These notes are to help the reader find information from a variety of sources. Works are cited in languages other than English only if no English translation could be identified.
Introduction: The Missing Conqueror
“Genghis Khan was a doer”: Joel Aschenbacher, “The Era of His Ways: In Which We Chose the Most Important Man of the Last Thousand Years,” Washington Post, December 31, 1989, p. F01.
unprecedented rise in cultural communication: For more information on the cultural exchange, see Thomas T. Allsen, Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
Roger Bacon observed: The quotes are from Bacon’s Opus Majus, trans. Robert Belle Burke (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1928), vol. 1, p. 416; vol. 2. p. 792.
“we imagined your appearance”: From “Chinggis Khaan,” composed by D. Jargalsaikhan and performed by the musical group Chinggis Khaan.
Rashid al-Din described: The quotes are from Allsen, Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia, p. 88.
Arab politicians: Quoted in Eric L. Jones, Growth Recurring: Economic Change in World History (Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1988), p. 113.
“tendencies directed at idealizing the role of Genghis Khan”: Almaz Khan, “Chinggis Khan: From Imperial Ancestor to Ethnic Hero,” in Cultural Encounters on China’s Ethnic Frontiers, ed. Stevan Harrell (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995), pp. 261–262.
anti-party elements, Chinese spies, saboteurs, or pests: Tom Ginsburg, “Nationalism, Elites, and Mongolia’s Rapid Transformation,” in Mongolia in the Twentieth Century: Landlocked Cosmopolitan, ed. Stephen Kotkin and Bruce A. Elleman (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1999), p. 247.
I worked closely with: Most Mongolians today use a single name such as Lkhagvasuren or Sukhbaatar, but when necessary to distinguish among those with the same name, they identify themselves by the initial (or first two letters in the case of sh, ch, kh or ts) of a parent.
I. The Reign of Terror on the Steppe: 1162–1206
“Nations! What are nations?”: Henry David Thoreau, Journal (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981), entry for May 1, 1851.
1. The Blood Clot
“There is fire in his eyes”: Secret History, § 62.
“choked with horsemen”: Ata-Malik Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997), p. 98.
“whoever yields”: Ibid., p. 15.
“a man of tall stature”: Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani, Tabakat-I-Nasiri: A General History of the Muhammadan Dynasties of Asia, trans. Major H. G. Raverty (Bengal: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1881; reprint, New Dehli: Oriental Books, 1970), p. 1077.
“it is the great ones, among you”: Ibid. p. 105.
“like a red-hot furnace”: Juvaini, p. 106.
“If you but live”: Secret History, § 56.
Targutai boasted: Secret History, § 149.
early age of nine: The early events in Temujin’s life prove difficult to date precisely with confidence. The Mongols counted each new year as beginning at the end of winter when spring came. Each greening of the steppe counted as one new year, and age was counted according to the number of greenings a child had been through. Thus, the birth of Temujin at the start of spring gave him an immediate age of one, and each successive greening made him one year older. For purposes of this book, however, ages are calculated in the traditional Western way.
Yesugei’s sons by his other wife: Regarding the marriage of a widow to a stepson, in one known case of an aristocratic Mongol family in the seventeenth century, after a woman’s husband died, she married one of his sons; after that husband died, she then married his son. Finally, when this husband also died, she married his son. Thus, in her lifetime she was married to four men from the same family: her first husband, his son, his grandson, and his great-grandson. See J. Holmgren, “Observations on Marriage and Inheritance Practices in Early Mongol and Yüan Society, with Particular Reference to the Levirate,” Journal of Asian History 20 (1986), p. 158.
“of the skins of dogs and mice”: Juvaini, Genghis Khan, p. 21.
“food that could not be digested”: Secret History, § 201.
the eldest son assumed that role: The Mongol language reflects the importance of older siblings by having distinct words for older brother (akh) and older sister (egch), whereas younger siblings, both male and female, are lumped together in one term (düü). The akh, “Elder Brother,” had such importance that his title eventually became synonymous with the leader of a family cluster or other small group. In the case of full siblings, the ranking is obvious: by birth order. But for half siblings, the ranking order of the children depends on many factors, including, most particularly, the relative ranking of their mothers.
“Destroyer! Destroyer!”: Secret History, § 78.
ten years in slavery: “Meng-Ta Peu-Lu Ausführliche Aufzeichnungen über die Mongolischen Tatan von Chao Hung, 1221,” In Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh: Chinesische Gesandtenberichte über die frühen Mongolen 1221 und 1237 (Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1980), p. 12.
