1.1 Lake Khovsgol Lake Khovsgol is bounded by the Horidal-Saridag Mountains 1. that separate it from the Darkhad Valley to the west. To the north lie the Sayan Mountains, home EMPIRE AND LEGACY to ’s Dukha (Tsaatan), an ethnic minority who are the southernmost reindeer herders in the world. The rippling raised William W. Fitzhugh shorelines etched into the peninsula record the gradual lowering of the lake from drying climate and increased erosion of its outlet. Khovsgol, at 1,645 meters elevation, holds some of the purest water in the world. Its output flows through Mongolia across the Russian border into Lake Baikal, and from there via the Angara and Yenisei Rivers to the Arctic Ocean.

he terms “empire” and “imperial” are rarely heard in modern political discourse. Yet as the world transitions from a post-imperial era into an increasingly global era, knowledge of past empires can be instructive. In their empire, the controlled the largest contiguous landmass on Tone continent the world has ever known, challenged only by the scattered colo- nies of the British empire. But despite its huge size and phenomenal impact, this period of world history, which unfolded only two hundred years before Columbus encountered the New World, is barely known outside of Asia. Many recognize the name “Genghis Khan” as a Mongol warrior and empire-builder, but few know in which century he lived or his military and civic accomplishments. Fewer still know of his grandson Kublai, emperor of China, although some recognize the first line of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem of 1798, “Kubla Khan” (“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree”) inspired by Marco Polo’s descriptions of his travels in China from 1275 to 1291. Today Asia is no longer the mysterious chimera described by Polo and romanticized by Coleridge; many of its nations are economic powerhouses and world leaders in arts, science, and technology. The that Genghis Khan forged was the most important early link be- tween East and West and began the process of transforming worlds apart into the interconnected, globalized world of today. Empires have ruled most of the world’s terri- pires, nations, chiefdoms, and tribal peoples; tory and population for the past three thou- its subjects spoke scores of languages and sand years. At its zenith during the mid-thir- practiced the world’s great religions—Islam, teenth century the Mongol empire created Buddhism, Christianity—as well as many by Genghis Khan and his descendants ruled other faiths. over the great civilizations of China and Iran It is generally agreed that the end of a and much of the Near East and Russia (fig. sword does not foster understanding between 1.2). Even the Roman empire under Trajan peoples, and during the Mongol conquest (98–117 CE), at 2.3 million square miles, was phase millions died and incalculable artistic, dwarfed by the Mongol territories, which in cultural, and scientific treasures were lost. 1260 encompassed territories on the order Yet, as tragic and disruptive as the initial of 10 million square miles, from the Yellow invasions that took place between 1215 and Sea to Budapest. Its grist included other em- 1241 were to cultures and societies through-

22 F I T Z H U G H I N T R O D U C T I O N 23 One of the most famous is the highly orga- and related arms—is one of nearly inces- nized and largely secular Roman empire, sant competition and war. By Mongol times, with leaders chosen, at least initially, by men were trained as warriors from the mo- democratic vote from a central governing ment they could ride and pull the short but body, the Senate. Its successor, the Holy Ro- powerful Mongolian bow. With a sleeping man empire, ruled Christian kingdoms and robe and a warm deel—an all-purpose cloak- waged crusades against Islam by claiming like overcoat—a Mongol warrior could ride moral authority directly from God, through nearly one hundred miles in a single day. In the Pope, who was elected by vote of the deserts or on forced marches, soldiers tapped synod, an ecclesiastical council. The British, their horses’ veins as a substitute for food French, and Spanish empires of the sixteenth and water. Trained and marshaled into a to nineteenth centuries used naval power disciplined mounted cavalry, self-sufficient and maritime trade to build vast empires Mongol warriors became a Panzer-like army overseas supported by royal courts and a seven hundred years before the Germans variety of parliaments and legislative bodies. reintroduced Mongol tactics with fast battle While the Mongol empire’s most direct in- tanks in World War II. The medieval world fluence was in Asia, where its legacy remains had never seen such a blitzkrieg, and the strongest, it also had a powerful effect on Mongols’ battle plans—derived from an- Europe and the Western world through di- cient animal hunting strategies—have been 1.2 The Mongol Empire out Eurasia, many benefits also accrued. An rect confrontations in the thirteenth century studied by military leaders throughout the At its greatest extent in 1276, era of expanded contacts and exchanges, and by the cultural, demographic, and eco- world ever since. Armies, cities, and entire the Mongol empire included the steppe and nearby forest accompanied by a great expansion of trade, nomic impact of the empire on neighboring civilizations were powerless to check the zones of Russia from Moscow followed the military campaigns for another regions of Russia, Asia, and the Near East Mongols as they advanced across Central to Lake Baikal and the terri- tories of the Aral, Caspian, two hundred years in many of the Mongol- (fig. 1.3). Asia nearly to the shores of the Mediterra- and Black Seas, and it briefly administered territories. More important The Mongol empire, while sharing with nean and the banks of the Danube in Europe. reached the Mediterranean. Its northwestern section, where than cargo was knowledge. Exchanges of other urban-based empires such core char- 1.3 Fra Mauro Mappamundi, than their families, their honor, or their lives. Warriors and armies need support, and khans ruled over Russians and medicine, exotic spices, forest products, and acteristics as centralized leadership, imperial 1459 Their polities were small, except during em- empires need administrators. Mongol wom- other ethnicities, was known One of the first detailed me- as the Golden Horde. Its West industrial products such as ceramics and symbols and ideology, aggressive militarism, dieval maps to include geo- pire periods, and consisted of clans and small en, trained to be independent by virtue of Asian portion, known as the textiles led the way, but knowledge and in- police control, and supra-state governance graphic information on Asia as tribes that tended to be fiercely independent nomadic life, often reared families and main- Ilkhanate, centered on Iran and well as Europe is the world map extended from eastern Turkey formation about science and mathematics, structures, differed from most of these in a commissioned by King Afonso and were unlikely to trust their neighbors, tained hundreds of animals under arduous and Iraq to the shores of the arts, and new technologies produced more single surprising and fundamental way: it V of Portugal. The original was who were usually their strongest competi- conditions, often without the help of their Persian Gulf and the Arabian 1 produced in Venice around 1450 Sea. Its central Asian portion, lasting impacts. Standards of governance was an empire built and controlled by no- by a local monk, Fra Mauro, tors and fiercest opponents. Inured to hard- husbands, whose campaigns could last for the Chaghadai khanate, and diplomacy, internationalism, long-dis- mads. Such was not the typical course to and his sailor-cartographer as- ship and constantly expecting treachery, their years. Many were hunters, and some became included territories south of the tance communication systems, promotion of sistant, Andrea Bianco, but has Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash as empire, which is generally based on a triad been lost. This copy, 2 meters in alliances were opportunistic and ephemeral. powerful shamans and local leaders. The well as much of