How many children did Genghis Khan have? ThePerson: Genghis Khan, biography, life story, facts
Compared to him, Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin seem like inexperienced beginners
Genghis Khan was the founder of the Mongol Empire and one of the most brutal men in human history. Compared to him, Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin seem like inexperienced novices.
Today we rarely hear anything about Mongolia, unless Russia is conducting nuclear tests on the steppes there. If Genghis Khan were alive, he would never have allowed this!
And in general, he would not give anyone peace, because most of all he loved to fight.
Here are 15 amazing facts about the Mongol commander who could have conquered the world:
1. 40 million corpses
Historians estimate that Genghis Khan was responsible for 40 million deaths. Just so you understand, this is 11% of the total population of the planet at that time.
For comparison: World War II sent “only” 3% of the world’s population to the next world (60–80 million).
The adventures of Genghis Khan thus contributed to the cooling of the climate in the 13th century, as they removed more than 700 million tons of carbon dioxide from the Earth.
2. At the age of 10, Genghis Khan killed his half-brother
Genghis Khan had a difficult childhood. His father was killed by warriors from a rival tribe when Genghis Khan was only 9.
Then his mother was kicked out of the tribe, so she had to raise seven children alone - not easy in 13th century Mongolia!
When Genghis Khan was 10 years old, he killed his half-brother Bekter because he did not want to share food with him!
3. Genghis Khan is not his real name
The real name of the man we know as Genghis Khan is Temujin, which means "iron" or "blacksmith".
The name is not bad, but clearly not worthy of a great warrior and emperor. Therefore, in 1206, Temujin named himself Genghis Khan.
"Khan"- this, of course, "ruler", but about the meaning of the word "Genghis" Scientists are still arguing. The most common version is that it is a corruption of Chinese "zheng" - "fair". So - this, oddly enough, "just ruler".
4. Genghis Khan used brutal torture
Under Genghis Khan, the Mongols were famous for their terrible torture. One of the most popular was to pour molten silver into the throat and ears of the victim.
Genghis Khan himself loved this method of execution: the enemy was bent backward until his spine was broken.
And Genghis Khan and his squad celebrated the victory over the Russians in the following way: they threw all the surviving Russian soldiers onto the ground, and placed a huge wooden gate on top of them. Then they held a feast at the gate, crushing the suffocating prisoners.
5. Genghis Khan held beauty contests
Having captured the new land, Genghis Khan ordered to kill or enslave all the men, and gave the women to his warriors. He even organized beauty contests among his captives to choose the most beautiful one.
The winner became one of his large harem, and the rest of the participants were sent to be desecrated by the soldiers.
6. Genghis Khan defeated superior armies
The size of the Mongol Empire indicates that Genghis Khan was a truly great commander.
At the same time, he repeatedly won victories over superior enemy forces. For example, he defeated a million Jin dynasty soldiers with an army of 90,000 Mongols.
During his conquest of China, Genghis Khan destroyed 500,000 Chinese soldiers before the rest surrendered to the mercy of the victor!
7. Genghis Khan turned enemies into comrades
In 1201, Genghis Khan was wounded in battle by an enemy archer. The Mongol army won the battle, after which Genghis Khan ordered to find the very archer who shot him.
He said that the arrow hit his horse, and not himself, so that the archer would not be afraid to confess. And when the archer was found, Genghis Khan acted unexpectedly: instead of killing the enemy on the spot, he invited him to join the Mongol army.
Such military cunning and foresight is one of the reasons for Genghis Khan’s unprecedented military successes.
8. Nobody knows what Genghis Khan looked like
There are tons of pictures of Genghis Khan on the internet and in history books, but we actually have no idea what he looked like.
How is this possible? The fact is that Genghis Khan forbade depicting himself. Therefore, there are no paintings, no statues, or even written descriptions of his appearance.
But after his death, people immediately rushed to impersonate the late tyrant from memory, so we have a rough idea of what he might have looked like. However, some historians say that he had red hair!
9. Genghis Khan had a lot of children
Every time Genghis Khan conquered a new country, he took one of the local women as his wife. They all eventually became pregnant and gave birth to his offspring.
Genghis Khan believed that by populating all of Asia with his descendants, he would guarantee the stability of the empire.
How many children did he have?
It’s impossible to say for sure, but historians estimate that about 8% of all Asians are his descendants!
10. In Mongolia, Genghis Khan is revered as a folk hero
A portrait of Genghis Khan adorns the tugrik, the Mongolian currency. In Mongolia, he is considered a hero for creating the great Mongol Empire.
It is not customary to talk about the cruelty of Genghis Khan there - he is a hero.
When Mongolia was socialist, that is, ruled from Moscow, any mention of Genghis Khan was prohibited. But since 1990, the cult of the ancient ruler has flourished with renewed vigor.
11. Genghis Khan committed genocide against Iranians
The Iranians hate Genghis Khan with the same intensity that the Mongols adore him. And there's a reason for that.
The Khorezm Empire, located on the territory of modern Iran, was a powerful power until it was attacked by the Mongols. Within a few years, the Mongol army completely destroyed Khorezm.
According to historians, Genghis Khan’s troops slaughtered ¾ of the entire population of Khorezm. It took the Iranians 700 years to restore their population!
12. Genghis Khan was religiously tolerant
Despite his cruelty, Genghis Khan was quite tolerant in matters of religion. He studied Islam, Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity and dreamed of the Mongol Empire as a place where there would be no religious strife.
Genghis Khan once even arranged a debate between Christians, Muslims and Buddhists to determine which religion was the best. However, the participants got very drunk, so the winner was never determined.
13. Genghis Khan did not forgive his offenders
Genghis Khan allowed the inhabitants of the Mongol Empire to live for their own pleasure, as long as they did not violate the rules he set. But any violations of these rules were punished in the most severe manner.
For example, when the ruler of one Khorezm city attacked a Mongol trade caravan and killed all the traders, Genghis Khan became furious. He sent 100,000 warriors to Khorezm, who killed thousands of people.
The unlucky ruler himself paid cruelly: his mouth and eyes were poured with molten silver. This was a clear sign: any attack against the Mongol Empire would be punished disproportionately.
14. The death of Genghis Khan is shrouded in mystery
Genghis Khan died in 1227 at the age of 65. To this day, his death is surrounded by an aura of mystery.
It is unknown what he died from, nor where his grave is located. Of course, this gave rise to many legends.
The most popular version says that he was killed by a captive Chinese princess. There are also versions that he fell from his horse - either just like that, or because he was hit by an enemy arrow.
It is unlikely that we will ever know the truth about what happened 800 years ago. After all, even the burial place of the Mongol emperor was never found!
15. Genghis Khan created the largest continuous empire in history
The Mongol Empire created by Genghis Khan will forever remain the largest uninterrupted empire in human history.
It occupied 16.11% of all land, and its area was 24 million square kilometers!
2 057
Every person burdened with power, at the end of his life’s journey, begins to think about a successor, about a worthy successor to his work. The great Kagan Genghis Khan was no exception. The empire he created stretched from the Caspian Sea to the Yellow Sea, and this huge formation needed an outstanding personality, in no way inferior in his strong-willed qualities to the great conqueror.
There is nothing worse when a state is ruled by a weak and weak-willed ruler. He tries not to offend anyone, to be good to everyone, but this is impossible. There will always be dissatisfied people, and spinelessness and softness will lead to the death of the state. Only a firm master's hand can keep people in line for their own good. Therefore, a ruler must always be tough, sometimes cruel, but at the same time fair and reasonable.
Genghis Khan fully possessed such qualities. The wise ruler was cruel and merciless to his enemies, but at the same time highly valued the courage and bravery of his opponents. The Great Khagan exalted the Mongol people and made the whole world tremble before him. The formidable conqueror controlled the destinies of millions of people, but he himself turned out to be powerless in the face of impending death.
The conqueror of half the world had many sons from different wives. The most beloved and desired wife was Borte. She gave birth to the ruler four sons. These were the rightful heirs of Genghis Khan. Children from other wives had no rights to the throne.
The eldest son's name was Jochi. In character, he was far from his father. The man was distinguished by his kindness and humanity. The most terrible thing was that he pitied people and forgave their enemies. This was simply unacceptable at that harsh time. This is where a wall of misunderstanding arose between father and son. Envious relatives added fuel to the fire. They regularly whispered various nasty things about Jochi to Genghis Khan. Soon the formidable ruler formed a negative opinion about the abilities of his eldest son.
The decision of the great kagan was unequivocal, and at the very beginning of 1227 Jochi was found dead in the steppe. The man's spine was broken, and his soul almost immediately flew to another world. Breaking spines was a favorite pastime of the Mongols. Strong warriors took the doomed man by the shoulders and legs, pulled his feet to the top of his head, and the spine broke. The unfortunate man died instantly.
Genghis Khan's second son was named Chagatai. He was a tough, strong-willed and executive person. His father appointed him “guardian of Yasa.” In modern times this corresponds to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Chagatai strictly enforced the laws, and punished violators cruelly and mercilessly.
The third son's name was Ogedei. He, like the eldest son, did not take after his father. Tolerance for people's shortcomings, kindness, and gentleness were his main character traits. All this was aggravated by the love of a cheerful and idle life. If he were an ordinary person, he would be considered the life of the party. But Ogedei was the son of a formidable ruler, and therefore such behavior was considered unworthy.
The fourth son's name was Tului. He was born in 1193. From “Meng-da Bei-lu” (an ancient chronicle called “The Secret History of the Mongols”) it is known: Genghis Khan was captured by the Manchus from 1185 to 1197. Consequently, Tului was not the natural son of the great kagan. But, returning to his native steppes, Genghis Khan did not reproach Borte for anything and treated Tuluy as his own son. Tuluy proved himself to be a very good military leader and administrator. Along with this, he was distinguished by his nobility and was selflessly devoted to his family.
After the death of Genghis Khan in August 1227, all conquered lands were temporarily ruled by Tului. At the kurultai (congress of the nobility) in 1229, the third son of Ogedei was elected great khan. But it was not a very good choice. The gentleness of the ruler greatly weakened the central government. She held on only thanks to the will and firmness of Chagatai’s second son. He actually led the lands of a huge empire. The great khan himself spent all his time in the Mongolian steppes, wasting priceless years of his life on feasts and hunting.
Already from the beginning of the 30s of the 13th century, the Mongols established a strict inheritance system. It was called minorat. After the death of the father, all his rights passed to the youngest son, and each of the eldest sons received only a share of the total inheritance.
The heirs of Genghis Khan obeyed the laws just like everyone else. In accordance with this, the huge empire was divided into uluses. Each of them was headed by the grandson of Genghis Khan. These newly-made rulers were subordinate to the great khan, but in their domains the descendants of the great kagan reigned supreme.
Batu was the second son of Jochi. He took possession of the Golden Horde on the Volga. His elder brother Orda-Ichen received the White Horde - the territory between the Irtysh and Semipalatinsk. Sheybani's third son received the Blue Horde. These are lands from Tyumen to the Aral Sea. 2 thousand Mongol warriors also went to their grandchildren. The total number of the army of the huge empire numbered 130 thousand people.
The children of Chagatai also received land plots and warriors. But the children of Tului remained at the court of the Great Khan, since their father was the youngest son and had the right to the entire inheritance of Genghis Khan.
Thus, the conquered lands were divided among relatives. Genghis Khan's heirs received their shares in accordance with the minority. Naturally, someone was unhappy. Someone felt that he was bypassed and offended. All this subsequently became the cause of bloody strife that destroyed the great empire.
