without any grand scheme or blueprint for world conquest. Each fresh victory brought new resources for making war and new threats or insecurities that seemed to require further expansion. But as the empire took shape and certainly by the end of his life, Chinggis Khan had come to see his career in terms of a universal mission. “I have accomplished a great work,” he declared, “uniting the whole world in one empire.” Thus the Mongol Empire acquired its ideology as it was being constructed.

What made this “great work” possible? The odds seemed overwhelming, for China alone outnumbered the Mongols 100 to 1 and possessed incomparably greater resources. Furthermore, the Mongols did not enjoy any technological superiority over their many adversaries. They did, however, enjoy the luck of good timing in their encounters with both China and the Islamic Middle East. China was divided between the Song dynasty ruling the south and the pastoral Jurchen people in control of much of the north. In the Middle East, the decrepit Abbasid caliphate, once the center of the Islamic world, had shrunk to a fraction of its earlier size. But clearly, the key to the Mongols’ success lay in their army. According to one scholar, “Mongol armies were simply better led, organized, and disciplined than those of their opponents.” In an effort to diminish a divisive tribalism, Chinggis Khan reorganized the entire social structure of the Mongols into military units of 10, 100, 1,000, and 10,000 warriors, an arrangement that allowed for effective command and control. Conquered tribes, especially, were broken up, and their members were scattered among these new units, which enrolled virtually all men and supplied the cavalry forces of Mongol armies. A highly prestigious imperial guard also recruited members across tribal lines.

An impressive discipline and loyalty to their leaders characterized Mongol military forces, and discipline was reinforced by the provision that should any members of a unit desert in battle, all were subject to the death penalty. More positively, loyalty was cemented by the leaders’ willingness to share the hardships of their men. “I eat the same food and am dressed in the same rags as my humble herdsmen,” wrote Chinggis Khan. “I am always in the forefront, and in battle I am never at the rear.” Such discipline and loyalty made possible the elaborate tactics of encirclement, retreat, and deception that proved decisive in many a battle. Furthermore, the enormous flow of wealth from conquered civilizations benefited all Mongols, though not equally. Even ordinary Mongols could now dress in linens and silks rather than hides and felt, could own slaves derived from the many prisoners of war, and had far greater opportunities to improve their social position in a constantly expanding empire.

To compensate for their own small population, the Mongols incorporated huge numbers of conquered peoples into their military forces. “People who lived in felt tents” — mostly Mongol and Turkic pastoralists — were conscripted en masse into the cavalry units of the Mongol army, while settled agricultural peoples supplied the infantry and artillery forces. As the Mongols penetrated major civilizations, with their walled cities and elaborate fortifications, they quickly acquired Chinese techniques and technology of siege warfare. Some 1,000 Chinese artillery crews, for example, took part in the Mongol invasion of distant Persia. Beyond military recruitment, Mongols demanded that their conquered people serve as laborers, building roads and bridges and ferrying supplies over long distances. Artisans, craftsmen, and skilled people generally were carefully identified, spared from massacre, and often sent to distant regions of the empire where their services were required. A French goldsmith captured by Mongol forces in Hungary wound up as a slave in the Mongol capital of Karakorum (kah-rah-KOR-um), where he constructed an elaborate silver fountain that dispensed wine and other intoxicating drinks.

A further element in the military effectiveness of Mongol forces lay in a growing reputation for a ruthless brutality and utter destructiveness. City after city was utterly destroyed. Chinggis Khan’s policy was clear: “Whoever submits shall be spared, but those who resist, they shall be destroyed with their wives, children and dependents … so that the others who hear and see should fear and not act the same.” (See Working with Evidence, Source 4.3.) One scholar explained such policies in this way: “Extremely conscious of their small numbers and fearful of rebellion, Chinggis often chose to annihilate a region’s entire population, if it appeared too troublesome to govern.” These policies also served as a form of psychological warfare, a practical inducement to surrender for those who knew of the Mongol terror. Historians continue to debate the extent and uniqueness of the Mongols’ brutality, but their reputation for unwavering harshness proved a military asset.

Beyond the purely military dimensions of the Mongols’ success was an impressive ability to mobilize both the human and material resources of their growing empire. Elaborate census-taking allowed Mongol leaders to know what was available to them and made possible the systematic taxation of conquered people. The beginnings of a centralized bureaucracy with various specialized offices took shape in the new capital of Karakorum. There scribes translated official decrees into the various languages of the empire, such as Persian, Uighur, Chinese, and Tibetan. An effective system of relay stations, about a day’s ride apart, provided rapid communication across the empire and fostered trade as well. The Italian traveler Marco Polo’s admiration for the relay system, which he witnessed first hand, is apparent in his description:

And at each of those stations used by the messengers there is a large and handsome building for them to put up at, in which they find all the rooms furnished with fine beds and all other necessary articles in rich silk, and where they are provided with everything they can want. If even a king were to arrive at one of these, he would find himself well lodged. At some of these stations, moreover, there shall be posted some 400 horses standing ready.

Other policies appealed to various groups among the conquered peoples of the empire. Interested in fostering commerce, Mongol rulers often offered merchants 10 percent or more above their asking price and allowed them the free use of the relay stations for transporting their goods. In administering the conquered regions, this Mongol support for commerce was especially important in China, where merchants had traditionally been granted only a rather low status. This support found expression in the creation of Ortughs, state-approved associations of merchants that allowed them to pool their resources and limit their losses in the event that a particular caravan failed. Low interest loans were provided to merchants who belonged to an Ortugh. In both China and Persia, merchants also received substantial tax breaks and financial backing for their caravans.

Mongols held the highest decision-making posts in the empire, but Chinese and Muslim officials held many advisory and lower-level positions in China and Persia, respectively. In religious matters, the Mongols welcomed and supported many religious traditions — Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Daoist — as long as they did not become the focus of political opposition. This policy of religious toleration allowed Muslims to seek converts among Mongol troops and afforded Christians much greater freedom than they had enjoyed under Muslim rule. One of Chinggis Khan’s successors, Mongke, arranged a debate among representatives of several religious faiths, after which he concluded: “Just as God gave different fingers to the hand, so has He given different ways to men.” Such economic, administrative, and religious policies provided some benefits and a place within the empire — albeit subordinate — for many of its conquered peoples.