Afghanistan, business, and freedom of religion advanced of military might, urban bureaucracy, and diameter, was produced by Bi- Genghis Khan saw his father poisoned by most influential were wives, mothers, and Kazakhstan, the Himalayas, and in ways that helped lay the foundation for anco and completed on April 24, close relatives of Mongol khans (see Chap- parts of western China. The agrarian production. The Mongol empire 1459. The map shows south at a rival clan leader and his long-betrothed fourth, the khanate of the Great the modern world. How this was accom- followed a different path, one that grew the top, in the portolan tradition bride kidnapped on his wedding night. Liv- ter 12). Sorghaghtani Beki, Kublai Khan’s Khan, encompassed China plished, who its perpetrators were, and why from the grasslands of the Eurasian steppe of Muslim maps, and includes ing on the edge of larger, wealthier societies, mother, ruled for years as regent over a large and Mongolia, stretching from Mongol toponyms gleaned from Lake Baikal in southern Siberia this story is important is the subject of this through the actions of nomads who counted Marco Polo’s travels in Central Mongols and their neighbors desired exotic portion of until her eldest to Vladivostok and extending book and its accompanying exhibition. their wealth in horses, sheep, goats, and cat- and Eastern Asia. These place- gold, jewels, and finery, but found them inac- son Möngke was old enough to take charge; south through Tibet and to the names emphasize the Mongol northern border of Viet Nam. tle, along with camels in the south and yaks legacy in the geography of cessible. In short, although lacking material others played important roles in the power in the north—the so-called “five muzzles,” Eurasia, a landmass conquered wealth, they were proud, well armed, and in struggles leading up to the elections of khans Mongol and Other Empires and administered by Mongols Empires are nation-states that “metastasize” animals that ensured a herder against cata- in the 13th–14th century. their day unparalleled in open-field battle. by the khuriltai, the Mongol grand council. beyond their borders. Empires arise when a strophic loss to weather or disease of any Such was the background of steppe no- Centralized leadership is a precondi- leader or elite group exerts military power one animal group (see Chapters 5 and 9). madic life and the incipient Mongol polity, tion for the growth of empires, and in its over vast regions and diverse peoples and Mongols preferred living in tents in the open which largely through the genius of a single early phase, when led by Genghis Khan, thereafter maintains control through some rather than in houses in villages or cities. man, became a huge medieval-era empire the Mongol empire was highly centralized. combination of military, economic, political, They were accustomed to mobile life, mov- built entirely on the backs of horses. The The Mongol empire embodied the per- and religious force. Historians and archae- ing with the seasons across hundreds or even pre-Mongol history of steppe peoples since sonal vision of its founder throughout the ologists have catalogued nearly one hundred thousands of miles, if necessary. They had the domestication of the horse 5,500 years thirteenth century, even more than Julius empires since the first examples appeared few material possessions and little to lose in ago—and the subsequent refinements of Caesar, Charlemagne, or Napoleon per- in the Near East three thousand years ago. the constant cycle of steppe warfare—other saddles, bridles, reins, stirrups, chariots, sonified theirs. Long after his death in 1227,

24 F I T Z H U G H I N T R O D U C T I O N 25 influence in Mongolia. These campaigns sought to acquire such necessities as cloth, foodstuffs, iron, and military hardware, as well as precious metals and jewels, fine clothing, and other goods needed by a growing Mongol elite (figs. 1.8, 9, 11). Be- cause Mongolia lay north of the major Silk 1.5 Ulaan Tolgoi Deer Stone Site Road trade routes, Genghis’s first target, Khovsgol province, one of in 1209, was the Tanghut kingdom of Xi the most productive herding Xia in Gansu and Ningxia, northwest- regions in northern Mongolia, has many Bronze Age sites ern China (see Chapter 21). Soon after, in like this one near Lake Erkhel. 1211, he began attacks on the Jin dynasty Deer stones bear carvings of stylized warriors with tool of northern China whose capital, Zhongdu belts and deer imagery on (renamed Daidu by the Mongols and now their torsos. Found with the heads of sacrificed horses called Beijing) fell in 1215, and then turned and often accompanied by west against the Kara-Khitai empire of stone burial mounds known as khirigsuurs, deer stone central Asia in 1218, in part because they monuments are among were harboring some of his former en- Mongolia’s most visible archaeological treasures, 1.4 Khara Khorum Tortoise Genghis Khan’s vision of a world ruled by emies (see Chapter 22). As the khan’s army dating 1300–700 BCE. The Resting outside the north wall Mongols continued to inspire subsequent grew in size, armament, and experience, slab-lined square burial in the of the Erdene Zuu monastery, foreground had been looted in this large stone tortoise dating khans, whose two-century rule coincided it marched further west, subduing the Ira- antiquity and probably dates to to the 13th century is the only with the medieval period in Europe. nian Khwarazmian empire and attacking ca. 800–400 BCE. outward sign of the great buried Mongol capital city that lies Beginning life as a member of an hon- the Kipchak (Cuman) Türks of the Ukraine. beneath the soil. In Mongol orable but besieged clan, Genghis Khan’s Genghis returned to Mongolia in 1223 and elected by the khuriltai from among his male fairs, but unlike Christianity and Buddhism, mythology a golden tortoise descendants. It persisted as a centralized carries the weight of earth and youth was one of hardship and privation. later initiated a devastating attack on the lacked anthropomorphic form. It had no heaven on its back. Tortoises Hounded by enemies who drove him and his Tanghuts, capturing their Silk Road trade. empire for nearly fifty years, until Möngke’s organized priesthood or scripture, no pub- also symbolize immortality and reign from 1251 to 1259. By this time, ri- lic ceremonies, temples or fixed places of provide protection against flood family into the wilderness, enduring starva- By this time small nomadic polities, cities, and other natural disasters. tion and periods when enemies hunted him and sedentary states had proved no match val western khanates had grown stronger public worship, and was interpreted pri- like an animal, he miraculously survived to for the mobile, well-trained, battle-hardened and more independent, and the absence of marily by shamans trained to decipher vi- rise in power through a succession of mili- Mongol juggernaut. All of these subjuga- a clear method for selecting the grand khan sions, interact with the spirits of nature, tary victories until in 1206 he was elected by tions brought increased trade and trib- resulted in rival claims, civil war, and eventu- heal the sick, and generally set things right an all-Mongol khuriltai as “Genghis” (vari- ute, raw materials, elite goods, slaves, and ally the empire’s decline and dissolution. The between the worlds of spirits and humans ously interpreted to mean great, oceanic, or supplemental troops needed at home and Golden Horde khanate centered in southern (see Chapter 6). Shamans performed ritu- universal), Khan of all the Mongols. There- to support the growing Mongol domain. Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia persisted until als, animal sacrifice, and divination to cure after he consolidated Mongols and other Many empires have been transient and 1505, the West Asian Ilkhanate until 1335, the sick, change the weather, discern the steppe tribes into a single Mongol polity by remained nameless, lasting only a few de- and the khanate of the Great Khan (Yuan future, and affect the course of events. integrating the army across tribal and clan cades before collapsing from problems of dynasty, founded by Kublai in China) un- The Secret History of the Mongols (see lines, enforcing strict discipline and loyalty, leadership, succession, or rebellion. When til 1368. The empire’s last gasp was from Chapter 14) makes it clear that Genghis’s rewarding able leaders without regard to empires disappeared, life often returned the Chaghadai khanate, which survived survival during his childhood and the wars of clan or tribal affiliation, and ensuring all a to what went before, until another power into the sixteenth century, lasting about as unification, and his vision of a Mongol-dom- fair share of war spoils (see Chapter 10). He center formed and a new empire was cre- long as the Roman and British empires. inated world, came directly from Tenggeri. established a quasi-legal code of behavior ated. Unlike empires that took decades or The Mongol empire did not have the Genghis seems to have acquired his vision known as the Jasagh, settled disputes, and even centuries to mature, such as the Roman formal religious core of empires built on as well as certain shamanistic powers dur- used his army to improve economic condi- (27 BCE–395 CE), Holy Roman (962–1806), Islam or Christianity; but neither could the ing his periods of enforced isolation hiding tions for his people, whose nomadic lives and British empires (1583–1997), the Mon- Mongols’ shamanist beliefs be called faith- from enemies in the wilderness as a young provided little more than food and clothing. gol empire grew from grass roots to mega- less or heathen. Similar to the Christian man. After becoming khan, he received spiri- Genghis’s earliest campaigns were not empire status in four decades, from 1206 to belief in a god residing in heaven, the Mon- tual support from the powerful shaman, Teb initiated to create an empire or new home- 1242, and reached its global limits in 1279. gol religion also was based in the firmament. Tenggeri, who advised Genghis on every- lands for Mongols but to improve living At the end of his life Genghis apportioned Genghis believed in a supreme, all-powerful thing from personnel appointments to when conditions at home, but soon the subjuga- different sectors of the Mongol ulus (realm) deity known as Tenggeri (Eternal Heaven; to wage war and engage in battle, although tion of foreign lands resulted in long-term to his sons to govern as khanates under the see Chapter 36), who like the gods of other Genghis later perceived him as a threat and Mongol presence and extensive foreign supervision of an empire-wide Great Khan faiths controlled the world and human af- had him killed. It was not until the Mongol

26 F I T Z H U G H I N T R O D U C T I O N 27 imperial city at Khara Khorum had become khans pursued Genghis’s dream. By 1240, patriarch, Nestorius, whose expelled follow- established in the 1240s that Buddhism when Genghis Khan’s son Ögödei was Great ers founded the Assyrian Church of the East. became influencial among Mongol leaders. Khan, Khara Khorum had been completed Pressured to move again by the expansion During the early days of the empire with its khan’s palace, Buddhist temples, and of Islam into western Asia, the Nestorians religious tolerance was practiced and faith a Nestorian Christian church, all surround- reached Mongolia and China, where they was considered a private matter. Later, as ed by a sea of Mongol felt tents (gers) hous- became widely established before the spread Mongol control expanded into Central ing administrators, military guards, traders, of Buddhism. The idea of a long-lost Chris- Asia, the Near East, and Eastern Europe and craftsmen brought as volunteers or slaves tian East appealed greatly to Europeans after where more formal religious were dominant, to serve the Mongol khans (fig. 1.10). By the beginning of the Crusades, and they came Mongol religious policies changed. When then armies of Genghis’s sons and grandsons to believe, from rumors of Nestorians, that Genghis Khan’s grandson Hülegü began stood on the banks of the Danube River, an imaginary Christian king named Prester the Mongol campaign against the Abbasid poised to march on Europe. While European John ruled there, waiting for a chance to caliph of Baghdad in 1256, he turned first leaders interpreted the advancing eastern retake Jerusalem from the Muslims. Such to defeat the Assassins, a powerful Ismaili storm variously, the message from the Mon- fanciful ideas about an eastern Christian- Muslim group whose tactics included mur- gol defeat of King Béla’s Hungarian forces Muslim front probably originated from dering enemy leaders by stealth. As his war at Sajo River (see Chapter 26) was anything garbled reports of Asian traders who had expanded into Muslim western Asia and but speculative. Genghis’s plan for Mon- heard about Muslim Khwarazmian battles the Near East, his campaign began to re- gol domination of the world as then known with the non-Muslim Kara-Khitai empire semble a crusade against Muslims, but in seemed about to be realized. A man, who or with Genghis Khan’s western campaigns reality it was always an exercise of power in death Mongols believed held the status against both groups. Others saw the Mongol and subjugation. Once an enemy was sub- of a deity, had brought Europe face-to-face surge as the outcome of a biblical scenario dued, Mongol khans rarely interfered with with Asia. At this point, the fate of Europe featuring Gog and Magog, giants from the local religious beliefs or cultural affairs. seemed to hang in the balance, and diploma- Book of Revelations, who were thought to Hülegü then established the West Asian cy was initiated as a last resort. have been imprisoned somewhere beyond Ilkhanate and proclaimed himself its ilkhan European understanding of the Mongols 1.6 Mongolian Boots the Crusades, Genghis Khan became the anti- the Caucasus and must have escaped to (subordinate khan). Complicating matters was plagued by the absence of knowledge These elaborate boots, Christ heralding Armageddon in the form lead the Mongol attack on Christendom. Mongolian gutal, have turned- and symptomatic of rising internal conflicts based on direct observation. Except when up toes similar to fancy Tibetan of a wave of murderous Mongols. Mongols The cultural chasm between Christian within the empire, three years earlier Berke, the Mongols were campaigning in Russia, footgear. According to Buddhist felt no compunction about mistreating their Europe and the shamanist Mongols on the folk tradition, they permit one to khan of the Golden Horde, had converted Poland, and Hungary from 1237 to 1242, tread softly, doing little damage enemies, for to them power, bequeathed eve of the Mongol invasion of Europe is to Islam, in part to facilitate trade with the menace seemed distant because Europe to the earth and its creatures. by Tenggeri, brought its own justice. Be- dramatically seen in an exchange of let- Such boots are part of the Mediterranean Muslims. Soon Berke and was not heavily invested in overland trade standard costume worn by cause Christian morality meant nothing to ters between Khaghan Güyüg and Pope Hülegü were waging war with each other with China or the Mongol region to the Mongolian wrestlers, and it is them, Mongols were considered demons Innocent IV. Having experienced the Mon- said that the up-turned toes help over territory and vassals and as supporters north. The route was long and arduous and wrestlers to throw an opponent by Christians, whose medieval mythology gol slaughters in Poland and Hungary, in of different factions in the succession battle beset with many dangers, including deserts, by hooking his leg. Others note included an exotic pagan world populated 1245 the pope sent John of Plano Carpini, that they help a rider keep his for Great Khan between Arigh Böke and mountain ranges, and huge rivers that im- foot in the stirrup. Such ideas by one-eyed, one-legged, headless, gener- a 60-year-old Franciscan friar, as an envoy Kublai between 1260 and 1264. Later, in peded passage. Small numbers of merchants are probably apocryphal. ally cannibalistic heathens, some of whom to the court of Khaghan Güyüg (see Chap- This pair has beautiful lines, 1295, Ghazan, khan of the Iranian Ilkanate, had been successfully negotiating the Silk colored panels, and handiwork did not bleed when