THREE BOOKS ON MONGOLIAN HISTORY
WRITTEN BY OUR CUSTOMERS
… It is hard to describe the
dedication with which people came out to help me. Even when camped in
what seemed to be the most remote place we could find, it was never
long before a girl appeared on the horizon leading her yak cart filled
with water or with dried dung for our fire. One warm day someone might
give a small canister made from tightly sewn birch bark and filled with
wild berries and dried yogurt, and another day a young hunter would
bring a freshly prepared marmot or a bowl of milk. Herders not only
offered me shelter and food along the way, but they also brought
horses and sheep to make a personal contribution to the study of their
ancestors. More than once a whole family dropped what they were doing
and, leaving a boy in charge of their herd, set out to accompany us and
discuss our work. On one of the most grueling days while the older
men rode horses, four armed young men voluntarily accompanied us on
foot, usually running, for more than thirty
miles to protect us in a wolf-infected area.
Sometimes
people brought gifts of overwhelming generosity – shimmering pelts or
highly polished animal horns. Others brought small woodenfigures varved
in the form of a horse, a sheep, or a goat. Shamans offered
prayers for the success of our research, and monks donated incense for
us to burn on the holy places we encountered. Some people with little
else to offer simply gave me smally stones the I might remember the
place where they lived. Such debts ca never be paid.
… For assistance in making travel
arrangements and procuring equipment and
supplies, I am indebted to T. Bold, Sh.Munhtsag, D.Tsetsegjargal,
Sh.Batsugar (INTOURTRADE CO.LTD).
… Of all the gifts from the
Mongols throughout the years of this project, none was more precious
than the gift of song. When I was exhausted and struggling to catch up
with other riders, someone would sing to give me strength. At the end
of a long day, when we found refuge with a herding family, a young girl
would stand before me and, although trembling in fear at the ,sight of
such a foreign person and afraid to look me in the face, open her mouth
widely to sing with such beauty and emotion that it seemed surely time
itself would stand still.
Gradually,
I realized that the songs were more than entertainment or diversions;
they contained a wealth of valuable information and offered deep
insights into Mongolian culture and history. Because of their life of
constant movement, nomads such as the Mongols must carry their books
and pictures with them in the form of song. Mongolian music records and
maps the landscape of their land, not merely in words, but in the
rising and falling of notes corresponding to the flow of the land
itself. The morin huur, or horsehead fiddle, usually played by a man,
can make the sound of birds and animals, and the long‑song singer,
usually a woman, can call up the landscape of distant places with the
special skill of her voice.
Even
when I was away from
3/22/04
In Brief
HISTORY: Genghis Khan, statesman
To most historians, Genghis Khan and the Mongol Hordes who stormed
across most of Asia, the Middle East, and Russia in the late 12th
century have stood for little more than slaughter and pillage. But
Genghis has gotten a bad rap, says Macalester College anthropologist Jack Weatherford.
The great Genghis was actually something of a modern
state builder who left his legacy in laws and ideas, Weatherford argues
in Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, out this
month. Everywhere he went, he decreed religious freedom and spurred a
movement of commerce and culture that connected Europe with Asia for
the first time and sowed the seeds of the Renaissance. "Genghis Khan
laid the foundations for medieval globalization," agrees John Woods, a
University of Chicago historian.
Many of the revelations come from the "Secret History of
the Mongols," probably written by a member of Genghis Khan's family
after his death. It turned up in a Beijing archive in the 19th century,
but until recently scholars were thwarted by the peculiar code in which
it was written--medieval Mongolian spelled out in Chinese
characters--and by Communist officials who feared a rise of
Genghis-inspired Mongolian nationalism. The "Secret History" reveals
military and administrative tactics--and some startling human details.
The child who became the fearsome Genghis Khan was afraid of dogs and
prone to tears. -Caroline Hsu
from the March 23, 2004 edition
A new biography argues that the maligned ruler of the
Mongols was a great entrepreneur and social reformer
No, no, all wrong. That's what happens when you let your
enemies define you, as modern-day political candidates know. The
Mongols were always secretive about their revered leader, the man
called Genghis Khan. To this day, his burial site has not been found.
Over the years, as the Mongols' political influence subsided,
anti-Genghis, anti-Mongol propaganda worsened. It became so bad that by
the early 20th century the followers of the dubious science of eugenics
coined "Mongoloid" as a term to describe retarded children, who, they
surmised, must have inherited defective Mongol traits.
