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The Mongols:How BarbaricWere the

“Barbarians”?

A Document Based Question (DBQ)World History


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STUDENT GUIDE SHEET

The Mongols: How Barbaric Were the “Barbarians”?

Directions: In the 13th century CE the Mongols created the largest connected land massempire in the history of the world. For centuries they have been remembered as a brutal tribe ofnomadic barbarians who were a serious threat to people and civilizations throughout Asia andEurope. But is there more to the story? How barbaric were the barbarians?

It is suggested that you follow these steps:

1. Read the Background Essay.2. Skim through the documents to get a sense of what they are about.3. Read the documents slowly. In the margin or on a Document Analysis Sheet record

the main idea of each document.4. Organize the documents by analytical category. One or more may be a context

document. The categories might be different aspects of Mongol life.5. Within each category, decide whether, in your opinion, Mongol practice or belief

was positive or negative. Be able to explain each opinion citing concrete evidence.6. Develop a summary answer to the question.

The Documents:

Document 1: Map of the Mongol Empire

Document 2: Carpini on Army Organization and Discipline

Document 3: Carpini on Battle Tactics

Document 4: The Taking of Nishapur

Document 5: Painting: Burial Alive

Document 6: Mongol Commerce in China and Persia

Document 7: Battuta’s Horses

Document 8: The Yams

Document 9: Mongke Khan on God

Document 10: Fragments on Law and Custom

Introduction

Eight hundred years ago, during the 13thCentury, a small tribe from the grasslands orsteppes of central Asia conquered much of theknown world. Operating from the backs ofhorses, Mongol warriors swept across much ofAsia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.Their reach extended from Korea to Poland, andfrom Vietnam to Syria. Nothing like it had everbeen seen before. Nothing quite like it has beenseen since.

The reputation of the Mongols is not pretty.Much of the world called them “barbarians.” Forthe ancient Greeks, “barbaros” simply meantforeigner. By the 1200s, “barbarian” was amuch more negative term referring to peoplewho lived beyond the reach of civilization, peoplewho were savage, evil.

Below is a short sketch of Mongol history.Four maps are provided to help keep thestory straight. This background essay isfollowed by ten documents. Your taskis to use the background materials andthe documents to judge the Mongol’simpact on the 13th and 14th Centuryworld. Were they barbarians spreadingdeath and destruction, or is there moreto the story?

Beginnings

From the start, the Mongols lived in round,moveable houses they called yurts. They hadfew material possessions. They knew little aboutmining and cared nothing about farming. Theywere nomadic people who lived off the meat,

milk, and hide of horses, and the meat and woolof sheep.

Then in 1167 a boy child was born on theMongolian plains. His name was Temuchin.Temuchin did not have an easy childhood. Hisfather was poisoned by a local enemy and theboy spent much of his teenage years fightingclan rivals. For an additional twenty yearsTemuchin fought to bring the Mongol clans ofthe region under one leadership. In 1206Temuchin won that leadership and was given thetitle Genghis Khan. At this point, Genghis’ aspi-rations began to grow larger.

The First Wave: North China andAncient Persia

Genghis Khan’s first serious target was theChin armies of north China in 1211. An army of200,000 rode east. Numerous Chinese cities feltMongol brutality. Slaughter was so great that the

streets of the Chinese capital were greasy withhuman fat and flesh. With north China under hiscontrol, Genghis next attacked his neighbors tothe west – the Uighurs, the Kara-Khi tai, the

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The Mongols: How Barbaric Were the “Barbarians”?

Background Essay

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Merkits, the Kipchaks. The Mongol empire wassuddenly not so little.

Still further to the west was the ancientPersian empire of Khwarazm which includedthe modern nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan,and Iran. Initially Genghis Khan and the Shah ofKhwarazm worked out a peaceful trade agree-ment, but then a Mongol caravan of 150 tradersentering Khwarazm from Mongolia was mur-dered by one of the Shah’s governors. Thisturned out to be a bad mistake. What followedwas a Mongol onslaught that raked over the landof the Khwarazm Shah. Cities fell; Persian casu-alties were extraordinarily high.

The Second Wave: Russia andEastern Europe

In 1227 Genghis Khan died and was suc-ceeded by one of his four sons, Ogedei. Ogedeiordered the building of a Mongol capital calledKarakorum, and afterward itched for furtherconquest. After long debate with his brothers

and generals the decision was made to invadeRussia and eastern Europe. Ogedei predicted thecampaign would take a long eighteen years. Anarmy of 50,000 horse soldiers, Persian andChinese engineers, and 20,000 draftees weremade ready to march. By the winter of 1237 thisarmy stood poised on the frozen banks of theVolga; Russia and Europe lay before them.

