6. Part Two; In Alliance with the Horde, Rus 2 Russia
Birth of the Mongol Empire, The Chinese chroniclers, describing the peoples who lived to the north of China, in the Great Steppe, called all the steppe-dwellers by one name, "Tatars".
The thirteenth century is undoubtedly the most difficult century of Russian history. No other era spawned more historical myths than the last century of Kievan Rus'. There is a good reason for this: the ethnogenesis of Rus', as we have already said, at the end of the XII century entered a phase of obscuration. If it had been limited to the undisturbed development of the ethnic system, in this case we would have recorded only a formidable increase of destructive tendencies, which began to show themselves already in the second half of the twelfth century.
The history of Western Europe in the thirteenth century is even described in great detail, which cannot be said about the history of the Mongol ulus. However, without the history of the Mongols, the Russian conflicts of not only the 13th century, but of the following centuries as well, would inevitably remain incomprehensible to us. Therefore, leaving Europe for a while, let us move far east and become acquainted with the people who played a decisive role in the history of Eurasia in the 13th and 15th centuries.
______________________
In the middle of the Eurasian continent stretches the Great Steppe, bounded by Siberian taiga to the north and mountain systems to the south. It is clearly divided into two unlike parts: the Altai, the Saur, the Tarbagatai and the Western Tien Shan. The eastern part of the Great Steppe is called Inner Asia, with Mongolia, Dzungaria, and Eastern Turkestan. From Siberia, Inner Asia is separated by the Sayans and the Hamar-Daban and Apple ranges, from Tibet - Kunlun and Nanshan, from China - the Great Wall of China, exactly corresponding to the border between the dry steppe and subtropics in the north. The western part of the Great Steppe includes not only present-day Kazakhstan, but also the steppes of the Black Sea region. In some periods the Great Steppe even covered part of the territory of Hungary - the so-called Pashtu.
Paper production in China. The first half of the 19th century.
Geographically speaking, the entire Great Steppe is a single, well-defined region, although the climatic differences between its two parts are quite pronounced. Atmospheric currents carrying rain or snow clouds have their own laws of motion. Cyclones from the Atlantic bring moisture only as far as the mountain barrier separating the eastern steppe from the western steppe. Over Mongolia there is a huge anticyclone. The air is dry and clear, so that sunlight can easily penetrate to warm the surface of the Earth. In winter, there is very little rainfall and snow, and herbivorous animals can forage for dry grass by shoveling at it. In spring melted soil heats up the lower layers of air, and they rise up. Dry air from Siberia in the north, and moist air from the Pacific Ocean in the south, invades the empty space on the ground. The moisture is enough to keep the steppe green and feed ungulates for the whole year. And where livestock is fed, people thrive as well. That's why favorable conditions for creating mighty nomadic powers of the Huns, Turks, and Mongols were formed just in the east of the Great Steppe.
In the west of the Steppe the thickness of the snow cover exceeds 30 cm. Moreover, during thaws snow often forms very thick crusts, and then cattle die of fodderlessness. In this connection, cattlemen are forced to drive their cattle to the mountain pastures - djeyliau in summer and make hay in winter. Recall that the Cumans, who lived in the Black Sea area, had permanent winter huts, and therefore were dependent on the Old Russian princes, because, restrained in their movement, they could not evade strikes of the regular army. That is why in the western part of the Great Steppe there was a different way of life and different conditions for the steppe people to become independent than in the eastern part.
But nothing in the world is permanent. Cyclones and monsoons sometimes change direction and pass not over the steppe, but over the taiga or even the tundra. Then the lack of moisture expands the Gobi and Betpak-Dala deserts, pushing plants and animals northward towards Siberia and southward towards China. Following the grasses needed for livestock and the animals that are hunted, the human inhabitants of the Great Steppe are also leaving. It was during such periods of drying up of the Great Steppe that contact between the nomads and the sedentary population of China became inevitable.
В. В. Vereshchagin. A camel in the courtyard of a caravanserai
В. В. Vereshchagin. Kirghiz Kibitkas on the Chu River
The Chinese chroniclers, describing the peoples who lived to the north of China, in the Great Steppe, called all the steppe-dwellers by one name, "Tatars", just as we, speaking "Euro-People", call the Swedes and the Spaniards by these words. In reality, however, the ethnonym "Tatars" was the name of only one of the many steppe tribes. The Tatars themselves were divided into three branches: "white," "black," and "wild. The "white" Tatars, the Onghuts, lived along the border of the Great Steppe and were subordinate to the Manchurian Qin Empire; they guarded the country and were paid for it. They therefore had silk clothes for their wives, porcelain dishes and other foreign utensils. The "Black" Tatars occupied the open steppe north of the Gobi Desert and were subject to their Khans, despising the "white" Tatars who had sold their freedom and independence for rags and cups. They themselves grazed the cattle that fed them and clothed them, for they wore clothes made of hides, now called sheepskin coats.
However, the "black" Tatars were no less despised by the "wild" Tatars who occupied territories even further north. The "wild" Tatars lacked even the rudiments of statehood, because they obeyed only the elders in their clan, and if submission became burdensome, the younger could always secede. The economy of the "wild" Tatars was based on hunting and fishing, as they valued their will more than anything else. For a girl from the "wild" Tatars to marry a "black" Tatar who would force her to milk cows or graze sheep was considered a humiliating punishment. As we can see, steppe tribesmen of different tribes had different stereotypes of behavior. Attitudes to power, to kinship, to nature - all distinguished "white", "black" and "wild" Tatars among themselves.
One of the smaller peoples of the Great Steppe were the Mongols, who lived in the borderland of "black" and "wild" Tatars, in eastern Transbaikalia. The Mongols considered Borte-Chino (Grey Wolf) and Alan-Goa (Spotted Lan) their forefathers. By the XI-XII centuries, the forest-steppe tracts north of the Onon River were inhabited by several Mongolian clans, which included the surrounding aborigines.
The Keraites roamed along the Selenga and Tole rivers in central Mongolia. The Keraites were ruled by khans, respected people who received appropriate positions depending on their popularity with the people. They lived not in family communities of two or three yurts (ails), but in kurens, where many yurts were placed together, surrounded by carts and guarded by soldiers, because the Keraites were afraid of attack. They, not unlike the neighboring tribes.
