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Mongols DBQ PDF

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Mongols DBQ

1 of 15

The Mongols:
How Barbaric Were the
“Barbarians”?
SV

A Document Based Question (DBQ)


World History

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Mongols DBQ
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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 mass
empire in the history of the world. For centuries they have been remembered as a brutal tribe of
nomadic barbarians who were a serious threat to people and civilizations throughout Asia and
SV
Europe. 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

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Background Essay Mongols DBQ
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The Mongols: How Barbaric Were the “Barbarians”?


Introduction milk, and hide of horses, and the meat and wool
Eight hundred years ago, during the 13th of sheep.
Century, a small tribe from the grasslands or Then in 1167 a boy child was born on the
steppes of central Asia conquered much of the Mongolian plains. His name was Temuchin.
known world. Operating from the backs of Temuchin did not have an easy childhood. His
horses, Mongol warriors swept across much of father was poisoned by a local enemy and the
SV
Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. boy spent much of his teenage years fighting
Their reach extended from Korea to Poland, and clan rivals. For an additional twenty years
from Vietnam to Syria. Nothing like it had ever Temuchin fought to bring the Mongol clans of
been seen before. Nothing quite like it has been the region under one leadership. In 1206
seen since. Temuchin won that leadership and was given the
The reputation of the Mongols is not pretty. title Genghis Khan. At this point, Genghis’ aspi-
Much of the world called them “barbarians.” For rations began to grow larger.
the ancient Greeks, “barbaros” simply meant The First Wave: North China and
foreigner. By the 1200s, “barbarian” was a Ancient Persia
much more negative term referring to people Genghis Khan’s first serious target was the
who lived beyond the reach of civilization, people Chin armies of north China in 1211. An army of
who were savage, evil. 200,000 rode east. Numerous Chinese cities felt
Below is a short sketch of Mongol history. Mongol brutality. Slaughter was so great that the
Four maps are provided to help keep the
S.

story straight. This background essay is 0 1,000 kilometers Genghis Khan’s invasions 1211–1227
MT

0 1,000 miles
followed by ten documents. Your task
AL
UR
Bl

L. Baikal
a

CA
ck

is to use the background materials and Astrakhan


UC M

Á
Se
a

AS TS.

Aral
US

Sea
the documents to judge the Mongol’s
n Se a

Utrar
Á

E
PIR
L. Balkhash
Sy
Amu D

Tabriz Á

EM
rD

MONGOLIA
Caspia

impact on the 13th and 14th Century


ary

MaraghehÁ

IN
a

Bukhara

CH
ar

Á KOREA
world. Were they barbarians spreading QazvinÁ Merv T I AN
ya

ÁSamarqand Á
Á SHAN TANGUTS Chung-tu
AZMIAN MT S
NishapurÁ KHWPAIRRE HSI-HSIA
R.

death and destruction, or is there more HeratÁ


EM ÁBalkh
ÁK’ai-feng East
w

Á Bamian lo
Ye l China
Pers

Sea
to the story?
H
ian

M Ch’eng-tu R.
I

A e
Gu

R.

f LA Á tz
s ng
l

du YA Ya
Beginnings SUNG EMPIRE
In

From the start, the Mongols lived in round,


streets of the Chinese capital were greasy with
moveable houses they called yurts. They had
human fat and flesh. With north China under his
few material possessions. They knew little about
control, Genghis next attacked his neighbors to
mining and cared nothing about farming. They
the west – the Uighurs, the Kara-Khi tai, the
were nomadic people who lived off the meat,

Rockets Marco Polo


Aztecs Migrate Used in sets off
to Valley Mongol-China to vist
of Mexico War Mongols Kubilai Khan Black Death
Cambridge
Birth of University Withdraw Death of arrives in
Genghis Kahn Founded from Europe Kubilai Khan Paris