wounded, or, alterna- ter 20). Carpini delivered a letter chastising also converted to Islam. Mongols who re- Road since the late first millenniumBCE , of embossed and appliquéd tively, bled like flowing rivers when killed. the khan for murdering innocent villagers mained in Mongolia continued to practice when its existence was known in Rome and scrolls. The more historically inclined equated and asking for clarifications of future Mon- Buddhism, often together with shamanism, China, although it could only accommodate Genghis Khan with Prester John (also known gol intentions in Europe. In return for peace, as they still do today. Adoption of local re- lightweight prestige cargos such as fabrics, as John the Presbyter), the legendary Chris- the pope offered baptism and forgiveness of ligious beliefs also occurred under Kublai’s spices, jewels, and other exotic goods. tian king of the Orient thought to have de- the khan’s sins. The khan replied in 1246: reign in Yuan China. In short, religion un- Religion, compounded by geography and scended from one of the three magi who You have…said that supplication and prayer der the khans was as varied as the econom- distance, contributed to early European mis- honored Christ’s birth. The rumors of such have been offered by you, that I might find ics and populations of the empire at large. understandings of Mongols. The Mongols, a king’s existence may have been stimulated a good entry into baptism. This prayer of for their part, soon discovered Europeans to by an early twelfth-century visit to Rome thine I have not understood. Other words Mongols and the West be, according to their terms, undisciplined, by a prelate named John from a Christian which thou hast sent me: ‘I am surprised that Genghis died in the midst of the Tanghut politically disorganized, and dominated by community on the Malabar coast, which thou has seized all the lands of the Mag- campaign in 1227, never living to see con- an impractical Christian ideology. European was conflated with vague knowledge of a yar [Hungarians] and the Christians. Tell us struction of the capital city for the new knowledge of Asia at this time was heavily group of Asian Christians known as Nesto- what their fault is.’ These words of thine I Mongol empire that he envisioned. Still, his tinged with exoticism and religious propa- rians. The Nestorians were a schismatic sect have also not understood. The eternal God armies kept advancing as a succession of ganda. To medieval Europeans fixated on founded by the fifth-century Constantinople has slain and annihilated these lands and

28 F I T Z H U G H I N T R O D U C T I O N 29 1247 was the first important diplomatic ex- GENGHIS: THE EXHIBITION change between European and Mongol lead- AND THE BOOK ers and seems to have been the first official Recognizing the dearth of knowledge about envoy and exchange of relations between Genghis Khan, Don Lessem organized an ex- European and Asian heads of state. Earlier hibition featuring Genghis Khan, the Mongol attempts to reach the Mongols initiated by empire, and Mongol history, culture, and art. King Béla of Hungary in 1234–35 and 1237 The exhibition, titled Genghis Khan, opened were thwarted by the turmoil of the Mon- at the Houston Museum of Natural Science gol’s Russian campaign. A parallel papal on February 27, 2009. As part of the project, mission undertaken by Dominican friars in Lessem asked Morris Rossabi, William Honey- 1246, following a southern route, reached church, and me to prepare a supporting book only as far as the West Asian military camp presenting Mongolia’s geography and his- established by the Mongol general Baiju, tory, the resilient nomadic society that pro- who was put off by the envoys’ lack of cus- duced this remarkable man, and his legacy tomary diplomatic gifts and their strident to the present day. More than thirty interna- demands. Carpini, following a northern tional experts from a variety of disciplines route through Russia, was more astute and and military organization and capabil- contributed environmental, archaeological, impressed Genghis Khan’s grandson Batu, ity. His report, Ystoria Mongolorum, anthropological, and art historical perspec- who gave him safe passage to Khara Kho- 1.8 Metal Casting Ladle while notably grim about politics, was op- tives. Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire peoples because they neither adhered to This cast copper ladle dating to 1.7 Engraved Silver rum. Once there, however, Carpini found timistic about future missionary work after is organized around the central character in Medallion Chingghis [Genghis] Khaan, nor the Khaan the 14th century was recovered his mission in jeopardy. His diplomatic gifts in archaeological excavations discovering that many at the Mongol court, this great historical story. But rather than During the 13th and 14th [Ögödei], both of whom have been sent to centuries, officials had been expended on Batu, and Güyüg saw at the Mongol empire capital, both Mongols and Chinese, were Nestorian treating this subject as a biography, or the used silver medallions like make known God’s command, nor to the Khara Khorum. Although it little use in receiving him (having already was not capital of the Mongol Christians, worshiped one god, believed in Mongol empire simply as history, we have this one to certify property command of God. Like thy words, they also ownership rights to individuals. heard of the pope’s message from Baiju) or empire after 1260 and was past Jesus Christ, and prayed in churches. Carpini chosen to extend the frame, to include arti- were imprudent; they were proud, and they its prime in the 14th century, the The inscription on this medallion even providing food or shelter. But finally, dispelled the myth that Genghis Khan was is illegible. slew out messenger emissaries. How could city remained a center for trade; facts from the exhibition as well as historical with the assistance of a Uyghur Nestorian its many craft shops included Prester John, describing him as a shaman- documents from libraries, museums, and ar- anybody seize or kill by his own power con- metallurgical artisans. named Chinqai who was secretary to the ist and an empire-builder with near deity trary to the command of God? chives around the world. Unlike other works khan’s court, an audience was arranged. status, and noted that Mongols worshipped dealing with Genghis Khan and the Mongol Though thou likewise sayest that I should Güyüg’s formal response to the papal felt effigies of Genghis in their homes. From empire that take a primarily historical ap- become a trembling Nestorian Christian, letter was a stern rebuff, seen above. Both Chinese informants at the Mongol court proach,3 this volume also includes environ- worship God and be an ascetic. How know- sides believed their god was on their side, he learned that Prester John did not exist mental, archaeological, anthropological, and est thou whom God absolves, in truth to and rather than seeking areas of accom- in Asia, but held out India as a possibility. art historical perspectives.4 whom He shows mercy? How dost thou modation, they hectored each other. The For the first time Europeans received a rea- know that such words as thou speakest are pope’s overture seems particularly conde- sonably objective view of their adversary. with God’s sanction? From the rising of the Written Sources scending because Mongols had yet to be Fortunately for Europe the attack west sun to its setting, all the lands have been Reports by traveling scholars and educated defeated in any major battle and were pre- made subject to me. Who could do this con- of the Danube never came. Ögödei died in religious people provided the first direct writ- paring to storm Europe. To admonish the trary to the command of God? 1241, and his forces massing near Budapest ten observations on the Mongols. Theirs was khan for killing Hungarians and Christians retreated, awaiting the selection of a new a very different process of information trans- Now you should say with a sincere heart: ‘I and seizing their lands, offering conver- khan. Güyüg reigned briefly, from 1246 to fer than the field education obtained by sol- will submit and serve you.’ Thou thyself, at sion and baptism, benefits that Güyüg did 1248, and by the time Möngke was elected in diers on the battlefield. The earliest contacts the head of all the Princes, come at once to not understand, shows how little Christian 1251, Mongol forces made the subjugation were primarily European-sponsored. In addi- serve and wait upon us! At that time I shall leaders understood Mongols. Güyüg’s re- of China’s Song dynasty their priority. Hül- tion to the report of John of Plano Carpini, recognize your submission. sponse was more pragmatic. Recognizing egü later began campaigns against Islam in his fellow traveler Friar Benedict the Pole If you do not observe God’s command, and no higher power than Tenggeri, he was in Iran and West Asia. This shift in theater de- prepared a manuscript entitled The Tartar if you ignore my command, I shall know no need of conversion and saw no value in lighted European supporters of the Crusades, Relation that generally parallels the Carpini you as my enemy. Likewise I shall make questioning the vision of a Mongol-ruled and after 1253 relations between the Vatican report. The Tartar Relation has become nota- you understand. If you do otherwise, God world received from Tenggeri through and Khara Khorum improved for a while. ble mostly because the manuscript was found knows what I know.2 Genghis Khan; and anyway, all would But despite continued exploration of diplo- bound with a manuscript of Vincent of Beau- This was not what Western leaders or the be made manifest by battle outcomes. matic contacts, a Mongol-Vatican alliance vais’s popular world history, Speculum His- pope had hoped for, but it did have unex- In spite of its diplomatic failure, the against Islam failed to materialize; the parties toriale, together with the notorious “Vinland pected and useful results. The Carpini Fran- Carpini mission gathered information on and their philosophical differences were too Map,” which purports to show eleventh-cen- ciscan mission, which lasted from 1245 to Mongol life, technology, religious beliefs, far apart to be bridged by fleeting accords. tury trans-Atlantic travel to Newfoundland

30 F I T Z H U G H I N T R O D U C T I O N 31 and about the Frankish practice of engaging the Euro-Christian bias of Western travel- only combatants rather than civilians in war. ers, are primary sources for what happened His favorable view of Europe was probably within the Islamic and Mongol worlds. Each influenced by his Eastern Christian faith.7 had access to Mongol informants and now- The Secret History of the Mongols is the lost Mongol manuscripts, but neither of most valuable and interesting source on the them knew Genghis Khan as a living person. earliest phase of the empire, but it is also the Marco Polo’s report, A Description of most problematic. This remarkable docu- the World, which appeared in 1299, is un- ment, which purports to be the official story like other traveler reports because Polo’s of Genghis Khan’s life and times, may have perspective is that of a merchant rather than been written shortly after Genghis’s death an ambassador, missionary, or cleric (see in 1227, although a final section seems to Chapter 28). The Polo brothers Niccoló and have been added between 1240 and 1252 Maffeo, and Niccoló’s son, Marco, traveled (see Chapter 14). The Secret History is with an official permit known as apaiza — also remarkable for being the first piece something like a passport guaranteeing safe ever written in Mongolian language, prob- passage—granted to the Polos first by Berke ably using the Uyghur-Mongolian script. and later by Kublai. The three Venetians 1.9 Arrowheads but that is judged a fake by most scholars.5 Its seamless mix of mythology, epic poetry, journeyed extensively between the Mediter- Each type of iron arrowhead used by Mongols for hunting A few years later, around 1254, Wil- history, and gazetteer, with no clear indi- ranean and the Mongol courts in Russia, and war has different qualities. liam of Rubruck arrived as an independent cation of where fact meets fancy, makes it Central Asia, China, and West Asia between Broad-bladed varieties were for problematic as a primary historical source 1260 and 1294. For sixteen years (1275–91) hunting animals and unarmored missionary at the Khara Khorum court of targets. Narrow, heavy points Great Khan Möngke. His Itinerarium, while on Genghis’s life and thirteenth-century they were associated with Kublai’s court, were used for piercing leather basically a travelogue, was more perceptive Mongol culture, geography, and political which was by then a popular meeting-place or metal armor. than Carpini’s and Benedict’s reports, espe- events. Yet without The Secret History al- for world travelers and thinkers. Marco’s cially regarding religious views and culture. most nothing would be known about Geng- widely published work was first written as Best known is his account of a philosophi- his from those who knew him directly, for recounted to Rusticello da Pisa when they cal debate about the nature of god and faith he died before Iranian sources begin, except were imprisoned (with amenities) in Genoa he had with Möngke and resident Muslims, what can be gleaned of his values from the during a Venetian-Genoese war in 1298–99. Nestorians, and Buddhists. By his reckon- Jasagh (see Chapter 11), the quasi-legal code First published in French, the tale soon be- ing, he won and the Nestorians came in last. he established soon after becoming Genghis came a sensation and was translated widely, Although the information flow from Khan. Even his official portrait is fantasy, 1.10 Soviet Khara Khorum egü’s Ilkhanate descendants, Ghazan and providing Europe with its first description Finds scholar-travelers was largely biased to- painted long after his death by a Yuan-era Soviet archaeologist S. V. Öljeitü, also wrote an encyclopedic history of a strange new eastern world. Later ver- ward the West because of wider distribu- Chinese artist who had never seen him. Kiselev conducted excavations of the Mongol empire. Commissioned by sions inspired Geoffrey Chaucer to write Fortunately, parts of The Secret His- in 1948–49 at Erdene Zuu and Ghazan, who was concerned over the wan- about “the king of Tartary” as a noble, mer- tion of their reports, envoys sent west by concluded that this indeed the Mongols informed at least the Mongol tory are verified by a few other independent was the lost site of Khara ing knowledge of Mongol life and history in ciful leader “blest by Fortune’s smile” in his leadership about Europe. The first of these sources. These include Tarikh-i jahangusha Khorum, the ancient capital the increasingly Islamicized khanate, Rashid late fourteenth-century Canterbury Tales. of the Mongol empire. Among envoys were Aïbeg and Serkis, who were (History of the World Conqueror) an en- the clues were 13th-century al-Din used Juvaini as a source to describe Expecting to meet Mongol khans when he sent by the Ilkhanid Mongol ruler Baiju to cyclopedic account of Genghis Khan and ceramics with painted Chinese Möngke’s reign (1251–59) the Jami‘ al- sailed west from Spain, Christopher Colum- designs, reproduced here 6 Pope Innocent IV in 1247–48. Forty years the Mongol empire by Ata-Malik Juvaini, a from Kiselev’s monograph of Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) and bus carried a copy of the Polo book on his later the Nestorian monk Rabban Sauma high-ranking Iranian administrative official 1965, one of the first major translated materials from the Altan Devter, 1492 voyage. He did not realize that he was publications to document went to Europe at the request of Arghun, and historian who served under Hülegü and scientific excavations in known as the Golden Book, an official docu- still an ocean away and 124 years too late. khan of the Ilkhanate, bearing a proposal visited the imperial court in Khara Khorum Mongolia. ment of Mongol history that was kept secret- The most formidable Asian source by far for joint military action against the Mam- several times between 1249 and 1253. Ju- ly by the Mongol court but has since been is the 4,000-page Yuanshi (1370), the official luks of Egypt. He reported to the khans on vaini’s History, which was strongly influ- lost. A version of the Altan