The rise and decline of Mongolian Empire

The Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of Mongol and Turkic tribes in the region of modern-day Mongolia under the leadership of Genghis Khan, who was proclaimed ruler of all Mongols in 1206. The Empire grew rapidly under his leadership and then that of his descendants, who sent invasions in every direction.

Genghis Khan innovated many ways of organizing his army, dividing it into decimal subsections of arbans (10 people), zuuns (100), myangans (1000) and tumens (10,000). The Kheshig or the Imperial Guard was founded and divided into day (khorchin, torghuds) and night guards (khevtuul).[23] He rewarded those who had been loyal to him and placed them in high positions, placing them as heads of army units and households. He proclaimed a new law of the Empire, Ikh Zasag or Yassa, and codified everything related to the everyday life and political affairs of the nomads at the time. He forbade the selling of women, theft of other's properties, fighting between the Mongols, and the hunting of animals during the.In addition to laws regarding family, food and army, Genghis also decreed religious freedom and supported domestic and international trade. He exempted the poor and the clergy from taxation. The Khan also encouraged literacy, adopting the Uyghur script which would form the Uyghur-Mongolian script of the Empire.

Genghis Khan died in 1227. His son and successor,the Great Khan Ögödei° continued toassault China. In 1236 Genghis’s grandson Batu° (d. 1255) attacked Russian territories, took control of all the towns along the Volga° River, and within five years conquered Kievan Russia, Moscow, Poland, and Hungary. Europe would have suffered grave damage in 1241 had not the death of Ögödei compelled the Mongol forces to suspend their campaign. With Genghis’s grandson Güyük° installed as the new Great Khan, the conquests resumed. By 1234 the Mongols controlled most of northern China and were threatening the Southern Song. In the Middle East they sacked Baghdad in 1258 and executed the last Abbasid caliph. Ögödei unquestionably sought territorial rule. Between 1240 and 1260 his imperial capital at Karakorum° attracted merchants, ambassadors, missionaries, and adventurers from all over Eurasia. A European who visited in 1246 found the city isolated but well populated and cosmopolitan. The Mongol Empire remained united until about 1265, as Ögödei exercised authority over the khans of the Golden Horde in Russia, the khans of the Jagadai domains in Central Asia, and the Il-khans in Iran. After Ögödei’s death in 1241 family unity began to unravel. When Khubilai°,the grandson of Genghis who ruled in Mongolia and China, declared himself Great Khan in 1265, the descendants of other branches of the family refused to accept him. In 1271 he declared himself founder of the Yuan Empire. a continuing hatred of Khubilai and Jagadai’s descendants, contributed to the strengthening of Central Asia as an independent Mongol center and to the adoption of Islam in the western territories. In the XIV the leader Timur tried to reunite the Mongolian Empire. He united under his rule Central Asia,Persia and Mesopotamia but he failed to conquer China. Soon he died, after his death the empire once and for all collapsed.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-13