Nomadic Empires and Eurasian Integration: The Mongol and Turkish Eras

Guillaume Boucher and the Cosmopolitan Mongol Court

• The Story of Guillaume Boucher: A Parisian goldsmith who lived during the early and middle decades of the thirteenth century ($13^{th}$ century).     * He left Paris for Budapest in the kingdom of Hungary during the $1230s$.     * Captured by Mongol warriors in Hungary and taken to the Mongol capital, Karakorum, in $1242$ along with other skilled captives.     * Lived in Karakorum for at least fifteen years ($15$ years) as a slave with prestige, supervising $50$ assistants in a workshop producing gold and silver decorative objects.
• The Silver Fountain: Boucher's most famous creation was a silver fountain in the shape of a tree.     * Four pipes concealed within the trunk carried wine and other intoxicating drinks to the top.     * Drinks dispensed into silver bowls for courtiers and guests.
• Boucher's Other Works: He produced gold and silver statues, built carriages, designed buildings, and sewed ritual garments for Roman Catholic priests in Karakorum.
• Diversity at the Mongol Court: Karakorum served as a crossroads for many nationalities.     * Guillaume’s Wife: A woman of French ancestry met and married in Hungary.     * Paquette: A Frenchwoman who served as an attendant to a Mongol princess.     * Paquette’s Husband: An artisan from Russia.     * Other residents: An unnamed nephew of a French bishop, a Greek soldier, an Englishman named Basil, and various Germans, Slavs, Hungarians, Chinese, Koreans, Turks, Persians, and Armenians.

Nomadic Economy and Society in Central Asia

• Ecological Conditions: Central Asian lands are arid and receive insufficient rain for large-scale agriculture.     * Steppe lands support grasses and shrubs suitable for grazing but not farming.     * Societies adapted by becoming pastoralists, keeping herds of horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and camels.
• Migratory Patterns: Pastoralists followed migratory cycles based on seasons and local climate to ensure abundant vegetation.     * They lived in collapsible felt tents called yurts.     * Kumiss: A potent alcoholic beverage made by fermenting mare's milk.
• Economic Limitations and Trade: Aridity limited dense populations; agriculture was only possible at oases (e.g., millet or vegetables).     * Nomads traded with settled societies for agricultural products and manufactured goods.     * They organized and led caravans across central Asia, linking China to the Mediterranean basin.
• Social Classes: Nomadic society consisted of two classes: elites and commoners.     * Elites: Charismatic leaders who organized alliances. They held absolute authority during war but otherwise did little governing.     * Social Mobility: The classes were fluid; elites could lose status over generations if they failed to lead, and commoners could rise through outstanding conduct in war or clever diplomacy.
• Gender Relations: Women held higher status than in settled societies.     * Because men were often away for hunting or war, women were primarily responsible for tending animals.     * Women were skilled horse riders and archers, sometimes fighting in battle.     * They acted as advisors in family and clan matters and occasionally as regents or rulers.
• William of Rubruck’s Account ($1253$–$1255$):     * Wealthy Mongols possessed $100$ to $200$ wagons for transporting dwellings and goods.     * Division of labor: Women drove wagons, loaded/unloaded dwellings, milked cows, made butter and grut (cheese), and stitched clothing using sinew thread.     * Men made weapons, stirrups, saddles, and dwellings; they milked mares and processed skins.     * Taboos: Mongols believed washing clothes would anger God and cause thunder ($ext{extraordinarily afraid of thunder}$). Dishes were "cleaned" using boiling meat broth rather than water.

Religion and the Expansion of Turkish Peoples

• Shamans: The earliest Turkish religion focused on religious specialists with supernatural powers who communicated with nature spirits.
• Conversion and Script: By the $6^{th}$ century $C.E.$, many Turks adopted Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, or Manichaeism.     * Turkish peoples developed a written script due to trade and religious needs.
• Conversion to Islam:     * Early converts were slave soldiers in the Abbasid caliphate ($9^{th}$ century).     * The Seljuqs converted in the late $10^{th}$ century and migrated to Iran to ally with the caliphate.     * Most Turkish clans on the steppes converted between the $10^{th}$ and $14^{th}$ centuries.
• Military Organization: Nomadic power came from cavalry forces.     * Archers were deadly accurate even at a gallop.     * Equestrian skills were learned from childhood.     * Khan: A ruler who governed through leaders of allied tribes.

Turkish Empires in Eurasia

• Seljuq Turks in Persia:     * In $1055$, the Abbasid caliph recognized the Seljuq leader Tughril Beg as sultan ("chieftain").     * The Seljuqs ruled from Baghdad and extended control to Syria and Palestine.     * The caliph became a figurehead of authority.
• Seljuq Turks in Anatolia:     * Migrations began in the early $11^{th}$ century.     * Battle of Manzikert ($1071$): Seljuqs defeated the Byzantine army and captured the emperor.     * By $1453$, the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople, completing the transformation of Anatolia into a Turkish-Islamic land.
• Ghaznavid Turks in India:     * Led by Mahmud of Ghazni, they raided northern India for plunder, later establishing permanent rule.     * Sultanate of Delhi: By the $13^{th}$ century, they controlled northern India.     * Maintained a large army with a specialized elephant corps.     * Mahmud was a zealous opponent of Buddhism and Hinduism, destroying shrines and monasteries.