In 1009 they converted to Nestorian Christianity and since then have been a very devout people.
To the west of the Keraites, in the foothills of Altai, lived Naymans (the Mongolian word "nayma" means "eight", which is how many clans their tribe had). Naymans were descendants of Kidans, displaced by the Jurchens (Manchus) from their former settlements. The shores of Lake Baikal east of the present Irkutsk and Verkhneudinsk were occupied by the brave and bellicose Merkit tribe, and in Sayan-Altai settled the Oirat tribes. All the tribes of the Great Steppe often feuded with each other, but the conflicts were of a border skirmish nature.
The life of nomads was prosperous, but difficult and, most importantly, unpromising. All highest positions could only be obtained by birthright, which was very difficult to determine, and it happened that a two-year-old child got the right to become a khan and have the title of noon (prince), while a wise old man or a mighty warrior had no such opportunity. But steppe dwellers would have lived their habitual life in the midst of their native land, spending it in everyday work and clashes with neighbors, if the passionate push of the 11th century that passed over the Baikal width hadn't caused the outburst of ethnogenesis of two warring nations: Mongols and Chzhurchens.
Warrior on horseback. From the tomb of the Xianbi warlord Lu Rui. 577 г.
Terracotta figurine. 3rd century B.C. China
Among the steppe people already by the end of the 11th century the emergence of people with non-traditional behavior became noticeable. Brave young men capable of action and seeking rewards for their exploits in the campaigns and wars, were left behind by those who were of higher birth in origin, but much inferior to them in ability. And so, these people with a new outlook left their kurens for the forests and mountains. They lived either by hunting or by stealing sheep and horses from their neighbors. The neighbors, of course, rounded up and exterminated the violators of traditions, but the number of people who left their camps was growing, and they were called "people of long will".
The Mongols were paralleled by the Jurchen passionary upsurge, which led to the conquest of the Kidan kingdom in Northern China by the Manchus.
The Mongols and Manchus were traditionally hostile, which manifested itself in the form of raids, open clashes, etc. But with the growth of energy potentials of these peoples the nature of confrontation changed. The following legendary justification of the Mongol-Manchzhurian enmity is known. It is said that a fortune-teller predicted to the Jurchen Bogdo-khan, the emperor of Northern China, that his people would be destroyed by the nomadic Mongols. The emperor decided to prevent the strengthening of the Mongols and began to send annual military detachments to their settlements, which exterminated men, seized women and children, priled them to China and sold them into slavery. The Chinese bought captives to work on the plantations. Some Mongols managed to escape. Naturally, they remembered the wrongs done to them and "vengeance had entered their minds and blood”.
When the constant raids of the Manchus became intimidating, the Mongols became aware of the need to unite. Their tribes organized themselves and elected a khan. The first Mongol khan, who proved to be an important ruler, was named Khabul. Khabul-khan ruled in the 30s-40s of the 12th century and was able to stop the onslaught of the Manchus. At a time when the Chinese, having suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Jurchens, were forced to cede large territories to them, the Mongols defeated the Jurchens and forced them to draw back their troops from the Mongol borders. However, soon after the death of Khabul Khan (1149), the Mongol tribal alliance disintegrated, as the commoners, who constituted the majority, did not consider themselves subordinated to the "men of long will" and gave them very little support. The Mongols preferred to remain nomadic, with their villages in the north, where they were safe, and their kurens in the south, where they were threatened by the Tatars and the Jurchens.
The Manchu empire, on the other hand, became extremely strong during that period. The Jurchens used a cunning and very cruel method of dealing with the steppes - they kidnapped talented Mongol leaders and put them to a painful death: they nailed them to a wooden donkey and put them out in the southern sun. The man died rather quickly, but in terrible agony.
During these same years, dissension continued in the Keraite tribe. A legitimate heir named Togrul was betrayed by his father's enemies to the Merkits. His father set him free, but Togrul was seized by the Tatars. He fled from the Tatars and took the power that belonged to him. However, the opposition among the Keraites was very strong as the young khan's powerful relatives were always trying to prevent his unification using their kurins. Togrul had to flee his country from time to time. The Naimans, who lived in the westernmost part of Mongolia, allied themselves with the Kerait opposition and with the Manchus. It seemed that the peoples of the Great Steppe would never be able to unite their forces to defend themselves against the enemy. The future of the steppe peoples seemed bleakest.
Genghis's Youth (Here there are many details, but leading to understand who is Genghis.)
In the middle of the 12th century, after the deaths of several Mongol khans, the defense of the Mongols against the Jurchens and their allies, the Tatars, was headed by a descendant of Khabul Khan Yesugei-Bagatur ("baga-tur" means "bogatyr"). A man of courage and determination, Yesugei-Bagatur was not a Khan, but the head of the Borjigin family, which inhabited the area north of the modern Russian-Mongolian border, where the city of Nerchinsk is located today.
As a very young man, Yesugei was once hunting in the steppe with a sap and suddenly saw a Merkit pulling a girl of exceptional beauty in a cart pulled by a very good horse. Yesugei called his brothers and the Mongols rushed out in pursuit of the prey. When she saw the pursuers, the girl wept bitterly and said to the Merkit, her fiancé: "You see these people - they will kill you, leave me, go away, I will remember you forever." Then she took off her shirt and gave it to him as a keepsake. The Mongols were approaching - Merkit quickly harnessed his horse, burned it with a lash and escaped the pursuit. And the brothers harnessed their horses to a cart and, bringing the weeping girl home, said: "Forget about your groom, our Yesugei lives without a woman" - and married her to Esugei. Esugei's wife, whose name remains in history, was called Oelun.
Genghis Khan
The marriage turned out to be a happy one. In 1162 Oelun gave birth to the firstborn son Temujin, and later to three more sons: Khasar, Khachiun-Beki, Temuge - and daughter Temulun. Two more sons were born to Yesugei by his second wife Sochikhel (the Mongols allowed and encouraged polygamy): Bekter and Belgutei.
