Why was trade so significant to the Mongols?
The Mongols lived in steppe region with extreme climate where there was scarcity of resources. Cultivation of food and crops was not possible thus they had to rely on trade. That’s why trade was so important for Mongols to ensure their survival. They mainly traded with China.
Why did Genghis Khan feel the need to fragment the Mongol tribes into new social and military groupings?
Many Mongol tribes lived in the Steppe region. They had their own different identities. Genghis Khan wanted to unify them by raising their different identities and create a large community with different social groups and tribes. That’s why he felt the need to fragment the Mongol tribes into new social and military groupings. He created those groups as his military and established a dreadful empire.
How do later Mongol reflections on the ‘Yasa’ bring out the uneasy relationship they had with the memory of Genghis Khan.
Later Mongols referred, ‘Yasa’ as a code of law of Genghis Khan. It had all the rules and regulations approved by the Quritali. It means that the Mongol people also laid claim to a law giver. This brings out their uneasy relationship with the memory of the Genghis Khan. They were the set of all the traditions and customs that prevailed in Mongol tribal society.
‘If history relies upon written records produced by city-based literati, nomadic societies will always receive a hostile representation.’
Would you agree with this statement? Does it explain the reason why Persian chronicles produced such inflated figures of casualties resulting from Mongol campaigns?
Yes, I agree with the statement that the nomadic society used to plunder the cities. That’s why city based societies always hated them. The same thing is applicable on Persian chronicles. They produced inflated figures of causalities resulting from Mongol campaigns which prove their cruelty as cruel assassins. Due to the transcontinental span of the Mongol Empire the sources were written in different languages.
Keeping the nomadic element of the Mongol and Bedouin societies in mind, how, in your opinion, did their respective historical experiences differ? What explanations would you suggest account for these differences?
Bedouin lived in the dry desert region. On the other hand, Mongols were nomadic tribes of the steppes, which was a beautiful region. Bedouin obtained water and fodder for their animals at oasis in desert. They used mainly date as their food. They had to wonder in search of fodder. Camel was their main animal. On the other hand, nomadic Mongols had large green pastures. There was no storage of water because rivers like Onon and Selenga flowed in their region. In the steppe region, there were also hundreds of springs from the melting snow of hills. Bedouin were not hunter gathers. They were mainly cattle bearers. But many Mongols tribes were hunters-gathers. Trade was their main occupation.
Reason of Differences- the main reason for differences in Nomadic characteristics of Mongols and Bedouins were landscape and other geographical conditions of their country.
How does the following account enlarge upon the character of the Pax Mongolica created by the Mongols by the middle of the thirteenth century?
The Franciscan monk, William of Rubruck, was sent by Louis IX of France on an embassy to the great Khan Mongke’s court. He reached
Karakorum, the capital of Mongke, in 1254 and came upon a woman from Lorraine (in France) called Paquette, who had been brought from Hungary and was in the service of one of the prince’s wives who was a Nestorian Christian. At the court he came across a Parisian goldsmith named Guillaume Boucher, ‘whose brother dwelt on the Grand Pont in Paris’. This man was first employed by the Queen Sorghaqtani and then by Mongke’s younger brother. Rubruck found that at the great court festivals the Nestorian priests were admitted first, with their regalia, to bless the Grand Khan’s cup, and were followed by the Muslim clergy and Buddhist and Taoist monks…
This account enlarges up the secular character of the Pax Mongolica by the middle of the 13th century:
1. Mongols Recruited administrators and armed forces from people of all ethnic groups that were present, there was a multilingual and multi-religious regime that didn’t feel endangered due to its pluralistic constitution.
2. From the above incident it became clear that the French Monarch Louise IX had sent his ambassador William of Rubruck to Karakorum. This depicts that the Mongols were successful in establishing well –knit relations with it neighbours.
3. The Persian goldsmith Guillaume Boucher provided that Mongol rulers lived with a great display and showed their servants who serves them which they got from different part of the world. The servants were given good salaries and benefits due to this economical benefit they reached the Mongol court from far away to serve it.