Why We Should Understand The Mongols

I have noticed a really interesting historical fact that I cannot find documented anywhere. Let's begin by having a look at the series of three related empires in Asia, the Mongols, the Timurids and, the Moguls (or Mughals).

THE MONGOLS

The first name that most people can recall when the Mongols are mentioned is that of Genghis Khan. The Mongols were a group of tribes from east-central Asia, the area around what is now Mongolia. They conquered the largest contiguous land empire in history.

Genghis Khan was born in 1162. His name was actually Temujin. Genghis Khan is actually a title, meaning "Great Khan". His grandfather had been a tribal ruler. The Mongol Empire may have had it's beginnings when Temujin united some of the tribes in order to rescue his wife from another tribe.

Some believe that climate had to do with the vast empire that the Mongols put together. The area from which they originated is usually dry and cold. but climate change could have made it, for a time, mild and wet so that the population could increase and they would have resources for waging war.

The name of the Mongols is notorious for destructive battle tactics, but the peace that prevailed when the Mongols conquered everything else brought great benefits to trade and commerce. There would be a downside to the increased possibility of travel, the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) started in the Mongol Empire and spread to Europe.

Temujin shared the spoils of conquest among his warriors. The Mongols developed an efficient military organization, codification of law and a high level of civilization. There was a policy of allowing religious freedom and encouragement of trade.

When Genghis Khan (Temujin) died in 1227, he ruled a vast empire. He divided his empire among his sons and was buried in a secret location. His third son, Ogedei, was the most prominent son. He invaded southern China, and many of the Han Chinese joined with the Mongols.

The second name of a Mongol that most people are familiar with is that of Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan. His mother was the wife of the youngest son of Genghis Khan. She was a Christian and an important force behind the growth of the Mongol Empire. Kublai Khan is best-remembered as the founder of the Yuan Dynasty of China.

The Mongols were not completely all-powerful. Their campaign to conquer India was ultimately not successful. They failed to conquer Vietnam. The Mongol Empire extended into the Middle East, but in 1260, they were blocked from further conquest by the Mamluks of Egypt. An attempt to conquer Java, in Indonesia, was not successful. Ming Dynasty forces took back much of China from the Mongols' Yuan Dynasty. The best-known failures of the Mongols are the two attempted invasions of Japan, by sea.

The Mongol Empire split into four Khanates. There is a remarkable similarity between the course of the Mongol Empire and the much earlier empire of Alexander the Great, whose empire also split into four after his death. Just as the Mongol Empire started in the east, what is now Mongolia, and extended far to the west, Alexander's empire started in the west, in Greece, and extended far to the east, into what is now Pakistan, India and, Afghanistan.

By the time of Kublai Khan's death, in 1294, the four pieces of the Mongol Empire were the so-called Golden Horde Khanate in the northwest, the Chagatai Khanate in the middle, the Ilkhanate in the southwest and China's Yuan Dynasty in the east, based in Beijing. When the Mongol Yuan Dynasty was overthrown by the Han Chinese Ming Dynasty in 1368, the Yuan rulers retreated northward to the Mongolian homeland. The Mongol Empire would further fragment from these four pieces, or Khanates, into smaller pieces.

But, for a considerable time, there was a working union among the four Khanates. They generally shared plunder from each other's conquests and the overall leader, or Great Khan, was selected by the aristocracy from throughout the empire. The Mongol Empire did not last long, as a whole, but had very wide influence and the remnants lasted a long time.

Batu Khan was another grandson of Genghis Khan, and leader of the Golden Horde Khanate. In 1237, he sacked Moscow and Kiev and continued westward to the Danube River. This led to the Khanate of Kipchak, which also ruled southern Russia. His forces were ready for an invasion of western Europe, and had demanded submission from the pope, but were diverted by news of the death of Great Khan Ogedai, the most prominent son of Genghis Khan.

The invasion of the state known as Kievan Rus, an important early center of Christianity, by the Mongols is what would lead to it's division into the modern nations of Russia, Ukraine and, Belarus. The Mongol destruction of Kiev is what resulted in the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity moving from Kiev to Moscow, which is what started Moscow on the road to being a great city, and has affected the relationship between Russia and Ukraine ever since.

The thing that makes the Mongols so significant today is that while they were the conquerors, they adapted local customs. The Mongols in western Asia were converts to Islam, while those in east Asia adopted Buddhism or Confucianism. The Mongol rulers of Iran embraced Persian culture. The Yuan Dynasty tried to integrate into China, as it integrated China into the mongol Empire. Local languages and culture contributed to the eventual disintegration of the empire. Much of the history of Asia is the history of the Mongols, and is reenactments of Mongol invasions and resistance to those invasions.