When Temujin grew up and was 9 years old, according to Mongolian custom he had to be engaged. His father arranged for Temudgin's engagement to the parents of a beautiful 10-year-old girl named Borte from the neighboring Khonkirat tribe and took his son to his future father-in-law's camp. Leaving Temudgin with the Khonkirat people to get him used to his bride and future relatives, Esugei set off on his way back. On his way he saw several people sitting by the fire, who, as was their custom in the steppe, invited him to share a meal. Esugei rode closer and only then realized that they were Tatars. It was useless to run away because the Tatars would chase him, and Yesugei's horse was tired. And no one could touch the guest at the marching fire, according to the steppe tradition.
Esugei had no choice - he accepted the invitation and, having eaten, left safely. But on the way Esugei felt bad and decided that he was poisoned. On the fourth day he reached home, he died, bequeathing to his family revenge on the Tatars. It is hard to say how right was Esugei in his suspicions, but another thing is important: he supposed that the Tatars could poison him, that is to commit an unheard-of-before violations of the customs of the steppe tribesmen.
His father's companions went to fetch Temudgin and brought the boy home. As the eldest son he became the head of the clan, and then it turned out that the whole strength of the tribe was in the will and energy of Yesugei. His authority forced people to go on campaigns, to defend themselves against the enemy, and to forget local scores for the sake of the common cause. But since Yesugei was not Khan, his influence ended with his death. The tribesmen had no obligations to Yesugei's family and left the Borjigins, driving away all their cattle, essentially condemning Yesugei's family to starvation: the eldest, Temujin, was only 9 years old, and the others were even younger.
The initiators of such cruelty were the Taijiuts, a tribe that was hostile to Yesugei. Then Oelun grabbed Yesugei's banner, rode after the departing men, and shamed them: "Aren't you ashamed to abandon your chief's family!" Some returned but then left again, and all the difficulties of raising children and getting food for the family fell on the shoulders of the two women, Oelun and Sochikhel, the eldest and youngest of Yesugei's wives. They used to catch marmots to get at least some meat, and gather wild garlic - ramson. Temud-zhin went to the river and tried to shoot taimen. Like all Mongols, he knew how to shoot through water, even though water refracts light, distorting the image, and it is very difficult to hit the target. Even in the summer, the family lived on a starvation diet, making provisions for the winter.
Meanwhile, the tribesmen who had insulted and abandoned Yesugei's family continued to follow it, as they feared well-deserved revenge. Apparently, they managed to make Bekter, Sochikhel's eldest son, a spy. Bekter, feeling his power, began to behave disrespectfully toward Oelun's children.
Temudgin and Khasar could not endure the taunts of their half-brother and shot him with a bow.
The Mongol army
A miniature from the Book of Kings
By this time the characters and inclinations of Esugei's children had already quite developed. Khasar was a brave and strong lad, an excellent marksman. Temuge became a gentle and obedient son. He took care of his mother and stepmother. Hachuun-Beki had no virtues. Both friends and enemies remarked on Temugin's endurance, willpower, and tenacious determination to reach his goal. Of course, all these qualities frightened the enemies of the Borjigins, and therefore the Taijiyuts attacked the yurt of the Yesugei family. Temujin managed to escape into the taiga, where, as the Mongolian source says, there were not even paths along which "a fed snake could crawl".
After nine days, tormented by hunger, Temudgin was forced to surrender. He went out into the steppe, where they captured him and brought him to the camp. What was he hunted for? Yes, apparently for the murder of Bekter, the Taijiut spy. The Taijuts did not kill Temudgin. Targutai-Kiril- tuh, Esugei's friend, was able to save the young man from death, but not from punishment. They put a shoe on Temudzhin - two wooden boards with a hole for his neck, which were tied together. The shackle was an excruciating punishment: the man could not eat or drink, nor even drive away a fly that had settled on his face. In addition, the boards had to be held with his hands at all times so that they would not crush his neck.
On the surface, Temujin endured everything without complaint. But one day, during the celebration of the full moon, the taizhiyuts had a big party and got drunk, leaving the prisoner in the custody of some weak guy, who was not given aki (milk vodka). Temudzhin seized a moment, hit the guy on the head with a block and ran away, holding the planks with his hands. But he didn't run away that far.
The guard, coming to his senses, shouted: "I am not a man of the world, I am not a man of the world. The watchman, coming to himself, shouted: "I've lost the well man!" - and the whole drunken crowd of Taijiuts rushed to look for the fugitive. The moon was shining brightly, everything was visible as in the daytime. Suddenly Temujin realized that a man was standing over him and looking him in the eye. It was Sorgan-Shira of the Suldus tribe, who lived in a taiga settlement and was engaged in his craft of making koumiss. He said to Temudgin: "That's why they do not like you, because you are so shrewd. Lie down, don't be afraid, I won't betray you.
Sorgan-Shira returned to the pursuers and offered to search everything once more. It is easy to understand that the prisoner was not discovered. The drunken Taijiuts wanted to sleep and, having decided that the man in the stocks would not get far, stopped searching. Then Temujin got out of the water and went to his rescuer. Sorgan-Shira, seeing that the well-timer creeps into his yurt, was frightened and already wanted to chase Temudgin away, but here Sorgan-Shira's children protested: "No, what are you, father. When a predator drives a bird into the thicket, the thicket also saves it. We cannot drive him out, since he is a guest." They took off Temudgin's deck, chopped it up and threw it into the fire. Sor-gan-shira had only one way out - to save Temudgin, so he gave him a horse, a bow, and two arrows, but did not give him flint and a flintlock. The horses grazed in the steppe, the bow was kept on the upper ledge of the yurt's door, and it was easy to steal them, while every steppe-dweller carried flint and flintlock with him. If Temudgin had been captured and the flint or flintlock of Sorgan-Shira had been found in his possession, the savior's family and he himself would have had a bad time.
Genghis Khan's address to his subjects. Miniature from a manuscript. 1397 г.