c. 1167 c.1200 1209 1232 1241 1271 1294 1348


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Background Essay (Continued) Mongols DBQ
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Merkits, the Kipchaks. The Mongol empire was eastern Russian frontier. The great Mongol
suddenly not so little. general Subedei sought to make an example of
Still further to the west was the ancient Riazan that would cause other Russian cities to
Persian empire of Khwarazm which included submit. The city was destroyed. Men, women,
the modern nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and children were slain. A few survivors were
and Iran. Initially Genghis Khan and the Shah of allowed to escape to carry the warning: The
Khwarazm worked out a peaceful trade agree- Mongols are coming – submit or die.
ment, but then a Mongol caravan of 150 traders Kolumna, Suzdal, Vladimir, Kozelsk, Kiev
SV
entering Khwarazm from Mongolia was mur- and other cities in Russia; Lublin, Cracow in
dered by one of the Shah’s governors. This Poland; Liegnitz in Silesia; Buda and Pest in
turned out to be a bad mistake. What followed Hungary – the Mongols swept their way west.
was a Mongol onslaught that raked over the land By May, 1242, Mongol intelligence patrols were
of the Khwarazm Shah. Cities fell; Persian casu- just 60 miles from Vienna.
alties were extraordinarily high. And then the unexpected – the Mongols
The Second Wave: Russia and turned back! Word from Mongolia had apparent-
Eastern Europe ly reached the front lines that the Great Khan
In 1227 Genghis Khan died and was suc- Ogedei had died. Not understanding what had
ceeded by one of his four sons, Ogedei. Ogedei happened, western Europe held its breath and
ordered the building of a Mongol capital called waited.
Karakorum, and afterward itched for further At about this time, in the 1240s, a small
conquest. After long debate with his brothers number of European visitors began to visit
Mongolia and Mongol-controlled
Á Kostroma

Á
China, men like the John of Plano
Novgorod Kazan
Á
Moscow
ÁBulgar Mongols in Europe 1237–1242
Mongol invasion
Carpini, Friar William of Rubruck, and,
Á
a
Se

l t ic LITHUANIA
Á Kozelsk
PRINCIPALITIES Mongol withdrawl several years later, the famous Marco
R.

Ba OF RUSSIA
lg a

Polo. These men joined the Persians


Vo

PRUSSIA
Vi
stula D Aral
on
Od

Á Chernigov Sea
R.
and Chinese who were already visitors
R.

rR POLAND
e

. Breslau Przemysl
Á Á Á D ni Sarai
ÁCracow Kiev eper R Á 0 400 kilometers
CA at the Mongol court in Karakorum or in
.

RP AstrakhanÁ
Vienna AT 0 400 miles
Á HI
AN
AUSTRIA BudaÁÁ Pest
HUNGARY
M
Ca
sp
ia
n
China. Thanks to the writings of these
TS

Venice C AU
Se

C A SU
Á CROATIA
travellers we have some firsthand
.

S MT
a

Ad WALLACHIA .
eR GEORGIA S.
ria DA D a nu b Black Sea
tic LM
Se
a
AT
IA BULGARIA accounts of Mongol life.
The Third Wave: The Middle East
and generals the decision was made to invade
Ogedei was succeeded by Genghis’ grandson
Russia and eastern Europe. Ogedei predicted the
Mongke. Mongke set his sights on still further
campaign would take a long eighteen years. An
conquest. Two targets were chosen, the Middle
army of 50,000 horse soldiers, Persian and
East and southern China.
Chinese engineers, and 20,000 draftees were
made ready to march. By the winter of 1237 this Again, a huge Mongol army was assembled
army stood poised on the frozen banks of the on the steppes – thousands upon thousands of
Volga; Russia and Europe lay before them. horses, numerous siege machines, and one thou-
sand Chinese engineering teams for building
The next five years were to shake the Western
roads and bridges. The massive army advanced
world. The first city to fall was Riazan on the
into Persia on January 1, 1256.

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Background Essay (Continued) Mongols DBQ
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First the Mongols annihilated a troublesome Kubilai, a grandson of Genghis, who ruled in
sect known as the Assassins. Next they advanced China. Kubilai maintained enough ties with the
500 miles west to the walls of Baghdad. There, other khanates to achieve a measure of security
in February, 1258, this spiritual and cultural across much of Asia. Historians have called this
center of Islam fell. Mongol armies proceeded time pax Mongolica or “the Mongolian peace.”
into Syria and Palestine where they were joined Kubilai was probably the most cultured of
by Christian troops from Armenia and Georgia. the Great Khans. He expanded his holdings in
It was a time of shifting alliances and these China by defeating the Sung Empire in southern
SV
China and established a new dynasty
D on R
V o l ga
R. Mongol invasion 1256–1259 he called the Yuan. For the first time
Bl

GOLDEN HORDE 0 400 kilometers


in three hundred years China was
ac
k
M

Se

0 400 miles
ed

again a united country but now under


ite
rra

RUM CA
n
ea

UC

G
Mongol control.
nS

AZ EO
AS

ER RG
ea

Lake
US

Aleppo BA IA Aral
n Sea

Á IJA Balkhash
MT

Sea

Sy
N
Damietta Damascus
In his later years Kubilai weakened
r
Á
S.