Western opinion hasn't been completely lopsided, of
course. Geoffrey Chaucer cheered Genghis in the longest of his
"Canterbury Tales." But the real turnaround has come in the last three
decades as communism waned, opening up Mongolia to Western scholars,
and translators finally cracked "The Secret History," an ancient Mongol
text once thought indecipherable.
Among those scholars has been Jack Weatherford, who spent
years in modern Mongolia learning to love its people and digging into
their proud and neglected history. In "Genghis Khan and the Making of
the Modern World" he aims to set the record straight. Take the
Renaissance, for example. You probably think it was Europe
rediscovering the lost knowledge of ancient Greece and Rome? Well, yes,
a little. But it was really the paper, printing, gunpowder, and compass
brought from the east by Mongols that set Europeans' thinking caps
atwirl. Mongols even changed fashion, convincing European men to
abandon their silly robes and put on practical pants.
Genghis Khan was, in fact, considerably less barbaric
than his European counterparts, Weatherford argues. Instead of plunging
the world into darkness, he let in the light. He punished only those
who took up arms against him. He spent much of the 13th century
building an empire that eventually stretched from Moscow and Baghdad in
the west to India and China in the east. His successors, who divided
his realm into four huge kingdoms, ruled so wisely and well that the
14th century became an unprecedented era of peaceful trade and
diplomacy that radiated beyond the borders of the empire.
"On every level and from any perspective, the scale and
scope of Genghis Khan's accomplishments challenge the limits of
imagination and tax the resources of scholarly explanation,"
Weatherford enthuses.
He has plenty to say to back up that statement. In 25
years under Khan, the Mongol army, never bigger than 100,000, conquered
more lands and people than the Romans did in 400 years. All other
military geniuses - Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne,
Napoleon - pale before the great Mongol leader, who developed
innovative fighting techniques and elicited total loyalty from his
troops. The Mongols had a saying, Weatherford reports: "If he sends me
into fire or water, I go. I go for him."
His all-cavalry horde was unstoppable on the open
steppes, its spread halted only by oceans (invasions of Japan and
Indonesia failed), lack of interest (medieval Europe had few riches or
innovative technologies worth assimilating), or unfavorable terrain
(Europe again, full of forests and mountains).
Beyond the battlefield, Genghis established religious
freedom throughout his realm (many Christians were family members or
held high positions, along with Buddhists, Muslims, and others). He
created a free-trade zone between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He
ran a meritocracy: He held the wealthy and high-born to the same
standard of justice as peasants, not hesitating to promote shepherds
and camel tenders to generals. He judged people on their individual
merits and loyalty, not by family, ethnic, or religious ties - a
revolutionary act in the family-centric Mongol society, Weatherford
says.
True, Mongols didn't create much of anything themselves.
But they were oh-so-modern as disciples of the Knowledge Economy. They
treated people who had learning and skills as important commodities to
be acquired and utilized. They had no interest in turning conquered
peoples into Mongols. Instead, they made sure that goods, ideas, and
people traveled safely across most of the known world, unleashing an
era of unprecedented innovation and prosperity.
Scholars may argue that Weatherford swings the pendulum
too far by turning Khan the Oriental Monster into Khan the Entrepreneur
and Social Reformer. But readers needn't get caught in any academic
crossfire. They can enjoy immersing themselves in the absorbing details
of the life of this extraordinary man who forever changed human history.
• Gregory M. Lamb is on the Monitor staff.
Wednesday,
February 11, 2004
FOR
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Genghis Khan
played — or, more accurately, fought — to win.
"Khan
recognized that warfare was not a sporting contest or a mere match
between rivals; it was a total commitment of one people against
another," wrote anthropologist Jack
Weatherford in "Genghis Khan and the Making of the
Modern World." "Victory did
not come to the one who played by the rules; it came to the one who
made the rules and imposed them on his enemy."
Khan
understood the importance of unity. If conquered people swore fealty to
Khan, he brought them into his tribe, encouraging intermarriage and
promoting their leaders to positions of authority.
But for
those who continued to fight, he could be ruthless. When attacking
towns or fortresses surrounded by a moat, he'd force prisoners —
sometimes the captured comrades of soldiers still fighting him — to
rush forward until their bodies filled the channel, making his assault
on a citadel easier.
There was a
method to his madness. Khan knew the value of propaganda. His use of
terror tactics often preceded him. This created panic among his
enemies, who often surrendered without a fight or fled before he
arrived.