Temujin rode away and after some time found his family. The Borjigins immediately migrated to another place, and the Taijiuts could not find them again. This circumstance shows that Bekter really was an informer: after his death there was no one to inform the enemies about the places where the Borjigins roamed. Then Temudgin married his naked wife Borte. Her father kept his word - the wedding took place. Borte's dowry was a luxurious sable coat. Temudgin brought Borte home... and immediately "took" the precious coat from her. He realized that he would not be able to stand against his numerous enemies without support so he made his way to the most powerful of the steppe chiefs of the time, Wan-han of the Kerait tribe. Van-khan had once been a friend of Temudgin's father, and he managed to enlist the support of Van-khan by reminding him of this friendship and bringing a luxurious gift - a sable coat of Borte.
But no sooner had Temujin, happy with the achieved success, returned home than the Borjigin camp was attacked again. This time the Merkits attacked, forcing the family to hide on Mount Burkhan-Khaldun. Borte and Esugei's second wife Sochikhel were taken prisoner. Temudgin, having lost his beloved wife, was in despair, but not in disarray. Borjigin's messengers rode to his brother-in-law Jamukha-Sechen from the Jajirat tribe and the Keraiti Wang-khan. The united army was led by Jamukha, who was a talented commander.
Guard Posts
Vanguard
Left wing Center Right wing
Same, Vanguards
Left, center and Right
The Tumen fighting order in the 13th century.
In late autumn of 1180, when the first snow fell, the warriors of Jamukha and Temujin suddenly attacked the Merkit nomadic tribe to the east of Lake Baikal. The enemies, taken by surprise, fled. Temudgin wanted to find his Borte and called her by name. Borte heard him and, running out of the crowd of women, grasped the stirrup of her husband's horse. And Sochikhel left with the kidnappers. It seems that she began to perform the same espionage duties as her son Bekter: for there was no one else but her to tell the Merkits where the Borjigins' nomad camp was and how they could organize an attack. Sochikhel did not return, and in vain her son, good-natured Belgutei, who loved his mother very much, demanded that the Merkits return her to him.
It must be said that although Belgutei was the son of a traitor and the brother of a traitor, Temud-jin, knowing that Belgutei himself was a pure-hearted man, valued him, loved him, and always saw him as his closest relative. This, of course, is not at all a bad characterization of a man of whom historians tried to make into a monster! When reading the writings of his contemporaries about Temudgin, one must remember that the people who wrote about him were extremely badly disposed toward him. In Islamic poetry, even the Devil (Iblis) says: "I am painted in the baths as ugly, because the brush is in the palm of my enemy".
The campaign against Merkits greatly increased Temudgin's authority and fame, but not among all inhabitants of the Steppe, but among their passionate part - "people of long will". The lonely gods saw that it made sense to support Esugei's enterprising son, even at the risk of his life. So, the process began which was provoked unknowingly by the khan of Kerait and the leader of the Dzha-jirat: the steppe daredevils began to gather around Temujin. In 1182 they elected him the khan with the title Chinggis.
The word "Chinggis" itself is incomprehensible. D. Banzavov, a Buryat researcher, believes that it is the name of one of the shamanic spirits. Others believe that the title came from the word "chingihu" - "to embrace", hence, "Chinggis" is the title of a person who had the fullness of power. Be that as it may, a new system of government was established among the Mongols. It is difficult to call its principle monarchical, because the khan was by no means autocratic, but, on the contrary, could not to reckon with the noyons - the heads of the tribes that joined him - and with his bogatyrs. Thus, the army reliably limited the will of the Khan.
The state system also did not provide for the right of succession, although, as a consequence, each new khan was elected only from the descendants of Genghis. But this was not a law, but an expression of the will of the Mongols themselves. Respecting Genghis Khan and his services to his people, they saw no reason to deny the succession to his descendants. In addition, the Mongols believed in the innate nature of human virtues and flaws. For example, the propensity to betray was considered as inalienable an attribute of heredity as the color of the eyes or hair, and therefore traitors were mercilessly exterminated along with their relatives.
The election as Khan came as a surprise to Temudgin: all other pretenders to the throne from among the descendants of Khabul-khan simply refused this onerous position. The news of Temudjin's election as Khan was greeted differently in the Steppe. Van-Khan was very pleased with such a turn of affairs, and the leader of the Jajirats, Jamukha, took the news of his brother-in-law's elevation with irritation. As a sin, Jamukha's brother Taichar was killed when he tried to drive away the herd from Genghis's possessions. On the pretext of revenge, Jamukha and his thirty-thousand-strong army moved on Genghis. Without achieving decisive success in the defeat of the enemy, the leader of the Jajirats limited himself to the brutal massacre of prisoners and retreated.
The manifestation of cruelty unaccustomed to the steppe people deprived Jamukha of popularity. The two largest and most combat-ready tribes, the Uruts and the Manguts, fled to Genghis. At the feast to celebrate the deliverance from Jamukha, Genghis Khan's brother Belgutei caught the thief who had stolen the bridle and leash from the horse-railing. The warrior Buri-Boko of the Chzhurki (Yurki) tribe interceded for the thief. There was a fight, which ended badly for Chzhurki. When Genghis on his next crusade against the Tatars, the Chzhurks, remembering the quarrel, did not come to their aid, but moved on to the defenseless Mongol yurts, robbed and killed a dozen weak elders. On his return from the campaign, Genghis decided to punish the Chzhurk tribe and defeated their nomads. The tribe's leaders were executed, and the surviving warriors were included in the Mongol khan's army.
The details of what happened later (1185-1197) are not precisely known, but the gap in historical knowledge can be filled with the help of information from the informative book "Meng-da Bei-lu" ("The Secret History of the Mongols"). "Meng-da Bei-lu reports that Temujin was captured by the Manchus and spent 11 years in prison. Then he somehow escaped and returned to the Steppe.
Now Genghis had to start all over again. The Mongols not only lost all the advantages they had gained during Genghis Khan's reign, but also quarreled with each other. Even Khasar abandoned his brother and went to serve the Khan of the Keraites.
But already in 1198 Temujin again stood at the head of a powerful horde. What allowed him to return so quickly and what was lost? Probably the increase of the Mongols' passionarity affected him again. The number of "people of long will" was growing and so was their desire to build their own life. Consequently, they still needed a leader who would order them to do what they wanted to do. After all, Genghis's rivals - the noble noyons Altan, Huchar, Sech-biki - dreamed of the old order based on arbitrariness, the right to outrage, and a lack of fidelity to commitments. Genghis's supporters, on the other hand, wanted a firm order, guarantees of mutual benefit and respect for their rights.