The next five years were to shake the Westernworld. The first city to fall was Riazan on the

eastern Russian frontier. The great Mongolgeneral Subedei sought to make an example ofRiazan that would cause other Russian cities tosubmit. The city was destroyed. Men, women,and children were slain. A few survivors wereallowed to escape to carry the warning: TheMongols are coming – submit or die.

Kolumna, Suzdal, Vladimir, Kozelsk, Kievand other cities in Russia; Lublin, Cracow inPoland; Liegnitz in Silesia; Buda and Pest inHungary – the Mongols swept their way west.By May, 1242, Mongol intelligence patrols werejust 60 miles from Vienna.

And then the unexpected – the Mongolsturned back! Word from Mongolia had apparent-ly reached the front lines that the Great KhanOgedei had died. Not understanding what hadhappened, western Europe held its breath andwaited.

At about this time, in the 1240s, a smallnumber of European visitors began to visit

Mongolia and Mongol-controlledChina, men like the John of PlanoCarpini, Friar William of Rubruck, and,several years later, the famous MarcoPolo. These men joined the Persiansand Chinese who were already visitorsat the Mongol court in Karakorum or inChina. Thanks to the writings of thesetravellers we have some firsthandaccounts of Mongol life.

The Third Wave: The Middle East

Ogedei was succeeded by Genghis’ grandsonMongke. Mongke set his sights on still furtherconquest. Two targets were chosen, the MiddleEast and southern China.

Again, a huge Mongol army was assembledon the steppes – thousands upon thousands ofhorses, numerous siege machines, and one thou-sand Chinese engineering teams for buildingroads and bridges. The massive army advancedinto Persia on January 1, 1256.


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Background Essay (Continued)

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First the Mongols annihilated a troublesomesect known as the Assassins. Next they advanced500 miles west to the walls of Baghdad. There,in February, 1258, this spiritual and culturalcenter of Islam fell. Mongol armies proceededinto Syria and Palestine where they were joinedby Christian troops from Armenia and Georgia.It was a time of shifting alliances and these

eastern Christians saw the Mongol attack on theMiddle East as a kind of crusade against Islam.Then, suddenly, history repeated itself. Just asthe death of a Great Khan had stopped theMongols as they approached Vienna in 1242,now the death of Mongke Khan in 1259 causedthe Mongols to pull back from the walls ofJerusalem.

Pax Mongolica and Kubilai Khan in China

By this time the Mongol Empire consistedof four parts or khanates – the Russian khanatecalled the Golden Horde, the Persian khanate ofthe Ilkhans, the central Asian khanate, and afourth khanate which included Mongolia andChina. The next Great Khan was the famous

Kubilai, a grandson of Genghis, who ruled inChina. Kubilai maintained enough ties with theother khanates to achieve a measure of securityacross much of Asia. Historians have called thistime pax Mongolica or “the Mongolian peace.”

Kubilai was probably the most cultured ofthe Great Khans. He expanded his holdings inChina by defeating the Sung Empire in southern

China and established a new dynastyhe called the Yuan. For the first timein three hundred years China wasagain a united country but now underMongol control.

In his later years Kubilai weakenedhis empire with unsuccessful attemptsto conquer Japan and Java. AfterKubilai’s death the Mongols began tolose their grip across the entire empire.

In Persia Mongol authority ended in 1335. InChina the last Mongol emperor was removed in1368. In Russia the Golden Horde breathed itsfinal official breath in 1502. The Mongol erawas over.

The Question

What should we make of the Mongols?There is no debate among historians that theMongols had their brutal side. But when the dayof historical judgment comes and the Mongolgoods and bads are placed side by side on thebalance scale, which way does the scale tip?Read the documents that follow and make yourjudgment: The Mongols: How barbaric werethe “Barbarians”?

Background Essay (Continued)

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Notes�Document 1

Source: Map created from various sources.

Note: The area of the continental United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) is 3,036,885 square miles.

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G O L D E N H O R D E (Russia)

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C H A G H A D A I K H A N A T E (Central Asia)

K H A N A T E O F �T H E G R E A T K H A N

(China)

Samarkand

Hangzhou

Daidu (Beijing)

Shangdu (Kaiping)

Karakorum

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Delhi

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Jerusalem

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Mongol invasion forces wrecked by storms 1274 and 1281

Ain Julut Egyptian Mamluks defeat Mongols,

1260

The Mongol Empire circa 1260–1300

Size of World Conquests

Conquerors Square Miles Conquered

1. Genghis Khan (1162-1227) 4,860,000

2. Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BCE) 2,180,000

3. Tamerlane (1336 -1405) 2,145,000

4. Cyrus the Great (600 - 529 BCE) 2,090,000

5. Attila (406 - 453) 1,450,000

6. Adolf Hitler (1889 -1945) 1,370,000

7. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 -1821) 720,000


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Notes�

Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, in Christopher Dawson, The Mongol Mission,London: Sheed and Ward, 1955.

