The Mongols under Genghis Khan, established a transcontinental empire straddling Europe and Asia during the 13th and 14th centuries. The success of the Mongols attracted many travelers from different backgrounds – Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, Turkish, and Islam.
Let us discuss in detail the career of Genghis Khan and also the Mongol empire after Genghis Khan!
Career of Genghis Khan and After Class 11 History Notes
Career of Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan was born in 1162 CE, near the Onon River in the north of present-day Mongolia.
- His real name was Temujin, the son of Yesugei, the chieftan of the Kiyat clan.
- His father was murdered at an early age and his mother, Oelun-eke, raised Temujin, his brothers, and step-brothers in great hardship.
- Soon after his marriage, his wife, Borte, was kidnapped and he had to fight to recover her.
- During his years of hardship, he still managed to make important friends. The young Boghurchu was his first ally and remained a trusted friend; Jamuqa, his blood brother was another.
- Temujin grew up as a brave man. He organized a powerful army which helped him lay down the foundation of a vast empire,
- His main achievements were the conquest of Northern China, the conquest of Qara Katie, etc. During the period from 1219 to 1222 CE the Mongol forces occupied Bukhara, Samraqand, Balk, Marv, Nishapur, and Herat.
- Genghis Khan not only built vast empires but also contributed a lot to improving the civil administration of the empire.
Genghis Khan: Overview
|
Time |
Events |
|---|---|
|
c. 1167 |
Birth of Temujin |
|
1180s-90s |
Period of alliance formation |
|
1203-27 |
Expansion and triumph |
|
1206 |
Temujin proclaimed Genghis Khan, the ‘Universal Ruler’ of the Mongols |
|
1213 |
The Great Wall Of China was breached. |
|
1219 -21 |
The great cities- Otrar, Bukhara, Samarqand, Balkh, Gurganj, Merv, Nishapur, and Herat were surrendered to the Mongol forces. |
|
1227 |
Death of Genghis Khan |
|
1236-42 |
The first phase of Mongol’s expansion after Genghis Khan’s death. |
|
1227-60 |
Rule of the three Great Khans and continued Mongol unity |
|
1227-41 |
Ogodei, son of Genghis Khan became the ruler |
|
1255- 1300 |
The second phase of Mongol expansion after Genghis Khan’s death. |
Factors that led to Temujin becoming Genghis Khan
- Jamuqa could not see the growing friendly relations between Temujin and Tughril Khan. Thus, he started befriending all the tribes hostile to Temujin.
- Through the 1180s and 1190s, Temujin remained an ally of Ong Khan and used the alliance to defeat powerful adversaries like Jamuqa, his old friend who had become a hostile foe.
- It was after defeating him that Temujin felt confident enough to move against other tribes: the powerful Tatars (his father’s assassins), the Kereyits, and Ong Khan himself in 1203.
- Later on, Tughril Khan also became hostile to Temujin and was defeated. Thus, he became the most influential person in the politics of the steppe region.
- The final defeat of the Naiman people, Tughril Khan, and the powerful Jamuqa in 1206 left Temujin as the dominant personality in the politics of the steppe lands, a position that was recognized at an assembly of Mongol chieftains (quriltai) where he was proclaimed the ‘Great Khan of the Mongols’ (Qa’an) with the title Genghis Khan, the ‘Oceanic Khan’ or ‘Universal Ruler’.
Genghis Khan and His Conquests
- The first of his concerns was to conquer China, divided at this time into three realms: the Hsi Hsia people of Tibetan origin in the north-western provinces; the Jurchen whose Chin dynasty ruled north China from Peking; and the Sung dynasty who controlled south China.
- By 1209, the His Hsia was defeated, the Great Wall of China was breached in 1213, and long drawn–out battles against the Chin continued until 1234 but Genghis Khan was satisfied enough with the progress and returned to his Mongolian homeland in 1216 and left the military affairs of the region to his subordinates.
- Sultan Muhammad the ruler of Khwarazm, executed Mongol envoys worried of Mongol Invasion. In the campaigns between 1219 and 1221, the great cities- Otrar, Bukhara, Samarqand, Balkh, Gurganj, Merv, Nishapur, and Herat surrendered to the Mongol forces.
- Towns that resited Genghis Khan were left devastated by the Mongols. A Mongol prince was killed during the siege operation at Nishapur.
- Mongol forces in pursuit of Sultan Muhammad pushed into Azerbaijan and defeated Russian forces, Another wing followed the Sultan son’s, Jalaluddin, into Afganistan and the Sindh province.
Abilities of Genghis Khan
Military Achievements
- Genghis Khan died in 1227, having spent most of his life in military combat. His military achievements were astounding and they were largely a result of his ability to innovate and transform different aspects of steppe combat into extremely effective military strategies.
