The Last Great Nomadic Challenges: From Chinggis Khan to Timur

1. The Last Great Nomadic Challenges: From Chinggis Khan to Timur 15

2. Figure 15.1 A 14th-century miniature painting from Rashid al-Din's History of the World depicts Mongol cavalry charging into battle against retreating Persians. The speed and endurance of Mongol cavalry made it difficult for routed foes to retreat and live to fight another day. As the painting suggests, surrender or death were often the only options for those overrun by Mongol units.(Bibliotheque Nationale de France.)

3. Chapter Overview • The Transcontinental Empire of Chinggis Khan • The Mongol Drive to the West • The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History

4. Map 15.1 The Transcontinental Empire of Chinggis KhanEasily the largest empire built before the Industrial Revolution, the Mongol imperium linked most of the great Eurasian centers of civilization.

5. TIMELINE 900 C.E. to 1300 C.E.

6. The Transcontinental Empire of Chinggis Khan • Mongol Culture • Nomadic pastoralists • Goats, sheep • Tribe • Divided into clans • Temporary confederations • Leaders elected

7. Figure 15.2 This sketch shows a Mongol household on the move. The Mongols depended on sheep for food, clothing, and shelter, and they rode both horses and camels. As the drawing shows, they also used oxen to transport their housing for seasonal or longer-term migrations. The Mongols mounted their tents and other goods on enormous wagons so heavy that large teams of oxen were required to pull them. This combination of animal transport and comfortable but movable shelters made the Mongols one of the most mobile preindustrial societies.

8. The Transcontinental Empire of Chinggis Khan • The Making of a Great Warrior: The Early Career of Chinggis Khan • Kabul Khan • 1100s, defeats Qin forces • Grandson, Temujin • Chinggis Khan • Born Temujin • Develops alliances among Mongols • 1206 kuriltai, elected khagan (supreme ruler)

9. Figure 15.3 In this miniature from a Persian history, Chinggis Khan is shown acknowledging the submission of a rival prince. Although he conquered a vast empire, Chinggis Khan did not live long enough to build a regular bureaucracy to govern it. His rule was dependent on vassal chieftains such as the one shown in the painting, whose loyalty in turn depended on the maintenance of Mongol military might. When the military strength of the Mongol empire began to decline, subject princes soon rose up to establish the independence of their domains.

10. The Transcontinental Empire of Chinggis Khan • Building the Mongol War Machine • Mounted warriors • Tumens consisting of 10,000 warriors • Messenger force • Adopted gunpowder, cannons

11. The Transcontinental Empire of Chinggis Khan • Conquest: The Mongol Empire under Chinggis Khan • 1207, expedition • China • Xi-Xia, Tangut king defeated

12. The Transcontinental Empire of Chinggis Khan • First Assault on the Islamic World • Kara Khitai defeated • Mongolian • Khwarazm, Muhammad Shah II defeated • Return to China • Xi-Xia kingdom and Qin Empire destroyed

13. The Transcontinental Empire of Chinggis Khan • Long Distance Trade and Cross-Cultural Exchange: Life Under the Mongol Imperium • Harsh, tolerant • Chinggis Khan • Capital at Karakorum • Shamanistic • Tolerated other religions • New administration

14. The Transcontinental Empire of Chinggis Khan • Long Distance Trade and Cross-Cultural Exchange: Life Under the Mongol Imperium • Commerce thrives • Facilitated spread of disease

15. The Transcontinental Empire of Chinggis Khan • The Death of Chinggis Khan and the Division of the Empire • 1227, division of empire • Three sons, one grandson (Batu) • Ogedei, third son • Elected grand khan

16. The Mongol Drive to the West • Golden Horde • Khanates • Batu, grandson of Chinggis Khan • 1236, begins conquest of Russia • 1240, Kiev taken and sacked • Novgorod spared

17. The Mongol Drive to the West • Russia in Bondage • Russians in vassalage to Golden Horde • Commerce benefits • Moscow thrives • Metropolitan head of Orthodox church • Leads Russian resistance to Mongol • Battle of Kulikova, 1380 • Golden Horde defeated

18. Map 15.2 The Four Khanates of the Divided Mongol EmpireSheer distances and slow-moving modes of transportation made it difficult to hold together the vast domains conquered by Chinggis Khan and his immediate successors.