Document 2

Note: John of Plano Carpini was a Franciscan emissary of Pope Innocent IV and traveled toKarakorum between 1245 and 1247. It is believed he was the first European to visit theMongols in their homeland.

Genghis Khan ordained that the army should be organized insuch a way that over ten men should beset one man and he iswhat we call a captain of ten; over ten of these should beplaced one, named a captain of a hundred; at the head of tencaptains of a hundred is placed a soldier known as a captainof a thousand, and over ten captains of a thousand is oneman, and the word they use for this number �is tuman�. Twoor three chiefs are in command of the whole army, yet in sucha way that one holds the supreme command.

When they are in battle, if one or two or three or even moreout of a group of ten run away, all are put to death; and if awhole group of ten flees, the rest of the group of a hundred areall put to death, if they do not flee too. In a word, unless theyretreat in a body, all who take flight are put to death.Likewise if one or two or more go forward boldly to the fight,then the rest of the ten are put to death if they do not followand, if one or more of the ten are captured, their companionsare put to death if they do not rescue them.


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Notes�Document 3

Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, in Christopher Dawson, The MongolMission, London: Sheed and Ward,1955.

Carpini on Battle Tactics

When ... they are going to joinbattle, they draw all the battle linesjust as they are (about) to fight. Thechiefs or princes of the army do nottake part in the fighting but take uptheir stand some distance awayfacing the enemy, and they havebeside them their children on horse-back and their womenfolk andhorses; and sometimes they make fig-ures of men and set them onhorses. They do this to give theimpression that a great crowd offighting men is assembled there.

They send a detachment ofcaptives and men of other nationalitieswho are fighting with them to meetthe enemy head-on, and some of theTartars (Mongols) may perhapsaccompany them. Other columns ofstronger men they dispatch far off tothe right and the left so that they arenot seen by the enemy and in thisway they surround them and close inand so the fighting begins from allsides. Sometimes when they are fewin number they are thought by theenemy, who are surrounded, to bemany, especially when the lattercatch sight of the children, women,horses and dummy figures....

They reduce fortresses in thefollowing manner. If the position ofthe fortress allows it, they surround

it, sometimes even fencing it roundso that no one can enter or leave.They make a strong attack withengines (catapults for slinging largestones) and arrows and they do notleave off fighting by day or night, sothat those inside the fortress get nosleep; the Tartars however get somerest, for they divide up their forcesand they take it in turns to fight sothat they do not get too tired. If theycannot capture it in this way theythrow Greek fire (napalm); some-times they even take the fat of thepeople they kill and, melting it, throw(catapult) it on to the houses, andwherever the fire falls on this fat it isalmost inextinguishable.

While they are pitched before thefortification they speak enticingwords to the inhabitants making themmany promises to induce them to sur-render into their hands. If they dosurrender to them, they say: “Comeout, so that we may count youaccording to our custom” and whenthey come out to them they seek outthe artificers (artisans) among themand keep these, but the others, withthe exception of those they wish tohave as slaves, they kill with theaxe....


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Notes�Document 4

Reported Inhabitant Deaths From Varied Sources

Year Place Reported Deaths Source

1220 Bukhara (Khwarazm) 30,000 Juvaini

1220 Samarkand (Khwarazm) 30,000 Persian chronicler

1221 Merv (Khwarazm) 700,000 Persian chronicler

1221 Nishapur (Khwarazm) 1,747,000 Persian chronicler

1223 Herat (Khwarazm) 1,600,000 Chronicler

1237 Riazan (Russia) Few survivors Russian chroniclers

1237 Kozelsk (Russia) No survivors Russian chroniclers

1258 Baghdad (Persia) 800,000 - 2,000,000 Persian chroniclers

Note: These casualty figures are found in George Marshall’s Storm from the East. Despite very probableexaggeration, there is agreement among chroniclers of the time and historians of today that thenumber of deaths at Nishapur was staggering.

Source: Ata-Malik Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror, edited by UNESCO andManchester University Press, © UNESCO 1997. Reprinted by permission.