AcreÁ Á

Da
ÁTabriz
Tigr

KIZIL
C a s p ia

Cairo Á SYRIA

rya
Á KUM
Á
is R.
Eup

JerusalemÁ Ain Jalut Maragheh DESERT


CHAGHADAI his empire with unsuccessful attempts
h ra

Am

Alamut Bukhara KHANATE


Á Á
te s

EL
R.

Á Baghdad BU Á to conquer Japan and Java. After


Da

Á Gerdkuh
R.

R Samarqand
ile

ZM
ry

N
Red Sea

T S.
a

Á
Balkh Kubilai’s death the Mongols began to
Á Herat
KHURASAN lose their grip across the entire empire.
In Persia Mongol authority ended in 1335. In
eastern Christians saw the Mongol attack on the
China the last Mongol emperor was removed in
Middle East as a kind of crusade against Islam.
1368. In Russia the Golden Horde breathed its
Then, suddenly, history repeated itself. Just as
final official breath in 1502. The Mongol era
the death of a Great Khan had stopped the
was over.
Mongols as they approached Vienna in 1242,
now the death of Mongke Khan in 1259 caused The Question
the Mongols to pull back from the walls of What should we make of the Mongols?
Jerusalem. There is no debate among historians that the
Pax Mongolica and Kubilai Khan in China Mongols had their brutal side. But when the day
of historical judgment comes and the Mongol
By this time the Mongol Empire consisted
goods and bads are placed side by side on the
of four parts or khanates – the Russian khanate
balance scale, which way does the scale tip?
called the Golden Horde, the Persian khanate of
Read the documents that follow and make your
the Ilkhans, the central Asian khanate, and a
judgment: The Mongols: How barbaric were
fourth khanate which included Mongolia and
the “Barbarians”?
China. The next Great Khan was the famous

123
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Document 1 ✎ Notes
Source: Map created from various sources.

Paris

The Mongol Empire SV


Vienna circa 1260–1300
Rome Buda
0 1,000 kilometers
Pest Moscow
0 1,000 miles

Kiev
Bl

GOLDEN HORDE L. Baikal


ac

(Russia)
k
M

Se
ed

a
ite

Aral
rra

Caspian Sea

Sea
ne

Karakorum Sea of
an

L. Balkhash Japan
Se

Tabriz
a

Shangdu
Jerusalem (Kaiping) JAPAN
J Ain Julut Baghdad Daidu
Egyptian Mamluks Samarkand CHAGHADAI (Beijing)
Yellow
defeat Mongols, Nishapur
1260 KHANATE KHANATE OF Sea
Red Sea

ILKHANATE (Central Asia) THE GREAT KHAN Mongol invasion


forces wrecked by
(Persia)
Pers

(China) storms 1274 and 1281


ian

Hangzhou

ul Delhi
G

f
Agra

PACIFIC
OCEAN

South
Arabian China
Sea Sea
Bay of
Bengal

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

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

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Document 2 ✎ Notes
Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, in Christopher Dawson, The Mongol Mission,
London: Sheed and Ward, 1955.

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

SV

Genghis Khan ordained that the army should be organized in


such a way that over ten men should beset one man and he is
what we call a captain of ten; over ten of these should be
placed one, named a captain of a hundred; at the head of ten
captains of a hundred is placed a soldier known as a captain
of a thousand, and over ten captains of a thousand is one
man, and the word they use for this number is tuman. Two
or three chiefs are in command of the whole army, yet in such
a way that one holds the supreme command.

When they are in battle, if one or two or three or even more


out of a group of ten run away, all are put to death; and if a
whole group of ten flees, the rest of the group of a hundred are
all put to death, if they do not flee too. In a word, unless they
retreat 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 follow
and, if one or more of the ten are captured, their companions
are put to death if they do not rescue them.

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Document 3 ✎ Notes
Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, in Christopher Dawson, The Mongol
Mission, London: Sheed and Ward,1955.