Understanding the aspirations of his followers, Genghis Khan formulated a new set of laws, the Great Yassu. Far from being a modification of customary law, the Yasa was based on the obligation of mutual assistance, a uniform discipline for all, and the condemnation of treachery without compromise.
Thus, Chinggis Khan's Yassa was essentially a regulation of the new stereotypical types of behavior advocated by the "people of the long will”. Nothing of the kind was known in Mongolian practice. Thus, according to the Great Yasa, every traitor, that is, person who has deceived those who trusted him, was put to death. The common people were beheaded, and people of high descent had their spines broken so that the blood would remain in the body of the murdered man. In this case, according to Mongolian belief, the murdered could be reborn to a new life. If the blood flowed onto the ground, the person lost not only his life but also his soul.
Similarly, the death penalty was imposed for not-helping a comrade-in-arms. For example, having met any fellow tribesman in the desert, every Mongol was obliged (!) to offer him something to drink and eat. After all, a traveler who was unable to replenish his strength could die, and then the violator was accused of murder. If a warrior lost his bow or quiver of arrows, the person behind him had to pick it up and return it to him. Violation of this rule also amounted to failure to render aid and was punishable by death.
Commander
darkness 100
1000 10
The organization of the Mongol army at the beginning of the 13th century.
The punishment by death was also for murder, fornication of a man, infidelity of a wife, theft, robbery, buying up stolen goods, hiding a runaway slave, witchcraft to the detriment of a neighbor, threefold failure to return a debt. Lesser crimes were punishable by exile in Siberia or a fine.
The Yasa, an unheard-of violation of the tribal customs, marked the end of the latent ("incubation") period of Mongolian ethnogenesis and the transition to the explicit period of the rising-phase with a new imperative: "Be what you must be!” The legislated principle of mutual assistance gave the passionate sub-ethnos of Genghis's supporters the opportunity to coordinate their efforts. However, most Mongols stubbornly preferred the familiar forms of tribal life than the life of a military horde.
The enemies of Genghis's Mongols were still Merkits, Naymans, Tatars, Jurchens and Oirats, while the only ally, the Keraites led by Wang Khan, were not reliable. The "people of long will," as before, had to defend themselves in order to live. But now the increased passionarity dictated them to strive for victories, for in those days only victory over enemies was able to rid the people of the constant threat. And wars of victory began. The entry of the Mongols into the arena of world military and political history was a turning point in the existence of the entire Eurasian continent.
For the Right to Life
At the very beginning of the thirteenth century, in 1202-1203, which were crucial for the whole situation in the Steppe, the Mongols defeated first the Merkits, and then the Keraites. The fact is that the keraites were divided into supporters of Genghis Khan and his opponents. The opponents of Genghis Khan were led by Nilkha, the son of Wang Khan and the rightful heir to the throne (the name of the Keraites, Nestorian Christians, corresponded to Illya). Nilkha had reason to hate Genghis Khan: at the time when Wang Khan had been an ally of Genghis, the Keraiti chief, seeing the latter's undeniable talents, wanted to pass on the Keraiti throne to him, bypassing his own son. This part of the Keraites clashed with the Mongols during Wang Khan's lifetime. Although the Keraites had a numerical superiority, the Mongols defeated them because they showed exceptional mobility and seized the enemy unawares.
The battle with the keraites displayed Chinggis Khan's character to the full. When Wang Khan and his son Nilkha fled from the battlefield, one of their naons with a small detachment detained the Mongols, saving their leaders from captivity. This naon was captured, brought before the eyes of Genghis, and he asked: "Why did you not leave, noyon, seeing the situation of your troops? You had both time and opportunity. He replied, "I served my khan and enabled him to escape, and my head is for you, O victor." Genghis Khan said: "It is necessary that all should imitate this man. See how brave, loyal, valiant he is. I cannot kill you, Noyon, I offer you a place in my army." Noyon became a thousand man commander and, of course, served Genghis Khan faithfully, because the Keraite horde disintegrated. Wang Khan himself died absurdly while trying to flee to the NaiMans. Their guards at the frontier saw the keraites and, without thinking twice, killed him and offered the old man's severed head to their khan.
Map of the Mongols' campaigns in China in the first half of the 13th century.
In 1204 there was an inevitable clash between Genghis Khan's Mongols and the powerful Naiman Khanate, a horde with a mixed population of Naiman Mongols and Turks who joined them. Once again Genghis's Mongols were victorious. Khan Naimans died, and his son Kuchluk (Gushluk) fled to his tribesmen - the Kara-Kitays. The defeated, as usual, were included in the horde of Genghis.
Mongol Warriors
In the eastern steppe there were no more tribes able to actively resist the new order, and in 1206 at the great kurultai Chinggis was elected khan again, but already for all of Mongolia. Thus, was born a common Mongol state. The only hostile tribe to him remained the old enemies of the Borjigins - the Merkits, but even they were forced out to the Irgiz River valley by 1208.
The growing passionarity of Genghis Khan's horde allowed it to assimilate different tribes and peoples quite easily and fruitfully. For, according to Mongol stereotypes of behavior, the khan could and should have demanded obedience, obedience to an order, and fulfillment of duties, but to demand that a person renounce his faith or customs was considered not only foolish but also immoral - the individual had the right to make his own choice. Such an arrangement appealed to many. In 1209, the independent state of the Uighurs sent ambassadors to Genghis Khan with a request that they be part of his ulus. The request was naturally granted, and Genghis Khan granted the Uighurs immense trading privileges. The caravan route went through Uyghuria, and the Uyghurs became part of the Mongol state and became rich by selling water, fruit, meat and "pleasures" at high prices to hungry caravan drivers.
The voluntary union of Uyghuria with Mongolia also proved beneficial to the Mongols. First, the steppe tribesmen, who had no written language of their own, borrowed the Uyghur script. (Interestingly, the first literate in the ulus was a Tatar by birth, an orphan boy named Shihi-Khutuhu, who was raised by the khan's mother, Oelun.) Secondly, with the incorporation of Uiguria, the Mongols went beyond their ethnic range and came into contact with other peoples of the Ecumene.