HEIRS OF GENGISH KHAN
In the last years of his life, Genghis Khan was extremely concerned about the fate of his
powers. The khan had four sons from his beloved wife Borte and many children from
other wives who, although they were considered legitimate children, did not have any
the right to take the father's place. The sons from Borte were very different from each other
by inclination and character. The eldest son, Jochi, was born shortly after
Merkite captivity Borte, and therefore not only “evil tongues”, but also the younger brother
Chagatai called him a “Merkit degenerate.” Although Borte invariably defended
Jochi, and Genghis Khan himself always recognized his son as his, a shadow of Merkit captivity
mother laid the burden of suspicion of illegitimacy on Jochi. Once upon a time in
in the presence of his father, Chagatai openly called Jochi, and the matter almost ended
brothers fight
There were some persistent stereotypes in Jochi's behavior, strongly
distinguished him from Chinggis. If Genghis Khan himself did not exist
the concept of mercy towards enemies (he left life only for small children, whom
adopted by his mother Hoelun, and the valiant warriors who accepted the Mongol
service), Jochi was distinguished by his humanity and kindness. So, during the siege
Gurganj, completely exhausted by the war, Khorezmians asked to accept
surrender, that is, in other words, to spare them. Jochi spoke in favor
show of mercy, but Genghis Khan categorically rejected the request for mercy, and in
As a result, the garrison of Gurganj was partially cut out, and the city itself was flooded
waters of the Amu Darya. Unfortunately, there is a misunderstanding between the father and the eldest son,
constantly fueled by intrigues and slander from relatives, over time
deepened and turned into the sovereign's distrust of his heir.
Genghis Khan suspected that Jochi wanted to gain popularity among
conquered peoples and secede from Mongolia. It was unlikely that this was the case, but it is a fact
The fact remains: at the beginning of 1227, Jochi, who was hunting in the steppe, was found dead,
with a broken spine. The terrible details of what happened are unknown,
but, without a doubt, the father was the only person interested in
the death of Jochi and capable of ending the life of the Khan's son.
In contrast to Jochi, Genghis Khan's second son, Chagatai, was a human
strict, executive and even cruel. That's why he got the job
"guardian of Yasa" (something like an attorney general or chief judge).
Çağatay observed the law absolutely strictly and without any mercy
treated as violators.
Third son of the Great Khan. Ogedei, like Jochi, was distinguished by his kindness and
tolerance towards people. But Ogedei's most characteristic feature was his passion for
steppe hunting and drinking in the company of friends. The difference in Ogedei's behavior is better
The following incident illustrates everything: one day, on a joint trip, brothers
We saw a Muslim washing himself by the water. According to Muslim custom, everyone
the faithful were obliged to perform namaz and ritual rituals several times a day
ablution. Mongolian tradition, on the contrary, forbade a person to wash
anywhere throughout the summer. The Mongols believed that washing in the river or
lake causes a thunderstorm, and a thunderstorm in the steppe is very dangerous for travelers, and therefore
"challenging" a thunderstorm was seen as an attempt on the lives of other people. Nuhurs
(the vigilantes) of the ruthless lawyer Chagatai captured the Muslim.
Anticipating a bloody outcome - the unfortunate man was in danger of having his head cut off - Ogedei
sent his man to tell the Muslim to answer that he
I dropped a gold piece into the water and was just looking for it there. The Muslim said so
Chagatay. He ordered to look for the coin, and during this time Ogedei’s warrior threw
gold into the water. The found coin was returned to the “rightful” owner. goodbye
Ogedei, taking a handful of coins from his pocket, handed them to the man he had saved and
said: "The next time you drop a gold piece into the water, don't go after it,
don't break the law."
The youngest son of Genghis Khan, Tului, was born, as the Chinese
chronicle, in 1193. As we know from “Meng-da Bei-lu”, Genghis Khan was in
Jurchen captivity until 1197. This time Borte’s infidelity was completely
obvious, but Genghis Khan and Tuluya recognized him as his legitimate son, although outwardly
Tuluy did not resemble Borjigin. All Borjigins were distinguished by green or
bluish eyes, Chinese historians called them “glassy”, and light with
red hair, and Tului had a completely ordinary Mongolian appearance - black
hair and dark eyes.
Of the four sons of Genghis Khan, the youngest had the greatest talents and
showed the greatest moral dignity. A good commander and
an outstanding administrator, Tuluy remained a loving husband and distinguished
nobility. He married the daughter of the deceased leader of the Keraits, Van Khan,
who was a devout Christian. Tuluy himself did not have the right to accept
Christian faith: like Genghisid, he had to profess the religion of his ancestors
Bon [†4]. But the khan’s son allowed his wife not only to send everything
Christian rituals in a luxurious “church” yurt, but also have with you
priests and receive monks. The death of Tului is possible without any
It's an exaggeration to call her heroic. When Ogedei fell ill, Tuluy volunteered
took a strong shamanic potion, trying to “attract” the disease to himself, and died,
saving his brother.
All four sons had the right to succeed Genghis Khan. After eliminating Jochi
there were three heirs left, and when Genghis died, and the new khan had not yet arrived
elected, Tului ruled the ulus. At the kurultai of 1229 he was elected great khan, in
in accordance with the will of Genghis, the gentle and tolerant Ogedei. Ogedei like us
already mentioned, he had a kind soul, but the kindness of the sovereign is often not on
benefit to the state and subjects. The administration of the ulus under him was very weakened and
was carried out mainly thanks to the severity of Chagatai and the diplomatic and
Tuluy's administrative skill. The Great Khan himself preferred state
concerns of nomadism with hunting and feasts in Western Mongolia.
The grandchildren of Genghis Khan were allocated various areas of the ulus or high
positions. Jochi's eldest son, Orda-Ichen, received the White Horde, located between the Irtysh and the Tarbagatai ridge (the area of present-day Semipalatinsk). The second son, Batu, began to own the Golden (Great) Horde on the Volga. The third son, Sheibani, received the Blue Horde, which roamed from Tyumen to the Aral Sea. At the same time, the three brothers - the rulers of the uluses - were allocated only one or two thousand Mongol soldiers, while the total number of the Mongol army reached 130 thousand people.
The children of Chagatai also received a thousand warriors, and the descendants of Tului, being under
courtyard, owned the entire grandfather's and father's ulus. So do the Mongols
a system of inheritance called minorate was established, in which the youngest
the son inherited all the rights of his father, and the older brothers received only a share in the total
inheritance
The Great Khan Ogedei also had a son, Guyuk, who claimed the inheritance.
The increase in the clan during the lifetime of Chinggis’s children caused the division of the inheritance and
enormous difficulties in managing the ulus, spread over the territory from
Black to Yellow Sea. There were grains hidden in these difficulties and family scores
future strife that destroyed the great creation of Genghis Khan and his comrades
Temujin was the original name of the founder of the Mongol Empire, one of the largest and bloodiest conquerors in world history. Better known to everyone under the name of Genghis Khan.
We can say about this man that he was born with a weapon in his hands. A skilled warrior, a talented commander, a competent ruler, who managed to assemble a powerful state from a bunch of disunited tribes. His fate was so filled with events that were important not only for him, but also for an entire part of the world, that it is quite problematic to compile a short biography of Genghis Khan. We can say that his whole life was one, almost continuous war.
The beginning of the path of a great warrior
Scientists have not been able to find out the exact date when Temujin was born; we only know that it happened in the period from 1155 to 1162. But the place of birth is considered to be the Delyun-Baldok tract on the banks of the river. Onona (near Lake Baikal).
Temujin's father, Yesugei Bugator, leader of the Taichiuts (one of the many Mongol tribes) raised his son as a warrior from an early age. As soon as the boy turned nine, he was married to ten-year-old Borte, a girl from the Urgenat clan. Moreover, according to Mongolian tradition, after the ritual, the groom had to live with the bride’s family until he came of age. Which was done. The father, leaving his son, went back, but soon after arriving home he unexpectedly died. According to legend, he was poisoned, and his family, both wives and six children, were expelled from the tribe, forcing them to wander the steppe.
Having learned about what had happened, Temujin decided to share the troubles of his relatives by joining them.
The first battles and the first ulus
After several years of wandering, the future ruler of Mongolia married Borta, receiving as a dowry a rich sable fur coat, which he later presented as a gift to Khan Tooril, one of the most influential leaders of the steppe, thus winning the latter over. As a result, Tooril became his patron.
Gradually, largely thanks to the “guardian,” Temujin’s influence began to grow. Starting literally from scratch, he managed to create a good and strong army. With each new day, more and more warriors joined him. With his army, he constantly raided neighboring tribes, increasing his possessions and the number of livestock. Moreover, even then, by his actions, he differed from other steppe conquerors: when attacking uluses (hordes), he tried not to destroy the enemy, but to attract him to his army.
But his enemies did not sleep either: one day, during Temujin’s absence, the Merkits attacked his camp, capturing his pregnant wife. But retribution did not take long to arrive. In 1184, Temujin, together with Tooril Khan and Jamukha (leader of the Jadaran tribe), returned it, defeating the Merkits.
By 1186, the future ruler of all of Mongolia created his first full-fledged horde (ulus), numbering about 30 thousand warriors. Now Genghis Khan decided to act independently, leaving the tutelage of his patron.
The title of Genghis Khan and a unified state - Mongolia
To oppose the Tatars, Temujin again teamed up with Tooril Khan. The decisive battle took place in 1196 and ended in a crushing defeat of the enemy. In addition to the fact that the Mongols received good booty, Temujin acquired the title of dzhauthuri (corresponding to a military commissar), and Tooril Khan became a Mongol van (prince).
From 1200 to 1204, Temujin continued to fight with the Tatars and the unsubdued Mongol tribes, but on his own, winning victories and following his tactics - increasing the number of troops at the expense of the enemy forces.
In 1205, more and more warriors joined the new ruler, and eventually in the spring of 1206 he was proclaimed Khan of all Mongols, giving him the corresponding title - Genghis Khan. Mongolia became a unified state with a powerful, well-trained army and its own laws, according to which conquered tribes became part of the army, and resisting enemies were subject to destruction.
Genghis Khan practically eradicated the clan system, mixing up the tribes, and instead dividing the entire horde into tumens (1 tumen = 10 thousand people), and those, in turn, into thousands, hundreds and even tens. As a result, his army reached the number of 10 tumens.
Subsequently, Mongolia was divided into two separate wings, at the head of which Genghis Khan placed his most faithful and experienced associates: Boorchu and Mukhali. In addition, military positions could now be inherited.
Death of Genghis Khan
In 1209, Central Asia conquered the Mongols, and before 1211, almost all of Siberia, whose peoples were subject to tribute.
In 1213, the Mongols invaded China. Having reached its central part, Genghis Khan stopped, and a year later he returned his troops back to Mongolia, concluding a peace treaty with the Emperor of China and forcing him to leave Beijing. But as soon as the ruling court left the capital, Genghis Khan returned the army, continuing the war.
Having defeated the Chinese army, the Mongol conqueror decided to go to Semirechye, and in 1218 it was captured, and at the same time the entire eastern part of Turkestan.
In 1220, the Mongol Empire found its capital - Karakorum, and in the meantime, Genghis Khan's troops, divided into two streams, continued their campaigns of conquest: the first part invaded the South Caucasus through Northern Iran, while the second rushed to the Amu Darya.
Having crossed the Derbent Pass in the North Caucasus, Genghis Khan's troops defeated first the Alans and then the Polovtsians. The latter, uniting with the squads of Russian princes, attacked the Mongols on Kalka, but even here they were defeated. But in Volga Bulgaria the Mongol army received a serious blow and retreated to Central Asia.
Returning to Mongolia, Genghis Khan made a campaign along the western side of China. At the end of 1226, having crossed the river. Yellow River, the Mongols moved east. The army of one hundred thousand Tanguts (the people who in 982 created an entire state in China, called Xi Xia) was defeated, and by the summer of 1227 the Tangut kingdom ceased to exist. Ironically, Genghis Khan died along with the state of Xi Xia.
