The Mongols:

How Barbaric Were

the “Barbarians”?

A Document Based Question (DBQ)

World History

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 Background Info Notes
Source: Map created from various sources

The Mongol Empire

circa 1260–1300
0 1,000 kilometers

0
SV
1,000 miles

GOLDEN HORDE
(Russia)

JAPAN
C

Samarkand CHAGHADAI Yellow

KHANATE K H A N A T E OF
ILKHANATE (Central Asia) THE GREAT KHAN
(Persia) (China)
Red Sea

PACIFIC

In the 13th century CE the Mongols created the largest connected land mass empire in the
history of the world. For centuries they have been remembered as a brutal tribe of nomadic
barbarians who were a serious threat to people and civilizations throughout Asia and Europe.
But is there more to the story? How barbaric were the barbarians?

Size of World Conquests

Conquerors Square Miles Conquered

1. Genghis Khan (1162-1227) 4,860,000

2. Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BCE) 2,180,000
3. Tamerlane (1336 -1405) 2,145,000
4. Cyrus the Great (600 - 529 BCE) 2,090,000
5. Attila (406 - 453) 1,450,000
6. Adolf Hitler (1889 -1945) 1,370,000
7. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 -1821) 720,000

Note: The area of the continental United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) is 3,036,885 square miles.

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 Document 1 Notes

Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, in Christopher Dawson, The Mongol Mission,
London: Sheed and Ward, 1955.

Note: John of Plano Carpini was a Franciscan emissary of Pope Innocent IV and traveled to
Karakorum between 1245 and 1247. It is believed he was the first European to visit the
Mongols in their homeland.

SV

Genghis Khan ordained that the army should be organized in

such a way that over ten men should beset one man and he is

placed one, named a captain of a hundred; at the head of ten

captains of a hundred is placed a soldier known as a captain
of a thousand, and over ten captains of a thousand is one
u or
three chiefs are in command of the whole army, yet in such a
way that one holds the supreme command.

Likewise if one or two or more go forward boldly to the fight,

then the rest of the ten are put to death if they do not follow and,
if one or more of the ten are captured, their companions are put
to death if they do not rescue them.

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 Document 2 Notes

Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, in Christopher Dawson, The Mongol
Mission, London: Sheed and Ward,1955.

Carpini on Battle Tactics

SV
it, sometimes even fencing it round
so that no one can enter or leave.
They make a strong attack with
engines (catapults for slinging large
They send a detachment of stones) and arrows and they do not
captives and men of other nationalities leave off fighting by day or night, so
who are fighting with them to meet that those inside the fortress get no
the enemy head-on, and some of the sleep; the Tartars however get some
Tartars (Mongols) may perhaps rest, for they divide up their forces
accompany them. Other columns of and they take it in turns to fight so
stronger men they dispatch far off to that they do not get too tired. If they
the right and the left so that they are cannot capture it in this way they
not seen by the enemy and in this throw Greek fire (napalm); some-
way they surround them and close in times they even take the fat of the
and so the fighting begins from all people they kill and, melting it, throw
sides. Sometimes when they are few (catapult) it on to the houses, and
in number they are thought by the wherever the fire falls on this fat it is
enemy, who are surrounded, to be almost inextinguishable.
many, especially when the latter While they are pitched before the
catch sight of the children, women, fortification they speak enticing
horses and dummy figures.... words to the inhabitants making them
They reduce fortresses in the many promises to induce them to sur-
following manner. If the position of render into their hands. If they do
the fortress allows it, they surround surrender to them, they say: “Come
out, so that we may count you
according to our custom” and when
they come out to them they seek out
the artificers (artisans) among them
and keep these, but the others, with
the exception of those they wish to
have as slaves, they kill with the
axe....

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 Document 3 Notes

Source: Persian manuscript, “The Shah Namah” or “Book of Kings,” c. 1300, Chester Beatty Library,
Dublin. In Robert Marshall, Storm from the East, From Genghis Khan to Kubilai Khan, University
of California Press, 1993. Reproduced with the permission of BBC Worldwide Limited. Copyright
© Robert Marshall 1993.