In 1210 a heavy war with the Jurchens broke out. The Mongol army was led by Genghis Khan, his sons Jochi, Chagatai, Ugedei and the general Dzhebe. Jurchen commanders.
They were not inferior to the Mongols in talent, but did not have troops similar to those of Genghis Khan. The Zhurchens suffered defeats but fought hard - the war lasted very long and ended only in 1234, after Genghis Khan's death, with the capture of the last strongholds of the Qing dynasty - Kaifing and Caizhou.
In Kaifeng the desperately resisting Jurchens simply starved to death. They were so weakened that they could not hold weapons in their hands. When they were asked to surrender, the warriors said, "As long as there are mice in the fortress, we catch them and eat them, but if there are none, we have wives and children, we will eat them, but we will not surrender. Such was the Jurchen passivity, which was in no way inferior to that of the Mongols.
In 1216 on the river Irgiz the Mongols completely defeated the remnants of Merkits, but were attacked by Khorezmians. More should be said about Khorezm. Khorezm turned out to be the most powerful of the states that emerged in the 12th century when the Seljuk dynasty was weakened. (7) The rulers of Khorezm, the viceroys of the ruler of Urgench, transformed into independent sovereigns and took the title of "Khorezmshakhs". They proved to be energetic, enterprising and warlike rulers. This enabled the Khorezmshakhs to conquer most of Central Asia. They even conquered southern Afghanistan, thus uniting Iran and Maverannahr under their rule. Khorezmshakhs created a huge state, whose main military force consisted of the Turks from the adjacent steppes: the Kangls (Pechenegs) and the Karluks.
But this state was fragile, despite the abundance of material wealth, brave warriors, and experienced Ulema, who served as diplomats. The regime of military dictatorship relied on the tribes alien to the local population, with a different language, customs and habits. Their religion was not different either, for the concept of religion among the Turkic soldiers was very amorphous. But the mercenaries knew how to make a mess! They caused discontent among the people of Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv, a whole number of Central Asian towns, where the population could not bear the tyranny of the Gulams.
The uprising in Samarkand, for example, resulted in the annihilation of the Turkic garrison, with the Turks being torn to pieces by the locals. Naturally, this was followed by a punitive operation by the Khorezmians, who suppressed the uprising and massacred the population of Samarqand in the most brutal manner. Other large and wealthy cities of Central Asia suffered in the same way.
(7) The Seljukid state was a state created by the Seljuk Turkmens in the 11th century on the territory of Khorasan, Persia, Kurdistan, Armenia and Asia Minor.
В. В. Vereshchagin. The Main Street in Samarkand from the height of the citadel in the early morning
In this setting, Muhammad the Khorezmshah decided to reassert his title of "Gazi" - "conqueror of infidels" - and to become famous for another victory over them. The opportunity presented itself in the very year 1216 when the Mongols, fighting with the Merkits, reached Irgiz. When Muhammad learned of the Mongols' arrival, he sent an army against them only because the nomads did not believe in Allah.
Khorezmian army attacked Mongols, but they were attacked in a rearguard fight, and have strongly shattered Khorezmian. Only the attack of the left wing, commanded by the son of Khorezmshakh, the talented general Jalal-ud-Din, rectified the situation. After that, the Khwarezmians withdrew, and the Mongols returned home: they did not intend to go to war with Khorezm, on the contrary, Genghis Khan wanted by all means to improve relations with Khorezmshakh. The Great Caravan Road went through Central Asia, and all the rulers of the lands through which it ran were rich on account of the duties paid by the merchants. Merchants willingly paid any duties, because they always shifted the costs to consumers without losing anything. Wanting to preserve all the advantages of the caravan route, the Mongols sought peace and quiet on their borders. The difference of beliefs, in their opinion, gave no reason for war and could not justify the bloodshed. Apparently, the Khorezmshakhs himself understood that the clash on the Irgiz River was episodic. In 1218. Muhammad sent a trade caravan to Mongolia. Peace was restored, especially since the Mongols had no time for Khorezm.
A little earlier, the Naiman prince Kuchluk started a new war with the Mongols, relying on the strength of his fellow tribesmen, the Kara-Khitais. Kuchluk was defeated, but it was not his military weakness that killed the tsarevitch. His strength was enough to fight against the small corps sent by Genghis Khan, but Kuchluk adopted a new faith, details of which are not available in the sources. In any case, this belief was not related to Islam, Christianity or Buddhism, but was an unknown cult. What is certain is that the entire population refused to obey Kuchluk. He fled, defended himself heroically, retreated to the Pamirs, and was overtaken and killed by the Mongols there. And the population of the Kara-Khitan Khanate obeyed Genghis Khan wholeheartedly and willingly.
The second time the Mongolo-Khoresmian relations were broken by the Turkic sardars (officers) and by the Khorezmshah himself, who approved of their unlawfulness. In 1219 a rich caravan, coming from the lands of Genghis Khan, approached the city of Otrar, the possession of Khorezmshah. The caravan stopped on the Syr Darya bank, and the merchants went to the city to buy supplies at the bazaar and have a bath. The merchants met two acquaintances, and one of them told the ruler of the city that the merchants were spies. The ruler immediately thought there was a good reason to rob the travelers. The merchants were killed and their property confiscated. The ruler of Otrar sent half of the loot to Khorezm, and Muhammad took the loot and, therefore, shared the responsibility for what he had done.
Genghis Khan sent ambassadors to find out what had caused such a strange incident. Muhammad was furious when he saw the infidels, and ordered some of the ambassadors to be killed, and some to be stripped naked and driven out to certain death in the steppe. Two or three of the Mongols eventually made it home and told them what had happened. Genghis Khan's anger had no limits. From the Mongol's point of view, the worst crimes took place: the deception of those who trusted and the murder of the guests. According to the Great Yasa, Genghis Khan could not leave unavenged those merchants who were killed in Otrar, nor those ambassadors who were insulted and killed by Khorezmshah. He had to fight, otherwise his fellow tribesmen would simply refuse to trust him.
Miniature from the "Book of Kings". Sixteenth century.