- The horse-riding skills of the Mongols and the Turks provided speed and mobility to the army; their abilities as rapid-shooting archers from horseback were further perfected during regular hunting expeditions which doubled as field maneuvers.
- Nomads were conventionally at a loss against fortified encampments but Genghis Khan learned the importance of siege engines and naphtha bombardment very quickly.
- His engineers prepared light portable equipment, which was used against opponents with devastating effect.
Rigorous Training
- The steppe cavalry had always traveled light and moved quickly, but now it brought all its knowledge of the terrain and the weather to do the unimaginable: they carried out campaigns in the depths of winter, treating frozen rivers as highways to enemy cities and camps.
The Mongols After Genghis Khan
- We can divide Mongol expansion after Genghis Khan’s death into two distinct phases:
- The first which spanned the years 1236-42 when the major gains were in the Russian steppes, Bulghar, Kiev, Poland, and Hungary.
- The second phase including the years 1255- 1300 led to the conquest of all of China (1279), Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
- The frontier of the empire stabilized after these campaigns.
Social Organisation
Among the Mongols, and many other nomadic societies as well, all the able-bodied, adult males of the tribe bore arms: they constituted the armed forces when the occasion demanded.
- The unification of the different Mongol tribes and subsequent campaigns against diverse people introduced new members into Genghis Khan’s army. It included groups like the Turkic Uighurs, who had accepted his authority willingly.
- It also included defeated people, like the Kereyits, who were accommodated in the confederacy despite their earlier hostility.
Military Organisation
Genghis Khan worked to systematically erase the old tribal identities of the different groups who joined his confederacy. His army was organized according to the old steppe system of decimal units: in divisions of 10s, 100s, 1,000s, and [notionally] 10,000 soldiers.
- Any individual who tried to move from his/her allotted group without permission received harsh punishment. The largest unit of soldiers, approximating 10,000 soldiers (tuman) now included fragmented groups of people from a variety of different tribes and clans.
- This altered the old steppe social order integrating different lineages and clans and providing them with a new identity derived from its progenitor, Genghis Khan.
- The new military contingents were required to serve under his four sons and specially chosen captains of his army units called noyan.
- Genghis Khan publicly honored some of the loyal individuals as his ‘blood-brothers’ (anda); yet others, freemen of a humbler rank, were given special ranking as his bondsmen (naukar), a title that marked their close relationship with their master.
- The new aristocracy derived its status from a close relationship with the Great Khan of the Mongols.
Political Organisation
The civil system was based on the Ulus system. Genghis Khan assigned the responsibility of governing the newly – conquered people to his four sons. These comprised of four ulus.
- The eldest son, Jochi, received the Russian steppes which extended as far west as his horses could roam.
- The second son, Chaghatai, was given the Transoxian steppe and lands north of the Pamir mountains adjacent to those of his brother.
- Genghis Khan had indicated that his third son, Ogodei, would succeed him as the Great Khan, and on accession the Prince established his capital at Karakorum
- The youngest son, Toluy, received the ancestral lands of Mongolia. Genghis Khan envisaged that his sons would rule the empire collectively, and to underline this point, military contingents (Tama) of the individual princes were placed in each ulus.
- The sense of a dominion shared by the members of the family was underlined at the assembly of chieftains, quriltais, where all decisions relating to the family or the state for the forthcoming season – campaigns, distribution of plunder, pasture lands, and succession – were collectively taken
Development of Trade and Communication
Yam: Genghis Khan had already fashioned a rapid courier system that connected the distant areas of his regime called yam. The courier system (yam) was further refined after Genghis Khan’s death and its speed and reliability surprised travelers. It enabled the Great Khans to keep a check on developments at the farthest end of their regime across the continental landmass.
- Qubcur Tax: For the maintenance of the communication system the Mongol nomads contributed a tenth of their herd – either horses or livestock – as provisions. This was called the qubcur tax, a levy that the nomads paid willingly for the multiple benefits that it brought.
- Linking Territories: Once the dust from the campaigns had settled, Europe and China were territorially linked with Mongolia. Commerce and travel along the Silk Route reached its peak under the Mongols.
- Baj Tax: Communication and ease of travel were vital to retain the coherence of the Mongol regime and travelers were given a pass for safe conduct. Traders paid the baj tax for the same purpose, all acknowledging thereby the authority of the Mongol Khan.
- Pressure Groups: Mongols waged their successful war against China, Russia, Persia, etc, there was a strong pressure group within the Mongol leadership that advocated the massacre of all peasantry and the conversion of their fields into pasture lands.