Devter compiled encyclopedic account of the Yuan dynasty his return (see Chapter 28). During visits to enced by his official role, provides valuable in Chinese as Shengwu qinzhenglu closely (1207/71–1368) commissioned by Ming Rome, Genoa, Paris, and other locations, information on Genghis’s life and conquests, parallels the account known from al-Din Taizu, founder of the Ming dynasty, immedi- Sauma was much impressed with the mag- on the history of the western empire through and provides some assurance of its validity.8 ately after the fall of the Yuan in 1368. Like nificence of Europe’s churches and the might the 1260s, as well as on Mongol culture, Ibn Battuta, an early fourteenth-century all Chinese dynastic histories, it emphasizes of its military forces. In a much-noted high- nomadic life, customs, and law. Rashid al- Moroccan traveler, also produced histories bureaucratic matters and is thus invaluable light, he wrote about a naval battle between Din (see Chapter 23), a Jewish-born Iranian that provide documentation on the western for understanding the government’s view. Neopolitan and Aragonese fleets he wit- who converted to Islam and held power- khanates (see Chapter 29). The works of Perhaps the biggest mystery of the Mon- nessed from the roof of his house in Naples ful government posts under two of Hül- these administrator-historians, who lacked gol story concerns Genghis Khan’s death

32 F I T Z H U G H I N T R O D U C T I O N 33 and burial. Rashid al-Din ascribes his death known history of the Mongols. In the thir- 1.11 Blue-and-White Porcelain Dish to an unspecified illness—possibly result- teenth and fourteenth centuries Mongolia Chinese artisans began ing from a fall from a horse—shortly before was a nation whose culture depended large- manufacturing blue-and-white Qinghua porcelain, famous the Xi Xia king surrendered and its capital ly on oral traditions; it had few institutions for its deep cobalt underglaze city and entire population was destroyed comparable to those that existed throughout painting, in the 12th century. During the Yuan dynasty in 1227. As Genghis’s troops advanced, his Europe, India, and South Asia—churches, established by Genghis decline and death had been kept secret from mosques, palace complexes, libraries, ar- Khan’s grandson, Kublai, it became a valuable export all but his family. After the victory, Geng- mories—that preserved relics of the past. commodity, sent to Japan, his’s body seems to have been taken back Almost all tangible materials from this pe- Southeast Asia, and West Asia. to Khentii province in northern Mongolia riod of empire that existed in places such It first reached Europe with Portuguese merchants and where his life began, to a spot he had chosen as Khara Khorum have been destroyed in became a sensation in Holland many years before. Al-Din adds a macabre wars or were carried off, lost, or buried (figs. after being imported by the Dutch East Indian Company in detail: “On the way they killed every living 1.4, 10). Even knowledge of the location of 1603. This 13th-century piece being they met until they had reached the Khara Khorum was lost. In short, much that manufactured at the Qinghua kiln in China was recovered at horda [nomadic palace-tent] with the cof- remains to be learned about the history of Khara Khorum. Its decoration fin.” The location of the burial is described the Mongols and their empire will have to includes a crane, an ancient Chinese motif symbolizing in relation to , a mountain be gleaned from archaeological evidence of longevity, surrounded by floral where Temüjin, young Genghis, had found material culture. elements. refuge as a youth. In this passage al-Din William Honeychurch, Chunag Amartu- notes the identification of Genghis Khan, vshin, and I present archaeological evidence the warrior and empire-builder, with his (see Chapter 8) that shows that by the intro- beginning as a hunter. He also notes that it duction of metal in the Bronze Age, which was customary, after Mongol leaders were dates to around 4,000 to 2,800 years ago, and the Tartar enemies of the early Mon- like these that the French goldsmith, Guil- buried, for herds of horses to be driven the roots of the horse-based nomadic culture gol tribes. More relevant to Genghis him- laume Boucher—one of many famous foreign back and forth across the site to obliter- seen today had taken shape. Large burial self may be the Avraga site located near the artisans brought to Khara Khorum as slaves ate all traces of its precise location. The mounds were erected for the dead and Mon- Kherlen River not far from Serven Khaalga. to build and decorate the new Mongol capi- prize of finding Genghis’s grave has inspired golia’s famous “deer stone” monuments, Coins minted by the Jurchen-Jin state in tal—must have made the tree-shaped silver archaeological searches since the 1870s. standing stones representing warriors with 1179 and radiocarbon dates of similar age fountain in the courtyard of the khan’s pal- Many wild claims have been made, starting iconic images of deer carved on their bodies, indicate that Avraga was occupied in the ace that dazzled foreign visitors by dispens- with an erroneous report in 1888 that the were being constructed (fig. 1.5). Prehistoric early period of Genghis’s life. While there ing different beverages from its branches. famous Russian archaeologist P.K. Kozlov Mongolia experienced occasional bursts of is no direct evidence confirming Genghis’s The search for the palace of the Great Khan, had discovered his silver coffin—a notion agriculture, urbanism, trade, and craft in- presence at the site, the complex architec- an ongoing archaeological effort of the past that may have been inspired by silver finds novation, and the first state-level develop- ture and evidence of craft production and seventy-five years, has also advanced. A large in the ruins of the destroyed Xi Xia capi- ments, represented by the Xiongnu culture trade goods suggest it was an elite seasonal building once thought to be the palace has tal.9 Later, in the 1930s, Owen Lattimore (200 BCE–200 CE), whose burial complexes camp of the sort Genghis would have used. recently been properly identified as the Bud- visited a Genghis shrine in Inner Mongolia contain chariots and retainer graves also New information from the very heart dhist Temple of the Rising Yuan described (see page 37) where an annual festival was found in South Siberia and China. The of the Mongol Empire is also becoming in a Khara Khorum stone inscription dating held at which his “memorabilia” and “re- Xiongnu were followed by a succession available. In separate essays, Ulambayar to 1346. The missing palace, described by mains” in a silver coffin were on display, of steppe empires including the sixth- to Erdenebat and Ernst Pohl (Chapter 18), and Marco Polo, seems to have been found ex- although Lattimore doubted their authentic- eighth-century Türk empires and others, sep- Hans-Georg Hüttel (Chapter 19), present actly where it was supposed to be all along, ity.10 Many Mongolians—following Geng- arated by periods of decline, until the rise of the results of excavations at Khara Khorum directly beneath the Erdene Zuu monastery. his Khan’s wishes—hope the location of the Mongol empire in the thirteenth century. documenting the early development of this Archaeological evidence has also emerged his grave will remain forever unknown. Recent archaeological research has early imperial city and its architecture, arts, from the relatively unknown Russian por- demonstrated promising results, includ- technologies, and external contacts as Mon- tion of the Mongolian empire known as the New Discoveries ing settlements perhaps relating to Genghis golia emerged from centuries of isolation to Golden Horde. Here, as in Mongolia, the As the survey of historical reports on the Khan and the Mongol clans. Noriyuki Shi- become, from 1235 to 1265, the political paucity of written records has hampered Mongol empire reveals, much of the con- raishi discusses (Chapter 17) the inscription center of eastern Eurasia. Excavations in the historical research. The Golden Horde, temporary information about this subject found on a rock surface at Serven Khaalga business district near the city center have un- named for the gold-colored horda or ordo, comes from non-Mongol sources. With the mountain in Khentii province, a Mongol covered remains of ceramic and metallurgical the nomadic palace tent used by its leaders, gradual decline in the discovery of new writ- homeland, that appears to commemorate workshops similar to those described by Wil- was the most distant khanate from Mon- ten sources, archaeology has begun to of- a battle at the end of the twelfth century liam of Rubruck, who reached Khara Kho- golia and became part of the empire with fer a promising approach to the still-poorly between the Jurchen-Jin state (1115–1234) rum in the spring of 1254. It was in shops Batu’s and Subödei’s invasion of Russia in