In the spring of 618/1221, the people of Nishapur (a city in Persia) saw that thematter was serious ... and although they had three thousand crossbows in action on thewall and had set up three hundred mangonels and ballistas and laid in a correspondentquantity of missiles and naphtha, their feet were loosened and they lost heart....

By the Saturday night all the walls were covered with Mongols;... The Mongolsnow descended from the walls and began to slay and plunder.... They then drove all thesurvivors, men and women, out onto the plain; and ... it was commanded that the townshould be laid waste in such a manner that the site could be ploughed upon; and that ...not even cats and dogs should be left alive....

They severed the heads of the slain from their bodies and heaped them up in piles,keeping those of the men separate from those of the women and children.

Note: Juvaini was a Persian chronicler who was in the employ of the Mongol Il-khan of Persia whoserved under the Mongols as the governor of Baghdad. He wrote this account about forty yearsafter the destruction of Nishapur.


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Notes�Document 5

Source: Persian manuscript, “The Shah Namah” or “Book of Kings,” c. 1300, Chester Beatty Library,Dublin. In Robert Marshall, Storm from the East, From Genghis Khan to Kubilai Khan, Universityof California Press, 1993. Reproduced with the permission of BBC Worldwide Limited. Copyright© Robert Marshall 1993.

A scene from a Persian manuscript c.1300, showing the execution of a prisoner by a Mongol soldier.Others are being buried alive upside-down.


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Notes�Document 6

Source: Charles J. Halperin, Russia and the Golden Horde, Indiana University Press, 1985.Reprinted by permission of Indiana University Press.

Mongol Commerce in China and Persia

The Mongols conquered nearly all of Asia and achieved what all Inner Asiansteppe empires had dreamed of, control of the continental caravan routes fromChina to Persia. The enormous destructive cost of the Pax Mongolica cannot bedenied, but the Mongol Empire made significant contributions to the politicalinstitutions, economic development, and cultural diversity of many lands. Nohistory of the Mongol Empire ... which dwells only on Mongol destruction, can besatisfactory.

• In both China and Persia the Mongols had taken up residence amongtheir new subjects, garrisoning cities and gradually blending to a degreewith the (local) societies. As a result, their economic interests coincidedwith those of the native peoples, and the Mongols, after the destructionof the initial conquest, promoted diversified economic development.

• The (Mongol) Yuan emperors built canals to improve transportation andcommunication. In China agriculture and (craft) production ...continued unabated.

• The same was true in Persia, partly because Persian craft traditionswere well-established, but also because the Ilkanids (Mongol rulers)were patrons of the arts.

• Persian viniculture (winemaking) ... thrived under the Mongols, whowere great drinkers, even after their conversion.

• The Persian silk industry also benefitted from the Mongol conquestbecause of the contacts that opened up with China.

• Cities along the caravan routes, in Persia, Armenia-Georgia, CentralAsia, and China, prospered as part of the tax-free customs zonesprotected by the Pax Mongolica.


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Notes�Document 7

Source: Paul Ratchnevsky, Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy, translated by Thomas NivisonHaining, 1991. Reprinted by permission of Blackwell Publishing. (Italics added.)

The evidence of the chroniclers and travelers enables us to identify

the striking changes wrought on Mongol morality by Genghis’ Khan

legislation. Juvaini comments that Genghis Khan rooted out...adultery and

theft. “War, strife, bodily harm or murder do not exist, robbers and thieves

on a grand scale are not to be found among them,” remarks Plano Carpini,

“and for this reason their houses and the carts in which they store their

wealth have neither locks nor bolts.” Juzjani writes that no one except the

owner would dare pick up even a whip lying on the ground. Ibn Battuta,

describing how during travels in Iraq two horses went astray during the

night, reports that although the travelers left the country soon afterwards the

horses were brought to them on their journey twenty days later. He also

comments that although there were many pack animals in the Kipchak area,

these could be left unattended because of the severity of (Mongol) laws

against theft.


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Notes�Document 8

Let us now turn to the system ofpost-horses by which the GreatKhan sends his dispatches.

You must know that the city ofKhan-balik (modern-day Beijing) isa centre from which many roadsradiate to many provinces.... Whenone of the Great Khan’s messengerssets out along any of these roads, hehas only to go twenty-five miles andthere he finds a posting station,which in their language is called ayam.... And at each of these poststhe messengers find three or fourhundred horses in readiness awaitingtheir command, and palatial lodgingssuch as I have described. And thisholds throughout all the provincesand kingdoms of the Great Khan’sempire.

