A programme of terror and cruelty : aspects of Mongol strategy in the light of western sources (original) (raw)

Abstract

At the beginning of the thirteenth century the Mongol emperor Chingiz-Khan mobilized a war-machine that succeeded, within the space of a few decades, in overwhelming the majority of the known world. In 1235 his third son and successor, Ogodei, launched a new attempt to realize his father's idea of Mongol worldconquest. He unleashed Mongol forces under the command of his nephew Batu, the son of Chingiz-Khan's eldest son Jochi, towards the west. 1 The strategic commander of the Mongol armies, however, was undoubtedly the experienced general Siibotei. 2 Between 1236 and 1240 the Russian principalities collapsed under the weight of successive Mongol attacks 3 and in the winter of 1240-1241 Batu 1 The plan to conquer the West was one of the main decisions of the quriltai of 1235. See Geheime Geschichte der Mongolen. M. Taube, ed., Munich 1989, § 270, 200-202; The History of the World-Conqueror by 'Ala ad-Din Ata-Malik Juvaini. Translated from the text of Mirza Muhammad Qazvini by J. A. Boyle with an Introduction by D. O. Morgan, Manchester 1997, 196-200 (henceforth: luvaini, History); The Successors of Genghis Khan Translated from the Persian of Rashid al-Din by J. A. Boyle, New York-London 1971, 54-56 (henceforth: Rashid, Successors)•, W. Abramowski, "Die chinesischen Annalen von Ögödei bis Güyük. Übersetzung des 2. Kapitels des Yüan-shih," Zentralasiatische Studien 10 (1976), 130. For the Mongol idea of world-conquest, cf. J. Masson Smith, "The Mongols and World-Conquest," Mongolica 5 (1994), 206-214. 2 Probably no Mongol general played a greater role than Sübötei in establishing and maintaining the early Mongol empire. He was destined to be the mastermind of this campaign because he had been-together with general Jebe-commander of those Mongol troops, which had undertaken a raid through Armenia, Georgia and Russia in the years 1220-24. Due to his successes he held the honorary title ba'atur ("valiant"). Cf.

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References (13)

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  9. "... Sathane nuntios tartarique ministros", as Innocent IV called them in a letter of 21 July 1243 (MGH Epistulae saeculi XIII selectae: II, 3s., n. 2).
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  12. Geheime Geschichte der Mongolen § 265:198.
  13. Cf. luvaini, History, 107: "When the town [= Buchara] and citadel had been purged of rebels and the walls and outworks levelled with the dust, all the inhabitants of the town, men and women, ugly and beautiful, were driven out on the field of the musalla. Chingiz-Khan spared their lives; but the youths and full-grown men that were fit for such service were pressed into a levy for the attack on Sarmaqand and Dabusiya." For very similar accounts, see ibid. 53, 92 and 100.