Lecture 8: Mongolia

Question 1

Artefacts

Answer 1

1. Mongol Cavalier from the high Qing era by Giuseppe Castiglione 1755
   Mongol threat influenced Ming policy.
2. Chinese Artist Ren Renfa. Political painting of two horses in ink on silk. :

one fat, one lean horse referring to the political context and the arrival of the Yuan dynasty, replacing Song in Southern China 1279

the fat horse is confident, bridle with the reins dragging on the ground ?? meagre brown head held down with the reins tied around his neck.

3. Marco Polo. The Book of Wonders, illustrated by Master of Boucicaut: Kublai pays for his purchases with miniature mulberry bark coins
4. Tumur receiving Amir Husayn’s envoy during his attack on Balkh 1370, Turkey
5. Michel Hoang “Genghis Khan” biography “Temuujin being generous, keep own religion, traditions”

Question 2

Pax Mongolica

Answer 2

As Mongols unified the Asian continent through conquest they took control of the Silk Road branches making the road safer. The security of supply lowered prices of goods allowing terrestrial trade to thrive.

Merchants trading with the Chinese, Persians, Turks, Arabs, Mongols were under the protection of the khans

Development of a vast system of roads, canals, and postal stations, originally for military reasons but the resulting network eventually facilitated trade

Merchants were granted special passports as “safe conducts”, making them eligible for protection, accommodation, support, exemption from local taxes and duties.

Question 3

William of Rubruck

Answer 3

May 7, 1253. Appointed by Louis IX of France. Left on a missionary journey to convert the Mongols to Christianity.

• Stoppe din Constantinople to meet Baldwin of Hainault who returned from Karakorum. Met Munkh
• Louis ix hoped for an alliance against Muslims to capture Palestine. Conversion of Sartaq /Son of Bat/ to Christianity gave him the opportunity of sending the monk with a letter in 1249.

Berkh (Golden Horde) 1259, asked for Louis allegiance sent offer to give Palestine to Pope

Question 4

Rabban Bar Sauma

Answer 4

1225-1294.
Nestorian monk from China (Khanbalik) who visited Constantinople, Jerusalem, Rome, Bordeaux where he met Edward I.

Paris: King Philippe le Bl in 1287 on behalf of Arghun, Ilkhan of Persia

Question 5

Giovanni da Pian del Carpine

Answer 5

1185-1252. a religious man and a pope. plenipotentiary envoy.

1245-1247 Mission to the court of the great Khan.
Appointed Primate of Serbia, mission in poland, hungary
LAST misison: legate to the French king Louis IX 1252

Question 6

Downfall of the Mongol Empire

Answer 6

Fragmented into several separate khanates including Yuan, Ilkhanate in Persia, Golden horde in Russia, and the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia

Question 7

Role of Omens in the Rise of Chinggis Khaan

Answer 7

allegedly born to unify all the land under tenger, the sky divinity in shamanism.

Hayton of Corycus (1240-1320), Armenian monk 1307

Question 8

Sons of Chinggis Khaan

Answer 8

Djotchi 1182,
Tsagaadai 1184,
Ogodei 1186,
Tului 1193

Question 9

Mongol army

Answer 9

aravt // tribally organized contained several settled soldiers, strictly disciplined.

Question 10

Khwarezm

Answer 10

Amu Darya, Western Turkestan. Marco Polo: many people robbing molesting erchants.
- 1219-1221 invasion
- mass exodus –> generational population decline
A casus belli > full retaliation

Question 11

Siege of Nishapur

Answer 11

1221, looting and destruction of the city. Togchar (SIL) killed thus Tului has population exterminated

Question 12

Juvayni

Answer 12

Persian noble, eyewitness w Hulegu : capture of Baghdad and the execution of the last Abbasid caliph. Appointed governor of the city and remained eployed by the Mongol court until death

Question 13

Genghis law for taxes

Answer 13

no homage? prosperity. no prosperity? children. no children? wife. no wife? head.

Question 14

Conquest of the Kievan Rus

Answer 14

• The Kievan principalities = weak bc of feuds between members of aristocracy class that ruled it collectively since Rurikids

«Vladimir Suzdal in NE, Novgorod in N, Halych Volhynia in SW

13th century Golden Horde conquest. Smolensk submitted to the Mongols and agreed to pay tribute, Novgorod and Pskov.

Question 15

The Kalka River Battle 1223

Answer 15

Mongol army split into 2 forces.
a. Genghis –> Afghanistan/Northern India
b. Zev/Subedei 2 tumen, marched through Caucasus and reached Kievan Rus.

• Subedei vs Kipchaks and 80k Kievan Rus troops, defeeated larger Kievan force.

Customary for nobility to be executed through a bloodless death.