Encountering the Mongols

The Mongol moment in world history represented an enormous cultural encounter between pastoralists and the settled civilizations of Eurasia. The process of conquest, the length and nature of Mongol rule, the impact on local people, and the extent of Mongol assimilation into the cultures of the conquered — all this and more varied considerably across the Eurasian domains of the empire. Everywhere, though, the decline or collapse of Mongol rule during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries created an environment in which new states and empires emerged that revived older cultural and political traditions. The experiences of China, Persia, and Russia provide brief glimpses into several expressions of these encounters and their aftermaths.

China and the Mongols

China proved the most difficult and extended of the Mongols’ many conquests, lasting some seventy years, from 1209 to 1279. The invasion began in northern China, which had been ruled for several centuries by various dynasties of pastoral origin, and was characterized by destruction and plunder on a massive scale. Southern China, under the control of the native Song dynasty, was a different story, for there the Mongols were far less violent and more concerned with accommodating the local population. Landowners, for example, were guaranteed their estates in exchange for their support or at least their neutrality. By whatever methods, the outcome was the unification of a divided China, a treasured ideal among educated Chinese. This achievement persuaded some of them that the Mongols had indeed been granted the Mandate of Heaven and, despite their foreign origins, were legitimate rulers.

Having acquired China, what were the Mongols to do with it? One possibility, apparently considered by the Great Khan Ogodei (ERG-uh-day) in the 1230s, was to exterminate everyone in northern China and turn the country into pastureland for Mongol herds. That suggestion, fortunately, was rejected in favor of extracting as much wealth as possible from the country’s advanced civilization. Doing so meant some accommodation to Chinese culture and ways of governing, for the Mongols had no experience with the operation of a complex agrarian society.

That accommodation took many forms. The Mongols made use of Chinese administrative practices and techniques of taxation as well as the Chinese postal system. They gave themselves a Chinese dynastic title, the Yuan, suggesting a new beginning in Chinese history. They transferred their capital from Karakorum in Mongolia to what is now Beijing, building a wholly new capital city there known as Khanbalik, the “city of the khan.” Thus the Mongols were now rooting themselves solidly on the soil of a highly sophisticated civilization, well removed from their homeland on the steppes. Khubilai Khan (koo-buh-l’eye kahn), the grandson of Chinggis Khan and China’s Mongol ruler from 1271 to 1294 who initiated the Yuan dynasty, ordered a set of Chinese-style ancestral tablets to honor his ancestors and posthumously awarded them Chinese names. Many of his policies evoked the values of a benevolent Confucian-inspired Chinese emperor, as he improved roads, built canals, lowered some taxes, patronized scholars and artists, limited the death penalty and torture, supported peasant agriculture, and prohibited Mongols from grazing their animals on peasants’ farmland. (See Working with Evidence, Source 4.2, for various impressions of Khubilai Khan.) Mongol khans also made use of traditional Confucian rituals, supported the building of some Daoist temples, and were particularly attracted to a Tibetan form of Buddhism, which returned the favor with strong political support for the invaders.

Despite these accommodations, Mongol rule was still harsh, exploitative, foreign, and resented. Marco Polo, who was in China at the time, reported that some Mongol officials or their Muslim intermediaries treated Chinese “just like slaves,” demanding bribes for services, ordering arbitrary executions, and seizing women at will — all of which generated outrage and hostility. The Mongols did not become Chinese, nor did they accommodate every aspect of Chinese culture. Deep inside the new capital, the royal family and court could continue to experience something of steppe life as their animals roamed freely in large open areas, planted with steppe grass. Many of the Mongol elite much preferred to live, eat, sleep, and give birth in the traditional tents that sprouted everywhere. In administering the country, the Mongols largely ignored the traditional Chinese examination system and relied heavily on foreigners, particularly Muslims from Central Asia and the Middle East, to serve as officials, while keeping the top decision-making posts for themselves. Few Mongols learned Chinese, and Mongol law discriminated against the Chinese, reserving for them the most severe punishments. Furthermore, the Mongols honored and supported merchants and artisans far more than Confucian bureaucrats had been inclined to do.

In social life, the Mongols forbade intermarriage and prohibited Chinese scholars from learning the Mongol script. Mongol women never adopted foot binding and scandalized the Chinese by mixing freely with men at official gatherings and riding to the hunt with their husbands. The Mongol ruler Khubilai Khan retained the Mongol tradition of relying heavily on female advisers, the chief of which was his favorite wife, Chabi.

However one assesses Mongol rule in China, it was relatively brief, lasting little more than a century. By the mid-fourteenth century, intense factionalism among the Mongols, rapidly rising prices, furious epidemics of the plague, and growing peasant rebellions combined to force the Mongols out of China. By 1368, rebel forces had triumphed, and thousands of Mongols returned to their homeland in the steppes to be replaced by a native Chinese Ming dynasty (1368–1644).

Despite the disruption wrought by a century of Mongol rule and the sharp declines in population caused by war and plague, during the Ming dynasty China recovered. In the early decades of that dynasty, the Chinese attempted to eliminate all signs of foreign rule, discouraging the use of Mongol names and dress while promoting Confucian learning and orthodox gender roles based on earlier models from the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties. Emperor Yongle (YAHNG-leh) (r. 1402–1424) sponsored an enormous Encyclopedia of some 11,000 volumes. With contributions from more than 2,000 scholars, this work sought to summarize or compile all previous writing on history, geography, philosophy, ethics, government, and more. In Beijing, Yongle ordered the building of a magnificent imperial residence known as the Forbidden City and constructed the Temple of Heaven, where subsequent rulers performed Confucian-based rituals to ensure the well-being of Chinese society (see Working with Evidence, Source 5.5, in Chapter 5). Two empresses wrote instructions for female behavior, emphasizing traditional expectations after the disruptions of the previous century. Culturally speaking, China was looking to its past.