In Central Asia Khorezmshakh had at his disposal a regular army of four hundred thousand. But the Mongols, as our famous Orientalist V.V. Bartold established, had only 200 thousand militiamen. Genghis Khan demanded military assistance from allies. Warriors came from the Turks and Kara-Khitais, Uighurs sent a detachment of 5,000 men, only the Tangut ambassador boldly replied, "If you do not have enough troops - do not fight. Genghis Khan considered the reply an insult and said: "Only a dead man could bear such an insult."
Thus, Genghis Khan threw the gathered Mongol, Uyghur, Turkic and Kara-Chinese troops on Khorezm. Khorezmshakh, having quarrelled with his mother Turkan-khatun, did not trust the military leaders connected with her by kinship. He was afraid of gathering them into a fist to repel the onslaught of the Mongols, and dispersed the army into garrisons. The Shah's best commanders were his own unloved son, Jalal-ud-Din, and the commandant of the fortress of Hojent, Timur-Melik. The Mongols took the fortresses one after another, and in Hodjent, even taking the fortress, they could not capture the garrison. Timur-Melik put his warriors on rafts and went away from pursuit along the wide Syr Darya River. The scattered garrisons could not hold back the advance of Genghis Khan's troops. Soon all the major cities of the Sultanate: Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv, Herat - were seized by the Mongols.
There is a well-established version of the Mongol takeover of Central Asian cities: "Wild nomads destroyed the cultural oases of agricultural peoples". This version is based on legends created by Muslim court historiographers. For example, Islamic historians reported the fall of Herat as a calamity in which the entire population of the city was massacred except for a few men who managed to escape in a mosque. They hid there, afraid to go out into the streets littered with corpses. Only wild beasts roamed the city and tormented the dead. After sitting up for a while and coming to their senses, these "heroes" went to distant lands to rob caravans in order to regain their lost wealth.
This is a typical example of myth-making. After all, if the entire population of a large city had been exterminated and laid corpses in the streets, then inside the city, particularly in a mosque, the air would have been contaminated with corpse poison, and those who hid there would simply have died. No predators, except jackals, live near the city, and even they very rarely enter the city. It was impossible for exhausted people to move a few hundred kilometers away from Herat to rob caravans, because they would have to walk, carrying heavy loads of water and provisions. Such an "outlaw", having met a caravan, would not have been able to rob it, as he would have been strong enough only to ask for water.
The Mongols' campaigns in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Southeastern Europe in the first quarter of the 13th century.
The information reported by historians about Merv is even more amusing. The Mongols took it in 1219 and also supposedly exterminated all the inhabitants there to the last man. But in 1220. Merv was restored, and the Mongols had to take the city again. And, finally, after another two years, Merv sent out a detachment of ten thousand men to fight against the Mongols.
The map of the Khorezm Shah state in the 11th-13th centuries.
The fruits of fervent fantasy, taken literally, gave rise to the evil, "black" legend of Mongol atrocities. If we consider the reliability of the sources and ask simple but necessary questions, it is easy to separate historical truth from literary fiction.
The Mongols occupied Persia almost without fighting, forcing the son of Khorezm Shah Jalal-ud-Din into northern India. Mohammed II Ghazi himself, exhausted by battle and constant defeats, died in a leper colony on an island in the Caspian Sea (1221). The Mongols, on the other hand, made peace with the Shi'ite population of Iran, which had been constantly harassed by the Sunni rulers, (8) particularly the Caliph of Baghdad and Jalal-ud-Din himself. As a result, the Shiite population of Persia suffered considerably less than the Sunnis of Central Asia. Be that as it may, in 1221 the chimerical formation - the state of Khorezmshakhs - was done away with. Under one ruler, Muhammad II Ghazi, this state both reached its highest power and perished. As a result, Khorezm, Northern Iran, and Khorasan were annexed to the Mongol empire.
In 1226 the hour of the Tangut state, which refused to help Genghis at the decisive moment of the war with Khorezm, came. The Mongols justifiably regarded this move as a betrayal which, according to the Yassa, demanded vengeance. Today the territory of the Tangut state, which is the steppes and plateaus adjacent to the bend of the Huang He River and the Nanshan range, is a real desert. But in the XIII century in this land there was a rich country with large cities, gold mines, a regular army and an original culture. The capital of Tangut was the city of Zhongxing. It was besieged by Genghis Khan in 1227, having defeated the Tangut troops in the battles that preceded it.
8. Sunnis, followers of Sunnism (one of the two major branches of Islam), recognize in addition to the Qur'an the Sunnah - a book of traditions about the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Sunnis consider the Umayyad dynasty in Damascus as legitimate.
During the siege of Zhongxin, Genghis Khan died, but the Mongol noyons by order of their leader concealed his death. The fortress was taken, and the population of the "evil" city, which was collectively blamed for the betrayal, was subjected to execution. The Tangut state disappeared, leaving behind only written evidence of its former high culture, but the city survived and lived on until 1405, when it was destroyed by the Chinese of the Ming dynasty.
From the capital of the Tanguts, the Mongols took the body of their great khan to his native steppes. The funeral rites were as follows: the remains of Genghis Khan were lowered into the dug grave along with many valuable items and all the slaves who performed the funeral work were killed. The custom was to hold a memorial service exactly one year later. In order to unmistakably find the place of burial, the Mongols did the following. A baby camel is sacrificed on the grave that was just taken from its mother. A year later the camel found the spot on the vast steppe where her offspring had been killed. The Mongolians stabbed the camel to death and then left the grave for good. To this day, no one knows where Genghis Khan is buried.
Genghis Khan's heirs
In the last years of his life Genghis Khan was extremely concerned about the fate of his power. The Khan had four sons by his beloved wife Borte and many children by other wives, who, although considered legitimate children, had no right to take the place of their father. The sons by Borte varied greatly among themselves in disposition and character. The eldest son, Jochi, was born soon after Borte's Merkit captivity, and therefore not only "evil tongues", but also his younger brother Chagatai called him a "Merkit brat". Although Borte always defended Jochi, and Genghis Khan himself always recognized his son as his own, the shadow of his mother's Merkit captivity burdened Jochi with suspicions of illegitimacy. Once, in the presence of his father, Chagatai openly called Jochi names, and the matter almost ended in a fight between the brothers.
