Genghis Khan

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Daniel Davies wrote:
>
> Well yes and the British helped to abolish suttee, but the fact remains that
> both we Brits (metaphorically) and the Mongols (non-metaphorically) left
> pyramids of skulls wherever we went.  I mean, for heaven's sake, I'm open to
> most arguments but everyone has their limits and apologia for Genghis Khan
> is apparently mine.
>
> dd

You should probably look into it a bit deeper. Genghis was a bit less
bloody -- a lot less _gratuitously bloody -- than you seem to be aware
of (or that I was aware of). Here's some more from the same source. I
was particularly impressed by the non-use of torture by the Mongols.
That can be said, even roughly, of no other empire that I am acquainted
with.

Carrol

Into Afghanistan and Persia

Genghis Khan wanted trade and goods, including new weapons, for his
nation. A Mongol caravan of several hundred merchants approached a
recently formed empire between Persia to Central Asia. The sultan of
this kingdom claimed that spies were in the caravan. Genghis Khan sent
envoys, and the sultan had the chief of the envoys killed and the beards
of the others burned, and these others he sent back to Genghis Khan. And
Genghis retaliated, sending his army westward.

In the coldest of months the Mongols rode across the desert to
Transoxiana with no baggage, slowing to the pace of merchants before
appearing as warriors before the smaller towns of the sultan's empire.
Their strategy was to frighten their opponents into surrendering without
battle, benefiting his own troops, whose lives he valued. Those
frightened into surrender were spared violence, those who resisted were
slaughtered as an example for others, which sent many fleeing and
spreading panic from the first towns to the city of  Bukhara. People in
Bukhara opened the city's gates to the Mongols and surrendered. Genghis
Khan told them that they, the common people, were not at fault, that
high-ranking people among them had committed great sins that inspired
God to send him and his army as punishment. The sultan's capital city,
Samarkand, surrendered. His army surrendered, and he fled.

Genghis Khan and his army pushed more deeply into the sultan's empire --
into Afghanistan and then Persia. It is said that the caliph in Baghdad
was hostile toward the sultan and supported Genghis Khan, sending him a
regiment of European crusaders who had been his prisoners. Genghis,
having no need for infantry, freed them, with those making it to Europe
spreading the first news of the Mongol conquests.

Genghis Khan had 100,000 to 125,000 horsemen, with Uighur and Turkic
allies, engineers and Chinese doctors -- a total of from 150,000 to
200,000 men. To show their submission, some offered food to the Mongols,
and Genghis Khan's force guaranteed them protection. Some cities
surrendered without fighting. In cities the Mongols were forced to
conquer, after killing its fighting men, Genghis divided the survivors
by profession. He drafted the few who were literate and anyone who could
speak various languages. Those who had been the city's most rich and
powerful he wasted no time in killing, remembering that the rulers he
had left behind after conquering the Tangut and Ruzhen had betrayed him
soon after his army had withdrawn.

The Mongols did not torture, mutilate or maim, but their enemies did.
Captured Mongols were dragged through streets and killed for sport and
to entertain city residents. The Mongols did not partake in the gruesome
displays that European rulers often resorted to elicit fear and
discourage potential enemies -- none of the stretching, emasculating,
belly cutting and hacking to pieces that, for example, was soon to
happen to William Wallace at the hands of the English. The Mongols
merely slaughtered, preferring to do so at a distance.

The city of Nishapur revolted against Mongol rule. The husband of
Genghis Khan's daughter was killed, and, it is said, she asked that
everyone in the city be put to death, and, according to the story, they
were.
Into Azerbaijan, Armenia and Eastern Europe

While Genghis Khan was consolidating his conquests in Persia and
Afghanistan, a force of 40,000 Mongol horsemen pushed through Azerbaijan
and Armenia. They defeated Georgian crusaders, captured a Genoese
trade-fortress in the Crimea and spent the winter along the coast of the
Black Sea. As they were headed back home they met 80,000 warriors led by
Prince Mstitslav of Kiev. The battle of Kalka River (1223) commenced.
Staying out of range of the crude weapons of peasant infantry, and with
better bows than opposing archers, they devastated the prince's standing
army. Facing the prince's cavalry, they faked a retreat, drawing the
armored cavalry forward, taking advantage of the vanity and
over-confidence of the mounted aristocrats. Lighter and more mobile,
they strung out and tired the pursuers and then attacked, killed and
routed them.

In 1225, Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia. He now ruled everything
between the Caspian Sea and Beijing. He looked forward to the Mongols
benefits of caravan trade and drawing tribute from agricultural peoples
in the west and east. He created an efficient pony express system.
Wanting no divisions rising from religion, he declared freedom of
religion throughout his empire. Favoring order and tax producing
prosperity, he forbade troops and local officials to abuse people.

Soon again, Genghis Khan was at war. He believed that the Tangut were
not living up to their obligations to his empire. In 1227, around the
age of sixty-five, while leading the fighting against the Tangut,
Genghis Khan, it is said, fell off his horse and died.

In terms of square miles conquered, Genghis Khan had been the greatest
conqueror of all time -- his empire four times larger than the empire of
Alexander the Great. The Mongol nation believed that he had been the
greatest man of all time and a man sent from heaven. Among the Mongols
he was known as the Holy Warrior, and not unlike the Jews, who continued
to see hope in a conquering king (messiah) like David, Mongols were to
continue to believe that one day Genghis Khan would rise again and lead
his people to new victories.