2. Tale of Three Rivers
“The banner of Chingiz-Khan’s fortune”: Ata-Malik Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997), p. 22.
supernatural power: The etymology of many Mongol and Turkic words show a constant intertwining of physical and political prowess with supernatural strength. Khan, Mongolian for chief, is almost identical to the Turkic term for shaman, kham. The Mongolian female shaman was called an idu-khan, while the term for male shaman originated in the same word for wrestler or athlete.
“We have made their breasts to become empty:” Francis Woodman Cleaves, trans., The Secret History of the Mongols (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982), par. 113, pp. 47–48.
“let us love one another”: Urgunge Onon, trans., The History and the Life of Chinggis Khan (The Secret History of the Mongols), (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990), § 117.
Jamuka and Temujin rode together: For a contrasting interpretation of the class relations between the two men, see Boris Y. Vladimirtsov, The Life of Chingis-Khan, trans. Prince D. S. Mirsky (New York: Benjamin Blom, 1930).
“Barren Island”: Rachewiltz’s translation of The Secret History, § 136, 1972.
never forgot how Jelme saved him: Temujin’s wound closely paralleled the nearly simultaneous battle wound suffered by King Richard the Lionhearted of England. In April 1199, while combating one of his rebel vassals, an arrow pierced his left shoulder. Richard tried to pull out the arrow, but its iron barb held and the shaft broke. For the next agonizing days, doctors treated him but without being able to combat the growing infection and fever. Finally, on the eleventh day, he died. His body was embalmed but disassembled to be buried with great ostentation in different places of sentimental importance to him. His brain was removed and sent for burial in an abbey in Poitiers. His heart went to the cathedral in Rouen, and his body to the Abbey Fonteurault. In marked contract, by sucking the blood from Temujin’s wound, Jelme prevented him from following the painful and untimely fate of King Richard.
He organized his warriors: For more information on troop estimates, see Bat-Ochir Bold, Mongolian Nomadic Society: A Reconstruction of the “Medieval” History of Mongolia (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001), p. 85.
“Let no one set up camp”: Secret History, § 179.
People of the Felt Walls: This phrase is still used in Mongolia, “Esgii Tuurgatan.”
3. War of the Khans
“All the tribes were of one color”: Ata-Malik Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle (Seattle: University of Washington Press), p. 38.
“Is not Genghis Khan ashamed”: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, trans. Ronald Latham (London: Penguin Books, 1958), p. 94.
Lake Baljuna: Baljuna is called a lake in the text, but it may have been a river or a small lake connected to the Balj River, a tributary of the Onon. The exact timing of the event is in great debate. Some scholars believe that it occurred at another point in the long civil wars and not as part of the betrayal by Ong Khan. A few scholars discount the story entirely, but based particularly on heavy Chinese documentation, most scholars accept it. For a full discussion of the event and the various versions of it, see Francis Woodman Cleaves, “The Historicity of the Baljuna Covenant,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 18, nos. 3–4 (December 1955), pp. 357–421.
“more fires than the stars in the sky”: Secret History, § 194.
“If he sends me into fire”: “Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh Kurzer Bericht über die schwarzen Tatan von P’eng Ta-Ya und Sü T’ing, 1237,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh: Chinesische Gesandtenberichte über die frühen Mongolen 1221 und 1237 (Welisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1980), p. 161.
“rotten logs”: Secret History, § 96.
“Let us be companions”: Urgunge Onon, trans., The History and the Life of Chinggis Khan (The Secret History of the Mongols) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990), § 200.
the headwaters of the Onon River: Regarding the location of the khuriltai of 1206, the Secret History describes the place as simply the headwaters of the Onon, but the seventeenth-century Erdeni-yin Tobchi places it more precisely on the island of Kherlen River. Paul Kahn, The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origins of Chingis Khan, exp. ed. (Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 1998), p. 189.
“placed him upon a black Felt Carpet”: François Pétis de la Croix, The History of Genghizcan the Great: First Emperor of the Ancient Moguls and Tartars (London: Printed for J. Darby, etc., 1722), pp. 62–63.
“obstinate and has a petty, narrow mind”: Secret History, § 243.