The heirs of Genghis Khan need to be discussed separately, since each of them deserves special attention.
The ruler of Mongolia had many wives, and even more offspring. Despite the fact that all the emperor’s children were considered legitimate, only four of them could become his true heirs, namely those who were born by Genghis Khan’s first and beloved wife, Borte. Their names were Jochi, Chagatai, Ogedei and Tolui, and only one could take his father’s place. Although all of them were born from the same mother, they were very different from each other in character and inclinations.
Firstborn
Genghis Khan's eldest son, Jochi, was very different in character from his father. If the ruler was characterized by cruelty (he, without a drop of pity, destroyed all the defeated, those who did not submit and did not want to enter his service), then Jochi’s distinguishing feature was kindness and humanity. Misunderstandings constantly arose between father and son, which eventually developed into Genghis Khan’s distrust of his first-born.
The ruler decided that by his actions his son was trying to achieve popularity among the already conquered peoples, and then, having led them, oppose his father and separate from Mongolia. Most likely, such a scenario was far-fetched, and Jochi did not pose any threat. Nevertheless, in the winter of 1227 he was found dead in the steppe, with a broken spine.
Second son of Genghis Khan
As mentioned above, the sons of Genghis Khan were very different from each other. So, the second of them, Chagatai, was the opposite of his older brother. He was characterized by rigor, diligence and even cruelty. Thanks to these character traits, Genghis Khan’s son Chagatai took the position of “guardian of Yasa” (Yasa is the law of power), that is, in fact, he became both the prosecutor general and the chief judge in one person. Moreover, he himself observed the provisions of the law strictly and demanded its observance from others, mercilessly punishing violators.
Another son of the Great Khan
Genghis Khan's third son, Ogedei, was similar to his brother Jochi in that he was known as kind and tolerant of people. In addition, he had the ability to persuade: it was not difficult for him to win over the doubters in any dispute in which he took part, to his side.
An extraordinary mind and good physical development - perhaps it was these traits inherent in Ogedei that influenced Genghis Khan when choosing a successor, which he did long before his death.
But for all his merits, Ogedei was known as a lover of entertainment, devoting a lot of time to steppe hunting and drinking bouts with friends. In addition, he was greatly influenced by Chagatai, who often forced him to change seemingly final decisions to the opposite.
Tolui - the youngest of the emperor's sons
The youngest son of Genghis Khan, who was named Tolui at birth, was born in 1193. There were rumors among the people that he was supposedly illegitimate. After all, as you know, Genghis Khan came from the Borjigin family, whose distinctive feature was blond hair and green or blue eyes, but Tolui had a Mongolian, quite ordinary appearance - dark eyes and black hair. Nevertheless, the ruler, despite the slander, considered him his own.
And it was Genghis Khan’s youngest son, Tolui, who had the greatest talents and moral dignity. Being an excellent commander and a good administrator, Tolui retained his nobility and boundless love for his wife, the daughter of the head of the Keraits who served Wang Khan. He not only organized a “church” yurt for her, since she professed Christianity, but even allowed her to conduct rituals there, for which she was allowed to invite priests and monks. Tolui himself remained faithful to the gods of his ancestors.
Even the death that the youngest son of the Mongol ruler took says a lot about him: when Ogedei was overtaken by a serious illness, in order to take his illness upon himself, he voluntarily drank a strong potion prepared by a shaman and died, essentially giving his life for the chance of his brother’s recovery .
Transfer of power
As mentioned above, the sons of Genghis Khan had equal rights to inherit everything that their father left them. After the mysterious death of Jochi, there were fewer contenders for the throne, and when Genghis Khan died and a new ruler had not yet been formally elected, Tolui replaced his father. But already in 1229, Ogedei became the Great Khan, as Genghis himself wanted.
However, as mentioned above, Ogedei had a rather kind and gentle character, that is, not the best and most necessary traits for a sovereign. Under him, the management of the ulus was greatly weakened and kept afloat thanks to the other sons of Genghis Khan, more precisely, the administrative and diplomatic abilities of Tolui and the strict character of Chagatai. The emperor himself preferred to spend his time wandering around Western Mongolia, which was certainly accompanied by hunting and feasts.
Grandchildren of Chinggis
The children of Genghis Khan also had their own sons, who were entitled to a share of the conquests of their great grandfather and fathers. Each of them received either a part of the ulus or a high position.
Despite the fact that Jochi was dead, his sons were not left deprived. So, the eldest of them, Horde-Ichen, inherited the White Horde, which was located between the Irtysh and Tarbagatai. Another son, Sheybani, inherited the Blue Horde, which roamed from Tyumen to the Aral. From Jochi, the son of Genghis Khan, Batu - perhaps the most famous khan in Rus' - received the Golden, or Great Horde. In addition, each brother from the Mongol army was allocated 1-2 thousand soldiers.
The children of Chagatai received the same number of warriors, but the offspring of Tului, being almost constantly at court, ruled their grandfather’s ulus.
Guyuk, the son of Ogedei, was not left out either. In 1246 he was elected Great Khan, and it is believed that it was from that moment that the decline of the Mongol Empire began. A split occurred between the descendants of Genghis Khan's sons. It got to the point that Guyuk organized a military campaign against Batu. But the unexpected happened: in 1248 Guyuk died. One version says that Batu himself had a hand in his death, sending his people to poison the Great Khan.
Descendant of Jochi, son of Genghis Khan - Batu (Batu)
It was this Mongolian ruler who “inherited” more than others in the history of Rus'. His name was Batu, but in Russian sources he is more often referred to as Khan Batu.
After the death of his father, who three years before his death received into his possession the Kipchat steppe, Rus' with the Crimea, a share of the Caucasus and Khorezm, and by the time of his death he had lost most of them (his possessions were reduced to the Asian part of the steppe and Khorezm), the heirs were given a special share there was nothing. But this did not bother Bata, and in 1236, under his leadership, a pan-Mongol campaign to the West began.
Judging by the nickname given to the commander-ruler - “Sain Khan”, meaning “good-natured” - he had some of the character traits for which his father was famous, but this did not hinder Batu Khan in his conquests: by 1243 Mongolia received the western side Polovtsian steppe, the peoples of the Volga region and the North Caucasus, and in addition, Volga Bulgaria. Khan Byty raided Rus' several times. And eventually the Mongol army reached Central Europe. Batu, approaching Rome, demanded submission from its emperor, Frederick the Second. At first he was going to resist the Mongols, but changed his mind, resigning himself to his fate. There were no military clashes between the troops.
After some time, Batu Khan decided to settle on the banks of the Volga, and he no longer conducted military campaigns to the West.
Batu died in 1256 at the age of 48. The Golden Horde was headed by Batu's son Saratak.
Two years after the death of Genghis Khan, in due mourning, under the provisional government, passed calmly for the empire. This testified to the strong and strict administrative order that its great founder and legislator, Genghis Khan, established in his empire.
In 1229, a kurultai was convened to select a new emperor and to discuss various state issues.
Genghis Khan had four heir sons (from his first legal wife). The eldest, Jochi, did not get along with his father, and back in 1221 he retired to his ulus and at the beginning of 1227 was killed by assassins sent. His children, Horde and Batu, received modest uluses on the barren northwestern outskirts of the empire. Horde - Southern Siberia, and Batu - the Ural-Caspian steppe with Khorezm in addition.
The second son of Genghis Khan, Chagatai, was the “guardian of Yasa”, and his ulus was Central Asia.
The third son, Ogedei, received Western Mongolia and Dzungaria. It was he who was recommended by Genghis Khan to be elected to the throne, since Chagatai was very tough and strict. Ogedei, as it turned out, was kind and prone to excessive libations, so he did not seem dangerous to the Mongol nobility, who feared the khan's tyranny.
The fourth son, Tolui, who, according to Mongol custom, received the core of the Borjigin family's possessions - the central and western parts of Mongolia, was one of the most capable commanders and energetic rulers. He received his military training in China, fighting against the best Jurchen commanders under the leadership of Subetei, who during fifty years of military service did not suffer a single defeat and never violated Yasa. Proximity to Subetei ensured Tolui's popularity among the troops.
It should be noted that only the Turkic-Mongolian steppes, used for nomadic life, were subject to division, and the conquered countries on the cultivated lands around Beijing or Samarkand remained the territories of the empire. The sons of Genghis Khan did not have the idea of dividing these lands or becoming Emperor of China, Khan of Turkestan or Shah of Iran, as happened later with their successors. By universal “fraternal” agreement, the empire was supposed to remain an empire. According to the laws of the nomads, despite the absolute power of the khan, the state belonged, rather, not to him personally, but to the entire khan’s family.
Again, according to Mongol tradition and by the right of the “guardian of the hearth,” Tolui remained regent (1227–1229) until the election of a new great khan.
By the time of Genghis Khan's death, from an army of 129 thousand people, according to his will, 101 thousand people passed to the disposal of Tolui. All other heirs were bequeathed 28 thousand soldiers, including Jochi - 4 thousand people. “They were joined by many troops from the Russian, Circassian, Kipchak, Madjar and other peoples who later joined them,” adds Rashid ad-Din.
So, the kurultai of 1229, according to the will of Genghis Khan, approved Ogedei as the Great Emperor.
At the kurultai, Ogedei proclaimed three main directions along which conquest campaigns should simultaneously proceed:
1) complete the conquest of Northern China;
2) eliminate Sultan Jalal ad-Din (son of Shah Mohammed), who appeared in India and managed to conquer part of Eastern Iran, and laid claims to the Persian throne; 3) a trip to Europe. Thus, the Turko-Mongol expansion had to continue in all directions.
In his decisions, Ogedei listened to the advice of the Khitan Yelü Chutsai, the Uyghur Chinkai and the Muslim Mahmud Yalawach; on all important matters he consulted with his elder brother Chagatai.
Ogedei's primary concern was the situation in China, not Persian affairs. Therefore, in 1230, the main Turko-Mongol army under the command of Tolui was sent against the Jin Empire. To ensure the success of the campaign, Ogedei made an agreement with the Song Empire in South China. The Song expressed a desire to send a military contingent against the Jin with the condition that after the victory the Turko-Mongols would give them the province of Jin-Henan. In cooperation with the Song, the Turko-Mongols completed the conquest of the Jin Empire by 1234. Tolui died before the end of the campaign.
In the very east of the empire, the Turko-Mongols began to take a closer look at Korea. In 1231, an ultimatum was presented to Korea. The formal reason for the war was the murder in 1225 of the Mongol ambassador Zhu-Chuyu, who was returning with the annual Korean tribute. After the accession of Ogedei, as part of the adopted strategy for the final conquest of Northern China, it was decided to end the independence of the Koryo state, and not simply receive tribute from it. Thus, in the conditions of the last stage of the war with Jin, the Mongols came to the conclusion that it was necessary to have Korea in the rear, completely deprived of independence, which would meekly replenish the resources of the Mongol empire.
In September 1231, a corps under the command of Saritai-khorchi was sent to Korea. Over forty cities were taken, but not all cities were easy prey. At Anbukseong, the Goryeo army was defeated. When the main part of Saritai approached the Korean capital of Kagyong in December 1231, the panicked rulers of Goryeo agreed to make peace on Mongol terms - to hand over a huge tribute in gold, silver, fabrics, clothing and horses. In addition, Saritai placed Turkic-Mongol governors on the land of Koryo.
The Koreans were unable to pay the entire tribute, and the Mongols again sent Saritai to Korea on a punitive mission, but he died “from an accidental arrow.” Nevertheless, the Turkic-Mongols achieved their goal - Koryo recognized the supreme power of Khan Ogedei, agreed to send him hostages, members of the royal family, and pay tribute.
The Turko-Mongols made it a rule to send a punitive expedition to Korea every time the deadlines for submitting tribute were violated or the orders of the Mongol Khan were not followed.