But by the 1270s, Genghis Khan’s grandson, Qubilai Khan (d. 1294), appeared as the protector of the peasants and the cities.
The legal code of Law – Yasa
- Following the research of David Ayalon, recent work on the yasa, the code of law that Genghis Khan was supposed to have promulgated at the quriltai (Assembly of Mongol Chieftains) of 1206, has elaborated on the complex ways in which the memory of the Great Khan was fashioned by his successors.
- In its earliest formulation, the term was written as yasaq which meant ‘law’, ‘decree’, or ‘order’.
- By the middle of the thirteenth century, the Mongols had emerged as a unified people and just created the largest empire the world had ever seen. They ruled over very sophisticated urban societies, with their respective histories, cultures, and laws.
- Although the Mongols dominated the region politically, they were a numerical minority. The one way in which they could protect their identity and distinctiveness was through a claim to a sacred law given to them by their ancestor.
- The yasa was in all probability a compilation of the customary traditions of the Mongol tribes but in referring to it as Genghis Khan’s code of law
- The yasa served to coerce the Mongol people around a body of shared beliefs, it acknowledged their affinity to Genghis Khan and his descendants.
- As they absorbed different aspects of a sedentary lifestyle, it gave them the confidence to retain their ethnic identity and impose their ‘law’ upon their defeated subjects.
Conclusion
- For the Mongols, Genghis Khan was the greatest leader of all time: he united the Mongol people, freed them from interminable tribal wars and Chinese exploitation, brought them prosperity, fashioned a grand transcontinental empire, and restored trade routes and markets that attracted distant travelers like the Venetian Marco Polo.
- Genghis Khan ruled the diverse body of faiths. Although the Mongol Khans themselves belonged to a variety of different faiths- Shaman, Buddhists, Christians, and eventually Islam, they never let their personal beliefs dictate public policy.
- The Mongol administration was a multiethnic, multilingual, multi-religious regime that did not feel threatened by its pluralistic constitution.
- Today, after decades of Soviet control, the country of Mongolia is recreating its identity as an independent nation. Genghis Khan appeared as an iconic figure for the Mongol people, mobilizing memories of a great past in the forging of a national identity that can carry the nation into the future.
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FAQs on the Career of Genghis Khan and After
Who was the founder of the Nomadic Empire? Where was he born? What was his childhood name?
Genghis Khan was the founder of Nomadic Empire. He was born in 1162 CE, near the Onon River in the north of present-day Mongolia. His childhood name was Temujin
What does the term “Quriltai” denote?
“Quriltai” was an Assembly of Mongol Chieftains.
What were the three major campaigns under Genghis Khan?
The three major campaigns under Genghis Khan are: The first of his concerns was to conquer China, divided at this time into three realms: the Hsi Hsia people of Tibetan origin in the north-western provinces; the Jurchen whose Chin dynasty ruled north China from Peking; and the Sung dynasty who controlled south China.
By 1209, the His Hsia was defeated, the Great Wall of China was breached in 1213, and long drawn–out battles against the Chin continued until 1234 but Genghis Khan was satisfied enough with the progress and returned to his Mongolian homeland in 1216 and left the military affairs of the region to his subordinates.
Sultan Muhammad the ruler of Khwarazm, executed Mongol envoys worried of Mongol Invasion. In the campaigns between 1219 and 1221, the great cities- Otrar, Bukhara, Samarqand, Balkh, Gurganj, Merv, Nishapur, and Herat surrendered to the Mongol forces.
Mention the military innovations under Genghis Khan.
The military innovations under Genghis Khan are : His military achievements were astounding and they were largely a result of his ability to innovate and transform different aspects of steppe combat into extremely effective military strategies.
The horse-riding skills of the Mongols and the Turks provided speed and mobility to the army; their abilities as rapid-shooting archers from horseback were further perfected during regular hunting expeditions which doubled as field maneuvers.
Nomads were conventionally at a loss against fortified encampments but Genghis Khan learned the importance of siege engines and naphtha bombardment very quickly.
His engineers prepared light portable equipment, which was used against opponents with devastating effect.
What do you mean by Yasa? When was it given a final shape?
With the aim to re-organize the Mongol society and give it an altogether new shape, Genghis Khan laid down the legal code that is known as “Yasa”. It was given a final shape in 1226 C.E.
What was the “Qubcur Tax” and how was it different from the “Baj Tax”?
For the maintenance of the communication system the Mongol nomads contributed a tenth of their herd – either horses or livestock – as provisions. This was called the qubcur tax, a levy that the nomads paid willingly for the multiple benefits that it brought. While , the “Baj Tax” was paid by the traders to acknowledge the authority of Genghis Khan, so that they can be a part of the Mongol’s trading relations.