Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Nomandic Empire
Nomandic Empire
Question 2.
What are the sources that tell about the Nomadic Empire?
Answer:
These are-chronicles, travelogues, and documents produced by city-based
literati. These authors have often produced extremely ignorant and biased
reports of nomadic life.
Question 3.
Who were the members of city-based Literati?
Answer:
Those were Buddhist, confusion, Christian, Turkish and Muslim.
Question 4.
Whether you think that they had compiled time records about the
administration of nomadic Empires?
Answer:
No, they had exaggerated the events in order to ensure better Patronship from
the rulers/great Khans. People from various religions were not familiar with
Mongol customs hence, many of them produced sympathetic records like
eulogies.
Question 5.
What transition mode in production, do you see in nomadic empires?
Answer:
It was a transition from a tribal to a Feudal mode of production.
Question 6.
What kind of change/transition of production brought in the Administration?
Answer:
A relatively classless society myriad and scattered look turn to become a
complex society, the largest in which lord, owners of land and the peasants
were of wide difference among them.
Question 7.
What do the conspiracy historical records reveal?
Answer:
These exhibit a number of languages like Chinese, Mongolian, Persian, and
Arabic. Vital material worth factual records are available in languages like
Italian, Latin, French, and Russian.
Question 8.
What is “Mongol-un Niuea Lobea an”?
Answer:
It was a secret history book of the Mongols. It was the Mongolian and Chinese
version (language) that got mixed randomly.
Question 9.
Why does one feel hardship while studying books on nomadic Empires?
Answer:
These are composed of a mixture of Mongol and Turkic terminology thrust
into the Persian language. Hence, stimulus shrinks, and difficulty is felt.
Question 10.
What the books difficult to read?
Answer:
Question 12.
What achievements the campaign of 1236-41 did attain?
Answer:
The campaigner Batu, grandson of Genghis Khan devastated land up to
Moscow, seized Poland and Hungary, and camped outside Vienna.
Question 13.
Why are said Genghis Khan’s conquests the wrath of God?
Answer:
Genghis Khan declared that he is equipped with a decree/ mandate by God to
conquer the entire world. He brutally killed several thousand people in many
parts of China, the middle east, and Europe.
Question 14.
What had Genghis Khan done at the festival ground?
Answer:
He addressed the rich people, accusing them of the sinner and introducing
himself as magistrate appointed by God’s especially to punish them. It was
his shrewd and conceit tendency. He grabbed all wealth of the merchants
forcibly there.
Question 15.
What question was asked from the only escaped person from the wrath of
God in Bukhara?
Answer:
It was an inquiry on after-war position. The escaped person reported-“They
came, they mined the walls, they burnt, they slew, they plundered and they
departed.”
Question 16.
Describe the topography of Steppes of Central Asia.
Answer:
Question 18.
Whether the climate and living conditions were good in the areas near the
Siberian desert?
Answer:
No, that area was unhabitable yet these tribes were compelled to reside there.
Extreme temperature, harsh and long winters, dry summers and sparsed rain
had made the living conditions tougher.
Question 19.
In which two classes, the society was divided into tribes?
Answer:
These classes were of the poor and rich families.
Question 20.
Why did Genghis Khan face difficulties while managing a complex of
agriculture economies and Urban settlements (Sedentary Societies)?
Answer:
Genghis Khan was from a nomadic tribe and that tribe was classified as
Pastoralists and the hunter-gatherer society.
Question 21.
What was the reason for the unity of the two societies of the Steppe land in
spite of different political and social organizations of nomadic and agrarian
economies?
Answer:
It was the scant resources, that motivated the Mongols and other central Asian
nomads to trade and barter with China people. Thus, trade had united them,
we can state.
Question 22.
What trade the Mongols did with the Chinese?
Answer:
It was in line with the barter system. Mongols would provide the Chinese
with horses, furs, and games in exchange for agricultural produce and iron
utensils.
Question 23.
Why did the Mongol exercise inevitably pressure on parties in China?
Answer:
They worried to run the trade in their own favor hence, exerted pressure on
the Chinese and sometimes, even plundered them.
Question 24.
What is a visual testament to the fear perpetrated by raids on agrarian
societies of north China?
Answer:
It is the popular great wall of China.
Question 25.
Can you say the barbaric instinct in Genghis Khan matured during childhood
and youth?