According to some reports, over the next 25 years, about one and a half million people were killed, hijacked, or died from the disasters of war in Korea.
As for the invasion of the Turkic-Mongols into the Caucasus in 1230, it was initially caused by the fight against the Khorezm Shah Jalal ad-Din. Jalal ad-Din, instead of preparing his army for the battle with the Mongols, plunged into Near Eastern politics, wanting to increase his possessions at the expense of Iran, Northern Syria and Georgia. The result of this was a clash with all Western neighbors. At the same time, the Turkic-Mongols appeared in Azerbaijan, where his headquarters was located. Abandoned by most of his supporters and betrayed by his own vizier, Jalal ad-Din fled to the mountains of Kurdistan, where he was killed by robbers who did not even know who he was. After his death, in August 1231, the task of the corps under the command of Chormaghan was the final conquest of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
One of the consequences of the defeat and death of Jalal ad-Din was the confusion of the Turkmen (Oghuz) troops: they found themselves without a leader. Some of them returned to Turkestan and recognized the suzerainty of the Turko-Mongols, others migrated to the west, to Syria and Asia Minor. About five hundred families led by Ertogrul reached the Seljuk Sultan. Ertogrul became a vassal of the Sultan and received land near Sugut in Phrygia, not far from the Byzantine borders. And this factor played a major role in the future history of the Near East, since Ertogrul’s son Osman became the founder of the Ottoman Empire. A larger group of Turkmen warriors, designated "Khorezmians", moved into Iraq and offered their services to the local Muslim rulers.
So, with the fall of the Jin Empire and the disappearance of Jalal ad-Din from the political arena of Iran, the Turko-Mongols were ready for new conquests.
The sequence of actions of Chormaghan’s army was described by Kirakos Ganzaketsi: “They gradually ravaged the entire country of the Persians, Atrparakan, Deylem, captured and destroyed the large, magnificent cities of Ray and Isfahan... And then they reached the country of Agvank (Caucasian Albania, modern Azerbaijan, Karabakh and Armenia). Similar invasions befell the rest of the regions - Kars, Ani and Lori." The civil strife that took place in Georgia and the inept management of Queen Rusudan greatly facilitated the conquest of the country, which was captured in just one year. Georgia became a Turkic-Mongol protectorate.
The activities of the Chormaghan corps can be summarized as follows: strengthening the power of the Turkic-Mongols in the conquered lands of Transcaucasia and Western Asia, as well as conducting reconnaissance in force in two directions - on the borders of the caliphate and the Rumian Seljuk Sultanate in Asia Minor.
The Turko-Mongol army was ready to attack the possessions of the Seljuk sultans in Asia Minor. But this was not carried out during Ogedei's reign.
In 1235, a kurultai council was convened, at which they decided to undertake four offensive campaigns simultaneously: two in the Far East - against Korea, which had rebelled again, against the Song Empire in South China, one in the Middle East - against Iraq, Syria, the Trans-Caucasus and the Seljuk Sultan in Asia Minor and one in the West - against Europe.
So, three armies led by the Turko-Mongols invaded South China. However, hostilities became protracted and did not change during the last years of Ogedei's reign. The Turko-Mongols were victorious in Korea, where resistance was broken after several difficult battles (1241). As for the Song Empire, the end to this protracted conflict was put by Ogedei's nephews and heirs Mongke and Kublai in 1279, as will be discussed later.
In the western direction, great successes were achieved under Ogedei.
The Western lands were considered as a territory for the expansion of the Jochi ulus, so his son Batu was appointed commander-in-chief of the western front. When Genghis Khan distributed the Turkic-Mongol troops, Jochi received 4 thousand soldiers, and this was not enough for such a campaign. Therefore, Batu created new army units from the Turkmen tribes and other Turks who lived in his ulus, but still this was not enough to conquer the West, then Ogedei ordered that all uluses of the Mongol Empire sent troops to help Batu. Thus the Western campaign became a pan-Mongol affair.
Batu headed a council representing all the descendants of Genghis Khan: the sons of Ogedei - Guyuk and Kidan, the son of Tolui - Mongke, the son and grandson of Chagatai - Baydar and Buri. Each of them brought selected Mongol troops. Subetei, the best of the Mongol commanders, was appointed, in our understanding, chief of staff. The core of Batu's armies consisted of approximately 50 thousand warriors, and with the newly formed Turkic formations and auxiliary troops, the army amounted to approximately 120 thousand warriors. Everything was prepared as well as any of Genghis Khan's classic campaigns.
In 1236, Mongol troops crossed the Volga and took the city of Great Bulgar (near Kazan). Then Mongke attacked the Kipchaks in the lower reaches of the Volga. Some of the Kipchaks submitted to the invaders and subsequently became the basis of the population of the Mongol Khanate, which was called the Kipchak Khanate (Dasht-i-Kipchak) after the former owners of the country, also known as the “Golden Horde”. It belonged to the Jochi ulus. One of the Kipchak leaders, Bachman, continued to fight for some time on the banks of the Volga and was eventually captured on an island in the lower reaches of the river (winter 1236/37) and killed on Mongke’s orders. In 1238 Mongke put an end to the Kipchaks. Then the Kipchak leader Kotyan went to Hungary, taking 40 thousand families with him, and there he converted to Christianity. In the winter of 1239/40, the Mongols completed the conquest of the steppes of Southern Rus'.
The corps of Mongke and Guyuk, speaking against the Kipchaks and Alans, marched victoriously in the direction from the Lower Volga, along the shores of the Caspian Sea to the walls of the North Caucasus and the mouth of the Don. In this “round-up” the Turko-Mongols were able to basically complete the conquest of the Kipchak clans of the Caspian region. In the “Secret Legend” the entire campaign of 1236–1240. is called Kypchak, which indicates the importance for the Turkic-Mongols of actions specifically against the Kypchak.
After the Bulgar and the Kipchaks, it was the turn of Rus'. In 1237, a kurultai was held and, “by general agreement,” they went to war against Rus'. By autumn, the Turkic-Mongols concentrated their forces in two main areas - in the lower reaches of the Voronezh River and on the southern borders of the Ryazan principality. While the Turkic-Mongols were in their original positions, the alarmed Russian principalities were looking for a way to come to an agreement, or rather, to pay off, as was done with other nomads. But these expectations not only did not come true, but, apparently, also dulled the vigilance of the Russian princes. From the places of concentration the Turkic-Mongols set out for Ryazan. An embassy headed by the Ryazan prince Fyodor Yuryevich headed towards the army, but his embassy ended tragically - he was killed along with all his people on the orders of Batu. In “The Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu” the reason for the physical destruction is seen in the fact that the princes refused “the Ryazan princes’ daughters or sisters on the bed.” But here, perhaps, another circumstance played a role - having sent an embassy to the Turkic-Mongols, the Ryazan people at the same time began to advance their army towards them. Therefore, Batu decided to get ahead of the Ryazanians and, forestalling a possible union of the latter with the Suzdalians, was the first to move towards them.
Batu with the main forces invaded the Ryazan principality and took Ryazan, which fell in December 1237. From here they headed to Moscow. Although it was not yet the main Russian city, its central location made Moscow an important target for Subetei's strategy. Having taken Moscow, which Subetey burned, they not only blocked Vladimir, but also became a threat to the entire Russian north, including the rich Veliky Novgorod - the financial basis of the Grand Duke. Yuri II could only retreat to organize resistance on the Upper Volga.
After a six-day siege of Vladimir, the city was taken in February 1238, and all who survived were killed, including the princely family. Vladimir was destroyed, and the Turkic-Mongols, without stopping, moved towards the Sit River. The Russians, outwitted by the Mongols, were defeated and Yuri II died.
Now the road to Novgorod was open. However, the onset of the spring thaw made the roads impassable. The Turko-Mongol army turned back and headed south. Only the town of Kozelsk stopped them on their way: the siege of Kozelsk lasted seven weeks.
Reunited, the Turko-Mongol army spent the summer and early fall in what is now Ukraine, reorganizing, gathering supplies, and riding horses imported from the area of what is now Kazakhstan. During 1239, the Turkic-Mongol army undertook only small military operations.
Around 1240, Batu's armies were ready to resume their march to the west. In the summer of this year, the Mongols captured and ravaged the cities of Pereyaslavl and Chernigov. Then Mongke, who apparently commanded the vanguard, sent emissaries to Kyiv demanding submission. Kiev at this time was governed by a governor appointed by Prince Daniil of Galicia. The Kyiv authorities ordered the killing of Mongke's envoys. After several days of resistance, Kyiv was stormed in December 1240 and destroyed.
The defeat of the military forces of the Russian principalities and the destruction of their main centers led to a complete catastrophe of all-Russian defense; even the potential opportunity to resist the enemy disappeared.
During 1238, the Turko-Mongols were busy asserting their power over the Kipchaks and Alans, the outlying Russian principalities came under attack only in connection with actions against these peoples or as a result of ordinary raids for robbery; in 1239 - early 1240, the main forces of the Turkic-Mongols were occupied in the Caucasus, a blow was struck against the southern Russian principalities (Pereyaslav and Chernigov) - a potential flank threat to the Turkic-Mongol armies, the defense of the remaining unplundered rich Kyiv land was explored by force; in the fall of 1240, Batu’s last campaign against Rus', the southwestern lands of Rus' were finally conquered before the campaign to the west of Europe.
So, we can formulate the main reason for the complete defeat of North-Eastern Rus' during the first campaign of the “Batu Massacre” - the strategic and tactical superiority of the Turko-Mongols, which is determined by a number of factors: 1) the armed forces of Rus' were fragmented over a large area, which gave the opportunity to the Turko-Mongols, who had superiority in maneuver and initiative to beat them piecemeal, having in each specific case an overwhelming advantage (as it is said in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”: “Strife by the prince - to filthy destruction”; 2) the qualitative superiority of the Turkic-Mongols even in cases of relative equality in numbers; 3) the effect of surprise, the strength and dynamics of the strike of the Turkic-Mongol army.
After the complete defeat of the Russian troops, many of the Western Russian princes sought refuge in Hungary and Poland, which gave Batu a reason, if one was needed, to attack these two countries. The total number of his army, which came to Central Europe, can be estimated as not exceeding 100 thousand people.
The main object of interest to the Mongols in Hungary was that it represented the westernmost point of the steppe zone and could serve as an excellent base for the Turko-Mongol cavalry in any of its future operations in Central Europe, just as it served this role for Attila and his Huns eight centuries ago. In addition, the Magyars themselves were once nomads, and the history of their origin is closely connected with the Turks, which made their participation in the Turkic-Mongol alliance possible.
The campaign against Poland was of interest only for the purpose of eliminating a potential threat to the right flank in the operation against Hungary.
So, by the end of 1241, not only Central, but also Western Europe was exposed to the Turkic-Mongol threat.
At that time, feudal Europe was torn apart by internal contradictions and, in addition, a conflict flared up between the secular and spiritual authorities of Roman Catholic Europe - a struggle between Emperor Frederick II and the Pope, in which each did everything possible to undermine the prestige of the other.
The Turko-Mongols entered Poland through Volhynia and Galicia and at Liegnitz in 1241 they completely defeated the Polish-German knightly militia.
Meanwhile, another Turko-Mongol army penetrated into Hungary through passes in the Carpathians and defeated the Hungarian army at Shayava. Following this, the Turkic-Mongols took Pest and, pursuing the Hungarian king, reached the Adriatic Sea. However, in Moravia, opponents defeated the Turko-Mongols near Olmütz and forced one of the Turko-Mongol armies to retreat to Hungary to join the main forces. Here Batu received news of the death of Khan Ogedei.