THE TIMURIDS

The next major stage in the legacy of the Mongols is that of Timur, often known as Tamerlane, who was born in 1336. His name was actually Timur the Lame, anglicized by British writers into the English-sounding Tamerlane, so-called because he limped from wounds sustained while stealing farm animals as a youth.

Timur was a Mongol leader, although not descended from Genghis Khan. He set out to revive the Mongol Empire, in a way similar to that of the Holy Roman Empire in Europe, which we saw in the posting on this blog "The Far-Reaching Legacy Of The Holy Roman Empire".

Timur's (Tamerlane) empire was centered on the city of Samarkand, and encompassed Iran, Mesopotamia and, northern India. His empire was a reflection of that of the early Mongols, and he defeated his rivals in other Khanates. However, his empire was only the southwest of the vast former Mongol domain. Timur is still admired in Uzbekistan. Like the Mongols adapting to local culture, the Timurids embraced Islam and Persian culture.

Timur wanted to rule the world, his feeling being that "There is only one god in Heaven and so there should be only one king on earth". But, like the original Mongol Empire, the unity of his empire did not last long after his death. He died in 1405 while trying to conquer China, to turn it into an Islamic state.

THE MOGULS (OR MUGHALS)

There was a Timurid prince in what is now Uzbekistan, named Babur, who established a kingdom in Afghanistan. The kingdom was centered in Kabul, and was established in 1526. He invaded India from there, to form what became known as the Mogul, or Mughal, Empire. Babur was descended from Timur, through his father, and possibly from Genghis Khan through his mother.

The Mogul Empire continued the legacy of the Timurids, in the same way that they had continued the legacy of the Mongols. You may notice the similarity of the names "Mongol" and "Mogul", and this represents the third stage in the legacy of the Mongol Empire in Asia. The Mogul (Mughal) emperors claimed direct descent from Genghis Khan, as well as from Timur, and their empire was home to a significant proportion of the earth's population.

The Moguls (Mughals) were Persian by culture and language, being descended from the Timurids. But the upper classes began to speak in a form that would become known as Urdu. The Delhi Sultanate had successfully resisted the Mongols, but was supplanted by their descendants, the Moguls (Mughals).

Notice how the name of Khan, as in Genghis or Kyblai Khan, which was originally the title of a Mongol leader rather than a name, is now such a common name in Pakistan. This seems certain to be the legacy of the Mongols, through their descendants the Timurids and then the Moguls (Mughals).

This legacy includes the modern nations of Pakistan and Bangladesh which, having the Islam of the Moguls (Mughals) even though they had the Shia Islam of Persia, split from mostly-Hindu India in the Partition of 1947. Another legacy of this series of empires is the Taj Mahal, possibly the single most famous building in the world. Like the Timurid Empire before them, the final breakup of the Mogul (Mughal) Empire very much resembled that of the Mongols.

This scenario, by the way, relates to the conspiracy theory that we saw in the posting "Symbolism Theory Of The Vatican And Hagia Sophia". The orders of knights who protected and assisted pilgrims to the Holy Land were allied against the Mongols. Remember that Batu Khan had been ready to invade western Europe, and had demanded the submission of the pope. The Ottomans were also a party to the conspiracy theory, in that posting, because the single worst thing that had ever happened to the Islamic religion is the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1253. During the following Timurid stage of the Mongols, Baghdad had been massacred again, in 1401. The Timurids had also defeated the Ottomans, at the Battle of Ankara which is now the capital of Turkey, in 1402. It should not surprise us at all if the Catholics and Ottomans should have some secret alliance in case the Mongols or Timurids reappeared.

THE LEGACY OF THE MONGOLS

Let's have a look at the ways the legacy of the Mongols is seen in the world today.

The unit of Chinese currency is the Yuan, which was the name of the Mongol dynasty started by Kublai Khan.

Xinjiang, the vast region in the far west of China, borders Mongolia and was an integral part of Mongol territory. The conflict between the Yuan Dynasty, imposed on China by Kublai Khan, and the Han Chinese who eventually overthrew it, can be said to continue today in the occasional resistance to Han Chinese rule by the Uighurs, the Moslems who inhabit this sparsely populated region.