— Bat, Golden Horde: 1236-1240 Volga Bulgaria, Kievan Rus

Question 16

Siege of Kiev 1240

Answer 16

History’s longest cavalry operation, 10km in 3 yrs.
1238 Chernigov, Pereyaslav –> stormed Kiev Bat managed to take Halych and Volodymr Volynski

Sarai. Persia. Lower Volga River was newly settled residence of Batu in 1245. Zarlig avahiin tuld Sarai ruu pledge allegiance hiij irdeg bsn.
- Destroyed by Ivan IV in 1556

Question 17

Tribute and Allegiance

Answer 17

• Mongol never settled, entrusted tax collection to Rus princes, interfered the least possible
• Charters authorizing them to rule as deputies to the khans.
• Russian Orthodox Church was powerful. Led by Metripolitan Alexis and Sergius.
• Mongol tolerant in religious matters. Shamanism –> Muslim

Under Mongol influence, Rus developed postal road network, the census an efficeint fiscal system
1242 Rus princes concluded a defensive alliance with the Horde to repel Teutonic Knights

Question 18

Ivan III and independence from Golden Horde

Answer 18

1440-1505. Muscovy rergime rejected Tatar yoke.

• Mari a Sophia from Byzantine –> challenge tatars

1476 Ivan refused to pay customary tribute to Ahmed Khan.
1487 Ivan submitted the khanate of Kazan, to condition of a vassal state

Question 19

Pian del Carpine

Answer 19

as to meet Ögödeï and to convince the Khan to put an end to his expeditions against Christian nations. He would also deliver letters (papal bulls). At that time, the Pope was very concerned about threats over Poland and Hungary.

Question 20

Dei patris immensa

Answer 20

first letter written by Pope Innocent IV to the Mongols on March 5, 1245. It was an exposition of the Christian faith and doctrine, urging the Mongols to accept baptism and become Christians. Laurent of Portugal is supposed to have been the messenger.

Question 21

Cum non solum

Answer 21

second letter to the Mongols on March 13, 1245, and entrust to Pian del Carpine. Pope Innocent IV appealed to the Mongols to desist from attacking Christians and other nations and inquires as to their intentions to try and understand the Khan’s next move.

The Pope was mentioning peace, unaware that peace in Mongolian idiom is synonymous with submission, subjection… the mission was thus understood as a way to surrender.

Question 22

Goryeo under Mongol Rule

Answer 22

(1270–1356) - A unique position
A “son-in-law kingdom in the Mongol empire.

Princes educated in Cambaluc.
Matrimony : Imperial sons in-law (khuregen).
Support expected > invasion of Japan (1277 and 1281).

Question 23

Yuan Dynasty

Answer 23

Under Mongol rule and the Pax Mongolica, China became part of the wider world of the Mongol Empire. Although it was split into four khanates in 1260, Kublai consolidated control over Goryeo and Dali. The conquest attempts failed in Dai Viet, in Kamakura Japan, and Java but the Mongols nonetheless pursued diplomatic and commercial relationships.

Question 24

Ortoo

Answer 24

The postal system was known as the Yam system (örtöö). It was efficient tanks to riders on fast horses galloping their way to stations positioned at intervals of 20-30 miles. At each station, an “arrow messenger” would mount a fresh horse and ride to next station at a full gallop pace. For passport-holding merchants, such as Marco Polo, the Yam system provided indispensable support.

Question 25

Ortoq system

Answer 25

The Ortoq system refers to trade and money-lending partnerships
Ortoq means partner in Turkic
Somehow similar to modern limited partnerships.
Principal’s liability was capped at the amount of original investment.
Ortoq partnerships arose early during the reign of Genghis Khan, and most Mongol territories bordering the sea started to employ it for maritime trade.
It coincided with Kublai’s expansion of China’s maritime fleet.
Kublai Khan (1215>1271-1294) expanded the Silk Road, which reached Constantinople by land. He also established an extensive Maritime Silk Road, with Chinese vessels sailing to the Indian Ocean, reaching the Red Sea.
Should a merchant finance the whole venture and the caravan/ ship did not make it, he would be the modern equivalent of bankrupt. This way, the risk being spread out, no one would suffer dramatically from a loss.

Question 26

Paper money

Answer 26

Kublai Khan expanded the use of paper money with the Zhongtong Chao, which was backed by silver, and which kept its value in the early years after its introduction
This was also supported by incredibly strict laws on the use of paper money, supported by Marco Polo’s account where he saw that the currency was accepted throughout the empire: (Book 2, Chapter 18)
“Nobody, however important he may think himself, dare to refuse [it] on pain of death.”

Question 27

Ilkhanate

Answer 27

Founded by Hulagu, son of Tolui, the Ilkhanate encompasses Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey parts of Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Afghanistan, the best part of and of modern Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan. The Ilkhanate was ravaged by the Black Death and disintegrated after the reign of the last Ilkhan, Abu Sa’id Bahadur (died 1335).