Politically, the Ming dynasty reestablished the civil service examination system, which had been neglected under Mongol rule, and went on to create a highly centralized government. Power was concentrated in the hands of the emperor himself, while a cadre of eunuchs (castrated men) personally loyal to the emperor exercised great authority, much to the dismay of the official bureaucrats. The state acted vigorously to repair the damage of the Mongol years by restoring millions of acres to cultivation; rebuilding canals, reservoirs, and irrigation works; and planting, according to some estimates, a billion trees in an effort to reforest China. As a result, the economy rebounded, both international and domestic trade flourished, and the population grew. Emperor Yongle also sought to extend Chinese power and prestige into the Indian Ocean in the opening decades of the fifteenth century by dispatching several enormous fleets between 1405 and 1433 (see Chapter 3 for more on these voyages). During the fifteenth century, China had recovered and was perhaps the best governed and most prosperous of the world’s major civilizations.

Persia and the Mongols

A second major agricultural civilization conquered by the Mongols was Persia, an important part of the heartland of a dynamic and sophisticated Islamic civilization. Long centered in modern Iran, Persia was an ancient civilization that had been incorporated into the Islamic world by around 900 C.E. without losing its cultural distinctiveness or its language. While Persia was deeply influenced by its new faith and its language was enriched by Arabic loan words, its impact on the Arab Islamic world was equally profound. Persian administrative and bureaucratic techniques; Persian court practices with their palaces, gardens, and splendid garments; Persian architecture, poetry, music, and painting — all of this decisively shaped high culture in the Islamic heartland. And over time Persian political and cultural traditions transformed their Mongol conquerors as well.

The Mongol takeover in Persia was far more abrupt than the extended process of conquest in China. A first invasion (1219–1221), led by Chinggis Khan himself, was followed thirty years later by a second assault (1251–1258) under his grandson Hulegu (HE-luh-gee), who became the first il-khan (subordinate khan) of Persia. Although Persia had been repeatedly attacked in the past, nothing prepared it for the Mongols. In the eyes of Persian Muslims, the Mongols were infidels, and their stunning victory was a profound shock to people accustomed to viewing history as the progressive expansion of Islamic rule. Furthermore, Mongol military victory brought in its wake a degree of ferocity and slaughter that had no parallel in Persian experience. (See Working with Evidence, Source 4.3, for an account of the Mongol seizure of Bukhara.) The sacking of Baghdad in 1258 was accompanied by the massacre of more than 200,000 people, according to Hulegu himself.

Beyond this human catastrophe lay the damage to Persian and Iraqi agriculture and to those who tilled the soil. Heavy taxes, sometimes collected twenty or thirty times a year and often under torture or whipping, pushed large numbers of peasants off their land. Furthermore, the in-migration of pastoral Mongols, together with their immense herds of sheep and goats, turned much agricultural land into pasture and sometimes into desert. As a result, a fragile system of underground water channels that provided irrigation to the fields was neglected, and much good agricultural land was reduced to waste. Some sectors of the Persian economy gained, however. Wine production increased because the Mongols were fond of alcohol, and the Persian silk industry benefited from close contact with a Mongol-ruled China. In general, though, even more so than in China, Mongol rule in Persia represented “disaster on a grand and unparalleled scale.”

Nonetheless, the Mongols in Persia were themselves transformed far more than their counterparts in China. They made extensive use of the sophisticated Persian bureaucracy, leaving the greater part of government operations in Persian hands. During the reign of Ghazan (haz-ZAHN) (1295–1304), they made some efforts to repair the damage caused by earlier policies of ruthless exploitation by rebuilding damaged cities and repairing neglected irrigation works. Most important, the Mongols who conquered Persia became Muslims, following the lead of Ghazan, who converted to Islam in 1295. No such widespread conversion to the culture of the conquered occurred in China or in Christian Russia. Members of the court and Mongol elites learned at least some Persian, unlike most of their counterparts in China. A number of Mongols also turned to farming, abandoning their pastoral ways, while some married local people.

When the Mongol dynasty of Hulegu’s descendants collapsed in the 1330s for lack of a suitable heir, the Mongols were not driven out of Persia as they had been from China. Rather, they and their Turkic allies simply disappeared, assimilated into Persian society. From a Persian point of view, the barbarians had been civilized, and Persians had successfully resisted cultural influence from their uncivilized conquerors.

While the Chinese Ming dynasty politically united the region shortly after the withdrawal of the Mongols, in Persia the collapse of the il-khanate led to a period of political disorder that included an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful effort to rebuild a pastoralist Mongol empire by the Turkic warrior Timur (1336–1405). Only with the emergence of the Safavid (SAH-fah-vihd) Empire in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries was an independent Persia reunited for a sustained period. Its leadership was also Turkic, but in this case it had emerged from a Sufi religious order founded several centuries earlier by Safi al-Din (1252–1334). The long-term significance of the Safavid Empire, which was established in the decade following 1500, was its decision to forcibly impose a Shia version of Islam as the official religion of the state. Over time, this form of Islam gained popular support and came to define the unique identity of Persian (Iranian) culture. This Shia empire also introduced a sharp divide into the political and religious life of heartland Islam, for almost all of Persia’s neighbors practiced a Sunni form of the faith. For a century (1534–1639), periodic military conflict erupted between the Safavid Empire and its powerful Sunni neighbor the Ottoman Empire, reflecting both territorial rivalry and sharp religious differences.

In 1514, the Ottoman sultan wrote to the Safavid ruler in the most bitter of terms:

You have denied the sanctity of divine law … you have deserted the path of salvation and the sacred commandments … you have opened to Muslims the gates of tyranny and oppression … you have raised the standard of irreligion and heresy…. [Therefore] the ulama and our doctors have pronounced a sentence of death against you, perjurer and blasphemer.

This Sunni/Shia hostility has continued to divide the Islamic world into the twenty-first century.

