Mongols were the nomadic group who inhabited Central Asia. Mongols were divided into many groups. These groups were constantly engaged in wars with each other. Genghis Khan played an outstanding role in the establishment of the Nomadic Empire.
This article will focus on the sources, and social and political background related to the Mongols.
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Mongol Society & Politics Nomadic Empire Class 11 History Notes
Mongol Society & Politics Nomadic Empire
Before starting about the Mongols, we need to know the term “Nomadic Empires”.
The term ‘nomadic empires’ can appear contradictory: nomads are arguably quintessential wanderers, organized in family assemblies with a relatively undifferentiated economic life and rudimentary systems of political organization.
The term ‘empire’, on the other hand, carries with it the sense of a material location, stability derived from complex social and economic structures and the governance of an extensive territorial dominion through an elaborate administrative system. One such Nomad was that of the Mongols. The Mongols of Central Asia established a transcontinental empire under the leadership of Genghis Khan, straddling Europe and Asia during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Sources related to the Mongols
- The steppe dwellers usually produced no literature, so our knowledge of nomadic societies comes mainly from chronicles, travelogues and documents produced by city-based litterateurs.
- The imperial success of the Mongols, however, attracted many literati. These individuals came from a variety of backgrounds – Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, Turkish and Muslim.
Research on Mongols
- Excellent research on Mongol languages, their society and culture was carried out by scholars such as Boris Yakovlevich Vladimirtsov.
- The most valuable research on the Mongols was done by Russian scholars starting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as the Tsarist regime consolidated its control over Central Asia.
- This work was produced within a colonial milieu and was largely survey notes produced by travellers, soldiers, merchants and ancient scholars.
- The transcontinental span of the Mongol empire also meant that the sources available to scholars were written in a vast number of languages.
- The most crucial are the sources in Chinese, Mongolian, Persian and Arabic, but vital materials are also available in Italian, Latin, French and Russian.
- Often the same text was produced in two languages with differing contents. For example, the Mongolian and Chinese versions of the earliest narrative on Genghis Khan, titled Mongqol-un niuèa tobèa’an (The Secret History of the Mongols) are quite different and the Italian and Latin versions of Marco Polo’s travels to the Mongol court do not match.
Social and Political Background
In the early decades of the thirteenth century, the great empires of the Euro – Asian continent realised the dangers posed to them by the arrival of a new political power in the steppes of Central Asia: Genghis Khan had united the Mongol people.
Geographical Extent
The Mongols were a diverse body of people, linked by similarities of language to the Tatars, Khitan and Manchus to the east, and the Turkic tribes to the west.
- Some of the Mongols were pastoralists while others were hunter-gatherers.
- The pastoralists tended horses, sheep and, to a lesser extent, cattle, goats and camels. They nomadised in the steppes of Central Asia in a tract of land in the area of the modern state of Mongolia.
- This was (and still is) a majestic landscape with wide horizons, rolling plains, ringed by the snow-capped Altai mountains to the west, the arid Gobi desert in the south and drained by the Onon and Selenga rivers and myriad springs from the melting snows of the hills in the north and the west.
- Lush, luxuriant grasses for pasture and considerable small game were available in a good season. The hunter-gatherers resided to the north of the pastoralists in the Siberian forests.
Social Background
Agriculture was possible in the pastoral regions during short parts of the year but the Mongols (unlike some of the Turks further west) did not take to farming. Neither the pastoral nor the hunting-gathering economies could sustain dense population settlements and as a result, the region possessed no cities.
- The Mongols lived in tents, and gears, and travelled with their herds from their winter to summer pasture lands.
- Groups of families would occasionally ally for offensive and defensive purposes around richer and more powerful lineages but, barring the few exceptions, these confederacies were usually small and short-lived.
Political Background
Genghis Khan’s political system was far more durable and survived its founder. It was stable enough to counter larger armies with superior equipment in China, Iran and Eastern Europe.
- And, as they established control over these regions, the Mongols administered complex agrarian economies and urban settlements – sedentary societies – that were quite distant from their own social experience and habitat
Conclusion
- Although the social and political organisations of the nomadic and agrarian economies were very different, the two societies were hardly foreign to each other.
- The scant resources of the steppe lands drove Mongols and other Central Asian nomads to trade and barter with their sedentary neighbours in China. This was mutually beneficial to both parties: China’s agricultural produce and iron utensils were exchanged for horses, furs and game trapped in the steppe.
- This relationship would alter when the Mongols were in disarray. The Chinese would then confidently assert their influence in the steppe. These frontier wars were more debilitating to settled societies. They dislocated agriculture and plundered cities.
- China suffered extensively from nomad intrusion and different regimes – even as early as the eighth century BCE – built fortifications to protect their subjects.
- Starting from the third century BCE, these fortifications started to be integrated into a common defensive outwork known today as the ‘Great Wall of China’ a dramatic visual testament to the disturbance and fear perpetrated by nomadic raids on the agrarian societies of north China
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FAQs On Mongol Society & Politics Nomadic Empire Class 11
What do you mean by the term “Nomadic Empire”?
The term ‘nomadic empires’ can appear contradictory: nomads are arguably quintessential wanderers, organized in family assemblies with a relatively undifferentiated economic life and rudimentary systems of political organization. The term ‘empire’, on the other hand, carries with it the sense of a material location, a stability derived from complex social and economic structures and the governance of an extensive territorial dominion through an elaborate administrative system.
Who were the Mongols?
Mongols were the nomadic group who inhabited Central Asia. Mongols were divided into many groups. These groups were constantly engaged in wars with each other. The Mongols were a diverse body of people, linked by similarities of language to the Tatars, Khitan and Manchus to the east, and theTurkic tribes to the west. Some of the Mongols were pastoralists while others were hunter-gatherers.
What are the important sources related to Mongol Society?
The important sources related to the Mongol Society are : The steppe dwellers themselves usually produced no literature, so our knowledge of nomadic societies comes mainly from chronicles, travelogues and documents produced by city-based litterateurs.
The imperial success of the Mongols, however, attracted many literati. These individuals came from a variety of backgrounds – Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, Turkish and Muslim.
Mention one scholar who was involved in researching the Mongols.
One scholar who was involved in researching about the Mongols was Boris Yakovlevich Vladimirtsov.
Why was the “Great Wall of China” built?
China suffered extensively from nomad intrusion and different regimes – even as early as the eighth century BCE – built fortifications to protect their subjects. Starting from the third century BCE, these fortifications started to be integrated into a common defensive outwork known today as the ‘Great Wall of China’ a dramatic visual testament to the disturbance and fear perpetrated by nomadic raids on the agrarian societies of north China