Answer:
Yes, he was merely a child when his father was murdered, the hardships born
by his mother in maintenance, and severe pain, he endured when his wife was
kidnapped. These circumstances would have fuelled the animal instinct that
usually dwells in all human beings.
Question 26.
Which conquests had made Temujin (Genghis Khan) confident enough to
conquest the trans-continental world?
Answer:
These were-J’amuqa and Tartars (his father’s assassins), the Kereyits, and Ong
Khan–all defeated by him. :
Question 27.
What were the three kingdoms in China at the time of the attack by Genghis
Khan?
Answer:
Control of Tibetan people (HsiHsia) in north-west provinces, Jurchen of Chin
dynasty and Shung dynasty ruling on South China.
Question 28.
Give a brief account of the devastation spread by Mongol armies in certain
cities.
Answer:
About 1,747,000 people were killed in Nishapur, 1,600,000 in Herat, and
8,00,000 people were killed in Baghdad. Similarly, 70,000 people in the Baihaq
district, 70,000 in Nasa, and 12,000 people were killed at Tun (Kurdistan
province).
Question 29.
Write about other conquests of Genghis Khan.
Answer:
Defeated Russian forces at the Crimea (Azerbaijan), encircled the Caspian sea.
Another wing captured Afghanistan and the Sindh province.
Question 30.
Why had Genghis Khan canceled his campaign in North India (Assam)?
Answer:
His soothsayer namely Shaman reported him some ill- omens and dubious
results in case marched through that route.
Question 31.
When was Temujin proclaimed as Genghis Khan?
Answer:
It was in 1206 when he was awarded the title of the universal ruler (i.e.
Genghis Khan).
Question 32.
How were the military achievements of Genghis Khan astounding?
Answer:
1. All soldiers were habitual since their birth, in hunting operations through
uneven terrain and mountain topography.
2. Horse riding was a common practice added to every Mongol since his tender
age.
Question 33.
What were fighting weapons to destroy fortified encampments?
Answer:
These were-siege engines and naphtha bombs.
Question 34.
What had signaled the emergence of new political trends?
Answer:
It was the defeat of Mongols at the hands of Hungarian steppes and Egyptian
forces.
Question 35.
Why would have the Mongols defeated at the hands of the Egyptian military?
Answer:
It was because-
Question 38.
What attempts Genghis Khan made for reinforcement of his confederacy?
Answer:
Question 40.
What do you understand by the term ulus?
Answer:
That term refers to newly conquered but not fixed territories.
Question 41.
Mention the distribution of Ulus among four sons of Genghis Khan.
Answer:
Russian steppes were given to Jochi, Transoxiana steppe, and lands north of
Pamir were given to Chaghatai, Ogden was made Crown Khan and Toluy
was given ancestral lands of Mongolia and smaller towns like Baihaq and Tun
(Kurdistan). This predominant vice has dusted on his virtues like the greatest
leader of all time, convener of scattered tribal society to unite, ruler of a grand
trans-continental empire, and keeper of trade routes well restored. Actually,
the contrasting images are not simply a case of dissimilar perspectives, they
should make us pause and reflect on how one perspective can completely
erase all others.
Question 42.
What tax did Genghis Khan impose on nomads?
Answer:
They would give one-tenth of horses or livestock as – provisions. It was called
the quaker tax.
Question 43.
What communication System did Genghis Khan maintain?
Answer:
The messengers were appointed in outposts at regularly N spaced distances.
It was a squad Of horse riders. ..j
Question 44.
How did ecological devastation caused in parts of Khurasan?
Answer:
As the Khans’ were busy in campaigns, they left qanats (underground canals)
unmaintained and it resulted in an expansion of the desert
Question 45.
What is the contradistinction between a chronicle report of I gory killings by
Genghis Khan and an eye witness report on the same?
Answer:
The II Khanid chronicle reported the killing of 30,000 soldiers while an
eyewitness report states that only 400 soldiers had defended the citadel of
Bukhara viz only 400 were killed.
Question 2.
Do you understand why Genghis Khan did have an identity as a conqueror
and brutal murderer of the people in spite of his being the greatest leader of
all time?
