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

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.