There were certain stable stereotypes in Jochi's behavior that distinguished him from Genghis. While for Genghis Khan there was no such thing as mercy for his enemies (he only spared the lives of young children adopted by his mother Oelun and valiant bagaturs who accepted Mongol service), Dzhuchi (Jochi) was humane and kind. Thus, during the siege of Gurgandj, the Khorezmians, exhausted by the war, asked to accept surrender, that is, simply put, to spare them. Juchi favored a show of mercy, but Genghis Khan categorically rejected the request for mercy, and as a result Gurgandj's garrison was partially slaughtered and the city itself flooded by the waters of the Amu Darya. Unfortunately, the misunderstanding between his father and eldest son, constantly fuelled by intrigues and intrigues of his relatives, deepened with time and turned into distrust of the sovereign towards his heir.
Genghis Khan suspected that Juchi wanted to gain popularity among the conquered peoples and secede from Mongolia. It is unlikely that this was the case, but the fact remains that in early 1227 Jochi was found dead in the steppe, with a broken spine. The terrible details of what happened are unknown, but there is no doubt that his father was the only person interested in Jochi's death and capable of ending the life of the khan's son.
Fresco from Dunhuang Cave. China
Another Fresco from Dunhuang Cave. China
In contrast to Jochi, Genghis Khan's second son, Chagatai, was a strict, executive and even cruel man. That is why he was given the position of "keeper of the Yasa" (a sort of attorney general or supreme judge). Chagatai observed the law absolutely rigorously and treated violators without mercy.
The third son of the great Khan, Ugedei, like Juchi, was distinguished by kindness and tolerance towards people. But Ugedei's most distinctive feature was his passion for steppe hunting and drinking with his friends. The following incident best illustrates the difference in the behavior of Ugdei and Chagatai. One day, while on a journey together, the brothers saw a Muslim man washing himself by the water. According to Muslim custom, every true believer was obliged to perform namaz and ritual ablutions several times a day. The Mongol tradition, on the other hand, forbade a person to wash anywhere during the entire summer. Mongols believed that washing in a river or lake causes a thunderstorm, while a thunderstorm in the steppe is very dangerous for travelers, and therefore "calling" a thunderstorm was considered an attempt on other people's lives. The Nukhurs (vigilantes) of the ruthless lawgiver Chagatai seized a Muslim. Anticipating a bloody denouement - the poor man was at risk of having his head cut off - Ugedei sent his man to tell the Muslim to answer that he had dropped the gold in the water and was only looking for it there. The Muslim told Chagatai so. He told him to look for the coin, and in the meantime, Ugedei's retainer planted the gold in the water. The found coin was returned to its "rightful" owner. As parting, Ugedei took a handful of coins out of his pocket, handed them to the man he had saved and said: "The next time you drop a gold coin in the water, don't go after it, don't break the law."
Taurus. Painting from the tomb of Lu Rui. China, Northern Qi.
Genghis Khan's youngest son, Tului, was born, as the Chinese chronicle indicates, in 1193. As we know from Meng-da Bei-lu, Genghis Khan was in Jurchen captivity until 1197. This time the infidelity of Borte was quite obvious, but Genghis Khan also recognized Tului as his legitimate son, although in appearance Tului did not resemble Borjigin. All Borjigins were distinguished by green or bluish eyes, Chinese historians called them "glassy," and light with red hair, and Tului had quite the usual Mongol appearance - black hair and dark eyes.
Of Genghis Khan's four sons, the youngest had the greatest talents and displayed the greatest moral dignity. A good general and an outstanding administrator, Tului remained a loving husband and was distinguished by his nobility. He married the daughter of the dead head of the Keraites, Wang Khan, who was a devout Christian. Tului himself had no right to embrace the Christian faith: like Genghisid, he had to practice the ancestral religion of Bon. (9) However, the Khan's son allowed his wife not only to perform all Christian rites in a luxurious "church" yurt, but also to have priests and receive monks.
A court lady. Funerary statuette of painted terracotta. China, Tang.
9. Bon is an ancient Tibetan religion, an offshoot of Mithraism.
Tului's death can without exaggeration be called heroic. When Ugedei fell ill, Tului voluntarily took a strong shamanic potion in an effort to "attract" the disease to himself, and died saving his brother.
All four sons had the right to inherit Genghis Khan. When Jochi was removed, three heirs remained, and when Genghis was gone and a new khan had not yet been elected, Tului ruled the ulus. The Kurultai of 1229 chose the mild and tolerant Ugedei as the great khan, in accordance with the will of Genghis. Ugedei, as we have already mentioned, had a kind soul, but the kindness of a sovereign is often not good for the state and his subjects. The administration of the ulus under him was very weakened and was carried out mainly due to the strictness of Chagatai and the diplomatic and administrative skill of Tului. The great khan himself preferred to the state cares of nomadic hunting and feasting in western Mongolia.
Genghis Khan's grandsons were assigned various areas of the ulus or high positions. Jochi's eldest son, Horde-Ichinen, was given the White Horde, located between the Irtysh and the Tarbagatay Range (the area of present-day Semipalatinsk). The second son, Batyi, became the owner of the Golden (Big) Horde on the Volga. The third son, Sheibani, took over the Blue Horde, which was nomadic from Tyumen to the Aral Sea. In this case, the three brothers - the rulers of the ulus - were allocated only one or two thousand Mongol soldiers, while the total number of the Mongol army reached 130 thousand people.
Chagatai's children also received a thousand soldiers each, and Tului's descendants, being at the court, owned the entire grandfather's and father's ulus. The Mongols thus established an inheritance system called "minorat," in which the youngest son inherited all the rights of his father, while the older brothers received only a share of the common inheritance.
The great Khan Ugedei also had a son, Güyük, who claimed the inheritance. The expansion of the clan during the lifetime of Genghis's children had caused the division of the inheritance and great difficulties in managing the ulus, which stretched from the Black Sea to the Yellow Sea. These difficulties and family accounts were the seeds of future strife that destroyed the great state created by Genghis Khan and his associates.
.