Carpini on Battle Tactics

SV

When ... they are going to join it, sometimes even fencing it round
battle, they draw all the battle lines so that no one can enter or leave.
just as they are (about) to fight. The They make a strong attack with
chiefs or princes of the army do not engines (catapults for slinging large
take part in the fighting but take up stones) and arrows and they do not
their stand some distance away leave off fighting by day or night, so
facing the enemy, and they have that those inside the fortress get no
beside them their children on horse- sleep; the Tartars however get some
back and their womenfolk and rest, for they divide up their forces
horses; and sometimes they make fig- and they take it in turns to fight so
ures of men and set them on that they do not get too tired. If they
horses. They do this to give the cannot capture it in this way they
impression that a great crowd of throw Greek fire (napalm); some-
fighting men is assembled there. times they even take the fat of the
They send a detachment of people they kill and, melting it, throw
captives and men of other nationalities (catapult) it on to the houses, and
who are fighting with them to meet wherever the fire falls on this fat it is
the enemy head-on, and some of the almost inextinguishable.
Tartars (Mongols) may perhaps While they are pitched before the
accompany them. Other columns of fortification they speak enticing
stronger men they dispatch far off to words to the inhabitants making them
the right and the left so that they are many promises to induce them to sur-
not seen by the enemy and in this render into their hands. If they do
way they surround them and close in surrender to them, they say: “Come
and so the fighting begins from all out, so that we may count you
sides. Sometimes when they are few according to our custom” and when
in number they are thought by the they come out to them they seek out
enemy, who are surrounded, to be the artificers (artisans) among them
many, especially when the latter and keep these, but the others, with
catch sight of the children, women, the exception of those they wish to
horses and dummy figures.... have as slaves, they kill with the
They reduce fortresses in the axe....
following manner. If the position of
the fortress allows it, they surround

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Document 4 ✎ Notes
Source: Ata-Malik Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror, edited by UNESCO and
Manchester University Press, © UNESCO 1997. Reprinted by permission.

In the spring of 618/1221, the people of Nishapur (a city in Persia) saw that the
matter was serious ... and although they had three thousand crossbows in action on the
wall and had set up three hundred mangonels and ballistas and laid in a correspondent SV
quantity of missiles and naphtha, their feet were loosened and they lost heart....
By the Saturday night all the walls were covered with Mongols;... The Mongols
now descended from the walls and began to slay and plunder.... They then drove all the
survivors, men and women, out onto the plain; and ... it was commanded that the town
should 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 who
served under the Mongols as the governor of Baghdad. He wrote this account about forty years
after the destruction of Nishapur.

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 probable
exaggeration, there is agreement among chroniclers of the time and historians of today that the
number of deaths at Nishapur was staggering.

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Document 5 ✎ Notes
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, University
of California Press, 1993. Reproduced with the permission of BBC Worldwide Limited. Copyright
© Robert Marshall 1993.

SV

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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Document 6 ✎ Notes
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 Asian SV
steppe empires had dreamed of, control of the continental caravan routes from
China to Persia. The enormous destructive cost of the Pax Mongolica cannot be
denied, but the Mongol Empire made significant contributions to the political
institutions, economic development, and cultural diversity of many lands. No
history of the Mongol Empire ... which dwells only on Mongol destruction, can be
satisfactory.

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

• The (Mongol) Yuan emperors built canals to improve transportation and


communication. In China agriculture and (craft) production ...
continued unabated.

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

• Persian viniculture (winemaking) ... thrived under the Mongols, who


were great drinkers, even after their conversion.

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

• Cities along the caravan routes, in Persia, Armenia-Georgia, Central


Asia, and China, prospered as part of the tax-free customs zones
protected by the Pax Mongolica.

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Document 7 ✎ Notes
Source: Paul Ratchnevsky, Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy, translated by Thomas Nivison
Haining, 1991. Reprinted by permission of Blackwell Publishing. (Italics added.)

The evidence of the chroniclers and travelers enables us to identify SV


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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Document 8 ✎ Notes
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, Polo
served Kubilai Khan in various capacities, including ambassador.

