Chinggis Khan's Syncretic Steppe: How Tradition and Innovation Combined to Form the World's Largest and Most Diverse Nomadic Empire
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Bard College Bard Digital Commons Senior Projects Fall 2017 Bard Undergraduate Senior Projects Fall 2017 Chinggis Khan's Syncretic Steppe: How Tradition and Innovation Combined to Form the World's Largest and Most Diverse Nomadic Empire Adrian Ramos Bard College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_f2017 Part of the Medieval History Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Ramos, Adrian, "Chinggis Khan's Syncretic Steppe: How Tradition and Innovation Combined to Form the World's Largest and Most Diverse Nomadic Empire" (2017). Senior Projects Fall 2017. 36. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_f2017/36 This Open Access work is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been provided to you by Bard College's Stevenson Library with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this work in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Chinggis Khan's Syncretic Steppe: How Tradition and Innovation Combined to Form the World's Largest and Most Diverse Nomadic Empire Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College by Adrian Ramos Annandale-on-Hudson, New York December 2017 Dedicated to: My professors and advisers, who guided me this far. My family and loved ones, who put up with me for so long. Table of Contents • Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1 ◦ Overview....................................................................................................................... 2 ◦ A Note on Spelling/Transliteration............................................................................... 5 ◦ A Note on Usage of the Secret History of the Mongols................................................ 6 ◦ Timeline........................................................................................................................ 9 • Literature Overview.......................................................................................................... 12 ◦ William H. McNeill.................................................................................................... 14 ◦ Owen Lattimore.......................................................................................................... 18 ◦ Thomas J. Barfield...................................................................................................... 21 ◦ Nicola Di Cosmo......................................................................................................... 23 ◦ Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 27 • Cultural & Social Context of the Mongols....................................................................... 30 ◦ Specifics of The Secret History of the Mongols.......................................................... 31 ◦ Mongol Women & Children....................................................................................... 33 ◦ Mongol Marriage Politics........................................................................................... 35 ◦ Mongol Inheritance Laws........................................................................................... 38 ◦ The Kurultai................................................................................................................ 40 ◦ The Yassa Code & Lineage......................................................................................... 43 ◦ Mongol Religion......................................................................................................... 48 ◦ Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 52 • The Early Years of the Mongol Empire: Consolidation of the Interior............................. 54 ◦ Section 1: Steppe Nomad Tribal Structures................................................................ 56 ◦ Section 2: Conquest of the Mongols' Neighbors........................................................ 63 ◦ Section 3: The Kheshig............................................................................................... 73 ◦ Section 4: The Unique Case of the Uyghurs: Uyghurs as Family & Fellows............ 79 ◦ Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 82 • Interlude: Climate Shift & Mongol Expansion Beyond the Steppe.................................. 84 • The Later Years of the Mongol Empire: Expansion into the Exterior.............................. 87 ◦ Section 1: The Tangut Kingdom / Xi Xia................................................................... 91 ◦ Section 2: The Jurchen Jin Dynasty............................................................................ 94 ◦ Section 3: The Kara-Khitan Khanate / Western Liao.................................................. 99 ◦ Section 4: The Khwarezmid Dynasty / Khwarezmia................................................ 105 ◦ Section 5: An Alternate Angle on the Uyghurs: Uyghurs as Outsiders.................... 109 ◦ Conclusion................................................................................................................. 111 • Epilogue: Looking Ahead / The Mongol Empire After Chinggis Khan......................... 114 • Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 118 • Bibliography.................................................................................................................... 121 1 Introduction The Mongol Empire had an incalculable but undeniably huge impact on the course of Eurasian history. It enacted multiple successful military campaigns and grew to be the largest contiguous land-based empire in recorded history, with a spectacularly diverse population of several millions. All of these were achieved in the span of little more than 150 years from the early 13th to mid-14th centuries C.E. More notable still is that this empire was founded by a nomadic people who had only recently unified under the banner of a single political entity. The empire was led for the first twenty years of its existence by its founder, Chinggis Khan. But why was Chinggis Khan able to found this empire? What allowed for him to rise to the station of khan to begin with, rather than remaining a circumstantially-disadvantaged man named Temüjin for his entire life? Rather than examining only the events of the lifetime of Chinggis Khan or attempting to separate his achievements from his mythologized character and inherent qualities, this paper will look further back into Inner Asian history to answer these questions of cause and effect. The last century of pre-imperial, pre-Temüjin Mongol history will be looked at through the lens of sociopolitical policies and trends of behavior which existed within settled states, nomadic peoples, and the fluctuating buffers and borderland populations which existed between them. The similarities or ruptures between these trends and policies and those of earlier centuries—as well as the logic behind those traditions or changes—will also be explored. The question this project sets out to answer is divided into two major parts. The first is, what series of events or sociopolitical developments in medieval Inner Asia allowed for the rise of Chinggis Khan as a political leader, and for the formation of an imperial Mongol state? The 2 second is, to what extent was this state successfully consolidated out of its disparate and often tribal components? To approach both halves of this problem, I will examine the preeminent theories of steppe state formation as they apply to 12th and 13th century Mongolia, finding where they are reconcilable or where they disagree sharply. But this piece will not attempt to look at Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Empire exclusively through the lens of how previous or subsequent steppe empires are thought to have formed. Each nomadic empire throughout the history of the Eurasian steppes rose and fell due to a complex series of unique factors impressing upon independent actors, just as their sedentary, agrarian neighbors experienced. Chinggis Khan and the Mongol tribes shared in those challenges and privileges as well. Overview The initial chapters of this project introduce and analyze several of the leading theories on state formation among nomadic tribal groups. The scholars which these theories are associated with include William H. McNeil, Thomas J. Barfield, Nicola Di Cosmo, and Owen Lattimore. With each major theory of steppe state formation an impression is given, and the attempt is made to apply the theory to either the Mongols or one of their contemporary semi-nomadic states. This is not done in order to choose one theory above all others for its applicability- each has its value, and none will be entirely discredited. The guiding logic behind this piece is that forming a single theory applicable to the development of most or all nomadic states over the course of Inner Asian history risks oversimplification of each