Answer:
Generally, the predominant virtue or vice imprints the image of the ruler in
the head and heart of the common populace. Genghis Khan had ordered
massacres in cities like Nishapur, Herat, Baghdad, and smaller towns like
Baihaq and Tun (Kurdistan). This predominant vice has dusted on his virtues
like the greatest leader of all time, convener of scattered tribal society Lo
unite, ruler of a grand transcontinental empire, and keeper of trade routes
well restored. Actually, the contrasting images are not simply a case of
dissimilar perspectives, they should make us pause and reflect on how one
perspective can completely erase all others.
Question 3.
What had ensured creating so vast an empire of the Mongols? Discuss?
Answer:
The only thing that remained a powerful force was the inspiration of the
nomadic empire i.e. Genghis Khan. Apart from that driving force, we can not
understand the inspiration that led to the confederation of fragmented groups
of people in the pursuit of an ambition to create an empire merely on going
over the nature of documentation on the Mongols and any other nomadic
regime. Presently, Mongolia is enjoying freedom from Soviet control and it
has revered Genghis Khan as a great natural hero and his achievements are
recognized with pride. Thus, Genghis Khan has once again appeared as an
iconic figure for the Mongol people among the populace there.
Question 4.
Discuss the implication of the term barbarian.
Answer:
This term has been derived from the greek Barbaros i.e. non-Greek, It was the
name of the person on the basis of his language sounded i.e. Barbar.
Analogous to children unable to speak or reason properly, cowardly,
effeminate, luxurious, cruel, slothful, greedy, and politically unable to govern
themselves; were depicted as barbarians in Greek texts. This word was used
in the sense of stereotype by Romans for the German tribes, the Gauls, and the
Huns. Steppe barbarians were addressed with different terms but none of
them carried a positive meaning.
Question 5.
Reproduce the warning that was given by Monglke, the grandson of Genghis
Khan to the French ruler Louis IX and enunciate the hidden intention
thereupon.
Answer:
We can reproduce said warning as under-“In heaven, there is only the Eternal
sky, on Earth, there is only one lord, Genghis Khan, the son of Heaven when
by the power of the eternal Heaven, the whole world from the rising of the
sun to its setting shall be at one in joy and peace, then it will be made clear
what we are going to do if when you have understood that the degree of the
Eternal Heaven, you are unwilling to pay attention and believe it, saying,
“Our country is far away, our mountains are mighty, our sea is vast,” and in
this confidence, you bring an army against us, we know what we can do. He
who made easy what was difficult and near, what was far off, the Eternal
Heaven Knows.”
1. Genghis Khan’s empire had covered and going to cover the limit of rising and
setting sun throughout the world.
2. It has been stated that Genghis Khan’s rule over the earth is predetermined by
the Eternal Heaven.
3. It reveals a strong determination to bring peace and joy to the entire world
and its inhabitants.
4. It threatens Louis IX that it is worth no use considering that the distance and
inaccessible territories would defend France.
5. The last line lays emphasis on an assumption that nowhere is far or near and
easy or difficult under the grace of the Eternal Heaven.
Conclusion-The above five important points have been aptly soaked in the
creation of psychological terror, a eulogy of the Mongol power and
demonstration through speech a strong determination and invincible
courage’. His strong faith in the Almighty has also been reflected through this
warning.
Question 6.
Discuss the rise of new political trends in Mongols after Genghis Khan?
Answer:
In the period after Genghis Khan and particularly after the 1260s, the original
impetus of campaigns could not be sustained in the west. Western Europe
and Egypt were within the grasp of Mongol forces yet their retreat from the
Hungarian Steppes and defect at the hands of the Egyptian forces exhibited a
major change in their attitude. In the first two generations, descendants of
Jochi and Ogodei jointly controlled the office of Genghis Khan.
1. There were all group members, recruited in the military consisting of the
largest unit of soldiers (Turman) i.e. 10,000 soldiers. It integrated different
tribes and clans with a new identity.
2. A new form of the military had to serve under Genghis Khan’s four sons and
captains of army units (Royan).
3. Genghis Khan’s true friends were given representation in statecraft addressed
as Anda.
4. A rank of Naukar was given to fourth-grade employees.
5. Four uluses were divided under the rule of Genghis Khan’s four sons.
6. Genghis Khan envisaged that his sons would rule the empire collectively like
a federation.
7. Military contingents (Tama) of the individual princes were
placed in each ulus.
