Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

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Bichig itself is derived from a Syriac script, brought to them by Nestorian Christian missionaries in Central Asia. The Mongols adopt that after they conquer the Naiman, who also had a Nestorian population and were using that Uyghur script. The defenses of Juyong Pass had been strongly reinforced by the time the conflict resumed in 1213, but a Mongol detachment led by Jebe managed to infiltrate the pass and surprise the elite Jin defenders, opening the road to the Jin capital Zhongdu (modern-day Beijing). [111] The Jin administration began to disintegrate: after the Khitans entered open rebellion, Hushahu, the commander of the forces at Xijing, abandoned his post and staged a coup in Zhongdu, killing Yongji and installing his own puppet ruler, Xuanzong. [112] This governmental breakdown was fortunate for Genghis' forces—emboldened by their victories, they had seriously overreached and lost their initiative. Unable to do more than sit before Zhongdu's fortifications while his army suffered from an epidemic and famine. The Mongols are reported to have resorted to cannibalism. Genghis opened peace negotiations despite his commanders' militarism. [113] He secured tribute, including 3,000 horses, 500 slaves, a Jin princess, and massive amounts of gold and silk, before breaking the siege in spring 1214 and setting off homewards in May 1214. [114]

The nomads of the Eurasian steppe are a primary example of such warring peoples, even as they fought in a world filled with states.The "Secret History" was composed by the Mongols, after their rise to imperial power, but it was about their pre-imperial wars with each other and with similar nomads. There have been many translations, not only in English, but other languages. In English, there are three primary ones. The first one was by Francis Cleaves, a scholar at Harvard. He made the odd choice of translating it into King James English because he felt that captured its almost scriptural character. However, that also makes it difficult to read for many people.Essential Histories 57: Genghis Khan and the Mongol Conquests 1190-1400 by Stephen Turbell talks about all of the Mongol conquests over 200 years in Asia and Europe.

Biran, Michal (2012). Genghis Khan. Makers of the Muslim World. London: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1-78074-204-5. The book is a cross between a history, a chronicle and an epic. There are sections of verse and then narrative. It was meant for a very specific audience—the royal family and the elites of the Mongol Empire. I don’t know if your average Mongol, if they were literate, had access to it. Mother Hoelun was never ashamed or embarrassed by their hardships. When Jochi wore a dog’s pelt for a cloak, because they had no fleeces and no felt and had to trade for hides and dog was cheap, none of the children felt a sense of indignity. Indignity was alien to her.The Mongols are a people of orphans. A disastrous battle with China has left wives without husbands, children without fathers. Temujin is one of these children, impoverished by the heavy tribute China has punished them with, in danger of forgetting what a Mongol stands for. Worse, Temujin's the subject of… One of the neat things he’s done is to have his books published first in Mongolian and then in English. They’ve become very popular in Mongolia. He lives part of the time in Mongolia—at least he used to—and he’s set up a fund to translate books from English into Mongolian, to broaden horizons. So, he’s done a lot of good things with his success.Ogedei's allocation was relatively small in area because he would receive a large amount of personal land when khagan. [166] You often hear people being described as being ‘to the right of Chinggis Khan’. It doesn’t work. He was a social revolutionary” It tells us the story of Chinggis Khan. So, it is a memorial to his life. There is a chapter that starts dealing with the reign of his successor, Ögödei, at the very end.

I am fascinated by how societies conduct war. Who is expected to fight, and how are they organized? How is technology developed, implemented, and improvised in the heat of battle? And, most importantly, how do its participants make sense of the carnage around them? History is replete with tales of savagery and courage, of honor and depravity. Perilously few of these have been formed into novels, leaving an incomplete and disjointed understanding of thousands of years of struggle. Many authors, including those listed here, paved the path for holistic depictions of historical battle fiction – my hope is to contribute tales from oft-neglected societies, beginning with Belisarius and the 6th-Century Roman Empire.I'm a retired historian of early Islam and writer of historical fiction set in medieval Iraq, Turkic, and Persian lands. I write and love to read novels that “do history.” In other words, historical fiction that unravels the tangles of history through the lives of its characters, especially when told from the perspectives of those upon whom elite power is wielded. My selections are written by authors who speak from an informed position, either as academic or lay historians, those with a stake in that history, or, like me, both, and include major press, small press, and self-published works and represent the histories of West Africa, Europe, Central and West Asia, and South Asia. The brand new novel from the No.1 bestselling author of Emperor, his series on Julius Caesar. The second in the bestselling new Conqueror series on Genghis Khan, it is a wonderful, epic story which Conn Iggulden brings brilliantly to life. The gathering of the tribes of the Mongols has been a long time in coming but finally, triumphantly, Temujin of the Wolves, Genghis Khan, is given the full accolade of the overall leader and their oaths. Now he can begin to meld all the previously warring people into one army, one nation. But the task Genghis has set himself and… Portrayal of Genghis Khan in a 14th-century Yuan-era album, originally painted in 1278 ( National Palace Museum, Taipei) Paul Kahn then took the Cleaves version and made it more accessible. However, the fault with that one was that he got rid of the ‘begats’—’someone begat someone, who begat…’ and so on. This simplifies the text, but I’m very interested in how these lineages develop. So that new version is nice but, at the same time, kind of frustrating.

Barthold, Vasily (1992) [1900]. Bosworth, Clifford E. (ed.). Turkestan Down To The Mongol Invasion (Thirded.). Munshiram Manoharlal. ISBN 978-81-215-0544-4. Jagchid, Sechin (1979). "The Mongol Khans and Chinese Buddhism and Taoism". The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. 2 (1): 7–28.In this book, there is history, archaeology and action. There is so much fun and excitement in this book. This book takes readers on a journey to find Khan’s final resting place. This has yet to be done in real life, but it’s fun to wonder, which is something this book, too. The characters are intelligent, cool, and adventurous. This is a fun book that comes with a history lesson.