Bryan Vander Ploeg Professor Dinan History 1040 May 28, 2013 The Mongol Impact After reading through today’s chapter it is hard to define what the group of Mongols exactly were in history. On one hand you have sources telling you tales of them pilaging through cities and slaughtering everyone and burning the entire city to the ground. Then other sources are discussing how great their expansion was for opening up trade routes and communication ways for a whole bunch of empires. All in all I believe I need to go with the Mongols being labled as a violent group that ushered in an era of cruelty.The reason behind this is because Wiesner discusses their spread of rumors before they even expanded their territory. “By the time they reached the Middle East and Europe their enemies attributed them ith superhuman ferocity.
In the Christian West, where they came to be seen as a form of divine punishment loosed on a sinful world, they were even called ‘the Scourge of God’. ” Ata al-Mulk Juvaini wrote in his History of the World Conquerer “Chinggis Khan and his generals willingly butchered defensless prisoners and civilians in their sweep across Muslim lands”.To my understanding you do not get a reputatuation like that with just expanding and opening up new communication between people, you are labeled a scourage for a reason. Mathew Paris had wrote in his History of the Tartars “accusing them of fiendishness for their delight in mass murder and cannibalism: ‘And thus they use their captives like beasts of burden.
The men are inhuman and bestial, they can be said to be monsters rather than men, they thirst for blood and drink it’. ” Chinggis Khan was the founder of the Mongolian empire.He was a driven man who just set out to unite all the nomads in Mongolia. He started his expansion in 1206 and did not stop until his death in 1227. Chinggis had died during his expansion which resulted him from achieving his ultimate victory but by that time anyway he had taken more land than any other ruler in history. By doing all that he had done he had many successors that would add more onto the Mongolian empire along with hit the ground running to keep the power rolling.
Along with the facts of the Mongolian expansion we have the sources that were discussed in the book.Wiesner makes the point that “having become a literate people only at the beginning of their imperial expansion, they lacked a tradition of historical or other writings, so we have very few documents produced by the Mongols themselves. Moreover they left almost no lasting material remains”. This being the factor of true nomadic nature. They would not stay in one place but yet keep rolling through and conquering more territory, and slaughtering cities as they traveled. After Chinggis Khans rule was over one of the successors that had some power was Batu.
In the tale of the Destruction of Riazan one can learn of the nature of the Mongolian empire through the eyes of a Russian clergymen. The tale goes that a Prince came to the Emperor to discuss peace so they would not invade his land. The Emperor got word that the Prince had a very beautiful wife. The Emperor said “Prince, give me your wife so that I may enjoy her beauty. ” And Prince Fedor said, “It is not our Christian custom to bring to you, the godless emperor, our wives so that your lust may be satisfied.
If you conquer us then you will be the ruler of our wives. “The Godless Batu felt offended, and became angry. He ordered the immediate death of Prince Fedor, and commanded that his body be thrown in a field where it would be devourvered by beasts and birds. ” After this excerpt from the story it goes on to discuss how Batu soon after invades Riazan and murders everyone in the city. Not sparing any woman children or holy men. Now after reading a source that was not obviously around during the main part of the Mongolian empire it is hard to discuss if this is a reliable source or not.
Unfortunately it is only one of a few sources that we can trust.It not be through the eyes of the Monogolians themselves but it good to have a outside perspective even if it could be exaggererated in someway. In conclusion through this tale of the city of Riazan and the discussions of the multiple sources from Wiesner it is hard to not believe that the Mongolians were a bunch of nomadic thugs. That were only out to expand and conquer and maybe in the process open some communication ways but it is easy to understand that there was never an intention to do so. -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ].
Wiesner, 230 [ 2 ]. Wiesner, 235 [ 3 ]. Wiesner,250 [ 4 ]. Wiesner,250
