After reading Genghis Khan, Part 1, share FIVE specific insights you gleaned about the ancient Mongols, and the role they had in shaping the history of greater Asia.
Please use 2-3 sentences for each observation, and cite page numbers, so we can all follow your thinking.
Post your reading response below, as part of this blog thread.
Xie Xie,
Dr. W
Post your blog posts here in this thread, please.
ReplyDeleteMy books should be here after class today, 9/5, sorry, but i think i know that Khan was relentless as a warrior, righteous as ruler and passionate towards his people.
ReplyDelete1. (pg.4) Genghis Khan lead a secret army 2000 miles through desert, mountains, and steppe, to appear behind enemy lines where people would least expect him. He chose to attack from this direction because many people went out of their way to avoid the Red Desert. He used this as a manipulation of the public with fear and hope. This shaped the history of greater Asia because these attacks lead to thousands of years of history.
ReplyDelete2. (pg.9) Genghis Khan's attack was ranked as a success not only on Bukhara but also on the capital of Samarkand because when they heard of the attack, their army surrendered also. Genghis lead his army through the mountains of Afghanistan an on to the Indus River while another part of his army lead troops around the Caspian Sea through the Causasus Mountains and onto Russia. People here ruled for seven hundred years which was known as one of the longest family dynasties in history.
3. (pg.39) Jamuka and Temujin acquired followers among the Mongolian people but were never able to unite all of these people together into one single tribe like the pwoerful Kereyid, Tartars, and Naiman were able to. One point in history they were able to do this but in recent generations this has not been able to happen.
4. (pg.55) Temujin controlled most of the Mongols but had not been able to conquer his rival Jamuka. Temujin wanted to bring the issue to the table so he requested a marriage between Ong Khan's daughter and Temujin's eldest son Jochi if Ong Khan accepted the proposed marriage it would show that Temujin is a favorite. At first Ong Khan refused but later changed his mind because he was fearful of Temujin's army.
5. (pg.71) Genghis Khan innovated a way of hostage taking. He implemented a plan that each commander of 1000 and 10000 send their sons and their son's best friends to him so he can own his own unit of 10000. Genghis trained them as administrators and kept them ready just in case they needed to replace anyone ineffective. By doing this it gives almost every family direct and personal contact to the imperial court.
1. (pg. 5) Genghis Khan's psychological attack on Bukhara was as ingenious as it was devious. He offered leniency to those who surrendered, while he was twice as vicious to those who refused. In particular, he would use those who refused as meat shields in attacks.
ReplyDelete2. (pg. 28) All political alliances needed to be through kinship. So, they would perform rituals to be considered as family.
3. (pg. 44) Temujin undid what was said on pg. 28 by appointing close allies instead of family members. This was due to his Jurkin relatives turning on him and forcing him to slaughter them.
4. (pg. 50) Temujin once more brought out a radical change by redistributing all of the wealth from a successful raid. Widows and orphans were given the soldier's share; a strangely generous gesture that won the hearts of the Mongol people.
5. (pg. 62) The Naimans, so frightened of the invading Mongols, attempted to retreat. Temujin held his men back because of the low visibility, a tactic which lead to the Naimans falling off of the steep cliffs as they fled.
1. Page 4: Unlike most armies the Mongols traveled lightly, devoid of a supply train. This required Genghis Khan’s army to live off the native land, but in turn allowed them to move more quickly. They carried with them an engineer crops containing supplies the soldiers needed to create weaponry and other amenities from accessible materials.
ReplyDelete2. Page 6 and 32: The Mongols were animists, worshipping the “Eternal Blue Sky, the Golden Light of the Sun, and the myriad spiritual forces of nature”. Burkhan Khaldun, the tallest mountain in the area, ran rapid with three rivers and was therefore the culmination of the “spiritual forces of nature” being the closets point to the sky.
3. Page 8 and 45: Genghis Khan believed that warfare and victory took craft and commitment. In battle it took terror; in peace it took resolution. Both demonstrated by Khan’s victory over Bukhara and in his defeat of the Jurkin (page 45).
4. Page 40: Temujin Khan organized his first tribe based on his follower’s abilities and loyalties and not on their genealogy. By doing this Temujin began his tradition of rewarding loyalty as seen by his appointment of Boorchu and Jelme to personal assistant positions.
5. Page 61: In 1204, during what was to be the final battle for Mongolia, Temujin executed tests of his newly organized military. Setting the tone for future battles, Temujin utilized unexpected “hit-and-run” tactics to pick at the Naiman rather than a full-fledged fight he could potentially loose.
FIne insights here, Genghis observers.
ReplyDeleteMissing @ the course blog - don't be bashful; be blog'full!
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1) Page 6: Genghis Khan was confused by the idea of a mosque or holy structure that was the house of God. For him God was the sky stretching out in every direction."He could not be cooped up in a house of stone like a prisoner or a caged animal, nor, as the city people claimed, could his words be captured and confined inside the covers of a book." This idea holds God to an even greater esteem than most other religions go to.
ReplyDelete2)Page 8) Genghis Khan knew how to incite psychological panic in defending solders. Remarking that war was not about following the rules, but about fully committing ones self to defeating the enemy. This devotion to defeating ones enemies can be seen in the present day war in Iraq and Afganistan.
3)Page 30) Weatherford talks about the fueds that could be kept by some tribes in Mongolia, was this the beginning of the long memories of people in Asia?