The Great Law of Genghis Khan: For more information on the law of Genghis Khan, see Valentin A. Riasanovsky, Fundamental Principles of Mongol Law, Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 43 (Bloomington: Indiana University Publications, 1965), p. 33.
haggling over the value of a wife: For more information on marriage, see Paul Ratchnevsky, Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy, trans. Thomas Nivison Haining. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 1991), pp. 191.
Theft of animals: For more information, see ibid., p. 155.
hunting rights for wild animals: See Secret History, § 199.
tax exemptions: For more information on Genghis Khan’s tax law, see Riasanovsky, Fundamental Principles of Mongol Law, p. 83.
the supremacy of the rule of law: For more information on the application of law to the royal family, See Boris Y. Vladimirtsov, The Life of Chingis-Khan, trans. Prince D. S. Mirsky (New York: Benjamin Blom, 1930), p. 74.
“punish the thieves”: Onon, Secret History, § 203.
a system of fast riders: For a discussion of postal stations, see Bat-Ochir Bold, Mongolian Nomadic Society: A Reconstruction of the “Medieval” History of Mongolia (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001), p. 168.
Genghis Khan’s shaman: Teb Tengeri’s name was Kokochu. In the Secret History, four men had this name, and the text is not always clear on which is meant as the trustee of Hoelun’s estate. Two Kokochus were already dead before this episode. In addition to the shaman, Kokochu was the name of the Tayichiud boy adopted by Mother Hoelun, and who later became the leader of a unit of one thousand. Many scholars assume that the adopted Kokochu was placed in charge of Mother Hoelun’s people, but a case can be made that since Kokochu Teb Tengeri took over Mother Hoelun’s people after her death, he was the Kokochu named as an administrator. While the issue of precise identity is perplexing, it is probably not particularly important.
“Have you seen these?”: Secret History, § 244.
the Uighur khan: In the Secret History (§ 238), the Uighur leader is referred to as the Idu’ut, which means something like king, prince, or khan.
II. The Mongol World War: 1211–1261
“By the arms of Zingis”: Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London, J. M. Dent, 1910), vol. 5, p. 76.
4. Spitting on the Golden Khan
“The hooves of our Mongol horses”: Quoted by a Sung representative in “Meng-Ta Peu-Lu Ausführliche Aufzeichnungen über die Mongolischen Tatan von Chao Hung, 1221,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh: Chinesische Gesandtenberichte über die frühen Mongolen 1221 und 1237 (Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1980), p. 210.
their capital city of Zhongdu: The same place had many names at different times. Under the Jurched, it was Zhongdu. When Khubilai Khan created his capital here it became known as Khanbalik (the khan’s city) to Mongolians and other foreigners; the Chinese called it Dadu (or Ta-tu). Later, it was named Peking, and now Beijing.
“reverently upon the ground”: Peking Gazette, June 30, 1878, quoted in C. W. Campbell’s Travels in Mongolia: 1902 (reprint, London: Stationery Office, 2000), p. 74.
the full commitment of every warrior: see Sechen Jagchid and Paul Hyer, Mongolia’s Culture and Society (Boulder: Westview, 1979), p. 370.
“Our empire is like the sea”: “Meng-Ta Peu-Lu Ausführliche Aufzeichnungen über die Mongolischen Tatan von Chao Hung, 1221,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh, p. 61.
Mongol military: Thomas J. Barfield, The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 B.C. to A.D. 1757 (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1992).
Mongol warriors could travel ten days: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, trans. Teresa Waugh (New York: Facts on File, 1984), p. 57.
needed no fires to cook: See “Meng-Ta Peu-Lu Ausführliche Aufzeichnungen über die Mongolischen Tatan von Chao Hung, 1221,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh, p. 58.
the central camp for each unit: See “Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh Kurzer Bericht über die schwarzen Tatan von P’eng Ta-Ya und Sü T’ing, 1237,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh: Chinesische Gesandtenberichte über die frühen Mongolen 1221 und 1237 (Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1980), p. 187.
communications became more important: Walther Heissig, A Lost Civilization: The Mongols Rediscovered, trans. D. J. S. Thompson (London: Thames & Hudson, 1966), p. 35.
The Mongols referred to these grass-eating people: For more on the Mongol terminology for settled people, see Uradyn E. Bulag, Nationality and Hybridity in Mongolia (Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1998), p. 213.
“they come as though the sky were falling”: See “Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh Kurzer Bericht über die schwarzen Tatan von P’eng Ta-Ya und Sü T’ing, 1237,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh, p. 187.