Ögedei would have been fifty-one years old at the time of his death (December 1241). He seems to have undermined his health through excessive drinking. Shortly before his death, assessing his virtues and sins, he noted with commendable openness that he had two main vicious hobbies: wine and women.
Batu hastily retreated with his army through Bulgaria, Wallachia, Moldavia and the Kipchak steppes to the east, since the aggravation of contradictions within the Turkic-Mongol empire required his direct intervention: parties were formed in the Turkic-Mongol army itself, a clash between which was inevitable and which promised the vanquished cruel death.
Batu wanted to influence the choice of the new Great Khan, especially since he himself was considered a potential candidate. Moreover, during the Hungarian campaign he quarreled with Ogedei's son Guyuk and Chagatai's grandson Buri, who returned to Mongolia in deep resentment. Upon Batu's complaint, Ogedei severely reprimanded both princes. Now, after the death of Ogedei, one could expect that they would take revenge by intriguing against Batu. Batu was obviously worried: the struggle for power in Turkic-Mongol politics seemed to him more important than the conquest of Europe. And this saved Western Europe from the Turkic-Mongol invasion.
In fact, as masters of the Eurasian steppe zone, the Turko-Mongols could now control all of Central Asia and most of Eastern Europe - the Eurasian subcontinent. The main period of Turko-Mongol conquests ended.
So, within thirty-five years, a powerful state was born and presented its demands to world leaders, conquering vast territories in Asia and Europe.
Ogedei's death in 1241 gave rise to a protracted political crisis in Mongolia itself. Chagatai died in 1242, and the grandchildren of Genghis Khan found themselves in a rather difficult situation - which of them would ascend the throne?
Guyuk and Batu were bitter rivals. And the children of Chagatai joined Guyuk, and the sons of Tolui joined Batu.
Before the assembly of the kurultai, many political maneuvers had to be undertaken, and four years (1242–1246) were years of interregnum; the regent during this period was Ogedei's wife, who hoped to retain the throne for her eldest son Guyuk. In order to ensure freedom of action, the regent removed three of Ogedei's assistants: Yelu Chutsai, Chinkai and Mahmud Yalavach. Yelu Chucai died a few months later.
The main political change during the interregnum in the Mongol Empire was the founding of the Batu Kipchak Khanate in Southern Rus', later known as the Golden Horde. Its capital was the city of Saray on the Lower Volga. The leading Eastern Russian princes summoned to Sarai took a vassal oath of allegiance to Batu. The number of Turko-Mongol troops increased: in addition to the Turkmens, numerous Kipchak and Alan warriors joined. Thus, Batu had a well-trained Turkic army under the command of loyal Mongol officers.
As for the external affairs of the empire, an active offensive was launched in the Near East. Baiju Noyon inflicted a decisive defeat on the Seljuks in 1234, as a result of which they became vassals of the Mongols. The Khan of Lesser Armenia Hethum I also offered his submission, and he controlled the region of Cilicia opposite the island of Cyprus. Through him, Turkic-Mongol influence spread to the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.
Under Baiju Noyon, the policy of the Turkic-Mongols in Transcaucasia by the end of the 40s. became more flexible, they were able to come to an agreement with local feudal lords on the terms of Turkic-Mongolian suzerainty, while retaining the feudal lords within their possession (the Turkic-Mongols began to issue them labels for possessions and golden paizi in recognition of their internal political independence), paying annual tribute and exhibiting auxiliary troops. For the future great war (1256–1259), during which the Baghdad Caliphate was destroyed, all this turned out to be very useful.
Due to the rivalry between Guyuk and Batu, the kurultai was postponed for more than four years. During the reign of Ogedei's widow, intrigue and arbitrariness reached their peak, which gave rise to great discontent among the people. Finally, in January 1246, Guyuk was elected khan at the kurultai. At his election, there were Plano-Carpini, sent to the headquarters of the great khans by Pope Innocent IX, two Georgian princes, the Russian prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the ambassador of the Baghdad caliph and the ambassador of the French king Louis IX Guillaume, which testified to the close attention of European and Middle Eastern sovereigns to everything that was happening in distant Karakoram. Batu was approved as the Khan of the Western Ulus (Northwest Asia and Eastern Europe).
During his short reign, Khan Guyuk concentrated his efforts in the Near East. A new commander, Elchidai-noyon, was sent there instead of Baijunoyon (1247).
It should be noted that at the beginning of his reign, Guyuk returned Cinkay (a Nestorian Christian) and Mahmud Yalavach to their former positions. It was through Chinkaya that Guyuk corresponded with the pope. Most of the Christians at Guyuk's court were Nestorians, but there were also Orthodox Christians - mostly Russian artisans. “We were also assured by Christians belonging to the staff of his house that he (Guyuk) was close to accepting Christianity,” Plano-Carpini wrote in his reports to the Pope.
Guyuk's position regarding the papal call to accept Christianity was clear: he refused to consider the pope's wishes and invited the pope and the kings to personally come to Mongolia to show him (Guyuk) their respect. The papal claims to universal leadership clashed with the equally universal claims of the Mongol emperor. It was difficult to expect cooperation between them.
But the plan for a new expansion in the Near East seemed to be based on uniting with Christians against Muslims. And this is confirmed by Guyuk’s instructions given to his representative Elchidai-noyon.
Politically, relations between Guyuk and Batu were tense, partly due to the latter's refusal to attend the kurultai. In the summer of 1248, Batu headed to Guyuk's ulus, but received news that Guyuk and his troops were moving towards Batu. It was quite obvious that Guyuk's intentions were bad. However, Guyuk died a week's journey from the Batu camp. One may doubt the naturalness of his death.
As for Elchidai-noyon, he could not be sure that Guyuk's instructions remained in force. Of course, Guyuk's benevolent attitude towards Christianity must have caused discontent on the part of the so-called Turkic-Mongol party, whose members were still steadfast in their traditional beliefs.
After Guyuk's death, Mongolia was gripped by a severe political crisis. During this period, the regency was taken over by Guyuk's widow, who could not continue her husband's policy in the Near East. And when the envoys of Louis IX arrived at the court with an offer of cooperation, she demanded an annual tribute from the king. When the 7th Crusade ended in defeat and Louis himself was captured by the Muslims, according to the historian Joinville, “the king greatly regretted that he had once sent a mission.”
In 1250, regarding the succession to the throne, contradictions intensified between the descendants of Jochi and Tolui, on the one hand, and the descendants of Chagatai and Ogedei, on the other. It was clear from everything that Batu and Mongke were gaining the upper hand in this counterbalance.
At the kurultai in July 1251, Mongke was proclaimed great khan, since Batu abandoned the throne in favor of his like-minded man.
One of the first steps of the new khan was to destroy the supporters of the house of Chagatai and Ogedei. The transition from the house of Ogedei to the house of Tolui was, of course, a coup d'etat.
Mongke was truly a talented and energetic ruler. During his reign, two main Turkic-Mongol offensives were launched - in the Near East and in Southern China.
In connection with the campaign of the Turkic-Mongols in the Middle East, Louis IX again decided to come to an agreement with them.
Hearing about Batu’s good attitude towards Christians and the conversion of his son Sartak to this faith, the king sent a new Franciscan mission to Southern Rus'. One monk remained at the court of Sartak, the others continued their journey to Mongolia, to the court of Mongke. Arriving there, they emphasized Batu's friendliness and Sartak's conversion to Christianity. In this regard, Mongke made a solemn statement of his complete agreement with Batu. “Just as the sun sends its rays everywhere, my power and the power of Batu extends everywhere,” - this is what Mongke said, according to the notes about this mission of the monk William Rubruk.
When Louis IX received Möngke's letter through his mission, he found little that was acceptable to him, since the Great Khan demanded his formal submission to the Mongol Empire as the basis for future cooperation.
In 1253, at the next kurultai, it was decided to end the war in China, for which Prince Kublai was appointed, and to liberate Jerusalem from Muslims, which was entrusted to Prince Hulagu. In history, this campaign was called the “Yellow Crusade.”
The choice of candidates for the most important operations seems surprising. Khubilai's Christian sympathies were no secret to anyone, and he was sent to a country where Confucians, Taoists and Buddhists shared dominion over minds. Hulagu was an open admirer of Maitreya, a mystical branch of Buddhism (the messianic idea of the coming of the “Buddha of the future”), which enjoyed special protection from the Mongol khans, and he was ordered to defend the Christian faith! One might think that Mongke, a subtle and intelligent politician, gave these appointments not by chance. The specter of the falling away of the borderlands had already begun to haunt the expanding Mongol empire, and it was extremely important that the contact of the governor with his subjects did not become complete. A khan of other faiths always had to seek support from the central government, which very, very prevented him from falling away. Therefore, Khubilai received Kipchak and Alan troops to conquer the South Chinese Empire, and Hulagu was accompanied by a retinue of Buddhist monks, Uyghurs, Tibetans and Chinese, associated with their native countries and their ruler, the Great Khan Mongke.
But, on the other hand, measures were taken to prevent a possible defeat of the army due to insufficient contact with the local population. Hulagu's wife, the Keraite Dokuz Khatun, was a Christian and patroness of Christians. The Naiman chief of staff, Kit-Buka-noyon, was a zealous Nestorian, and he selected his assistants from fellow believers. Finally, the king of Lesser Armenia Hethum I entered into an alliance with the Turko-Mongols, who in 1253 personally arrived at Mongke’s headquarters and asked the khan to consider the seven articles of the alliance treaty. These articles are so interesting that it is worth citing them at least in abbreviation. The king asked the khan: 1) to be baptized with all the people;
2) establish friendship between Christians and Tatars;
3) exempt the clergy from taxes; 4) return the Holy Land to Christians; 5) put an end to the Baghdad caliph; 6) if necessary, all Tatar military leaders immediately provide him with assistance; 7) return the lands previously taken from the Armenians by Muslims. Obviously, the khan was aware of the difficulties of the undertaking, therefore he agreed to the conditions of the Armenian king and thereby ensured his active assistance. Moreover, Hethum attracted the Antiochian prince Bohemond to an alliance with the Turko-Mongols.
So, Hulagu's main army was formed in Mongolia in 1253. Everything was done to ensure the success of the expedition. Four thousand Chinese army technicians were mobilized to operate military mechanisms designed to throw stones, darts and burning tar at enemy cities. Forage for cavalry horses and their replacements were collected by Hulagu's army all the way from Mongolia to Iran. Engineers were sent forward to build or repair bridges over the main rivers; huge warehouses of food and wine were created in Iran.
In September 1255, Hulagu reached Samarkand and in January 1256 crossed the Amu Darya with selected troops; at this point his army was strengthened by several units of the army of the Kipchak Khanate.
Hulagu's first act in Iran was the destruction of the Ismaili state (the state of the famous “assassins” in Iran existed from 1090 to 1256). During the year, about a hundred castles and fortresses of the sectarians were destroyed, including their stronghold - Alamut. Most of the members of the Assassin sect were killed or imprisoned, some went into Mongol service. After suppressing the Assassins, Hulagu attacked the Baghdad Caliphate. In February 1258, Baghdad was stormed and sacked, and the caliph, the last of the Abbasid dynasty, was captured and executed. Although the entire Sunni world was stunned by this news, the Shiites could not help but feel satisfaction at the downfall of the leader of the “heretics”. The destruction of the Caliphate opened the way for further conquests.
Hulagu's next target was Syria, whose monks were under the suzerainty of the Sultan of Egypt.
In 1259, Hulagu completed preparations for a forceful invasion of Syria. Having heard about the death of the Great Khan Mongke, he realized that his presence at the kurultai was more important than the Syrian campaign. He decided to move to Mongolia, taking with him his best troops, leaving only 20 thousand warriors.