Russia and the Mongols

When the Mongol military machine rolled over Russia between 1237 and 1240, it encountered a relatively new civilization located on the far eastern fringe of Christendom. Whatever political unity this new civilization of Kievan Rus had earlier enjoyed was now gone, and various independent princes proved unable to unite even in the face of the Mongol onslaught. Although they had interacted extensively with pastoral people of the steppes north of the Black Sea, Mongol ferocity was stunning. City after city fell to Mongol forces, which were now armed with catapults and battering rams adopted from Chinese or Muslim sources. What followed was described in horrific terms by Russian chroniclers, who reported mass slaughter of “men, women, and children, monks, nuns and priests” and the violation of “good women and girls in the presence of their mothers and sisters.” From the survivors and the cities that surrendered early, laborers and skilled craftsmen were deported to other Mongol lands or sold into slavery. A number of Russian crafts were so depleted of their workers that they did not recover for a century or more.

If the violence of initial conquest bore similarities to the experiences of Persia, Russia’s incorporation into the Mongol Empire was very different. To the Mongols, it was the Kipchak (KIP-chahk) Khanate, named after the Kipchak Turkic-speaking peoples north of the Caspian and Black seas, among whom the Mongols had settled. To the Russians, it was the Khanate of the Golden Horde. By whatever name, the Mongols had conquered Russia, but they did not occupy it as they had China and Persia. Thus in Russia there were no garrisoned cities, permanently stationed administrators, or Mongol settlers. From the Mongol point of view, Russia had little to offer. Its economy was not nearly so sophisticated or productive as that of more established civilizations, nor was it located on major international trade routes. It was simply not worth the expense of occupying. Furthermore, the availability of extensive steppe lands for pasturing their flocks north of the Black and Caspian seas meant that the Mongols could maintain their preferred pastoral way of life while remaining in easy reach of Russian cities when the need arose to send further military expeditions. They could dominate and exploit Russia from the steppes.

And exploit they certainly did. Russian princes received appointment from the khan and were required to send substantial tribute to the Mongol capital at Sarai, located on the lower Volga River. A variety of additional taxes created a heavy burden, especially on the peasantry, while continuing border raids sent tens of thousands of Russians into slavery. The Mongol impact was highly uneven, however. The Russian Orthodox Church flourished under the Mongol policy of religious toleration, for it received exemption from many taxes. Russian nobles who participated in Mongol raids earned a share of the loot. Some cities, such as Kiev, resisted the Mongols and were devastated, while others surrendered and collaborated and were left undamaged. Moscow in particular emerged as the primary collector of tribute for the Mongols, with one of its rulers, Ivan I, earning the nickname Ivan the Moneybags because of the riches that flowed to him from his position as collector. When Mongol domination receded in the fifteenth century, Moscow’s princes exploited their resources and influence to establish Moscow as the nucleus of a renewed Russian state.

The absence of direct Mongol rule had implications for the Mongols themselves, for they were far less influenced by or assimilated within Russian cultures than their counterparts in China and Persia had been. The Mongols in China had turned themselves into a Chinese dynasty, with the khan as a Chinese emperor. Some learned calligraphy, and a few came to appreciate Chinese poetry. In Persia, the Mongols had converted to Islam, with some becoming farmers. Not so in Russia. There “the Mongols of the Golden Horde were still spending their days in the saddle and their nights in tents.” Similarly, their women had fewer restrictions and greater public roles than their settled counterparts (see Zooming In: Khutulun, A Mongol Wrestler Princess). They could dominate Russia from the adjacent steppes without in any way adopting Russian culture. Even though they remained culturally separate from Christian Russia, eventually the Mongols assimilated to the culture and the Islamic faith of the Kipchak people of the steppes, and in the process they lost their distinct identity and became Kipchaks.

Despite this domination from a distance, “the impact of the Mongols on Russia was, if anything, greater than on China and Iran [Persia],” according to a leading scholar. Russian princes, who were more or less left alone if they paid the required tribute and taxes, found it useful to adopt the Mongols’ weapons, diplomatic rituals, court practices, taxation system, and military draft. Mongol policies facilitated, although not intentionally, the rise of Moscow as the core of a new Russian state, and that state made good use of the famous Mongol mounted courier service. Mongol policies also strengthened the hold of the Russian Orthodox Church and enabled it to penetrate the rural areas more fully than before. Some Russians, seeking to explain their country’s economic backwardness and political autocracy in modern times, have held the Mongols responsible for both conditions, though most historians consider such views vastly exaggerated.

Divisions among the Mongols, the disruptive influence of plague, and the growing strength of the Russian state, centered now on the city of Moscow, enabled the Russians to break the Mongols’ hold by the end of the fifteenth century. Under the leadership of a series of aggressive rulers Moscow both conquered neighboring Russian-speaking states and loosened the grip of the Golden Horde over the region. In these initial conquests were the foundations for an expansive Russian Empire that took shape in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (see Chapter 5).

At the same time, Russia’s power and influence in the Eastern Orthodox Christian world was also growing. For a few Russian church leaders, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 (see Chapter 2) marked the passing of Orthodox leadership to Russia, which was articulated in the doctrine of a “third Rome.” According to this thinking, the original Rome had abandoned the true Orthodox faith for Roman Catholicism, and the second Rome, Constantinople, had succumbed to Muslim infidels. Moscow was now the third Rome, the final protector and defender of Orthodox Christianity. Though not widely proclaimed in Russia itself, such a notion reflected the “Russification” of Eastern Orthodoxy and its growing role as an element of Russian national identity even as a new and powerful Russian Empire took shape. It was also a reminder of the enduring legacy of a thousand years of Byzantine history, long after the empire itself had vanished.

The Mongol Empire as a Eurasian Network

When the Mongols burst onto the scene in the thirteenth century, Chinese culture and Buddhism were providing a measure of integration among the peoples of East Asia, Christianity was doing the same for Europe, and the realm of Islam connected most of the lands in between. But it was the Mongol Empire, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, that brought all of these regions into a single interacting network, enabling the circulation of goods, information, disease, and styles of warfare all across Eurasia and parts of Africa.

Toward a Eurasian Economy

The Mongols themselves did not produce much of value for distant markets, nor were they active traders. Nonetheless, they consistently promoted international commerce, largely so that they could tax it and thus extract wealth from more developed civilizations. The Great Khan Ogodei, for example, often paid well over the asking price to attract merchants to his capital of Karakorum. The Mongols also provided financial backing for caravans, introduced standardized weights and measures, and gave tax breaks to merchants.