Khan
(1162-1227) was born in the Mongol equivalent of a working-class
family. His father died when Khan (born Temujin) was just a youngster.
The family's clan then abandoned young Temujin, his mother and siblings
on the steppes, leaving them to die.
Temujin and
his family refused to give up. They scrounged some food and began
building a hut for shelter. And the boy who became Genghis learned from
this experience.
"The
tragedies his family endured seemed to have instilled in him a profound
determination to defy the strict caste structure of the steppes,"
Weatherford wrote.
Temujin
didn't start out a warrior. In a not-uncommon incident for the time, a
raiding party attacked his family's settlement and made off with his
wife. Khan could have ignored the incident, a perfectly acceptable
alternative since the raiding party represented a far superior force
than he could muster. Or he could go after her.
"He had to
think carefully and devise a plan of action that would influence the
whole of his life," Weatherford wrote. Temujin decided to fight. "He
would find his wife or he would die trying."
Rather than
run blindly into a fight he couldn't win, Temujin planned carefully.
First, he met with a powerful local chief. He persuaded the chief to
forge an alliance with him. Together, they raided the offending tribe
and recovered Temujin's wife.
Despite his
reputation as a ferocious warrior, Temujin had a strong sense of
integrity and believed in keeping his word. Those around him who didn't
often paid a price.
After a
nearby tribe, the Jurkin, refused to honor its commitment as an ally
and attacked his base when he was away, Temujin acted swiftly.
He called a
tribal meeting called a khuriltai, in which offending tribal leaders
were tried. Found guilty, "they were executed as a lesson about the
value of loyalty to allies, but also as a clear warning to the
aristocrats of all lineages that they would no longer be entitled to
special treatment," Weatherford said.
Goodwill
Gesture
To help heal
the pain and anger the Jurkin felt over the incident, Temujin adopted a
Jurkish orphan. He thus created a kinship between his Mongol tribe and
the Jurkin.
Temujin also
understood the value of patience. Typically after an enemy fled,
victorious soldiers concerned themselves with looting and let the
defeated get away. Temujin saw that gave the enemy an opportunity to
reorganize. So he ordered his soldiers to wait until victory was
complete before taking any loot.
Recognizing
the importance of goodwill, Temujin made sure the widows and orphans of
soldiers killed in battle received their husbands' share of the booty.
"The policy not only ensured the support of the poorest people in the
tribe, but it also inspired loyalty among his soldiers, who knew that
even if they died, he would take care of their surviving family
members," Weatherford wrote.
In 1206,
Temujin took the name Genghis Khan, or "fearless leader." With an eye
on perception, he didn't assume power dictatorially. He called a
khuriltai and made sure he was democratically installed.
With a
fierce and loyal army, Khan mapped out stunning new fighting
strategies. For instance, he directed one flank to engage an enemy
head-on while another flank secretly made its way around the skirmish.
Then, to the enemy's surprise, his soldiers would "appear suddenly
hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, where least expected,"
Weatherford wrote.
Knowing he
needed more than fighters to stage successful raids, Khan employed his
own engineering corps to build what his soldiers needed. He instructed
them to use available materials to build weapons such as siege engines.
That way, he avoided having to transport heavy equipment.
Aware that
information was his greatest weapon, Khan sent out scouts who mapped
every hill and valley. He wanted to be prepared for every contingency.
To better
lead his men, he broke the army into manageable groups. The army was
set up in groups of 10 men to form a squad. Each squad was combined
with nine others to form companies of 100 and then battalions of 1,000
and divisions of 10,000. By creating these massive units that crossed
familial and tribal boundaries, Khan "broke the power of the old-system
lineages, clans, tribes and ethnic identities," Weatherford said.
Practical
Principles
Khan was
practical, and sought to head off problems before they occurred. He
forbade the selling of women, a common practice at the time. He made
rustling a capital offense. Anyone who found an animal had to return it
to its owner. He decreed religious freedom for everyone, and even
exempted religious leaders and properties from taxes.
He
understood that as his empire grew — at its height it covered much of
Asia and parts of Eastern Europe — communications became increasingly
important. He created an early version of the Pony Express, ordering
that fresh horses be held ready every 25 miles for messengers. He also
made administrators adopt a writing system that allowed the government
"to record the many new laws and to administer them over vast stretches
of land now under his control," wrote Weatherford.
Khan
insisted that everyone take part in his society, either in the military
or some form of public service. If they didn't fight, wrote
Weatherford, "they were obligated to give the equivalent of one day of
work per week for public projects and service to the khan."