Chinggis Khan and the Rise of the Mongol Empire

• Temüjin (born c. $1167$): Unified the Mongol tribes.     * His father was poisoned when Temüjin was $10$ years old.     * Mastered "steppe diplomacy": combined loyalty to allies with a willingness to betray superiors to improve position.     * Named Chinggis Khan ("universal ruler") in $1206$.
• Political Reforms:     * Mistrusted tribal organization; broke up tribes and created new military units based on talent and loyalty rather than kinship.     * Established the capital at Karakorum ($300,km$ west of Ulaanbaatar).
• Mongol Military Power:     * Population of approximately $1,000,000$ Mongols.     * Army size of $100,000$ to $125,000$ warriors.     * Arrows could fell enemies at $200\,m$.     * Horsemen could travel more than $100\,km$ per day.     * Psychological warfare: Ruthless slaughter for resistance, but generous treatment for those who surrendered and possessed artisan/military skills.
• Marco Polo on Mongol Tactics:     * Decimal system of organization: units of $10$, $100$, $1000$, and $10,000$.     * Survival: In urgent cases, warriors rode for $10$ days without fire, sustaining themselves on the blood of their horses.     * Combat: Preferred circling and shooting; utilized feigned retreats where they turned in the saddle to shoot pursuing enemies.

Mongol Conquests and Regional Empires

• Northern China: Invaded the Jurchen realm in $1211$; captured the Jurchen capital in $1215$, renaming it Khanbaliq ("city of the khan"). Control established by $1220$.
• Persia: Chinggis Khan sought trade with the Khwarazm shah in $1218$. After the shah murdered Mongol envoys, the Mongols destroyed the realm ($1219$–$1221$).     * The Mongols destroyed the qanat irrigation systems, severely reducing agricultural output for centuries.
• Transition to Administration: Chinggis Khan died in $1227$. His heirs divided the realm into four empires:     1. Great Khans: Ruled China.     2. Khanate of Chaghatai: Central Asia.     3. Ilkhanate: Persia.     4. Golden Horde: Russia.
• Khubilai Khan (reigned $1264$–$1294$):     * Grandson of Chinggis Khan who established the Yuan Dynasty ($1279$–$1368$) after defeating the Song Dynasty.     * Hosted Marco Polo for nearly two decades ($20$ years).     * Failed to conquer Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, and Java due to tropical climate and guerrilla tactics.     * Invaded Japan twice ($1274$ and $1281$); both times thrawted by typhoons.     * The $1281$ expedition involved $4,500$ vessels and $100,000$ troops (the largest seaborne expedition before World War II).     * Japanese called the storms kamikaze ("divine winds").

Mongol Rule in Different Regions

• The Golden Horde in Russia ($1237$–$1241$):     * Prized the steppes north of the Black Sea for pasture.     * Extracted tribute from Russian cities rather than occupying forested lands.     * Maintained hegemony until the mid-$15^{th}$ century.
• The Ilkhanate in Persia:     * Hülegü captured Baghdad in $1258$, killing the caliph and $200,000$ residents.     * Mongols used Persians as ministers and local officials.     * Ilkhan Ghazan converted to Islam in $1295$, leading most Mongols in Persia to do the same.
• Mongol Rule in China:     * Looked down on the Chinese; forbade intermarriage and Chinese learning the Mongol language.     * Dismantled the Confucian educational and examination system.     * Brought in foreign administrators from the Islamic world and Europe (e.g., Marco Polo in Yangzhou).     * Favored Lamaist Buddhism from Tibet, which emphasized magic and recognized khans as incarnations of the Buddha.

Eurasian Integration and Technology Diffusion

• The Courier Network: Relay stations with fresh horses allowed rapid transmission of messages across the empire.
• Trade and Diplomacy:     * Safe travel routes led to a volume of long-distance trade that dwarfed previous eras.     * Rabban Sauma: A Nestorian Christian monk from Khanbaliq who traveled to Italy and France as a diplomat for the Persian ilkhan.
• Resettlement Policies: Moved skilled workers to where they were needed (e.g., Uighur Turks as administrators; Guillaume Boucher in Karakorum).
• Diffusion of Technologies ($1000$–$1500\,C.E.$):     * Gunpowder: Mongols learned it from China ($13^{th}$ century), using artillery units as early as $1214$. It reached Europe by the mid-$13^{th}$ century.     * Magnetic Compass: Invented in China; used in the Indian Ocean by the mid-$11^{th}$ century and the Mediterranean by the mid-$12^{th}$ century.     * Horse Collar: Likely from central Asia/north Africa; allowed horses to pull heavy loads without choking, replacing slower oxen in Europe.     * Camel Transportation: Enabled the crossing of the Sahara Desert by Islamic merchants ($8^{th}$ century).

Decline of the Mongol Empires

• In Persia: Excessive spending and reduced revenue from overexploited peasants.     * Attempted to introduce paper money in the $1290s$, which failed when merchants closed shops.     * The ilkhanate collapsed in $1335$ after the ruler died without an heir.
• In China:     * Economic decline due to the failure of paper money reserves and sharp price increases.     * Bubonic Plague (Black Death): Erupted in southwestern China in the $1330s$, reaching Europe by the late $1340s$.     * Epidemic caused labor shortages and depopulation.     * In $1368$, rebel forces captured Khanbaliq, forcing Mongols back to the steppes.

Tamerlane and the Ottoman Empire

• Tamerlane (Timur the Lame, b. $1336$):     * Modeled himself after Chinggis Khan; established his capital at Samarkand.     * Conquered Persia, Afghanistan, the Golden Horde, and sacked Delhi in India.     * Died in $1405$ while marching to invade China.     * Ruled through tribal leaders rather than a centralized administration.
• The Ottoman Empire:     * Founded by Osman in northwestern Anatolia ($1299$).     * Expanded into the Balkans at Gallipoli in the $1350s$.     * Sultan Mehmed II: Captured Constantinople in $1453$, renaming it Istanbul.     * By $1480$, they controlled Greece and the Balkans, later expanding into Egypt and North Africa.