4) Page 53) Temujin created a closed area for the Mongol homeland, that to this day remains shrouded in mystery. Unless, you happen to be a member of the royal Mongolian family.
5) Page 61) Temujin used his decimal system of organizing men in to units of 10 to slowly pick at the Naiman army using hit and run skirmishes to reduce the number or enemies that he would have to face in the final confrontation.
1. (Pg 6) The Mongols believed that there was one god, the eternal blur sky that it stretches from horizon to horizon. It was said that Genghis Khan felt the presence of this God and that it spoke to him in the mountains of his homeland. In following the words of the God, Genghis Khan would later conquer the know world.
ReplyDelete2. (Pg 25) Temujin was determined to survive and become a leader. He stalked and killed his own brother to acquire his place as head of the house. Even though he was young, Temijin displayed skills as a vicious warrior and that no one would get in his way.
3. (Pg 40) Part of Temujin Khan success would come from his ability to assess ones talents and assign him or her a task based on their ability rather than family tree. He gave the highest positions of his personal assistants to his first two followers, Boorchu and Jelme, because of their loyalty towards him for more than a decade. He surrounded himself with people that he trusted and that were qualified for the position rather then looking at their relation to him.
4 (5-6) Food is very important symbol to the Mongols as there are times when it can be very scarce. Feeding the Mongol warriors and their horses was taken as a sign of submission by the conquered; more importantly, by accepting this offering of food Genghis Khan signaled his acceptance of the people and was now under Mongol control.
5. (Pg 9) Genghis Khan had an extraordinary view of warfare that would lead him to countless victories. He believed that a victory would not come to one who played by the rules. Instead, he knew “it came to the one who made the rules and imposed them on his enemy.” To Genghis victory had to be certain and undeniable; those who resisted would be met with death, and loyalty with protection.
1. Often times either the parents of a child or the child’s upbringing play a significant role in who a person becomes. I would say that this is very true with Genghis Khan as we see a pattern of abandonment throughout his childhood as he continually has to adapt to different circumstances to become accepted. For example, on page 17 we see that his father does not want his own son. I think that this feeling of being unwanted or unvalued led him to be so welcoming to those outside of kinship. I think he knows what it is like to be an outcast which influenced how he ran his kingdom.
ReplyDelete2. If we continue to look at patterns of behavior from Temujin his actions when living with Jamuka were quite foreseeable. As shown on page 24 where he kills his superior older brother we can see how lack of power effects him. This action leads us to predict future actions with those who claim power over Temujin.
3. On page 34 Weatherford describes how Temujin shows how emotionally distraught he is after the kidnapping of his wife. What’s interesting is that he shares these emotions with others at a time when men were supposed conceal emotions and appear strong at all times. I think his disregard for this social norm is an indicator that Temujin has no issue with breaking tradition. For example, on page 51 we can see how kinship has always been what holds groups together for generations and now that ideology is gone because of Temujin.
4. On page 47 I thought it was interesting how Mongolian tribes typically solved conflict. Usually, they would intimidate the enemy avoiding violence. It seems that modern nations do a similar thing today as countries battle to have the most weapons so they can be viewed as a threat.
5. On page 75 I think that it is interesting that Genghis Khan listens to none of his brothers, but will listen to his wife. The impression I get is that this culture generally does not respect women. For the ruler of a great kingdom to respect his wife’s and even at times his mothers opinion shows progressive thinking.
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ReplyDelete1. If the Mongols had nothing to trade, they raided the herders they could find out on the steppe or in isolated valleys. The attackers used the same tactics in approaching human prey as animals, and at the first sign of attack, the targeted victims usually fled, leaving behind most of their animals, the material goods of their homes, and whatever else the attackers might want. Since the object of the attack was to secure goods, the attackers usually looted the gers and rounded up the animals rather than pursuing the fleeing people. (page 16)
ReplyDelete2. Mongol children, both boys and girls, grew up on horses. From infancy, they learned to ride with their parents or older siblings until, after only a few years, they managed to hold on by themselves and ride alone. Usually by age four, children had mastered riding bareback, and eventually how to stand on a horse’s back. When their legs grew long enough to reach the stirrups, they were also taught to shoot arrows and to lasso on horseback. Making targets out of leather pouches that they would dangle from poles so that they would blow in the wind, the youngsters practiced hitting the targets from horseback at varying distances and speeds. The skills of suck play proved invaluable to horsemanship in later life. (page 21)
3. While conducting raid after raid, Temujin had realized that the rush to loot the gers of the defeated served as an impediment to more complete victory. Rather than chasing down the warriors of the raided camps, attackers generally allowed them to flee and focused instead on immediately looting their camps. This system allowed many defeated warriors to escape and eventually return for a counterattack. So on this raid, his second conquest of the Tatars, Temujin decided to order that all looting would wait until after a complete victory had been won over the Tatar forces; the looting could then be carried out in a more organized fashion, with all the goods being brought under his central control and then redistributed among his followers as he determined fit. He distributed the goods along the same lines by which the hunting men of the forest traditionally distributed the kill at the end of a group hunt. (page 50)
4. Since Temujin had fewer soldiers than Naiman, Temujin ordered each man to set five campfires every night on the hills where his army camped. From a distance the small army appeared much larger, since they seemed to have “more fires than the stars in the sky.” (page 61)
5. The Mongols had a saying “If he sends me into fire or water I go. I go for him.” The syaing reflected not just an ideal, but the reality, of the new Mongol warfare, and it made short order of the Naiman. (page 62)