When America got involved in the war in Vietnam, it may not have considered that it was reenacting history by playing the role of the Mongols, who had been successfully resisted by the Vietnamese. The only major difference is that the Mongols came from the north, while Americans were based in the former country of South Vietnam and came from the south.

The same applies to the brief border war between China and Vietnam, in 1979. The Mongols became an integral part of China, Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty, and this brought about another reenactment of the Mongol attempt at invasion of Vietnam from the north.

During the 1930s, there was a civil war in China between nationalist forces, the Koumintang or the Republic of China led by Chiang Kai-Shek, and the Communist forces. The Communist forces retreated to the northwest, in what is known as the Long March. This is a historical reenactment of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty leaders retreating to their former territories after being defeated by the Ming Dynasty. After the Second World War ended, the tables were turned and history was reversed as the Communists returned and took control of mainland China in 1949, establishing a Communist society, and the nationalist Republic of China forces withdrew to Taiwan. This was a reenactment of the Mongols coming down from the northwest to take control and establish the Yuan Dynasty.

The Mongols did not succeed in conquering Goryeo, the northernmost of the three kingdoms that once made up what is now Korea, but they did make it into a client state through intermarriage. The boundary between Goryeo and the Korean kingdoms to the south is not far from the present border between North and South Korea, which is set at the 38th parallel of latitude. Goryeo was larger than North Korea, extending into what is now China and Russia. The resistance to Mongol conquest by Goryeo is reflected in North Korea's resistance to America and it's western allies, during the Korean War of 1950-53 and since. The making of Goryeo into a client state by intermarriage is reflected in North Korea being a client state of China and Russia which, in the general area of North Korea, was once Mongol territory.

In a third example of America playing the historical role of the Mongols in east Asia, we have the case of Japan. In the late 13th Century, the Mongols twice attempted to invade Japan by sea. Both times, landings were made on the Japanese islands, but the Mongol fleets were destroyed by powerful typhoons. The Japanese took this to have been the result of divine providence, and the failed invasions became a central part of Japan's history. In  the latter part of the Second World War, Japan again faced invasion by sea. This time, they created their own "divine wind" that would save the nation, just as in the Thirteenth Century. The term "Kamikaze", the planes armed with bombs that were piloted into American ships, means "divine wind" and refers to the storms that had earlier saved Japan from invasion.

(Note-By the way, I have a theory that Japan's wartime ideology was based on, of all things, Christianity. Warriors of Imperial Japan expressed great joy in having the privilege of dying for the emperor, and this was demonstrated in the self-sacrificing kamikaze and banzai attacks. The famed missionary St. Francis Xavier had, centuries earlier, brought Christianity to Japan. But it was suspected by the authorities that it was preparation for conquest of the country. Christians were killed, culminating in what is known as the Great Martyrdom of Nagasaki in 1622. The Christians showed a strong willingness to die rather than renounce their faith. Two hundred years later, following the Meiji Restoration when Japan became more open to the world, visitors to the country were greatly surprised to find that Christianity had continued underground for those two hundred years, with no priests or church structure. This shows that Christianity did make a great impression on the country, particularly the southern island of Kyushu. Japan was known for incorporating foreign ideas, and making them Japanese. It is believed that the Japanese emperor is the direct descendant of the sun goddess, in a way roughly paralleling Jesus being the Son of God. The privilege of dying for the emperor in kamikaze attacks or banzai charges is a reflection of the Christians facing martyrdom centuries before. Then, I believe that self-sacrificing tactics in modern terrorism have nothing to do with Islam, but are a copy of these wartime tactics. We often see how history tends to come full-circle, and there are few better examples of this than the grenade exploding behind the college in Mumbai named for St. Xavier, during the terrorist attack on the city in 2008).

What about the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s? Saddam Hussein was worried about the Iranian Revolution spilling over into his own majority Shiite population. Remember how Baghdad had been assaulted by the Mongols, from the direction of Iran, and the resulting destruction of Baghdad was almost certainly the worst thing that has ever happened to the Islamic religion. So Saddam took preventive action, starting with border attacks against Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini, meanwhile, in the role of Tamerlane (Timur) who was a very Persianized Moslem, tried to bring the revolution to Iraq by way of the very destructive eight-year war. The Iranians played the rile of Timur's forces, which had massacred the population of Baghdad in 1401.

The three wars between India and Pakistan, since the two were separated in the Partition of 1947, are clearly reenactments of the battles between the Islamic Moguls (Mughals), the descendants of the Mongols, and the Hindu Marathas.