In providing a relatively secure environment for merchants making the long and arduous journey across Central Asia between Europe and China, the Mongol Empire brought the two ends of the Eurasian world into closer contact than ever before and launched a new phase in the history of long-distance trade and travel. Many European merchants, mostly from Italian cities, traveled along the Silk Roads to China. Indeed, so many traders attempted the journey that guidebooks circulated with much useful advice about the trip. One of them, by an Italian banker from Florence named Frances Pegliotti, contained this advice:

In the first place you must let your beard grow and not shave. And … you should furnish yourself with a dragoman [a guide or interpreter]. And you must not try to save money by taking a bad one instead of a good one. For the additional wages of a good one will not cost you as much as you will save by having him.

European merchants, including Marco Polo, returned with tales of rich lands and prosperous commercial opportunities, but what they described were long-established trading networks of which Europeans had been largely ignorant.

Similarly, traders and travelers from the Islamic world made journeys along both the Silk Roads of Mongol Central Asia and the Sea Roads of the Indian Ocean to Mongol China. Ibn Battuta, an Arab Muslim and intrepid traveler from Morocco in northwest Africa, made the journey by sea to China in 1345 following long-established routes of Arab merchants. He stayed only a year or so, and while he was impressed by many things, he was also culturally uncomfortable, living outside of the Islamic world. Nonetheless, he was not alone, for he noted: “In all Chinese provinces, there is a town for the Mohammedans [Muslims], and in this they reside. They also have cells, colleges and mosques, and are made much of by the Kings of China.”

The Mongol trading circuit was a central element in an even larger commercial network that linked much of the Afro-Eurasian world in the thirteenth century (see Map 4.2). Mongol-ruled China was the fulcrum of this huge system, connecting the overland route through the Mongol Empire with the oceanic routes through the South China Sea and Indian Ocean (see Chapter 3).

Diplomacy on a Eurasian Scale

Not only did the Mongol Empire facilitate long-distance commerce, but it also prompted diplomatic relationships from one end of Eurasia to the other. As their invasion of Russia spilled over into Eastern Europe, Mongol armies destroyed Polish, German, and Hungarian forces in 1241–1242 and seemed poised to march on Central and Western Europe. But the death of the Great Khan Ogodei required Mongol leaders to return to Mongolia, and Western Europe lacked adequate pasture for Mongol herds. Thus Western Europe was spared the trauma of conquest, but fearing the possible return of the Mongols, both the pope and European rulers dispatched delegations to the Mongol capital, mostly led by Franciscan friars. They hoped to learn something about Mongol intentions, to secure Mongol aid in the Christian crusade against Islam, and, if possible, to convert Mongols to Christianity. These efforts were largely in vain, for no alliance or widespread conversion occurred. In fact, one of these missions came back with a letter for the pope from the Great Khan Guyuk, demanding that Europeans submit to him.

Perhaps the most important outcome of these diplomatic probings was the useful information about lands to the east that European missions brought back. Those reports contributed to a dawning European awareness of a wider world, and they have certainly provided later historians with much useful information about the Mongols. Somewhat later, in 1287, the il-khanate of Persia sought an alliance with European powers to take Jerusalem and crush the forces of Islam, but the Persian Mongols’ conversion to Islam soon put an end to any such anti-Muslim coalition.

Within the Mongol Empire itself, close relationships developed between the courts of Persia and China. They regularly exchanged ambassadors, shared intelligence information, fostered trade between their regions, and sent skilled workers back and forth. Thus political authorities all across Eurasia engaged in diplomatic relationships with one another more than ever before.

Cultural Exchange in the Mongol Realm

Accompanying these transcontinental economic and political relationships was a substantial exchange of peoples and cultures. Mongol policy forcibly transferred many thousands of skilled craftsmen and educated people from their homelands to distant parts of the empire, while the Mongols’ religious tolerance and support of merchants drew missionaries and traders from afar. The Mongol capital at Karakorum was a cosmopolitan city with places of worship for Buddhists, Daoists, Muslims, and Christians. Chinggis Khan and several other Mongol rulers married Christian women. This relatively open Mongol outlook facilitated the exchange and blending of religious ideas. In Persia, for example, images of the Prophet Muhammad appeared, drawing on Chinese painting techniques and using Buddhist and Christian traditions as models. One such painting even portrayed the birth of the Prophet in a distinctly Christian nativity scene. Actors and musicians from China, wrestlers from Persia, and a jester from Byzantium provided entertainment for the Mongol court. Persian and Arab doctors and administrators were sent to China, while Chinese physicians and engineers found their skills in demand in the Islamic world.

This movement of people facilitated the exchange of ideas and techniques, a process actively encouraged by Mongol authorities. A great deal of Chinese technology and artistic conventions — such as painting, printing, gunpowder weapons, compass navigation, high-temperature furnaces, and medical techniques — flowed westward. But cultural sensibilities shaped the reception of foreign ideas and practices. Acupuncture, for example, was poorly received in the Middle East because it required too much bodily contact for Muslim taste; however, Chinese techniques for diagnosing illness by taking the pulse of patients proved quite popular, as they involved minimal body contact. Muslim astronomers brought their skills and knowledge to China because Mongol authorities wanted “second opinions on the reading of heavenly signs and portents” and assistance in constructing the accurate calendars needed for ritual purposes. Plants and crops likewise circulated within the Mongol domain. Lemons and carrots from the Middle East found a welcome reception in China, while the Persian il-khan Ghazan sent envoys to India, China, and elsewhere to seek “seeds of things which are unique in that land.”

Europeans arguably gained more than most from these exchanges, for they had long been cut off from the fruitful interchange with Asia, and in comparison to the Islamic and Chinese worlds, they were less technologically developed. Now they could reap the benefits of new technology, new crops, and new knowledge of a wider world. And almost alone among the peoples of Eurasia, they could do so without having suffered the devastating consequences of Mongol conquest. In these circumstances, some historians have argued, lay the roots of Europe’s remarkable rise to global prominence in the centuries that followed. (See Controversies: Debating Empire for a look at how historians think about empires.)