SV

A scene from a Persian manuscript c.1300, showing the execution of a prisoner by a Mongol soldier.
Others are being buried alive upside-down.

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 Document 4 Notes

Source: Charles J. Halperin, Russia and the Golden Horde, Indiana University Press, 1985.
Reprinted by permission of Indiana University Press.

The Mongols conquered nearly all of Asia and achieved what all Inner Asian SV
steppe empires had dreamed of, control of the continental caravan routes from
China to Persia. The enormous destructive cost of the Pax Mongolica cannot be
denied, but the Mongol Empire made significant contributions to the political
institutions, economic development, and cultural diversity of many lands. No
history of the Mongol Empire ... which dwells only on Mongol destruction, can be
satisfactory.

• In both China and Persia the Mongols had taken up residence among
their new subjects, garrisoning cities and gradually blending to a degree
with the (local) societies. As a result, their economic interests coincided
with those of the native peoples, and the Mongols, after the destruction
of the initial conquest, promoted diversified economic development.

• The (Mongol) Yuan emperors built canals to improve transportation and

communication. In China agriculture and (craft) production ...
continued unabated.

• The same was true in Persia, partly because Persian craft traditions
were well-established, but also because the Ilkanids (Mongol rulers)
were patrons of the arts.

• Persian viniculture (winemaking) ... thrived under the Mongols, who

were great drinkers, even after their conversion.

• The Persian silk industry also benefitted from the Mongol conquest
because of the contacts that opened up with China.

•
Cities along the caravan routes, in Persia, Armenia-Georgia, Central
Asia, and China, prospered as part of the tax-free customs zones
protected by the Pax Mongolica.
goes on till evening.

Note: The Great Khan is Kubilai Khan.

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 Document 5 Notes

Source: William of Rubruck, The Journey of William of Rubruck, translated by a nun of

Stanbrook Abbey, edited by Christopher Dawson, London: Sheed and Ward, 1955.

Karakorum, Mongolia, May 30, 1254

SV
The next day he GMongke Khane sent his scribes to me, who said:
BOur master sends us to you and he says: 'Here you are, Christians,
Saracens GMuslimse, and tuins GRubruck would translate tuins as pagans;
in fact, they were Buddhistse, and each of you declares that his law is the
best and his literature, that is his books, are the truest.j He therefore
wishes you all to meet together and hold a conference and each one is to
write down what he says so that he can know the truth."

GOn the day following the exchange between the religious spokesmen
Mongke Khan made this profession of faith to Rubruck:e BWe Mongols
believe that there is but one God, by Whom we live and by Whom we die
and towards Him we have an upright heart. But just as God gave
different fingers to the hand so has He given different ways to men."

Notes: • Mongke Khan was the fourth Great Khan, the grandson of Genghis, and the brother of
Kubilai who would succeed Mongke upon his death in 1259.

• Over the course of the next two centuries Mongol leaders often converted to
the region’s dominant religions – Christianity, Islam, or Buddhism.

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 Document 6 Notes

Document Note: There were two codes of conduct that guided Mongol life. One of these was the
yasa, usually referred to as the Mongol law. The second was the bilik, which was a
set of rules to live by.

On Hospitality

Source: Rashid ad-Din, Collected Chronicles.

When a husband goes hunting or to

war, his wife must maintain the house-
hold, so that the messenger or guest On Marriage
who dismounts there finds all in order
Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols.
and the wife is able to provide him
with good food and anything else he Each man has as many wives as he
may require. can keep, one a hundred, another fifty,
another ten – one more, another less.
Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols. It is the general custom of them to
marry any of their relations, with the
They show considerable respect to each exception of their mother, daughter
other and are friendly together, and they and sister by the same mother. They
willingly share their food with each can however take in marriage their
other, although there is little of it.... sisters who have only the same father,
When they are without food, eating and even their father’s wives after his
nothing at all for one or two days, they death .... All other women they take as
do not easily show impatience, but they wives without any distinction and they
sing and make merry as if they had buy them at a very high price from
eaten well. their parents.

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