34 F I T Z H U G H I N T R O D U C T I O N 35 1237. An essay by Mark G. Kramarovsky groups whose lives had not benefited from (Chapter 25) reveals the Genghisid heraldic the growth of imperial elites and luxury “The Shrine of a Conqueror” motifs and three- and four-clawed dragons trade passing through their territory. The on belt ornaments that identify the graves Gobi finds are not unique, for as Ulambayar of Golden Horde leaders and members of Erdenebat shows (Chapter 35), Mongo- the house of Batu. Over time the Golden lia’s dry, cold climates have preserved the Horde grew fabulously rich from Russian graves of many Mongolians, mighty and “There is a sanctuary in the loop of tribute and from trade that passed through humble, whose bodies and artifacts provide the Yellow River to which thousands its territory linking southern Russia with the insight into their lives and ancient world. of Mongols make pilgrimage, Near East, West Asia, Mongolia, and China. Archaeologists have also provided in- believing it to be the burial place This and Daniel Waugh’s essay (Chapter formation on the ill-fated invasions of Ja- of the great Chingghis or Genghis 24) reveal the Mongol role in founding pan that Kublai forced upon his Korean Khan. No Westerner had seen the administrative, trade, and craft centers in allies in 1274 and 1281. James P. Delgado, ceremonies of this cult, much less territories that had previously been tribal Randall J. Sasaki, and Kenzo Hayashida taken part in them…” lands, and extending Silk Road trade far (Chapter 33) describe how underwater So began an article entitled “The west of its earlier boundaries, connecting archaeologists have recovered traces of the Shrine of a Conqueror” written by Russia’s gold, silver, ivory, and fur resources 1281 fleet that was wrecked by akami - the famous China and Mongolia with the Muslim world and the Orient. kaze (typhoon) near Takashima Island just scholar, Owen Lattimore, in The At the other end of the Eurasian conti- as it was about to disembark its troops on Times, London on 21 April 1936. In nent, Mongols made an even more lasting Japanese soil, losing thousands of ships and it he describes a visit the prior year impact on China, uniting it into a single tens of thousands of men. Researchers ex- to a desolate region of the Ordos political entity and modernizing its govern- cavating ancient shipyards in China and in western Inner Mongolia to wit- ment, economy, and arts. Morris Rossabi underwater archaeologists working at the ness annual spring ceremonies mark- gol beverage made from fermented two white camels hitched to the cart (Chapter 27), François Louis (Chapter 30), invasion site at Takashima Island have re- ing the death of Genghis Khan. Lo- mare’s milk. Lattimore, in disguise carrying Genghis’s tent was hauled and Willem Vogelsang (Chapter 31) dis- covered remains of vessels, ceramic bombs, cal tradition held that it took place because foreigners were barred from off, Lattimore took the photograph cuss the advances in Chinese textiles, paint- Buddha figures, and other materials re- at this very location, known as Edjen the rituals, participated in chants seen here, and later, on the back of a Khorokha (Enclosure of the Lord), print, wrote “Ger holding the rel- ing, ceramics, and sculpture of the Yuan lated to the Mongol-led invasion of 1281. and drinking of fermented milk be- nearly 900 kilometers west of Be- fore the relics. ics of Genghis Khan.” Soon after the period, which Genghis’s grandson, Kublai, jing. Those attending the ceremony relics departed, word spread that In the tent, on a silver-plated al- encouraged as he also promoted industry Genghis Khan’s Legacy told Lattimore that the court travel- bandits were about to attack. All tar, stand three wooden chests, one and foreign trade. During this period, Chi- Following the decline of the Mongol em- ing with Genghis at the time of his ran for their horses, and Lattimore’s upon the other, all plated with silver. nese goods and art styles penetrated into pire, five hundred years passed during which death had been charged with carry- party made a forced march for sev- One of them by tradition holds the Iran and other areas of Central and West Mongolia was dominated by the Qing-Man- ing on an annual commemorative eral days, finally reaching the Yellow remains of the conqueror. On the Asia, finding markets for its blue-and-white chu dynasty and became increasingly influ- ritual. Lattimore describes the cer- River. Here, safe at last, his guide hammered silver plating are Mon- porcelain, silk brocade textiles, architec- enced by Tibetan Buddhism (see Chapter emonies and notes that they were confided, “We are men of good des- gol inscriptions, in a not archaic ture, and even the art of book-making. 36). During this period the legacy of Geng- attended annually by thousands of tiny and can speak the truth; I have lettering. I made out a reference to Once South China had been subdued, its his Khan remained strong; however, the situ- Mongol pilgrims who come to of- ridden this whole journey in fear.” “the Leagues and Banners of In- fer prayers to the conqueror, whom Much has changed since Latti- maritime traditions were harnessed to ex- ation changed dramatically when Mongolia ner and Outer Mongolia”­—a for- many believe to be a god and whose more’s visit. Today the sanctuary of tend Yuan trade and influence into the became a Soviet vassal state in 1924. Dur- mula which did not exist under spirit is thought to be present. Lat- a conqueror, where Genghis’s life has coastal areas and island systems of South- ing the 1930s the Soviet-backed Mongolian the Mongol dynasty, and proves timore found relics of the conqueror been celebrated faithfully by true be- east Asia, and into the Indian Ocean. Ar- government destroyed most of the country’s that most of the silver work is not displayed in decorated gers, chief lievers for 800 years, has been turned chaeologists have recovered cargoes of the Buddhist monasteries and murdered 20,000 older than the Manchu dynasty. among them being Genghis’s State into a theme park and tourist center. famous Yuan porcelain export ware from to 25,000 monks and lamas as well as Tent. To its right was the Tent of the The Manchu inscription led sunken ships that once sailed these routes. many of its teachers and educated class. By Bows and Quivers with its silver- Lattimore to conclude that Edjen Despite great progress at the center of the mid-twentieth century, when the Soviet plated bows, armor, and saddles. To Khorokha was probably not Geng- the Yuan empire, much of its population Union and China were engaged in their own the left were the tents of the Great- his’s final resting place; the alterna- continued to suffer great hardship, as seen cold war, thousands of Soviet troops, advi- er and Lesser Empresses, the latter tive tradition, that he was buried dramatically in a group of mummies found sors, and scientists came to Mongolia. In dedicated to the Tanghut princess somewhere in northern Outer Mon- in a cave in the Gobi Desert near the pres- addition to purges and exploitation, the de he took from the king of Xi Xia golia, was more likely. At the close ent China-Mongolia border. Bruno Frohlich facto Soviet occupation brought many ben- in 1209. There was a stand-in for of the festival all of the shrine tents and his colleagues (Chapter 34) document efits—reforms in education and medicine, Genghis’s sacred white horse and a were “invited” back to their perma- the manner of their gruesome deaths, which technical assistance to herders, introduction cart for dispensing airag, the Mon- nent sanctuaries. Before a team of he relates to struggles between rival herding of irrigation and expansion of agriculture,

