Book Review: Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford was published in 2004. It’s the story of the rise and demise of the largest empire in world history– the Mongol Empire. Here’s how the author describes the astonishing accomplishments of the Mongols:

In twenty-five years, the Mongol army subjugated more land and people than the Romans had conquered in four hundred years. Genghis Khan, together with his sons and grandsons, conquered the most densely populated civilizations of the thirteenth century. Whether measured by the total number of people defeated, the sum of the countries annexed, or by the total area occupied, Genghis Khan conquered more than twice as much as any other man in history.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Weatherford, pg. xviii

I had known something about the Mongol Empire before I read the book, but it really helped me understand what the Empire really was and how it worked. During the Cold War the Soviets suppressed all research into Genghis Khan. The region of his homeland in Mongolia was strictly off limits and much of the surrounding area was used for artillery practice. Scholars who probed the history of the Mongols were censored, and publication of works about Genghis Khan were forbidden.

The collapse of the Soviet Union meant that scholars could begin to research the history of the Empire, but there was another problem– the Mongols were very secretive about the inner workings of their society. A set of documents known as The Secret History of the Mongols supposedly narrated the history of the Empire from the perspective of an insider– an actual eyewitness to the events that subjected more than 3 billion people to Mongol rule. But the Secret History had long since been lost.

In the early 20th century a copy of the Secret History was found in Beijing, written in Chinese characters. But the document made to sense to readers of the time because it preserved Mongolian sounds in a code written in Chinese characters. It wasn’t until the 1970s that Mongolian and English translations first appeared in print– the product of decades of slow but steady scholarship. But even then the Secret History was mostly incomprehensible to modern readers because it assumed a deep understanding of common cultural practices and beliefs of Mongolian society, and of the geography of Mongolia.

By the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union scholars from around the world had pieced together a fair picture of how the Secret History should be read. Weatherford had absorbed much of this research and in 1998 he traveled to Mongolia to get some background information on the region and the people. He expected that it would take him a short time to put together the finishing touches on the book he had been writing– but he ultimately spent another five years there. He learned how to ride horses as the Mongolians rode them. He learned how to shoot a bow and arrow the way that Mongolian soldiers did. And he learned about the many Mongolian traditions on which their society was based. His book represents the culmination of a century of scholarly research and his own five years of in depth immersion in Mongolian society.

The Mongols were tremendous warriors. They developed a large repertoire of innovative tactics, many of which changed warfare forever. For example, in ancient times it was traditional to conduct war in the spring, summer, and fall. Winter was a time to consolidate one’s forces, to rebuild supply lines, and to tend to the wounded. But the Mongols often launched their attacks in winter, rather than the spring– thereby turning the traditions of warfare inside-out. As people of the steppe, the Mongols were perfectly adapted to conducting war in ice and snow. Their conquest of northern China gave them access to gunpowder– used by the Chinese for fireworks. The Mongols changed the formula for making gunpowder to make it burn instantly rather than to glow slowly as it had been used by the Chinese– and they quickly adapted it for use in weapons. As a result the Mongols forever changing the mechanics of the siege. And they were absolute masters of using deception to mask their real objectives and intent in battle. It was a type of tactic that had long been employed by their ancestors on the steppe, and one that they adapted for use on the grand stage of Asia to devastating effect.

The Mongols built only one major city– Karakorum, the Mongol capitol in the heart of Mongolia. They created no monuments, no sculptures, no art. From ancient times the residents of the steppe had lived as nomads– and Mongolian soldiers were as much at home in a saddle as in a tent. They simply didn’t see a need to stay rooted at a single location. The Empire was driven by Mongolian societal traditions that expected a tribal leader to distribute wealth to the other members of his tribe. And that tradition demanded that the Mongols had always to obtain new riches, necessarily acquired through new conquests. Their relentless drive took them from the far reaches of east Asia to the Mediterranean Sea. It wasn’t until the Mongol army was defeated by the Mamluks at the small town of Ayn al-Jalut that the Empire’s expansion was brought to an end.

When the Mongols arrived at a city that they intended to conquer they announced to the city leaders that they could either surrender– or die. It was no idle threat. The Mongols had perfected the art of the siege, and inevitably a city under siege would fall. Once the Mongols had control they assassinated the wealthy oligarchs, appropriated their riches, and demanded absolute loyalty from those who were appointed to rule. The city would then be plundered and riches taken from it would be returned to Mongolia to be redistributed to Mongol society generally.

But the Mongols weren’t just rapacious plunderers. They instituted many innovations across the broad expanse of their Empire, including a postal system and tax incentives that were friendly to business enterprises. They allowed all religions to flourish, so long as religious leaders did not challenge the Mongol right to rule. As the book’s title suggests, the Mongols were to a large extent responsible for ripping the medieval world out of its parochial slumber into a new age of cosmopolitan awareness, international trade, and religious toleration.

This book is very well written, thoroughly researched, and a delight to read. It fills in many gaps I had in my understanding of the Mongols’ place in history. I therefore heartily recommend it to anyone who wishes to know more about one of the most transformational periods of history.

Copyright (c) 2024, David S. Moore

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