In 1219, the Year of the Hare: There is debate about whether some of these events occurred in 1207 or 1219, since both were the Year of the Hare.
“red bull”: Secret History, § 240.
Kashgar, a trading city: Regarding the events in Kashgar, the Secret History placed this invasion in the Year of the Ox, 1205, but almost all other sources show that it occurred in the Year of the Ox, 1217.
Jebe’s army defeated the army of Guchlug: For more information on the Mongol campaign against Guchlug, see René Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia, trans. Naomi Walford (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 234.
“to be one of the mercies of the Lord”: Ata-Malik Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997), p. 67.
“Jebe pursued Guchlug”: Secret History, § 237.
“He had brought about complete peace and quiet”: Juvaini, Genghis Khan, p. 77.
“this Emperor having nothing more to fear”: François Pétis de la Croix, The History of Genghizcan the Great: First Emperor of the Ancient Moguls and Tartars (London: Printed for J. Darby, etc. 1722), pp. 119–120.
“I have the greatest desire to live in peace”: Quoted in René Grousset, Conqueror of the World, trans. Marian McKellar and Denis Sinor (New York: Orion Press, 1966), p. 209.
“henceforth the abscess of evil”: Juvaini, Genghis Khan, pp. 79–81.
“laid waste a whole world”: Ibid., p. 80.
“the whirlwind of anger”: Ibid., p. 80.
he uncovered “his head”: Ibid., p. 80.
5. Sultan Versus Khan
“War for the nomadic people”: Sechen Jagchid, Essays in Mongolian Studies (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1988), p. 12.
the story of the tattooed messenger: François Pétis de la Croix, The History of Genghizcan the Great: First Emperor of the Ancient Moguls and Tartars (London: Printed for J. Darby, etc., 1722), p. 136
“Commanders, elders, and commonality”: Henry H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, pt. 1, The Mongols Proper and the Kalmuks (London: Longmans, Green, 1876), p. 81.
“it is the will of God”: Robert P. Blake, and Richard N. Frye, “History of the Nation of the Archers (the Mongols) by Grigor of Akanc,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 12 (December 1949), p. 301.
“effaced from off the earth”: Yaqut al-Hamawi quoted in Edward G. Browne, The Literary History of Persia, vol. 2 (Bethesda, Md.: Iranbooks, 1997), p. 431.
“the greatest joy a man can know”: Michael Prawdin, The Mongol Empire: Its Rise and Legacy, trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1940), p. 143.
“Stories have been related to me”: Quoted in Browne, Literary History of Persia, p. 430.
All the Mongol prisoners: The murder of the Mongol warriors is related by Luc Kwanten, Imperial Nomads: A History of Central Asia, 500–1500 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979), p. 131.
nails into their heads: Stuart Legg, The Barbarians of Asia: The Peoples of the Steppes from 1600B.C. (New York: Dorset, 1970), p. 274.
Those cities that surrendered: For a fuller account of these campaigns, see David Morgan, The Mongols (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1986), pp. 60–61.
the numbers given by historians: For more on the supposedly high number of people killed, see Legg, Barbarians of Asia, p. 277.
“if all my sons”: Paul Ratchnevsky, Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy, trans. Thomas Nivison Haining (Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 1991), p. 140.
“When you tell Jochi to speak”: Paul Kahn, The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origins of Chinggis Khan (Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 1998), p. 153.
“She didn’t run away from home”: Ibid., § 254.
“from a single hot womb”: Ibid., § 254.
“game killed by mouth”: Ibid., § 255.
“Mother Earth is broad”: Ibid., § 255.
“laid the knee of courtesy”: Ata-Malik Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997), pp. 182–183.
“because of———”: Rashid al-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan, trans. John Andrew Boyle (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), p. 98.
“the vision should never stray”: Colonel Kh. Shagdar, “Ikh Khaadin surgaal gereeslel,” Chingis Khaan Sydlal, vol. 4 (2002), pp. 3–35; translated from the Mongolian.
“People conquered on different sides”: Ibid., p. 3–35.
his men cordoned off: For a fuller description of the group hunting procedures, see “Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh Kurzer Bericht über die schwarzen Tatan von P’eng Ta-Ya und Sü T’ing, 1237,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh: Chinesische Gesandtenberichte über die frühen Mongolen 1221 und 1237 (Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1980), p. 117.