8. Quriltan was conferred with power to decide dominion share of the family
members, campaigns, distribution of booty, pasture land, and succession.
Question 8.
Why was there a conflict of interest between pastoralists and peasants? Would
Genghis Khan express sentiments of this nature in a speech to his nomad
commanders?
Answer:
Pastoralists were used to graze the fields of peasants and occupy the area they
owned. Their interest was different because peasants had turned into traders
while the pastoralists had an only games, furs of animals, etc. to exchange
with them. In order to gain more share of profit in trade, they sometimes
looted them of foodgrains and iron utensils. During the decade of 1230, the
Mongols waged their successful war against the chin dynasty in north China
and committed a massacre of the peasantry and their fields were converted
into pasture lands.
However, this contradiction was eased’ in the decade of 1290 when Ghazan Khan,
a descendant of Genghis Khan’s youngest son Toluy warned family members
and other generals to avoid pillaging the peasantry. No, Genghis Khan would
have not expressed the sentiments as these were expressed by Ghazan Khan
in the decade of 1290.
Question 9.
How can you say Yasa, an extremely empowering ideology?
Answer:
It is because of the following significance added to it-
1. It addressed the Mongol’s ruling over urban societies with their respective
histories, cultures, and laws.
2. Mongols could protect their identity and distinctiveness through their
ancestral Yasa.
3. It was although a compilation of the traditions of the Mongol tribes yet
referred to a GenghisKhan’s Code of Law.
4. Yasa sewed Mongol people around a body of shared beliefs and
acknowledged their affirming to Genghis Khan and his descendants.
5. It gave them, the confidence to return their ethnic identity and impose their
law upon their defeated subjects.
Question 10.
Did the meaning of Yasa alter over the four centuries separating Genghis
Khan from Abdullah Khan? Why did Hafiz-i – Tanish make a reference to
Genghis Khan’s as in connection with Abdullah Khan’s prayer at the Muslim
festival ground?
Answer:
No, instead of any alteration separating Genghis Khan from Abdullah Khan;
it became more coherent and interwoven over the four centuries. Hafiz-i-
Tanish, the chronicler had referred to Genghis Khans “as” in order to exhibit
how even the tricky and extorting act of him i.e. warning rich Muslim
residents at the festival ground in Bukhara to confess that they were a sinner
and he would compensate for their sins by parting with their hidden wealth-
had been remembered as if any noble-deed was performed at that ground. He
says that Genghis Khan’s distant descendant Abdullah Khan had offered his
holiday prayers that place.
Question 11.
What developments took place during the period 1236 to 1260?
Answer:
Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan launched a campaign in Russia, Poland,
and Austria along 1236-42. Mongke launched fresh campaigns in Iran and
China during 1253-55 and events like the capture of Baghdad, the end of the
Abbasid caliphate, the establishment of the II- Khanid state of Iran under
Hulegn, and conflict took place between the Jochids and the II Khans.
Question 12.
What developments did take place in Nomadic Empires by the middle of the
thirteenth century?
Answer:
We can sum-up these alterations as under:
1. Pressure on the peasantry was witnessed greater in areas distant from the
original steppe habitat of the nomads.
2. Common patrimony, shared by all sons of Genghis Khan; was gradually
replaced by Individual dynasties.
3. The term Ulus was earlier used for territories not fixed but it carried meaning
which declared it as territorial domination.
Question 13.
Speeches activate motors in the human mind so far as the audience set-on on
the action immediately. Why does it happen? Reproduce the extract of the
warning given by Mongke, the grandson of Genghis Khan to the French
Ruler.
Answer:
Perhaps it takes place owing to the skill of oration. A speech could be made
effective when observation, experiments are done, generalization made and
the conclusion arrived at; with the determination of action thereupon. These
stages naturally make the m^n bold enough and he renders both touchy and
catchy speech. That speech with its echoes activates motor nerves
immediately into; the conscience of the audience and with the same pace, the
action is decided. Sometimes, the speeches are fumed into crusades which
result in undue troubles to the populace and the nation simultaneously.
Reproduction of vital part of the speech cum warning-“In heaven, there is only
the eternal sky, On Earth, there is only one lord, Genghis Khan, the son of
Heaven-When by the power of the Eternal Heaven the whole world from the
rising of the sun to its setting shall be at one in joy and peace, then it will be
made clear what we are going to do.”