The Plague: An Afro-Eurasian Pandemic

Any benefits derived from participation in Mongol networks of communication and exchange must be measured alongside the hemispheric catastrophe known as the “plague” or the “pestilence” and later called the Black Death. Originating most likely in China, the bacteria responsible for the disease, known as Yersinia pestis, spread across the trade routes of the Mongol Empire in the early fourteenth century (see Map 4.2). Carried by rodents and transmitted by fleas to humans, the plague erupted initially in 1331 in northeastern China and had reached the Middle East and Western Europe by 1347. In 1409, the plague reached East Africa, probably by way of the famous Chinese maritime expeditions that encompassed the Indian Ocean basin.

The disease itself was associated with swelling of the lymph nodes, terrible headaches, high fever, and internal bleeding just below the skin. Infected people generally died within a few days. In the densely populated civilizations of China, the Islamic world, and Europe as well as in the steppe lands of the pastoralists, the plague claimed enormous numbers of human victims, causing a sharp contraction in Eurasian population for a century or more. Chroniclers reported rates of death that ranged from 50 to 90 percent of the affected population, depending on the time and place. A recent study suggests that about half of Europe’s people perished during the initial outbreak of 1348–1350. A fifteenth-century Egyptian historian wrote that within a month of the plague’s arrival in 1349, “Cairo had become an abandoned desert…. Everywhere one heard lamentations and one could not pass by any house without being overwhelmed by the howling.” The Middle East generally had lost perhaps one-third of its population by the early fifteenth century. The intense first wave of the plague was followed by periodic visitations over the next several centuries. However, other regions of the Eastern Hemisphere, especially India and sub-Saharan Africa, were much less affected.

In those places where it struck hardest, the plague left thoughtful people grasping for language with which to describe a horror of such unprecedented dimensions. One Italian man, who had buried all five of his children with his own hands, wrote in 1348 that “so many have died that everyone believes it is the end of the world.” Another Italian, the Renaissance scholar Francesco Petrarch, was equally stunned by the impact of the Black Death; he wrote to a friend in 1349:

When at any time has such a thing been seen or spoken of? Has what happened in these years ever been read about: empty houses, derelict cities, ruined estates, fields strewn with cadavers, a horrible and vast solitude encompassing the whole world? Consult historians, they are silent; ask physicians, they are stupefied; seek the answers from philosophers, they shrug their shoulders, furrow their brows, and with fingers pressed against their lips, bid you be silent. Will posterity believe these things, when we who have seen it can scarcely believe it?

In the Islamic world, the famous historian Ibn Khaldun, who had lost both of his parents to the plague, also wrote about it in apocalyptic terms:

Civilization in both the East and the West was visited by a destructive plague which devastated nations and caused populations to vanish. It swallowed up many of the good things of civilization and wiped them out…. It was as if the voice of existence had called out for oblivion and restriction, and the world responded to its call.

Everywhere faith provided one means for people to understand and cope with a catastrophe of such immense proportions. Individuals frequently turned to religion to find some sense of meaning, comfort, and protection. Penitents sought to beseech God for mercy or atone for their sins through prayer and religious rituals and practices. In places where faiths coexisted they could sometimes act together. Ibn Kathir, an Islamic teacher in the city of Damascus, reported that when Muslim authorities called for the population to participate in religious ceremonies as the plague threatened the city, “One saw in this multitude Jews, Christians, Samaritans … who processed after the [Muslim] morning prayer, not ceasing to chant their prayers until daybreak.” But not all turned to religion. Giovanni Boccaccio, who lived in Florence during the plague, reported that some lived freely, refusing “no passion or appetite they wished to gratify, drinking and reveling incessantly from tavern to tavern, or in private houses.” Such were the variety of responses to this unprecedented human catastrophe.

Beyond its immediate devastation, the Black Death worked longer-term social changes in Europe, the region where the plague’s impact has been most thoroughly studied. Labor shortages following the initial outburst provoked sharp conflict between scarce workers, who sought higher wages or better conditions, and the rich, who resisted those demands. A series of peasant revolts in the fourteenth century reflected this tension, which also undermined the practice of serfdom. That labor shortage also may have fostered a greater interest in technological innovation and created, at least for a time, more employment opportunities for women. Thus a resilient European civilization survived a cataclysm that had the power to destroy it. In a strange way, that catastrophe may have actually fostered its future growth.

Whatever its impact in particular places, the plague also had larger consequences. Ironically, that human disaster, born of the Mongol network, was a primary reason for the demise of that network in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Population contracted, cities declined, and the volume of trade diminished all across the Mongol world. By around 1350, the Mongol Empire itself was in disarray, and within a century the Mongols had lost control of Chinese, Persian, and Russian civilizations. The Central Asian trade route, so critical to the entire Afro-Eurasian world economy, largely closed.

This disruption of the Mongol-based land routes to the East, coupled with a desire to avoid Muslim intermediaries, provided incentives for Europeans to take to the sea in their continuing efforts to reach the riches of Asia. Their naval technology gave them military advantages on the seas, much as the Mongols’ skill with the bow and their mobility on horseback gave these pastoralists a decisive edge in land battles. As Europeans penetrated Asian and Atlantic waters in the sixteenth century, they took on, in some ways, the role of the Mongols in organizing and fostering world trade and in creating a network of communication and exchange over an even larger area. Like the Mongols, Europeans were people on the periphery of the major established civilizations; they too were economically less developed in comparison to Chinese, Indian, and Islamic civilizations. Both Mongols and Europeans were apt to forcibly plunder the wealthier civilizations they encountered, and European empire building in the Americas, like that of the Mongols in Eurasia, brought devastating disease and catastrophic population decline in its wake. Europeans, of course, brought far more of their own culture and many more of their own people to the societies they conquered, as Christianity, European languages, settler societies, and Western science and technology took root within their empires. Although their imperial presence lasted far longer and operated on a much larger scale, European actions at the beginning of their global expansion bore some resemblance to those of their Mongol predecessors. Perhaps they were, as one historian put it, “the Mongols of the seas.”