Yesui prepared the body: For more information on Mongol funeral practices, see V. V. Barthold, “The Burial Rites of the Turks and the Mongols,” trans. J. M. Rogers, Central Asiatic Journal 14 (1970), pp. 195–227.
“A mighty name”: The cleric’s comments come from Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani, Tabakat-I-Nasiri: A General History of the Muhammadan Dynasties of Asia, trans. Major H. G. Raverty (Bengal: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1881; reprint, New Dehli: Oriental Books, 1970), pp. 1041–1042.
the text of a letter: The English text of the letter of Genghis Khan can be found in E. Bretschneider, Mediæval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, vol. I (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1967), pp. 37–39.
“died in the fullness of years and glory”: Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London: J. M. Dent, 1910), vol. 6, p. 280.
6. The Discovery and Conquest of Europe
“For our sins”: The Chronicle of Novgorod: 1016–1491; trans. Robert Michel and Novill Forbes, Camden 3rd Series, vol. 25 (London: Offices of the Society, 1914), p. 64.
“was ever spreading the carpet of merrymaking”: Ata-Malik Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997), p. 202.
“exceedingly tall in structure”: Rashid al-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan, trans. John Andrew Boyle (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), pp. 61–62.
newly recruited clerks: For more information on the growing administration, see Thomas T. Allsen, “The Rise of the Mongolian Empire and Mongolian Rule in North China,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368, ed. Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 397.
“a castle with doors”: Juvaini, Genghis Khan, pp. 236–237.
“would sit, every day”: al-Din, Successors of Genghis Khan, pp. 84–85.
a 10 percent bonus: For more information on the bonus, see Larry Moses and Stephen A. Halkovic Jr. Introduction to Mongolian History and Culture (Bloomington, Ind.: Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, 1985), p. 71.
In an effort to improve trade: See Thomas J. Barfield, The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 B.C. to A.D. 1757 (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1992), p. 206.
weights and measures: See Henry H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, pt. 1, The Mongols Proper and the Kalmuks (London: Longmans, Green, 1876), p. 156.
– “that wherever profit”: Juvaini, Genghis Khan, p. 77.
“every tenth returned to his home”: The Chronicle of Novgorod: 1016–1471, trans. Robert Michel and Nevill Forbes, Camden 3rd Series, vol. 25 (London: Offices of the Society, 1914), p. 66.
“the Tartars turned back”: Ibid., p. 66.
“Tartars came in countless numbers”: Ibid., p. 81.
“They have hard and robust breasts: The quotes in this paragraph are from Matthew Paris, Matthew Paris’s English History from the Year 1235 to 1273, trans. J. A. Giles, 1852. (London: Henry G. Bohn; reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1968), vol. 1, p. 469.
“no eye remained open to cry for the dead”: J. J. Saunders, The History of the Mongol Conquests (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), p. 82.
“an immense horde of that detestable race of Satan”: Paris, Matthew Paris’s English History, vol. 1, p. 314.
“ravaged the eastern countries”: Ibid., p. 314.
“They clothe themselves”: Ibid., p. 314.
“They have no human laws”: Ibid., p. 314.
“clouds of Tatars”: Saunders, History of the Mongol Conquests, p. 83.
“To thee, Tsar, I bow”: Chronicle of Novgorod, pp. 87–90.
“headstrong and brave”: al-Din, Successors of Genghis Khan, p. 138.
“You broke the spirit of every man”: Secret History, § 277.
the two armies met: For information on the battle, see Erik Hildinger, “Mongol Invasion of Europe,” Military History (June 1997).
“great head”: Jan Dlugosz, The Annals of Jan Dlugosz, trans. Maurice Michael, commentary by Paul Smith, Chichester, United Kingdom: IM Publications, (1997), entry for the year 1241.
“The dead fell”: James Ross Sweeney, “Thomas of Spalato and the Mongols,” Florilegium: Archives of Canadian Society of Medievalists 12 (1980).
“cannibals from Hell”: Paris, Matthew Paris’s English History, vol. 1, pp. 469–472.
– Christian clerics looked to the Bible: Information on the hypothetical biblical connections to the Mongols can be found in Axel Klopprogge, Ursprung und Auspraegung des abdendlaendischen Mongolenbildes im 13. Jahrhundert: Eine Versuch zur Ideengeschichte des Mitterlaters (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1993).