Leadership in the Syrian campaign was entrusted to the experienced commander Kit-Bukanoyon. Just as Ogedei's death saved Western Europe, Mongke's death saved Syria. This was another example of how Turko-Mongol politics influenced military affairs.
The Ayyubid sultans of Mesopotamia and Syria, despite their undoubted valor, became victims of the Mongol-Christian alliance. The descendants of the valiant Saladin, who recaptured Jerusalem from the crusaders in 1187 and repelled Richard the Lionheart in 1192, the Arabic Kurds, did not have the abilities of the founder of the dynasty and spent time in internecine wars, even entering into alliances with the crusaders against co-religionists and relatives.
This war showed more bitterness than ever before, because the Turko-Mongols began to practice bullying when executing prisoners, which had not been observed until then. They seem to have adopted some of the less respectable customs of their Middle Eastern allies. Muslim mosques in Aleppo, Damascus, Hama, Homs, Baniyas burned, and Christian churches were decorated with trophies. The spring of 1259 found the Turkic-Mongol army near Gaza. It seemed that the days of Islam's dominance were numbered.
Since 1250, Egypt was ruled by a new dynasty - the Mamluks - which was founded by the leader of the Mamluk guard of the former sultan; The guard was recruited from foreign prisoners, mainly of Kypchak origin. The new dynasty gave Egypt strong rule, and since the Sultan's stubborn resistance to the Turko-Mongols was expected, Hulagu had to prepare carefully before the decisive blow. Therefore, after the capture of Baghdad, there was a lull in Mongol operations in the Near East.
So, the battle between the "Mongols" and the "Egyptians" that took place in Galilee on September 3, 1260, was, in reality, a duel between two groups of Turkic soldiers. The Turko-Mongols suffered a crushing defeat; Kit-Buka himself was captured and executed. This put a limit to Turkic-Mongol expansion in the Near East. The Turkic Mamluks not only defended Syria and Egypt, but also took revenge, finally stopping the Turkic-Mongol military campaign to the west of the Old World. The Battle of Galilee, as an unconditional victory for Islam, virtually doomed the remnants of the states created by Western crusaders in Palestine to extinction.
Let's try to understand the reasons for the defeat of the Turkic-Mongol army. It was clear to Egypt that only the Mamluks could save the country from the Turko-Mongols, with whom the Mamluks had personal scores: they were once captured by the Turko-Mongols and sold in slave markets. They felt the purchase almost as liberation, and that was absolutely right. In Egypt, they ended up with their fellow countrymen - Kipchaks, Circassians, Turkmens, who had only been sold earlier and managed to settle down. They provided support to those arriving and together with them cursed the Turko-Mongols who had deprived them of their homeland and freedom. But now, in 1259, the Turko-Mongols again threatened them, and the Mamluks knew what. In the impending battle, the Mamluks had several important advantages. Rich Egypt, as a base of attack, was closer to Palestine than war-ravaged Iran.
On the right flank of the advancing Turkic-Mongol army was the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had already lost the holy city, but held the entire coastal strip with strong fortresses: Tire, Sidon and Acre. The actual power here belonged to the Templars and Johannites, and control over the sea belonged to the Venetians and Genoese. While all of Western Europe rejoiced at the victories of Eastern Christians and compared Hulagu and Dokuz Khatun with Constantine and Helen, the crusader knights-monks declared that “if the Mongol devils come, they will find the servants of Christ on the battlefield ready for battle,” and The papal legate excommunicated Bohemond of Antioch for his alliance with the Turko-Mongols. This was an outright betrayal of the cause they promised to serve.
The second unforeseen complication arose in Georgia. Until 1256, this country was considered an ulus of the Golden Horde, and after the death of Batu it came under the jurisdiction of Ilkhan Hulagu. The population of Georgia grew to 5 million people, i.e. almost equal to the population of the then Rus'.
The Turko-Mongols considered the Georgians their natural allies and therefore did not deprive them of self-government. Georgia was only required to pay taxes (the Turkic-Mongols themselves also paid a poll tax) and participate in the war with Muslims, Georgia’s original enemies. And then in 1259 the Georgians rebelled! This madness cost Georgia a lot of blood, and it turned out to be tragic for the Christian cause, since the Mongols, instead of relying on the Georgian troops, spent their reserves on defeating them at a time when every person was dear in Palestine, thus benefiting from this coincidence of circumstances only warlike Mamluks.
Meanwhile, the Chinese campaign, which began in 1253, progressed successfully under the command of Mongke's other brother, Kublai Kublai, the most capable of all the brothers. The Mongol leaders followed a bold strategic plan, according to which a strong army group under the personal leadership of Kublai blocked the center of the Song Empire. After passing through Shechwan Province, Khubilai's troops entered Yunnan, and by 1257 some of the units reached Tonkin. Kublai's success and growing popularity aroused suspicion in Mongke's court. In 1257, Mongke summoned Kublai to Karakorum and sent an inspector general to Southern China to investigate alleged abuses committed by Kublai's administration. A rift between the two brothers seemed inevitable. However, Kublai wisely obeyed Mongke's orders and returned to Mongolia, leaving Subatei's son, Uryangaday, in command of the troops in the Tonkin region. Although the Great Khan was satisfied with his brother's explanations, he still decided to personally take supreme command of the campaign. Khubilai was entrusted with command of an army group that was supposed to carry out operations in Honan, Hebei and Anwei; Uryangadei was ordered to move north from Tonkin to join Kublai's forces. The Great Khan himself was to complete the conquest of Sichuan. In general, all operations developed successfully. Soon, however, a dysentery epidemic broke out in Sichuan, which caused heavy losses to the troops of the Great Khan. Among her victims was Mongke himself. He died in August 1259.
So, most Turko-Mongols accepted Mongke's leadership. A series of outstanding military successes only increased his prestige, especially after his death, as well as that of Kublai and Hulagu.
Batu died in 1255, the Great Khan Mongke approved him as the heir of Sartak, who immediately quarreled with his uncle Berke, telling him: “You are a Muslim, but I adhere to the Christian faith; It’s a misfortune for me to see a Muslim face.” The prince was not mistaken: a few days after his rash statement, he was poisoned. The Khan's throne passed to his young son Ulakchi, for whom his grandmother Barakchin Khatun, the widow of Batu, ruled. However, Ulakchi died as quickly as his father, and Barakchin, who tried to leave for Iran in 1257, was captured and executed. The Muslim Berke, who committed a massacre of the Nestorians in Samarkand, became khan. However, Berke did not change Batu's policy towards Alexander Nevsky and the Russian lands. Let us turn to the background of this policy. From the beginning of the 13th century. Catholic Europe began a crusade against the Orthodox: Greeks and Russians. In 1204, Constantinople was taken by the crusaders, who founded the Latin Empire on the site of the Byzantine Empire. Latvians and Estonians were conquered and turned into serfs. The same fate awaited Rus', but Alexander Nevsky defeated the crusaders in 1240 on the Neva and in 1242 on Lake Peipsi and thereby stopped the first onslaught. However, the war continued, and Alexander Nevsky needed allies. Therefore, he fraternized with Batu's son, Sartak, and received Turko-Mongol troops to fight the Germans. The union was not broken even after the death of Alexander Nevsky.
And so, when officials of the Great Khan came to Rus' in order to enumerate the population and impose a tax on it, Berke allowed the Russian prince to organize the murder of these officials, after which Berke stopped sending money collected in Rus' to Mongolia. This meant that the actual break between the Golden Horde and the metropolis had occurred.
Thus, according to L. Gumilyov, a symbiosis of aliens and natives arose, an era of productive coexistence that lasted until the 14th century. During this time, Rus' managed to grow stronger, because the Golden Horde became a barrier to Rus' from the east. But we will talk about this later, and now we note that since Batu’s relationship with Mongke was quite friendly, it was to be expected that Berke would remain loyal to the Tolui house.
It was assumed that the throne was firmly secured for Tolui's descendants and that Kublai, as Tolui's eldest living son, would be a natural candidate for the imperial title. However, another candidate unexpectedly appeared, the youngest of Kublai's brothers, Arig-Buka, whose counterclaims created a split in the house of Tolui and gave the opportunity to the princes of rival houses to challenge the power of Tolui's descendants. In the role of ochigin, Arig-Buka lived in Karakorum and was supposed to take over the regency after the death of Mongke. He exceeded his authority and, without waiting for the arrival of Kublai or Hulagu, convened a kurultai, which was attended by princes and tribal leaders who were nearby in Mongolia. Among them were several famous commanders. Arig-Buqa's obvious intention was to seize the throne himself.
In the Mongol Empire, an interregnum always led to a halt in all affairs and required the personal presence of the Genghisids at the kurultai. In addition, Hulagu did not get along with Berke, a Muslim and enemy of the Nestorian Church. Therefore, the Ilkhan urgently returned to Iran. Kublai, upon receiving news of Mongke's death, concluded a temporary truce with the Song Dynasty. When he reached Beijing and heard of Arig-Buka's intentions, his forces were sufficient to assert his power.
The Mongols in Kublai's army were an absolute minority, but the order was Mongolian, and loyalty to the khan was guaranteed by the fact that deserting in China was tantamount to painful suicide. Thanks to this combination of circumstances, Kublai became the most powerful of all the Mongol princes.
Khubilai's first counter-action was the convening of a rival kurultai near Dolon Nor in Northern Chikhli. This meeting was attended by some of Kublai's relatives, as well as Ogedei's son Kidan and the grandson of Genghis Khan's younger brother, Temuga-ochigin. This kurultai can hardly be called legitimate, but neither was the kurultai assembled by Arig-Buka on May 6, 1260. Kublai was proclaimed by his kurultai as the Great Khan; two weeks later, another kurultai elected Arig-Buka as emperor. A period of dual power began in the indigenous yurt. All attempts by Khubilai to reach a compromise failed, and war broke out between the two brothers. The followers of Arig-Buka tried to pull the armies in Shechwan and Gansu to his side, but were defeated by Kublai's generals. The following year, Khubilai's army invaded Mongolia. Following this, Arig-Buka went to Dzungaria and entered into an alliance with Alugu, the grandson of Chagatai, whom Arig-Buka recognized as the khan of Transoxiana. Kublai used diplomacy instead of war and succeeded in breaking Alugu from Arig Buqa. The latter eventually gave up. Khubilai announced that he had forgiven him, although his accomplices were arrested (1264). A few weeks later it became known that Arig-Buka had died.
As for Hulagu, the quick action of Khubilai and Arigh Buqa to convene each his own kurultai made it impossible for him to attend any of them, owing to the great distance between Iran and Mongolia. Hulagu declared his full support for Kublai Kublai and returned to his headquarters in Iran to consolidate power and organize a new campaign against the Mamluks. However, these plans had to be postponed due to his clash with the Kipchak Khan Berke, but more on that in the next section.
Let us dwell on how events developed in the Near East after the murder of Kit-Buki and on the lost goal of the Crusades.
Further events developed like an avalanche, which may or may not be pushed, but cannot be stopped. The agony of the Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted 31 years, until May 18, 1291, when the last crusaders left the Syrian coast. But the consequences of what they did stretched to beautiful France, where the Templars became victims of the deceit of those whom they sincerely considered their best friends - the King of France and the Pope of Rome. From 1307 to 1313, a terrible trial lasted against the Templars, accused of worshiping Baphomet, desecration of shrines and many other sins of which they did not want to admit themselves guilty. But did they remember, in the intervals between tortures, chained to the walls of French dungeons, that it was thanks to their order, the deeds of their predecessors, that the Christian heritage of Syria was destroyed, the allies who came to their aid were killed by enemies, and thanks to all this, the goal of the Crusades - the Holy Land - was forever lost .