The Yams SV

Let us now turn to the system of If it happens at any point that


post-horses by which the Great there is some river or lake over
Khan sends his dispatches. which the couriers and mounted
You must know that the city of messengers must pass, the neighbor-
Khan-balik (modern-day Beijing) is ing cities keep three or four ferry-
a centre from which many roads boats continually in readiness for
radiate to many provinces.... When this purpose.
one of the Great Khan’s messengers ...When the need arises for the
sets out along any of these roads, he Great Khan to receive immediate
has only to go twenty-five miles and tidings (news) ... I assure you that
there he finds a posting station, the messengers ride 200 miles in a
which in their language is called a day, sometimes even 250. Let me
yam.... And at each of these posts explain how it is done.... They tighten
the messengers find three or four their belts and swathe their heads
hundred horses in readiness awaiting and off they go with all the speed
their command, and palatial lodgings they can muster, till they reach the
such as I have described. And this next post-house twenty-five miles
holds throughout all the provinces away. As they draw near they sound
and kingdoms of the Great Khan’s a sort of horn which is audible at a
empire. great distance, so that horses can be
By this means the Great Khan’s got ready for them. On arrival they
messengers travel throughout his find two fresh horses, ready
dominions... (M)ore than 200,000 harnessed, fully rested, and in good
horses are stabled at these posts for running form. They mount there ...
the special use of the messengers. and off they go again.... And so it
Moreover, the posts themselves goes on till evening.
number more than 10,000, all
furnished on the same lavish scale. Note: The Great Khan is Kubilai Khan.
The whole organization is so
stupendous and so costly that it
baffles speech and writing....

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Document 9 ✎ Notes
Source: William of Rubruck, The Journey of William of Rubruck, translated by a nun of
Stanbrook Abbey, edited by Christopher Dawson, London: Sheed and Ward, 1955.

Karakorum, Mongolia, May 30, 1254

The next day he Mongke Khan sent his scribes to me, who said:
SV

/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 the
best and his literature, that is his books, are the truest.2 He therefore
wishes you all to meet together and hold a conference and each one is to
write down what he says so that he can know the truth.0

On the day following the exchange between the religious spokesmen
Mongke Khan made this profession of faith to Rubruck: /We Mongols
believe that there is but one God, by Whom we live and by Whom we die
and towards Him we have an upright heart. But just as God gave
different 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 of
Kubilai who would succeed Mongke upon his death in 1259.

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

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Document 10 ✎ Notes
Document Note: There were two codes of conduct that guided Mongol life. One of these was the
yasa, usually referred to as the Mongol law. The second was the bilik, which was a
set of rules to live by.

On Hospitality On Adultery

Source: Rashid ad-Din, Collected Chronicles. Source: Yasa fragment, in Paul Ratchnevsky, SV
Genghis Khan.
When a husband goes hunting or to
war, his wife must maintain the house- Whosoever commits adultery will be
hold, so that the messenger or guest executed, whether or not they have
who dismounts there finds all in order previous convictions.
and the wife is able to provide him
with good food and anything else he Source: Juvaini, trans. L.A. Khanlaryan in Paul
may require. Ratchnevsky, Genghis Khan.

If a woman who is captured by a


Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols.
Mongol has a husband no one will
They show considerable respect to each enter into a relationship with her. If an
other and are friendly together, and they Unbeliever (i.e. a Mongol) desires a
willingly share their food with each married woman he will kill the
other, although there is little of it.... husband and then have relations with
When they are without food, eating the woman.
nothing at all for one or two days, they
do not easily show impatience, but they
sing and make merry as if they had
eaten well. On Marriage
Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols.

On Drinking Each man has as many wives as he


can keep, one a hundred, another fifty,
Source: Rashid ad-Din, Collected Chronicles. another ten – one more, another less.
It is the general custom of them to
If then there is no means to prevent marry any of their relations, with the
drunkenness, a man may become exception of their mother, daughter
drunk thrice a month; if he oversteps and sister by the same mother. They
this limit he makes himself guilty of a can however take in marriage their
punishable offense. If he is drunk only sisters who have only the same father,
twice a month, that is better – if only and even their father’s wives after his
once, that is more praiseworthy. What death.... All other women they take as
could be better than that he should not wives without any distinction and they
drink at all? But where shall we find a buy them at a very high price from
man who never drinks? their parents.

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

Drunkenness is considered an honor-


able thing by them and when anyone
drinks too much, he is sick there and
then, nor does this prevent him from
drinking again....

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