“in the time of the government”: Paris, Matthew Paris’s English History, vol. 1, p. 314.
“the enormous wickedness of the Jews”: The quotes in this paragraph are from ibid., pp. 357–358.
a thirty-year-old literate Englishman: For an interesting novel on the identity of the English knight, see Gabriel Ronay, The Tartar Khan’s Englishman (London: Cassell, 1978).
7. Warring Queens
“Just as God”: Christopher Dawson, ed. The Mongol Mission: Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1955), p. 195.
record of Torogene’s power: For a fuller discussion of Toregene’s edict, see Igor de Rachewiltz, “Töregene’s Edict of 1240,” Papers on Far Eastern History 23 (March, 1981), pp. 38–63.
“became the sharer”: Ata-Malik, Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997), pp. 245–246.
“desist entirely”: Christopher Dawson, ed., The Mongol Mission: Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1955), pp. 73–76.
“He sent again”: Juvaini, Genghis Khan, p. 245.
“but God knows the truth”: Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani, Tabakat-I-Nasiri: A General History of the Muhammadan Dynasties of Asia, trans. Major H. G. Raverty (Bengal: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1881; reprint, New Delhi: Oriental Books, 1970), p. 1144.
“hungry and thirsty”: Juvaini, p. 245.
“his predestined hour arrived”: Juvaini, Genghis Khan, p. 185.
“the affairs of the world”: Ibid., p. 556.
Mongke Khan expanded the trials: For more on the purge, see Thomas T. Allsen, “The Rise of the Mongolian Empire and Mongolian Rule in North China,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368, ed. Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 394.
“if I were to see among the race of women”: Morris Rossabi, “The Reign of Khubilai Khan,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368, ed. Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett ed. (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 414.
“I follow the laws of my ancestors”: Thomas T. Allsen, Mongol Imperialism: The Politics of the Grand Qan Mongke in China, Russia, and the Islamic Lands, 1251–1259 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), p. 36.
Guillaume Boucher: For more information on the goldsmith, see Leonardo Olschki, Guillaume Boucher: A French Artist at the Court of the Khans (New York: Greenwood, 1946), p. 5.
“I ate a little”: William of Rubruck, “The Journey of William of Rubruck,” in The Mongol Mission: Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, ed. Christopher Dawson (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1955), p. 163.
“Is there any man”: Ibid., p. 189.
“no one shall dare to speak”: Ibid., p. 191.
“We Mongols believe in one God”: Ibid., p. 195.
by the power of the eternal God”: Ibid.
“And from what book”: Juvaini, Genghis Khan, p. 604.
a commercial world not yet accustomed: For more on the Mongol monetary system, see Allsen, Mongol Imperialism, pp. 171–188, and Allsen, “Rise of the Mongolian Empire,” p. 402.
the word assassin: Dante became one of the earliest European writers to use the word in print. It appeared in Book XIX of The Divine Comedy, and his usage made it apparent that he expected the reader to know its meaning full well: “Io stava come il frate che confessa Lo perfido assassin . . .” (“like a friar who is confessing the wicked assassin . . .”).
“Five hundred and fifteen years”: René Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia, trans. Naomi Walford (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 357.
The Armenian chronicler Grigor of Akanc: in “History of the Nation of the Archers (the Mongols) by Grigor of Akanc,” trans. Robert P. Blake and Richard N. Frye. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 12 (December 1949).
had conquered the heart of the Muslim World: For more on the Mongol conquests, see David Morgan, The Mongols (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell), 1986, pp. 154–155.
Hulegu ordered one hundred thousand piglets: See Blake and Frye, “History,” p. 343.
Khubilai’s cosmopolitan persona: On all issues related to Khubilai khan, the most authoritative source is Morris Rossabi, Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988).
“Central Rule”: Herbert Franke, From Tribal Chieftain to Universal Emperor and God: The Legitimation of the Yüan Dynasty (München: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sitzungsberichete, vol. 2, 1978), page 27.
a lowering of temperatures: For information on weather and climate in the Mongol imperial era, see William Atwell, “Volcanism and Short-Term Climatic Change in East Asia and World History, c. 1200–1699,” Journal of World History 12, no. 1 (Spring 2001), p. 50.
“We were then, and you are today”: Rashid al-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan, trans. John Andrew Boyle (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), p. 261.
III. The Global Awakening: 1262–1962
“Asia is devouring us”: Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain, trans. John E. Woods (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), p. 238.