Timur's (Tamerlane) indirectly helped the Russians in that his battles with the Golden Horde Mongols, one of the four Khanates which were divisions of the original Mongol Empire, by weakening them so that the Russians, one of the divisions of the Kievan Rus as a result of the Mongol assault against them, were able to break free from the Golden Horde. The fragmenting of the Golden Horde Khanate is what led to the moden central Asian states, such as Kazakhstan.

Then look at the similarity between Timur and Josef Stalin. Timur means iron, Stalin means steel. Timur invaded Georgia, where Stalin was born, in 1400. The tactics of Stalin, in domestic enforcement of collectivization, dealing with rivals and, prosecuting the war against the Nazis, could have been something straight out of the story of Timur. The Nazi's ideology also referenced defending Europe from the "eastern hordes", meaning Russia, even though Russia was also attacked by the Mongols. Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin after his death, and the policy of de-stalinization, reflects the Timurid Empire breaking up soon after the death of Timur.

(Note-By the way, have you ever heard the story about the warning against opening the tomb of Timur? There was a dire warning written in his tomb, cursing anyone who ever opened it. Soviet archeologists, however, opened the tomb in 1941. They confirmed, by the bones, that Timur was tall for his time but would have walked with a limp. But, shortly after the tomb was opened, came the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. The body of Timur was properly reburied in the tomb the following year, after which came the Soviet victory at Stalingrad, which changed the tide of the war to the Allied side).

The Soviet Union, with Mongolia being the second nation to embrace Communism was, in a very real way, a restoration of the Mongol Empire. The Mongol policy of sharing plunder among the warriors could even be considered as a presage of Communism.

The very interesting historical fact that I mentioned having noticed in the beginning of this article is that the time span of the Soviet Union was just about exactly the same as that of how long the Mongol Empire lasted, as a whole. Genghis Khan was proclaimed as leader of all Mongols in 1206. According to Wikipedia, by the time of his grandson Kublai Khan's death in 1294, the Mongol Empire has fractured into four Khanates.

I cannot find an exact time frame of when this split took place, it was almost certainly not all at once, but this means that the unity of the Mongol Empire lasted somewhat less than 88 years. The Soviet Union, a union of many smaller states with Russia being by far the largest, did end all at once, in 1991. This means that, from the time of the October Revolution, in 1917, the union lasted 74 years. From the time the ensuing civil war ended, and the Soviet Union was officially proclaimed in 1922, it was 69 years.

But this makes it appear very much like the Soviet Union was a modern restoration of the unity of the Mongol Empire, and lasted just about exactly the same amount of time. The Communism of the Soviet Union could be a modern version of the Mongols' policy of sharing plunder among the warriors, and the Khanates that it fractured into still sharing plunder with one another. The fracturing of the Soviet Union, in 1991, is, of course, a reenactment of the fracturing of the Mongol Empire.

The 1979 invasion of Afghanistan was a reenactment of the Mongols invading and, settling there, making it Mongol territory so that it would be where the Mogul (Mughal) Empire, a clear descendant of the Mongols, would later be founded. The Mongol advance into Hungary helped to define it's relations with the east, including the Soviet Union, which culminated in the 1956 uprising against Communism.

This also explains Soviet-Chinese relations during the Cold War. The two were part of the same monolith, sharing ideology and both being a former part of the Mongol domain. But there was also rivalry between the two, reflecting the breaking apart of the Mongol Empire into the Khanates, as well as the Han Chinese Ming Dynasty expelling the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, and the Chinese repulsion of Timur's later attempt at reconquest.

Perhaps the best example of all of why we should understand the Mongols is Afghanistan. If we are going to get involved in Afghanistan, we should understand that it was settled by the Mongols and their character is very much reflected in it. The Hazara People, of central Afghanistan are the descendants of the Mongols. The several Afghan warlords of the 1980s, who united against the Soviet invasion but could not hold together after the Soviets left, are like a modern reflection of the Mongol tribes of Khanates. The fact that the Mogul (Mughal) Empire, the descendant of the Mongols, began in Afghanistan is memorialized in the Garden of Babur, in Kabul.

To Arabs Afghanistan is a distant and foreign land, even if it is Moslem by religion. When Moslems from around the world went to Afghanistan to help resist invaders, they are historically taking the opportunity to avenge the 1253 Mongol destruction of Baghdad, which is likely the worst thing that ever happened to the Islamic religion. While the intense warrior culture in the country, as well as the adjoining Northwest Frontier of Pakistan, is straight from the Mongols.

I think this abundantly illustrates why we should understand the Mongols.