Vital elements-
(A) Location and conditions of a terrain-The map of the entire Mongol Empire
exhibits is surrounded by a number of seas and oceans and particularly, we
will discuss here, Central Asia’s Steppes where Temujin was born. It was the
modem state of Mongolia where during the lifetime of Genghis Khan; a
majestic landscape with wide horizons, rolling plains, surrounded by
snowcapped Altai mountains in the west, the arid Gobi desert in the South
were existed and drained by the Qnon and Selenga rivers was topography
and landforms. Moreover, there were numerous springs from the melting
snow of the hills in the north and the west. There was, therefore, no dearth of
the game, however, in small quantum, available in a good season.
Owing to the similarity of language, tribes like Tatars, Kotan, and Manchus were
jointly called the Mongols. There was a Turkish tribe also in the west of the
Steppe. Thus, there was a multi-cultural and multi¬social assembly of people
under the Nomadic Empire.
C. Childhood and its percussions-Child Temujin were born near the Onon River
in the north of present-day Mongolia. His clan was Borjigid and a group of
family was known as Kiryat. He saw his father i.e. chieftain of Kiryat
murdered at his tender age. He also witnessed his mother’s problems in
course of rearing his brothers and step-brothers. He suffered all ills prevailing
in the tribe and he was once captured, enslaved and his wife was kidnapped
soon after his, marriage.
These shocks became a source of his intelligence as these made him more aware of
society than his physical age expected. We t can see the percussions in the
form of ghost massacre, he committed ‘ through the army on conquests of
Nishapur, Herat, Baghdad, etc. cities and smaller towns like Nasa, Baihaq,
and Tun (Kuhistan Province). The instinct of cruelty thus had born and
nurtured since the tender age of Genghis Khan.
Temujin had to fight in order to get back his wife. Some friends ( like Jamuqa
were turned hostile, his father’s murderers (Tatars) were thrust into his
mental faculty, and the spirit of revenge cooked therein. He soon developed a
strategy, however, unfair and defeated all his rivals r and murdered them.
Thus, emotions backed motivation, became the highway to move in plunder,
loot, arson, and massacre, he committed fearlessly but in a facade of his being
a deputy of God, the almighty.
His tricky mind had its manifestation in the form of the warning to Louis IX by
Mongke, his grandson, his own declaration, decree before the populace of rich
at the festival ground, etc. In the festival ground, how in a shrewd manner, he
says-‘O people know that you have committed great sins and that the great
ones among you have committed these sins. If you ask me what proof I have
for these vices, I say it is because I am the punishment of God. If you had not
committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon
you.
(d) Skill of uniting people–Genghis Khan created a vague impression that he had
born as a magistrate of God to punish the sinners. He first met the people of
diverse tribes, applied the statement of suppression of ally and explained to
them how could they fight against exploitation made by Chinese rulers at that
time. The similarity of language helped him the most. He expressed this
rubbish to rule the world, made them bold by saying that he had a mandate
from God. The extract of his grandson’s warning to Louis IX makes it face-“In
Heaven, there is truly one Eternal sky, on the earth, there is only one lord.
Thus, they constituted a confederacy of Mongols and conducted war
campaigns. He attained the title of Genghis Khan (Universal Ruler) under a
proclamation.
Mongol rulers were shrewd ones, as we can reproduce the difference between the
speech made by Genghis Khan and mentioned by Hafiz-i-Tanish, a chronicler
about the same place. That place was festival ground where Genghis Khan
declared all rich as sinners and himself as to punish them by Eternal Heaven.
He further says that they can compensate for sins by parting with their hidden
wealth.
Thus he very shrewd way, compelled the populace to give him all their hidden
wealth in a mixture of emotional exploitation and physical coercion (terror).
At the same place, the chronicler writes that his distant descendant Abdullah
Khan had gone to offer holiday prayer there. It exhibits that the entire race of
great Khans was shrewd enough in misrepresentation of facts and strong
affinity and reverence for its founder.
They also laid a claim, Genghis Khan’s being not less than other law¬givers like
Moses and the king Soloman. A blend of all tribal people was recruited as
soldiers and officers were deployed at the places/ territories which were not
their native-lands.
Eg. Chinese secretaries deployed in Iran and Persians in China. Genghis Khan
divided the empire into Uluses and made each son governor in each such
division.