8. Khubilai Khan and the New Mongol Empire
“This Great Khan”: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, trans. Ronald E. Latham (London: Penguin, 1958), p. 113.
“Within the precincts”: Sir John Mandeville, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, the Voyage of Johannes de Plano Carpini, the Journal of Friar William de Rubruquis, the Journal of Friar Odoric (New York: Dover, 1964), p. 348.
“in a certain part of the hall”: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition (New York: Dover, 1993), vol. 1, p. 382.
the number of capital offenses: Figures on executions are taken from Paul Heng-chao Ch’en, Chinese Legal Tradition Under the Mongols: The Code of 1291 as Reconstructed (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979), pp. 44–45.
“first use reason to analyze”: Ibid., p. 154.
“the laws and customs of cities”: Secret History, § 263. For a fuller description of Mongol law, see Valentin A. Riasanovsky, Fundamental Principles of Mongol Law, Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 43 (Bloomington: Indiana University Publications, 1965), p. 83.
Khubilai’s administration: For an extensive assessment of the Mongol administration, see Elizabeth Endicott-West, Mongolian Rule in China: Local Administration in the Yuan Dynasty (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989).
“To refuse it would be to incur the death penalty:” Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, trans. Teresa Waugh (New York: Facts on File, 1984), p. 88.
rejected some parts of Chinese Culture: For more on Mongol cultural influences, see Adam T. Kessler, Empires Beyond the Great Wall: The Heritage of Genghis Khan (Los Angeles: Natural History Museum, 1993).
promoted general literacy: For more on Mongol education in China, see Morris Rossabi, “The Reign of Khubilai Khan,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368, ed. Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 447.
consisted of six parts: The parts commemorated and reenacted the conquests of the Kereyid and Ong Khan; the Tangut; the Chin-Chin; the West and Honan (south of the Yellow River); Sichuan and the Thai state of Nanchao; and Korea and Vietnam. Sechen Jagchid and Paul Hyer, Mongolia’s Culture and Society (Boulder: Westview, 1979), p. 241.
performing artists such as actors and singers: For more information on Mongol support of the arts, see Morris Rossabi, Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), p. 161.
“Like an ancient ruin”: Quoted in Jacques Gernet, Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276, trans. H. M. Wright (New York: Macmillan, 1962), p. 237.
“The greatest legacy of the Mongol Empire”: Hidehiro Okada, “China as a Successor State to the Mongol Empire,” in The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy, ed. Reuven Amitai-Preiss and David O. Morgan (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1999), p. 260.
revitalized and enlarged the Sung navy: For information on the Mongol fleet and the invasions of Japan, see James P. Delgado, “Relics of the Kamikaze,” Archaeology (January 2003), pp. 36–41, and Theodore F. Cook Jr., “Mongol Invasion,” Quarterly Journal of Military History (Winter 1999), pp. 8–19.
In the hunting procession: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, trans. Ronald Latham (London: Penguin, 1958), pp. 141–145.
the traditional Mongol emphasis on meat and dairy products: For more information on Mongol food in China, see Paul D. Buell, Historical Dictionary of the Mongol World Empire (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow, 2003), pp. 309–312, and Paul D. Buell and Eugene N. Anderson, A Soup for the Qan: Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era as Seen in Hu Szu-Hui’s Yin-Shan Cheng-Yao (London: Kegan Paul, 2000).
9. Their Golden Light
“The artists of China”: Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London, J. M. Dent, 1910) vol. 6, p. 287.
“two envoys came from the Tartars”: Matthew Paris, Matthew Paris’s English History from the Year 1235 to 1273, trans. J. A. Giles, 1852 (London: Henry G. Bohn; reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1968), p. 155.
related the events of his travels: For the complete text of Rabban Bar Sawma’s account, see E. A. Wallis Budge, The Monks of Kublai Khan, Emperor of China; or, The History of the Life and Travels of Rabban Swama, Envoy and Plenipotentiary of the Mongol Khans to the Kings of Europe, and Markos Who as Mar Yahbhallaha III Became Patriarch of the Nestorian Church in Asia(London: Religious Tract Society, 1928).
“silk sheets and every other luxury”: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, trans. Teresa Waugh (New York: Facts on File Publications, 1984), p. 89.
