Page 64 - All About History - Issue 08-14

Wrath of the Khans

Wrath of

the Khans

Written by James Hoare
The Mongols swept across Asia and Eastern Europe as

relentless warriors, but Kublai Khan had bigger aspirations,

building the greatest empire of the medieval world

hen Genghis Khan set out to rule bows and European siege engines to grow stronger.
the world in 1206, the world was but Holding the reins of a vast multinational empire is
the sweeping plains and hills of the very different from winning one.
Mongolian steppe and its people were Grandson of Genghis, Kublai Khan succeeded
Wthe nomadic and tribal Mongols. When his older brother Möngke and knocked back the
the world expanded to include more plains and challenges of his young brother Arigh Boke to take
more tribal peoples – the Uyghurs, the Naiman the office of Great Khan in 1260. Kublai inherited
and Tartars – they too were conquered and their an empire with problems that couldn’t all be solved
warriors joined the Mongol horde. Like a snowball, by simply digging his spurs into the flanks of his
the Mongol armies grew as they conquered and wiry charger and lopping a few heads. Möngke
conquered as they grew. Eventually, though, their Khan had died in China amid a sectarian set-to
world became stranger and more complex. By between fanatical Buddhists and Taoists that he
1220, the Mongols had charged across the River had instructed Kublai to resolve, so this new Great
Kalka to battle the Kievan Rus in a land of Cyrillic Khan, perhaps more than any of his predecessors,
script, feudal princedoms and the pungent incense understood just how fully the Mongol Empire’s
of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. In the east, the patchwork quilt of faiths, languages and ethnicities
Mongols had battled the mercenary armies of could pull it apart. He surrounded himself with
China’s Western Xia and Jin Dynasty – a world of advisers of different faiths and set about building
courtly intrigue, vast wealth and tightly bound trust between the people of his empire and their
Confucian social order. In the south they rode out ‘barbarian’ overlord. Kublai Khan formalised the
across dusty deserts of the Caucasus to challenge distribution of aid to sick, orphans and elderly
Shah Ala ad-Din Muhammad, swords clashing scholars with dedicated officials and a yearly
beneath the elegant minarets of Islam. Genghis census would survey the harvest and assess the
Khan was a reformer, but his empire was an empire damage caused by war, famine and flood, allocating
of growth – if he could be dismissed as a barbarian grain from special constructed granaries to relieve
by his enemies, he became very, very good at the burden. Religious freedom was increased and
being a barbarian. He transformed Mongolia’s tribal infrastructure was reformed. The Grand Canal
scrappers into a ruthless and co-ordinated horse was built, roads were improved, paper money was
army that could adapt and learn from every foe introduced and a new postal system was pioneered,
it toppled, taking up Islamic medicine, Chinese with riders bolting between post stations and
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