The situation of the Turkic-Mongols in Iran was just as tragic. The idea of founding a Christian kingdom in the Near East was lost, as the lands inhabited by Christians fell into the hands of the enemy. At the same time, Baybars (Mamluk Sultan) established relations with his fellow tribesmen in the Golden Horde and won over Berke to his side. Enmity had long been brewing between Hulagu and Berke due to their different cultural and political orientations. Around 1256, when the Yellow Crusade began, as Tiesenhausen noted, Berke exclaimed: “We elevated Möngke Khan to the throne, but how does he reward us for this? By repaying us with evil against our friends, violating our treaties... and coveting the possessions of the Caliph, my ally... There is something vile in this.”
However, according to the Mongol Yasa, the Golden Horde units fought in the troops of the Ilkhan during the campaign against Baghdad and Damascus. But after the defeat of Kit-Buki, Berke sent his commanders an order to leave Hulagu’s army and, if they could not return home, to go to Egypt. This is what they did, multiplying the Mamluk troops (1261). After this, the war between the Golden Horde and Iran became a matter of time. Obviously, it was no coincidence that in the same year Berke established an Orthodox bishopric in Sarai. The friend of the Mamluks and the enemy of the Nestorians sought support in the Orthodox Church and in Rus'.
Negotiations between the cousins - Hulagu and Berke - lasted for many years without much result. Finally, Berke moved his army to the Transcaucasus; the battle ended in a serious defeat for Hulagu's forces (1263–1264).
Hulagu died in 1265, Berke in 1266. The conflict between the Ilkhan (Hulagu's heir) and the Kipchak khan continued unabated, but despite this, both the Hulaguids and the Juchids recognized Kublai Kublai as overlord. Both sent him troops to complete his conquest of the Song Empire.
So, Khubilai could retain the Turko-Mongol warriors in the new campaign in South China, which began in 1267. The majority of his army consisted of soldiers recruited from Iran and Rus'. A Chinese commander from Northern China was appointed commander-in-chief. In general, Khubilai's attitude towards China differed from his predecessors. In 1264 he made Beijing his capital; in 1271, following the Chinese standard, Kublai gave his dynasty a new name - Yuan. He viewed China as the most valuable part of his dominions and gradually became influenced by Chinese culture, adopting Buddhism as his own religion.
Khubilai's new policy was also reflected in his military operations. He used every opportunity to save the Chinese from the horrors of war and promised an honorable peace to every Chinese city that surrendered voluntarily. This policy bore fruit, and in 1276 the Mongol commander Bayan captured Hanizhou in Shenyang, where the empress dowager and her son sought refuge. Bayan sent them to Beijing, where the boy emperor, on the advice of his mother, formally transferred his imperial rights to Kublai.
The last battle of this war was the naval battle in Canton Bay in 1279, near the confluence of the Pearl River into the South China Sea. The Turko-Mongols sank every single Sung ship. The Song prince jumped into the sea with the infant Emperor of the Song Dynasty in his arms. On the coastal islands, the Turkic-Mongols staged a roundup of survivors. In 1279, all of China submitted to the Mongol emperor.
However, in the Turkic-Mongolian world, Hulagu had a rival in the person of Ogedei’s grandson Kaidu, who set as his goal the unification of the Ogedei ulus. By 1269 he was lord of Transoxiana and Kashgar, and his leadership was recognized not only by most of his relatives, but also by some representatives of the house of Chagatai. In 1274 Kaidu felt strong enough to declare independence.
According to L. Gumilyov, the last paladin of Mongolian military glory was Prince Kaidu.
Unlike his predecessor, Arig-Buki Kaidu was ambitious and talented. There is no evidence that he allowed himself to be manipulated by any groups; rather, he used them for his own purposes. But not a single contender can win without support, without the special mood of the masses. And Kaidu was no exception: he knew where to look and how to find his comrades. On the banks of Itil and the slopes of Tarbagatai lived the Mongols, who remained faithful to the old customs and steppe way of life. They were the antithesis of Kublai's soldiers, who indulged in war and revelry in defeated China. “Without a doubt,” writes R. Grousset, “they were amazed by the transfer of the capital to China and the transformation of the Khanate into an empire.” These changes were alien and disgusting to them, and it was this mood that Kaidu used, becoming the leader of all the Western Turkic-Mongols.
Having united all the Mongol princes and khans of Central Asia under his banner, Kaidu began a war with Kublai in 1275 and waged it until his death in 1301. The war consisted not so much of major battles as of maneuvers, raids and counter-raids. Against his relatives, Khubilai set up the Kipchak cavalry, which fought well in the steppe conditions. The religious problem under Kaidu faded into the background, since on his side, in addition to the Nestorians, were Central Asian Muslims and followers of the “black faith” - in other words, all defenders of the traditions of Genghis Khan’s empire. They did not win, but they did not suffer defeat either.
Following the conquest of Southern China, Kublai paid special attention to the peripheral states. The road to Tibet was opened to the Turko-Mongols after the defeat of the Tangut kingdom by Genghis Khan in 1227. During subsequent wars with China, the Turko-Mongols crossed the eastern part of Tibet and captured some of its provinces. After his conversion to Buddhism, Kublai saw himself as the natural protector of the Tibetan monks and in 1261 appointed Lama Paghba Khan of Law, giving him spiritual and temporal authority in Tibet. In response, the lama blessed the Yuan dynasty. It was Pagba who developed the new Mongolian alphabet, the so-called square script, which was used by the Mongols during the Yuan period.
In the expeditions of Kublai's army to Annam, Chamna, Cambodia and Burma in 1280, the Turko-Mongols initially won several victories, but their troops suffered from dysentery and other tropical diseases; In general, the soldiers of the Turko-Mongol army were unable to adapt to the humid climate of the new theater of operations. This ultimately led to the defeat and retreat of the Turko-Mongols. Yet the rulers of the Indochinese states were deeply impressed by Turko-Mongol power, and by 1288 many of them recognized Kublai's suzerainty.
Two attempts to conquer Japan, in 1274 and 1281, revealed that the Turko-Mongols had no power at sea. Kublai assembled a huge flotilla in North Chinese and Korean ports to transport the expeditionary force to Hakata on the island of Kyushu. The landing of the army took place as planned, but soon after, the Turko-Mongol ships were destroyed or scattered across the sea by a typhoon. Cut off from their bases, the army was surrounded and defeated by the Japanese. After this disaster, Kublai abandoned the idea of subjugating Japan.
Khubilai's attitude towards the West was as radically different from that of his predecessors as it was different from his previous policies towards China. He was preoccupied with creating his own Chinese empire and maintaining control over the Turko-Mongol princes, and therefore abandoned the idea of conquering Europe. He was the most powerful ruler in the world; most of Asia, as well as the eastern part of Europe, recognized his supreme authority. He had no incentive to expand his empire further west; if this gave any advantages, they would be more related to the interests of local khans, and not the empire. In addition, Khubilai was sufficiently realistic to admit that if European rulers agreed to cooperate with the Turko-Mongols in the Near East, they would do so only as allies, and not as his subjects. Despite his conversion to Buddhism, he also had a sincere respect for Christianity. The Nestorian Church had complete freedom in his empire, and he was ready to allow the Roman Catholic Church into his possessions.
From a political point of view, the agreement with the Christians was especially important for the Mongol Khanate in Iran, since its rulers as Ilkhans were willing to continue their struggle with Egypt.
In short, Khubilai maintained fairly close contacts with the West. So, he sent a mission to the pope with a request to send hundreds of Christian scientists and technicians to China to give his subjects an idea of the Western way of life and religion.
Marco Polo spent seventeen years at the court of Kublai Kublai (1275–1292), he was entrusted with an important diplomatic mission in the Far East, and he also performed various administrative tasks. His success in China was an important factor in Kublai's favor with the West.
Kublai declared that if there were a sufficient number of educated priests from the West, he was ready to convert to Christianity along with his people. It would seem that the papal throne should have seized on such an offer, but active propaganda of Catholicism began in China only in 1295, when Giovanni Montecorvino, a Franciscan monk and future archbishop of China, arrived in Beijing.
And over these three decades, from 1260 to 1290, the map of the western edge of the Eurasian continent changed beyond recognition. The Holy Land fell into the hands of the Mamluks, with the exception of the fortress of Acre, but its days were numbered. In place of the Latin Empire, the renewed Byzantium stood proudly. In Italy, after quite great successes of the Ghibellines, who captured Lombardy and Tuscany, Charles of Anjou took possession of the Kingdom of Sicily. The last Hohenstaufens died either in battle (Manfred) or on the scaffold (Conradin), but the victorious French also met a brutal death under the ringing of the bells of the “Sicilian Vespers” (March 30, 1282). Aragon's intervention prolonged the war in Italy until 1287, when a short-lived truce was concluded.
In fact, the mission was late: by the time Montecorvino finally reached Beijing (1294), Kublai had died.
Kublai Khan was a worthy descendant of Genghis Khan.
Khubilai's internal reforms were no less significant than his military and diplomatic activities. According to F. Krause, the administrative system founded by Kublai Khan was the best that ever existed in China.
Educational and financial institutions followed the old Chinese style. When the Turko-Mongols conquered China, they were introduced to paper money, and Khubilai made it the official currency of the empire. In 1282, an important law was issued regarding the printing of paper notes, their relationship to gold and silver, and the removal of damaged notes from circulation. Five years later, new regulations appeared regulating the exchange rate of paper money for gold and silver. Like his predecessors, Kublai paid great attention to the safety and improvement of roads, as well as the development of waterways.
Even during Khubilai's lifetime, a reform of the law of inheritance was brewing. Following the Chinese style of rule, Kublai reduced the right of inheritance to his direct male descendants. From now on, until the end of the Yuan Dynasty, only Kublai's descendants were considered worthy of the throne. However, in most cases, the approval of the new emperor by the kurultai was considered necessary.
Kublai's eldest son was proclaimed the rightful heir to the throne. Since he did not survive his father, his son and grandson of Kublai Timur (his Mongol temple name was Oljaytu and his Chinese honorific title was Chien-Tsung) was proclaimed heir in 1293.
During Timur's reign (1294–1307), most of the affairs of state left unfinished by Kublai were more or less satisfactorily completed. The kings of Cambodia and Burma swore allegiance to the emperor (1296–1297). Staying away from involvement in the problems of the Pacific coast, Timur paid great attention to Turkic-Mongol affairs. His troops fought in many battles in 1297–1298. with Kaidu and his allies. Military campaigns were complicated by diplomatic actions and counter-actions, an ever-changing combination of princes, personal rivalries and betrayals. Overall, Kaidu was gradually losing ground. He, however, took advantage of the lull and in 1301 made a decisive attempt to capture Karakorum. But he was defeated and died the same year. Left without a leader, Kaidu's sons and many other princes of the houses of Ogedei and Chagatai agreed to recognize Timur's suzerainty and settle all future conflicts among themselves through negotiations rather than war (1303). This important agreement was completed by the participation of the Persian Ilkhan. After the death of Ilkhan Ghazan in 1304, Timur sent a large embassy to Iran to confirm Ghazan's brother Ulzhayta as the new Ilkhan and inform him about the pacification of Central Asia. Khan of the Golden Horde Tokhta also supported the new agreement. It is characteristic that he, in turn, gathered his vassals, the Russian princes, to a congress in Pereyaslavl in Suzdal, where his envoy announced the decision made by the leading Turkic-Mongol rulers. The success of Timur's policies was, of course, impressive, and the Mongol Empire could be said to have reached the apogee of its power during his reign. All this led to the restoration of the unity of the empire in the new form of a pan-Mongol federation led by the Great Khan of Beijing.
In his domestic policy, as well as in his attitude towards the West, Timur followed the traditions of Kublai. When Giovanni Montecorvino eventually reached Beijing (1295), he received a favorable reception and received permission to preach Christianity and organize a diocese of the Catholic Church.