Some distinct identifiers of China during the Mongol Empire include:

1. Yuan Dynasty: The Mongols established the Yuan Dynasty in China under Khubilai Khan, marking the first time China was ruled by a foreign power. This dynasty significantly impacted Chinese administration, culture, and society.

2. Cultural Exchange: The Mongol Empire facilitated a significant cultural exchange between China and the rest of Eurasia. The Mongols embraced various aspects of Chinese culture, administrative practices, and technologies, and in turn, introduced some of their own customs.

3. Political Organization: The Mongols utilized Chinese administrative techniques, including a sophisticated tax system and governance practices, which were crucial for managing such a vast empire and extracting wealth from China.

4. Religious Tolerance: Under Mongol rule, China experienced a degree of religious tolerance, allowing Buddhism, Daoism, and other religious traditions to thrive while also integrating Islamic and Christian influences.

5. Trade and Commerce: The Mongol Empire promoted trade across Eurasia, allowing Chinese goods to reach far beyond their borders. This period saw a flourishing of international commerce facilitated by the stability provided by Mongol rule.

6. Capital Relocation: Khubilai Khan moved the capital from Karakorum to Beijing (Khanbalik), establishing a new administrative center that symbolized the merging of Mongol and Chinese authority.

7. Infrastructure Development: Improvements in infrastructure, such as roads and the postal system, were emphasized during Mongol rule, enhancing communication and trade within China and with other parts of the empire.

Some distinct identifiers of Russia during the Mongol Empire include:

• Khanate of the Golden Horde: The Mongol Empire in Russia was known as the Khanate of the Golden Horde, which did not involve direct occupation like in China or Persia. This allowed Russia to maintain a degree of local governance.

• Tributary System: Russian princes were appointed by the khan and required to send substantial tribute, which created a complex taxation system impacting the peasantry.

• Religious Tolerance: The Mongols allowed the Russian Orthodox Church to flourish, exempting it from many taxes and enabling it to gain influence in society.

• Indirect Control: Rather than establishing a permanent Mongol presence in cities, the Mongols relied on local princes for governance, leading to a unique relationship where local customs persisted.

• Cultural Isolation: Unlike Mongols in China, their cultural influence in Russia was limited, resulting in a lesser degree of Mongol assimilation into Russian society.

• Military Techniques: Russian princes adopted Mongol military strategies and practices, benefiting from their experience while still developing distinct local identities.

• Rise of Moscow: The absence of direct control facilitated the rise of Moscow as a significant power, with local princes consolidating power and wealth in the latter stages of Mongol rule.

Baghdad was significantly impacted by the Mongol Empire, particularly during the sack of 1258 when it was the center of the Abbasid Caliphate. Here are some distinct identifiers of Baghdad during the Mongol Empire:

• Cultural and Religious Center: Before the Mongol invasion, Baghdad was a major center of Islamic culture, knowledge, and governance.

• Sacking of Baghdad: The Mongols, under Hulagu Khan, besieged Baghdad in 1258, leading to widespread destruction and the massacre of a large portion of its population.

• End of the Abbasid Caliphate: The conquest marked the end of the Abbasid Caliphate's political power, as the Mongols effectively dismantled its authority.

• Architectural Destruction: Many remarkable buildings, including libraries and mosques, were destroyed in the assault, leading to a significant loss of knowledge and cultural heritage.

• Economic Disruption: The Mongol conquest devastated Baghdad's economy, with heavy taxation and seizure of property leading to significant hardship for its inhabitants.

• Mongol Governance: After the invasion, some Mongol rulers, like Hulagu, employed Persian bureaucratic practices but the overall governance structure changed significantly, impacting local administrative systems.

it said the same for moscow as it did for russia

Distinct Identifiers of the Il-Khanate

1. Foundation and Leadership: The Il-Khanate was established by Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Chinggis Khan, and marked the Mongol rule over Persia after the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate.

2. Cultural Integration: The Il-Khanate witnessed significant cultural exchange, as Mongol rulers gradually adopted Persian customs and governance practices, leading to a blend of Mongol and Persian cultures.

3. Religious Transformation: Initially, the Mongols were a shamanistic people, but under the influence of leaders like Ghazan, many of them converted to Islam, which played a crucial role in their acceptance by the local population.

4. Administrative Structure: The Il-Khanate utilized the existing Persian administrative framework, allowing many Persian bureaucrats to remain in power, thus maintaining continuity in governance.

5. Impact on Agriculture and Economy: Although the early conquests were brutal and disruptive, the Il-Khanate eventually worked to repair the extensive damage to agriculture caused by military campaigns, reviving the economy.

6. Taxation and Tribute System: The Mongol rulers imposed heavy taxes on the populace, which, while often contentious, funded military campaigns and the lavish lifestyle of the Mongol elite.

7. Interactions with Other Cultures: The Il-Khanate facilitated trade and diplomatic relations between the East and West, fostering connections with the Byzantine Empire and various European states.

8. End of the Il-Khanate: The dynasty faced decline due to a lack of effective leadership and rival factions, ultimately disintegrating in the 14th century, leading to the assimilation of the Mongol elite into Persian society.

Distinct Identifiers of Karakorum during the Mongol Empire:

• Capital of the Mongol Empire: Karakorum was established as the primary capital under Chinggis Khan, serving as the political and administrative center of the vast Mongol realm.

• Cosmopolitan City: The city was a hub of diverse cultures and religions, featuring places of worship for Buddhists, Daoists, Christians, and Muslims, reflecting the Mongol policy of religious tolerance.

• Trade and Commerce Center: Karakorum played a key role in facilitating trade across the Eurasian land routes, thanks to its strategic location that connected various parts of the empire.

• Cultural Exchange and Interaction: The city served as a meeting point for merchants, diplomats, and scholars from different cultures, fostering significant cultural exchange and dialogue.

• Administrative Practices: Mongol rulers implemented organized administrative structures in Karakorum, utilizing scribes and officials who translated decrees into multiple languages to manage the diverse population.