36 F I T Z H U G H I N T R O D U C T I O N 37 development of infrastructure and transport, Mongol wars, empire, and the access of its more cars signaled the dawn of a new era. establishment of a stable government bu- male leaders to large numbers of women. Although an ancient polity, Mongolia reaucracy, creation of arts and scientific in- Despite nearly a century of repression, today is in the midst of rapid transformation. stitutions, and imposition of a written form Genghis’s legacy thrives today. In 1990, in The last century was one of turmoil, when of Mongolian based on the Cyrillic alpha- the aftermath of the Soviet empire’s collapse, Mongolia passed from a semi-theocratic soci- bet. By the 1990s most Mongolians could the new democratic nation of Mongolia, ety to a communistic order and, in 1990, to a read and had access to radios and televi- freed for the first time in hundreds of years democratic nation. About half of its 2.8 mil- sions, and some received higher education in to chart its own course, initiated a frenzy lion people live in the capital city of Ulaan the Soviet Union. for all things Genghis, whose name and/or Baatar, while the rest live in the countryside The Communist Chinese government likeness branded everything from vodka to as herders or in regional centers. Not since provided similar benefits to Mongolians liv- restaurants, airports to currency (see Chap- the days of Genghis Khan have its diplomats, ing in Inner Mongolia, but unlike the Sovi- ter 40). Instantly the lives of Genghis and soldiers, and businessmen, traveling to the ets, the Chinese did not suppress the memory his descendants became as popular to herd- far corners of the world, been received with of Genghis Khan or the celebration of fes- ers as to the urban culture of the rapidly respect rather than fear. Little by little Mon- tivals in his name such as that witnessed by growing regional centers and the capital, golia’s resources—cashmere, ore, oil, meat Owen Lattimore in 1935, noted above. An- Ulaan Baatar. Mongolia again began to look products, and hides—are finding markets nexed to China in the early twentieth century, beyond its borders. Nations all around the beyond its former and proximal trading part- Inner Mongolia became subject to the assimi- world reciprocated, sending aid, money, hos- ners, Russia and China. Its authors and film- lation policies of its Communist government. pital equipment, and mining companies, in makers are finding readers and viewers in Eu- Throughout the middle part of the century, particular, began joint ventures in Mongolia. rope and North America, and outsiders are hundreds of thousands of Chinese belonging Some Mongols resettled abroad in increasingly traveling to Mongolia to view its to the ruling Han ethnic group immigrated Korea, Europe, and the United States, where spectacular natural landscapes, experience its or were sent to build farms, diluting and within the past ten years Mongol commu- fascinating traditional cultures, and meet its sinicizing its Mongol population, which was nities of 3,000 to 5,000 developed in San friendly, resourceful people. In a real way, an- then two to three times as large as Outer Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, cient Mongolia and modern Mongolia have Mongolia’s. By 1990 the population of In- and Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, tour- merged. The elemental herding life that con- ner Mongolia was 21 million, of which only ism became a major Mongolian industry: tinues to sustain most Mongolians today has 3.8 million were Mongol, the rest being thousands of outsiders flock yearly to ex- not changed much since the time when Geng- largely Han Chinese. Today there are about perience Mongolia’s Flaming Cliffs, the his as a young man struggled to feed and de- 4 million Mongols in Inner Mongolia and snow-capped Altai Mountains, and the fend his family. Many of Mongolia’s ancient 2.8 million in the Republic of Mongolia.11 pristine waters and forests of Lake Khovs- ways—its nomadic economy, musical tradi- While much social progress was made, gol. Tourists climb onto the backs of cam- tions, love of horses, of festivals and sporting the Soviet era brought tragedy and suffer- els, ride horses into the mountains and events, and openness to the outside world, re- ing beyond that experienced in the early across the steppe, and visit the haunts of 1.12 Reconstructed “Camp regal Genghis seated on his throne flanked main strong, even as Mongolia finds its way purges. For the first time in a thousand America’s 1920s swashbuckler explorer- of a Conqueror” The opening of Mongolia to by his four sons. A 95-foot high statue of into the globalized world. One senses that if years, the Mongols found themselves al- paleontologist, Roy Chapman Andrews, tourism has prompted the Genghis on horseback was constructed Genghis Khan, an early advocate of global most completely isolated from the world the first to discover dinosaur eggs. Foreign- development of museums and monuments, along with on an open hilltop near the Tuul River, 54 integration, returned today, he would ap- beyond the Soviet orbit. All information ers enjoy Mongolia’s traditional life and preservation of historical kilometers from Ulaan Baatar near a re- prove and would see that little of what was passed through Soviet filters; political life cheerful welcoming people, taste airag, the sites and re-creations such constructed “thirteenth-century village” essentially “Mongol” in his day has changed. as this 13th-century ger camp was filled with cronyism and corruption; famous national drink made from ferment- northeast of Ulaan Baatar. Here, catering to caravans of tourist buses (fig. and freedom of movement and expression ed mare’s milk, and participate in the an- in a dramatic setting amidst 1.12) . Tourists from around the world 1. Komaraoff and Carboni 2002, 7. craggy granite outcrops, is 2. Translation drawn from Dawson 1955, 86. was greatly restricted. Mongolians re- nual July Naadam Festival with its “manly an encampment of a type that participated in festivities marking the rebirth 3. Morgan 1986; Marshall 1993; Jackson 2005. tained memories of Genghis Khan and the sports”—horse-racing, archery, wrestling— might have been occupied by of a nation, observing special art exhibits Genghis Khan, his family, and 4. Komaroff and Carboni 2002. empire period, but they were memories. all under Tenggeri’s great blue sky (fig.1.6). personal guard, replete with and performances of the Buddhist Tsaam 5. Skelton et al. 1965. Among the more unusual aspects of The wider world’s most recent engage- a nearby “shaman’s camp.” dance in which performers wearing oversize 6. Roux 1993, 316. Visitors attend audiences with 7. Morgan 1986, 188-9. the Mongol legacy is the recent scientific ment with Mongolia came in 2006 when Genghis, hear throat-singing papier-mâché heads engage in mock battles discovery, discussed here by Theodore Sch- the nation marked the 800th anniversary of (khoomii) performances with and comic antics. In the midst of this festi- 8. Morgan 1986, 11-12. urr (see Chapter 38), that genetic traces Genghis’s investiture, which is now recog- traditional Mongol instruments 9. “Secrecy Still Marks Tomb of Genghis Khan,” such as the horsehead fiddle val, which coincided with the annual Naadam New York Times, 20 Nov. 1927. of a distinctive Mongol male descent line nized as Mongolia’s birthday. A new façade (morin khuur), and stay in early July, Ulaan Baatar was experiencing 10. Lattimore 1936. overnight in 13th-century style. can be identified today in the genome of was built to obscure the old Soviet-style an economic boom with the construction of 11. Atwood 2004, 245. more than 16 million Central and East parliament building and serves as a back- hundreds of new buildings. Ubiquitous cell- Asian men—a biological inheritance of the drop for an immense bronze statue of a phones, iPods, baggy pants, and cars, cars, and

38 F I T Z H U G H I N T R O D U C T I O N 39