As for Western Europe, the hoop of dogma and philosophy burst under the pressure of ethnocultural development, which pushed the Romano-Germanic peoples onto the path of isolation. If in the 11th century. they still considered the Greeks to be brothers in religion and were only surprised at how different these brothers were from themselves, if in the 12th century. They were waiting for the arrival of Eastern Christians as natural allies, then in the 13th century. all illusions disappeared, and the peoples not united by the papal tiara became strangers to Europeans - pagans and, worse, heretics. According to L. Gumilyov, “underneath this balancing act in theological terms lay a deep ethnological meaning: Europeans isolated themselves from the rest of humanity and contrasted themselves with it, as the Arabs and Chinese once did, and in ancient times the Hellenes, Jews, Persians and Egyptians. Consequently, here we observe a process of ethnogenesis that is common to all eras and countries. And if so, then we have no right to consider these events either as random coincidences or as a political conspiracy of Europeans against Asians, but must consider them as a naturally occurring process or pattern of the ethnic history of mankind in that cruel era when the time came for the crystallization of the peoples living and are still active today."
In Iran, the Ilkhans Ghazan (1295–1304) and Ulzhaytu (1304–1316) desired contact with the West, although the former became a Muslim early in his reign and the latter, originally a Christian, converted to Islam in the middle of his reign (1307). Ulzhaytu allowed the papal mission to continue its work in the East. In 1300, King Jacob II offered Ghazan military assistance against Egypt, which, however, had no practical consequences. After the Pan-Mongol agreement of 1303–1305. Ulzhaytu believed it necessary to announce a new course of Mongol policy for both Egypt and Western Europe and called on Muslim and Christian rulers to establish peaceful relations between all nations in the world. The meaning of this appeal was not sufficiently understood in the West. King Edward II of England, in his reply, asked Ulzhaita to “liberate” Palestine from the Muslims (1307).
From a political point of view, these negotiations turned out to be as useless as any that had previously taken place.
Eight emperors reigned for twenty-six years between the death of Timur (1307) and the accession of the last Yuan emperor, Togan-Timur (1333). Most of them had short reigns. In the absence of wars with foreign powers and conquests during this period, the attention of most chroniclers was mainly drawn to palace intrigues and personal rivalries over the throne. Therefore, until recently, historical literature contained one-sided characterizations of this period - that is, everything that happened between the death of Kublai Kublai and the fall of the Yuan dynasty in 1368 - as decadent and stagnant. And yet let us turn to the general policy of the imperial government of this period.
Timur tried to pay special attention to the state of affairs in the Mongol nomads themselves. There, by the end of the 13th century. The situation became very complicated due to a long period of feudal unrest. Particularly difficult conditions were created in the central regions of the country, in the Karakoram region. The number of livestock was greatly reduced, as the main labor force involved in herding livestock and guarding the herds was significantly reduced due to losses during wars and armed conflicts. Apparently, dissatisfaction with living conditions began to grow among the Mongols, so Timur and his successors took a number of measures to improve the well-being of the Mongol nomads. Thus, Timur sent large quantities of goods and paper money to Mongolia.
Timur's successor, Haysan-Khulug (1307–1311), continued the same policy. In the affairs of governing Mongolia under him, the noyon Kharakhasun played a large role. He was sent to Mongolia to restore order and calm. According to Chinese sources, Kharakhasun bought cattle and horses with paper money and silk fabrics and distributed the cattle to the devastated Mongols, established communications along government roads, restored abandoned irrigation canals, sought to develop agriculture, and supported hunting and other industries. As a result of these measures, as reported by the History of the Yuan Dynasty, order and tranquility were established in the northern territory.
Under Khan Ayurbaribad (1311–1320), the population of Mongolia was exempted from taxes and duties for two years. In addition, according to sources, “by his decree, camels, horses, cows and sheep were distributed to the people of Mongolia so that the people would calm down while grazing (their) cattle.” Ayurbaribad came across as a highly gifted ruler, surrounded by a group of eminent statesmen. The consistency of his administration was clearly demonstrated when the Central Asian khan Yesen-Buka, a descendant of Chagatai, rebelled against the empire in 1316.
It should be noted that Yesen-Buka tried to get help from Uzbek, Khan of the Golden Horde, in his enterprises. According to the so-called "Continuation of the Annals of Rashid ad-Din", Yesen-Buka sent an envoy to Uzbek to inform him that Ayurbaribad intended to remove Uzbek Khan from the throne and replace him with another Jochid prince. Having received the information, Uzbek was at first very annoyed and thought about joining the uprising, but his advisers managed to convince him that Yesen-Buka should not be trusted. Therefore, Uzbek Khan remained loyal to Ayurbaribad. The imperial armies quickly suppressed the uprising and, after defeating the forces of Yesen-Buki, reached Lake Issyk-Kul in the west. The victory of the imperial forces became decisive, and after that there were no more attempts by the princes of Central Asia to confront the Great Khan until the collapse of the empire.
Ayurbaribad appointed as many Chinese officials to each government department as there were Mongols, Turks, etc.
Trying to put an end to palace intrigues, by another decree he freed monasteries and other religious institutions, including Christian ones, from taxes and duties. Ayurbaribad was considered the patron of arts and sciences. Scientists from Samarkand, Bukhara, Iran, Arabia and Byzantium met at his court. During his reign, new impetus was given to legislative work, which began under Khubilai and progressed slowly under his immediate successors.
By the middle of the 14th century. The Yuan Empire's economy declined. The government's policies had a particularly destructive impact on urban life and agriculture in Northern China. Natural disasters, river floods, changes in the course of the Yellow River, and flooding of vast plains reduced acreage and led to the death and ruin of farmers. City markets closed. The treasury compensated for the reduction in in-kind revenues with new issues of paper money, which led to the bankruptcy of artisans, trading companies and moneylenders. The situation in the country has become extremely tense. Popular demonstrations became especially frequent in the 30s of the 14th century.
Among the secret religious teachings of various interpretations and directions was Maitreya, as well as the doctrine of “light” of the Manichaean type. The secret “White Lotus Society” of the Buddhist persuasion supplemented its religious dogmas with calls to fight the invaders and formed peasant detachments - “red troops” (red was the symbol of Maitreya).
So, after the reign of Ayurbaribad, the throne was inherited by his son, Gegen, who was killed soon after as a result of palace intrigue. Supporters of the rival wing of Kublai's descendants took advantage of this to place their candidate on the throne, Yesun Timur, who was in Karakorum at that time. Yesun Timur reigned for five years (1323–1328).
The opposition did not have a chance to act while Yesun Timur was alive and firmly in control of the throne. However, when he died, opposition became open and its leaders refused to recognize Yesun's son as emperor. They supported Hulugu's son instead as having a right to the throne. A short but brutal civil war followed, ending in victory for the revolutionaries. Khulug's eldest son was proclaimed emperor. He died a few days later, presumably poisoned by the opposing party. His brother Tug-Timur (1329–1332) succeeded him.
Tug-Timur “deeply sympathized with and was interested in Chinese culture. He himself wrote Chinese poetry, practiced Chinese calligraphy and created paintings in the Chinese traditional style.”
At this time, the Beijing Council of Scholars prepared a general map of the Mongol Empire. The map is evidence of the Beijing government's interest in imperial relations and its awareness of the unity of the empire. The review of laws also highlights the seriousness of purpose and good intentions of the Government in domestic affairs. Overall, it appears that the empire of this period was governed by conscientious statesmen endowed with a certain breadth of vision.
During this period there was brisk trade between China and the Golden Horde. According to Al-Umari and Ibn Batuta, who visited Sarai around 1332, many Chinese items could be bought in the bazaars of the capital of the Golden Horde. They said that an Italian or Hungarian merchant did not need to go to China for Chinese silk, he could freely get it in Sarai.
The presence of a strong contingent of Russian troops in China was another aspect of the close cooperation of the Golden Horde with the Great Khan during this period. It should be remembered that the Kipchak, Alan and Russian contingents formed part of Kublai's armies.
A special Russian tumen (in Russian – darkness) was created in 1330. According to the “History of the Yuan Dynasty”, its commander (in Russian – temnik) received the title “captain of the ten-thousand-strong formation of the Life Guards.” He was considered an officer of the third rank, according to the imperial rank system, and was directly subordinate to the Privy State Council. To create a military colony of the Russian Tumen, lands were allocated to the north of Beijing. The Russians were supplied with clothing, oxen, agricultural implements and seeds. They were supposed to deliver to the imperial table all kinds of game and fish found in the forests, rivers and lakes of the area where their colony was located.
After the death of Tug-Timur, his seven-year-old nephew was proclaimed emperor, but he died a few months later and was succeeded by his older brother, Togan-Timur (1333–1368). It was during the reign of Togan-Timur that the anti-Mongol movement acquired a class orientation - the overthrow of the Yuan dynasty and the restoration of the power of the Song Empire. The White Lotus Society put forward the idea of rebuilding the Chinese state. The uprising of the “red troops” covered almost the entire north of China. The rebels occupied Kaifeng, Datong and other large cities, reached the Great Wall of China, and approached the capital. Government troops were defeated. In 1351, uprisings spread to the center of China, where the coming of Maitreya was also preached. The rebels acted against the Yuan authorities, making successful campaigns along the Yangtze Valley. In Anhui province, the rebels were led by Zhu Yuanzhang, the son of a peasant and a former wandering monk. In 1355, the “red troops” recognized him as a contender for the Sung throne.
The anti-Mongol movement in China continued to grow stronger. Zhu Yuanzhang settled in Nanjing. In 1368 he defeated a Turko-Mongol army east of Beijing and entered the capital in triumph. Many tribal leaders in Mongolia rebelled against Togan-Timur. If the latter seemed too Mongolian to the Chinese, then for the old Mongolian party he was too Chinese. Togan Timur fled to the Gobi Desert, where he died in 1369. His sons and the remnants of the army retreated to Mongolia. Meanwhile, in Beijing, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor. The dynasty he founded became known as the Ming. Over the next twenty years, he continued to conquer and unify Chinese territories.
Despite the fact that the Turkic-Mongol dynasty received the Chinese name Yuan, used the Chinese language when governing the multi-million population of the regions south of the Great Wall and even continued some traditions of Chinese foreign policy (the desire to subjugate Indochina, which began in the Qin era, i.e. in the III century BC), the Turko-Mongols did not merge with the Chinese and did not form a single people. They were separated not only by the blood shed in battle, but also by deep ethnopsychological discord and an active reluctance to become similar to each other.
The Yuan Empire should be placed on a par with the Jurchen Jin and Tobas Wei. Even the causes and nature of their deaths are similar, which indicates the presence of a historical pattern.
So, the empire of Genghis Khan was in many ways ahead of its time, both in terms of the system of organization of the military-administrative apparatus, this supporting structure of this state, and in the scope of its possessions. However, the times of unity are already behind us, and the states that grew out of the uluses of Jochi, Chagatai and Hulagu will live their own separate political lives and develop within the framework of their own model. The roads of the states, parts of the former power of Genghis Khan, and the Genghisid dynasties that inherited them will diverge further and further. The fate of the Turkic-Mongol conquerors and their dynasties will develop differently - first, the Chagatai ulus will be divided into small possessions between his descendants and neighboring uluses (Jochi and Hulagu), then the Hulaguids will fall in Iran and Transcaucasia, then the national Chinese Ming dynasty will replace the Turkos in China - the Mongolian Yuan, the last Mongolian khans of which will only have to rule the indigenous yurt - Mongolia and wage war with the Chinese for several more decades, and the Jochi ulus will generally undergo stunning changes. Thus, after 60 years, Genghis Khan’s empire disintegrated into states that either transformed under the influence of the cultural traditions of the peoples conquered by the Turko-Mongols, adopting their models of state development, or perish without adapting to the changes.
| |
Loading...