• Infrastructure Development: The city featured extensive infrastructure, including relay stations and roads that aided communication and trade throughout the empire.

• Symbol of Mongol Power: Karakorum symbolized the authority and reach of the Mongol Empire, with khans and dignitaries making it a center for imperial ceremonies and gatherings.

Distinct Identifiers of Kiev during the Mongol Empire

• Cultural Hub: Kiev served as a central cultural and political center in the early Kievan Rus, known for its vibrant arts and architecture before Mongol domination.

• Fall to Mongol Forces: The city was besieged and captured by the Mongols during their military campaigns in the 13th century, leading to significant devastation.

• Massacre and Destruction: Following its surrender, Kiev experienced a horrific massacre alongside extensive destruction of its infrastructure and buildings, weakening its role as a significant cultural center.

• Symbol of Resistance: Kiev became a symbol of resistance against Mongol rule as the city’s nobility attempted to challenge Mongol authority during and after the initial invasion.

• Transition of Power: The conquest of Kiev marked a transition in power dynamics within the region, establishing the Mongols' influence over the fragmented principalities of Rus.

• Tribute Requirements: Post-conquest, the Mongols imposed tribute requirements on the city, leading to ongoing economic challenges for the inhabitants and a lasting impact on local governance.

During the Mongol Empire, Japan was notably distinct in several ways, particularly during the Mongol invasions:

• Kamikaze (Divine Wind): The Mongols attempted to invade Japan in both 1274 and 1281, but typhoons, referred to as "kamikaze," thwarted their efforts. This event was interpreted as divine intervention by the Japanese, reinforcing national identity and resistance against foreign invasion.

• Feudal System: Japan was characterized by a feudal system dominated by warrior clans (samurai), which played a significant role in organizing resistance against Mongol invasions.

• Lack of Cultural Assimilation: Unlike other regions conquered by the Mongols, Japan remained largely culturally isolated from Mongolian influence, preserving its distinct language, customs, and governance.

• Defense Strategies: The Japanese employed unique strategies, including fortifications and naval defenses, using smaller ships that could maneuver better in coastal waters compared to the larger Mongol fleets.

• National Identity: The threat of Mongol invasion inspired a sense of national unity and identity among the various clans in Japan, ultimately leading to a consolidated resistance against foreign powers.

• Religious Influence: The invasions prompted a strong reliance on Shinto beliefs, appealing to the divine protection against the invaders, which played a significant role in the cultural and religious landscape during this period.

Distinct Identifiers of Mongolia during the Mongol Empire

• Homeland of the Mongols: Mongolia served as the geographic and cultural heart of the Mongol Empire, where pastoral nomadic traditions thrived.

• Social Structure: The social organization was based on clans and tribes, emphasizing kinship ties and loyalty, which was crucial for military and political networks.

• Nomadic Lifestyle: The Mongols maintained a predominantly nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle, relying on herding and the use of portable dwellings (gers or yurts) that enabled mobility across the vast steppes.

• Military Prowess: Mongolia's pastoral background fostered exceptional skills in horseback riding and mounted warfare, forming the foundation of the Mongol military strategy.

• Cultural Traditions: The Mongolian culture featured rich oral traditions, including epic poetry and folklore, alongside shamanistic beliefs that coexisted later with Buddhism.

• Political Unity: Under the leadership of Chinggis Khan, disparate tribes were unified into a single political entity, marking a significant shift in Mongolian political organization.

• Economic Contributions: The Mongol Empire facilitated trade across Eurasia, with Mongolia being the origin point for the empire's expansion and influence, linking various cultures and civilizations.

• Eurasian Network: Mongolia was central in establishing and maintaining the extensive networks of communication, trade, and cultural exchange across the vast territories controlled by the Mongols.

Distinct Identifiers of the Safavid Empire During the Mongol Era:

• Foundation and Background: The Safavid Empire emerged in Persia in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, following the decline of Mongol authority, marking a significant shift in Persian history.

• Religious Identity: The Safavid Empire was known for its Shia Islamic faith, which it actively promoted as the state religion. This was a clear distinction from the predominantly Sunni Islam practiced by many of its neighboring empires.

• Cultural Flourishing: The Safavid period is marked by a rich cultural revival, which included advancements in art, architecture, and literature. Persian culture thrived, often blending with influences from previous Mongol and Islamic traditions.

• Political Authority: The Safavid rulers established a centralized authority, moving away from the fragmented rule that had characterized Mongol governance, asserting their power over various Persian territories.

• Military Organization: Unlike the cavalry-focused Mongol military strategy, the Safavid military included the use of gunpowder and artillery, reflecting a shift in warfare techniques that emerged after the Mongol period.

• Trade and Interaction: The Safavid Empire fostered extensive trade relations across the region, promoting economic connectivity similar to that experienced under Mongol rule but with a strong Shia influence on commerce and diplomacy.

• Diplomatic Relations: The Safavid dynasty sought both alliances and confrontations with neighboring Sunni powers, setting the stage for future religious and political tensions that stemmed from the earlier Mongol conquests.

• End of Period: The Safavid Empire plays a crucial role in shaping modern Iranian identity and the historical narratives of Persia following the Mongol invasions, leading to a distinct cultural and political legacy that persists today.

The Black Death, or plague, was a catastrophic pandemic that swept through Europe, Asia, and North Africa in the 14th century during the time of the Mongol Empire. It was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and primarily transmitted through fleas found on rats. The outbreak began in northeastern China around 1331 and spread to the Middle East and Western Europe by 1347. The mortality rates were devastating, with estimates indicating that between 50 and 90 percent of affected populations died. This epidemic had far-reaching effects on social structures, economies, and cultures,

Definition of Yam in the Mongol Empire In the context of the Mongol Empire, a yam refers to a relay station or post along the extensive network of roads that facilitated communication and trade across the empire. These stations were crucial for the swift movement of messages and goods, allowing for efficient governance and military coordination. The yams often featured facilities for resting both horses and couriers, ensuring that the Mongol postal system was maintained effectively throughout the vast territories they controlled