19. The Mongol Drive to the West • Mongol Incursions and the Retreat from Europe • Rumor of Prester John • Hungary, 1240 • Death of Ogedei • Batu retreats

20. The Mongol Drive to the West • The Mongol Assault on the Islamic Heartland • Hulegu • Grandson of Chinggis Khan • Ilkhan • West to Mesopotamia, north Africa • 1258, Baghdad sacked

21. Visualizing the PastThe Mongol Empire as a Bridge Between CivilizationsMap 15.3 The Mongol Empire and the Global Exchange Network

22. The Mongol Drive to the West • The Mongol Assault on the Islamic Heartland • Hulegu • 1260, stopped by Baibars • Egyptian Mamluks • Threatened by cousin Berke

23. Figure 15.4 The Abbasid capital at Baghdad had long been in decline when the Mongols besieged it in 1258. The Mongols' sack of the city put an end to all pretenses that Baghdad was still the center of the Muslim world. The Mongol assault on Baghdad also revealed how vulnerable even cities with high and extensive walls were to the artillery and other siege weapons that the Mongols and Chinese had pioneered. In the centuries that followed, major innovations in fortifications, many introduced first in Europe, were made to counter the introduction of gunpowder and the new siege cannons.(The Mongols under their chief Hülegü conquering Baghdad in 1258. From Rashid al-Din's "Jami' al-Tawarikh" (Compendium of Chronicles). Illuminated manuscript page, 14th C.E. Inv. Diez A Fol.70, image 7. Bildarchiv Preussischer/Art Resource, NY. Photo: Ruth Schacht. Oriental Division.)

24. The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History • Ogedei renews attack on China • Kubilai Khan • Grandson of Chinggis Khan • Attacks Song • 1271, transformation to Yuan dynasty • Capital at Dadu (Beijing)

25. Figure 15.5 This portrait of Kubilai Khan, by far the most important Mongol ruler of China, emphasizes his Mongol physical features, beard and hair styles, and dress. But Kubilai was determined to "civilize" his Mongol followers according to Chinese standards. Not only did he himself adopt a Chinese lifestyle, but he had his son educated by the best Confucian scholars to be a proper Chinese emperor. Kubilai also became a major patron of the Chinese arts and a promoter of Chinese culture.

26. The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History • Gender Roles and the Convergence of Mongol and Chinese Culture • Mongol women retain liberties • Reject footbinding • Chabi, wife of Kubilai, influential • Era too brief to reverse trends of neo-Confucianism

27. The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History • Mongol Tolerance and Foreign Cultural Influence • Mongol patronage • Attracts scholars, artists • Religious toleration • Buddhists, Nestorians, Latin Christians, Daoists, Muslims • Marco Polo • Visits court

28. Figure 15.6 A portrait of Chabi, the energetic and influential wife of Kubilai Khan. Kubilai's determination to adopt Chinese culture without being overwhelmed by it was bolstered by the advice and example of Chabi. Displaying the independent-mindedness and political savvy of many Mongol women, Chabi gave Kubilai critical advice on how to counter the schemes of his ambitious brother and how to handle the potentially hostile scholar-gentry elite and peasantry that came to be ruled by Mongol overlords.

29. The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History • Social Policies and Scholar-Gentry Resistance • Ethnic Chinese resist • Especially scholar-gentry • Kubilai • Protects peasant lands • Famine relief • Tax, labor burden lessened • Romance of the West Chamber

30. The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History • The Fall of the House of Yuan • Death of Kubilai • Dynasty already weakened • Song revolt • 1274, 1280, Japan attacked • Failure

31. Figure 15.7 This 15th-century manuscript illumination depicts Marco Polo and his uncle offering homage to the Great Khan. The Polos were Venetian merchants, and Marco's elders had already traveled extensively in Asia in the decade before they set off with Marco. Marco had a great facility with languages, which served him well in his journeys through Asia by land and sea. On his way home in the mid-1290s, he related his many adventures to a writer of romances while both were prisoners of the Genoese, who were fierce rivals of the Venetians. Eventually published under the title Description of the World, Polo's account became one of a handful of definitive sources on the world beyond Europe for the explorers of the coming age of overseas expansion.(Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. 2810.)

32. The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History • The Fall of the House of Yuan • By 1350s, territory lost • White Lotus Society • Zhu Yuanzhang • Founds Ming dynasty

33. The Global Eclipse of the Nomadic Warrior Culture • Nomadic ability to establish control on larger, more sophisticated peoples • Advantages in war • Mounted warriors • Technology adapted from sedentary peoples • Stronger central control in sedentary states • More military wealth • Better able to defeat nomads

34. The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History • Aftershock: The Brief Ride of Timur • Timur-i Lang (Tamerlane) • Turkish • Base at Samarkand • Brief rule, violent destruction • 1360s, conquests • Persia, Fertile Crescent, India, Russia

35. The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History • Aftershock: The Brief Ride of Timur • 1405, death of Timur • Empire dissolves • End of steppe nomad conquests