By this means the Great Khan’smessengers travel throughout hisdominions... (M)ore than 200,000horses are stabled at these posts forthe special use of the messengers.Moreover, the posts themselvesnumber more than 10,000, allfurnished on the same lavish scale.The whole organization is sostupendous and so costly that itbaffles speech and writing....

If it happens at any point thatthere is some river or lake overwhich the couriers and mountedmessengers must pass, the neighbor-ing cities keep three or four ferry-boats continually in readiness forthis purpose.

...When the need arises for theGreat Khan to receive immediatetidings (news) ... I assure you thatthe messengers ride 200 miles in aday, sometimes even 250. Let meexplain how it is done.... They tightentheir belts and swathe their headsand off they go with all the speedthey can muster, till they reach thenext post-house twenty-five milesaway. As they draw near they sounda sort of horn which is audible at agreat distance, so that horses can begot ready for them. On arrival theyfind two fresh horses, readyharnessed, fully rested, and in goodrunning form. They mount there ...and off they go again.... And so itgoes on till evening.

Note: The Great Khan is Kubilai Khan.

Source: Marco Polo,The Travels of Marco Polo, Penguin Books, 1958.

Document Note: Marco Polo journeyed to China from 1271 to 1295. For 17 of these years, Poloserved Kubilai Khan in various capacities, including ambassador.

TheYams


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Notes�Document 9

Karakorum, Mongolia, May 30, 1254

The next day he �Mongke Khan� sent his scribes to me, who said:/Our master sends us to you and he says: 1Here you are, Christians,Saracens �Muslims�, and tuins �Rubruck would translate tuins as pagans;in fact, they were Buddhists�, and each of you declares that his law is thebest and his literature, that is his books, are the truest.2 He thereforewishes you all to meet together and hold a conference and each one is towrite down what he says so that he can know the truth.0

�On the day following the exchange between the religious spokesmenMongke Khan made this profession of faith to Rubruck:� /We Mongolsbelieve that there is but one God, by Whom we live and by Whom we dieand towards Him we have an upright heart. But just as God gavedifferent fingers to the hand so has He given different ways to men.0

Notes: • Mongke Khan was the fourth Great Khan, the grandson of Genghis, and the brother ofKubilai who would succeed Mongke upon his death in 1259.

• Over the course of the next two centuries Mongol leaders often converted tothe region’s dominant religions – Christianity, Islam, or Buddhism.

Source: William of Rubruck, The Journey of William of Rubruck, translated by a nun ofStanbrook Abbey, edited by Christopher Dawson, London: Sheed and Ward, 1955.


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Notes�Document 10

Document Note: There were two codes of conduct that guided Mongol life. One of these was theyasa, usually referred to as the Mongol law. The second was the bilik, which was aset of rules to live by.

On Hospitality

Source: Rashid ad-Din, Collected Chronicles.

When a husband goes hunting or towar, his wife must maintain the house-hold, so that the messenger or guestwho dismounts there finds all in orderand the wife is able to provide himwith good food and anything else hemay require.

Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols.

They show considerable respect to eachother and are friendly together, and theywillingly share their food with eachother, although there is little of it....When they are without food, eatingnothing at all for one or two days, theydo not easily show impatience, but theysing and make merry as if they hadeaten well.

On Drinking

Source: Rashid ad-Din, Collected Chronicles.

If then there is no means to preventdrunkenness, a man may becomedrunk thrice a month; if he overstepsthis limit he makes himself guilty of apunishable offense. If he is drunk onlytwice a month, that is better – if onlyonce, that is more praiseworthy. Whatcould be better than that he should notdrink at all? But where shall we find aman who never drinks?


Drunkenness is considered an honor-able thing by them and when anyonedrinks too much, he is sick there andthen, nor does this prevent him fromdrinking again....

On Adultery

Source: Yasa fragment, in Paul Ratchnevsky,Genghis Khan.

Whosoever commits adultery will beexecuted, whether or not they haveprevious convictions.

Source: Juvaini, trans. L.A. Khanlaryan in PaulRatchnevsky, Genghis Khan.

If a woman who is captured by aMongol has a husband no one willenter into a relationship with her. If anUnbeliever (i.e. a Mongol) desires amarried woman he will kill thehusband and then have relations withthe woman.

On Marriage


Each man has as many wives as hecan keep, one a hundred, another fifty,another ten – one more, another less.It is the general custom of them tomarry any of their relations, with theexception of their mother, daughterand sister by the same mother. Theycan however take in marriage theirsisters who have only the same father,and even their father’s wives after hisdeath.... All other women they take aswives without any distinction and theybuy them at a very high price fromtheir parents.