Mongols in Persia supplied their kinsmen: For a thorough account of the exchange between China and the Ilkhanate, see Thomas T. Allsen, Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
the most sophisticated cartography known: For more information on science in China under the Mongols, see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization, vols. 4 and 6 (Cambridge U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1971, 1986).
moved some 3,000 tons by ship: For information on the Mongol navy, see Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994).
“perfectly safe”: Ronald Latham, introduction to The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo, trans. Ronald Latham (London: Penguin, 1958), p. 15.
attacked the Chinese cultural prejudice: For more information on the Mongol’s cultural attitudes toward their subjects, see Erich Haenisch, Die Kulturpolitik des Mongolishchen Welstreichs (Berlin: Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Heft 17, 1943), or Larry Moses and Stephen A. Halkovic Jr. Introduction to Mongolian History and Culture, (Bloomington, Ind.: Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, 1985).
massive amounts of numerical information: For more information on number systems and mathematics, see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization, vol. 3 (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1970).
“unknown to the ancients:” Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, vol. 3, The Works of Francis Bacon, ed. and trans. Basil Montague (1620; reprint, Philadelphia: Parry & MacMillan, 1854), p. 370.
“In the fresco cycle”: Lauren Arnold, Princely Gifts and Papal Treasures: The Franciscan Mission to China and Its Influence on the Art of the West, 1250–1350 (San Francisco: Desiderata Press, 1999), p. 39.
“a numerous and simple people”: Nicolaus of Cusa, Toward a New Council of Florence: “On the Peace of Faith” and Other Works by Nicolaus of Cusa, ed. William F. Wertz Jr. (Washington, D.C.: Schiller Institute, 1993), pp. 264.
“among these various forms of sacrifice”: Ibid., p. 264.
“It is proper to keep the commandments”: Ibid., pp. 266–267.
imagery of Mongol greatness: For more on “The Squire’s Tale” and the Mongols, see Vincent J. DiMarco, “The Historical Basis of Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale,” Edebiyat, vol. 1, no. 2 (1989), pp. 1–22, and Kathryn L. Lynch, “East Meets West in Chaucer’s Squire’s and Franklin’s Tales,” Speculum 70 (1995), pp. 530–551.
“This noble king”: The original text by Chaucer reads as follows:
Heere Bigynneth the Squieres Tale
At Sarray, in the land of Tartarye,
Ther dwelte a kyng that werreyed Russye,
Thurgh which ther dyde many a doughty man.
This noble kyng was cleped Cambyuskan,
Which in his tyme was of so greet renoun
That ther was nowher in no regioun
So excellent a lord in alle thyng.
Hym lakked noght that longeth to a kyng.
As of the secte of which that he was born
He kept his lay, to which that he was sworn;
And therto he was hardy, wys, and riche,
And pitous and just, alwey yliche;
Sooth of his word, benigne, and honourable,
Of his corage as any centre stable;
Yong, fressh, and strong, in armes desirous
As any bacheler of al his hous.
A fair persone he was and fortunat,
And kepte alwey so wel roial estat
That ther was nowher swich another man.
This noble kyng this Tartre Cambyuskan.
10. The Empire of Illusion
“When Christopher Columbus”: David Morgan, The Mongols (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1986), p. 198.
– For information on the plague in Mongol territories, see Michael W. Dols, The Black Death in the Middle East (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977).
– For more information on the plague in general, see Robert S. Gottfried, The Black Death (New York: Free Press, 1983), and David Herlihy, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997).
bodies of plague victims catapulted over the walls: Belief that the Mongols deliberately spread the plague remained strong enough to inspire imitation of it through the years, but without success. Russian troops reportedly used the tactic against Sweden in 1710, and in World War II, Japan tried it by dropping infected fleas from airplanes onto Chinese villages. The fleas had been exposed to a particularly virulent form of plague and did infect some villagers, but they did not create an epidemic.
the population of Africa declined: For population estimates, see Massimo Livi-Bacci, A Concise History of World Population, 2nd ed., trans. Carl Ipsen (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1997), p. 31, and Jean-Noel Biraben, “An Essay Concerning Mankind’s Evolution,” Population (December 1980).
the epidemic permanently changed life: For a fuller discussion of the impact of the plague and similar diseases, see William H. McNeill, Plagues and People (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976), pp. 132–175.
“venerable authority of laws”: Boccaccio, The Decameron, trans. M. Rigg (London: David Campbell, 1921), vol. 1, pp. 5–11.
Christians once again turned on the Jews: For information on the Jews being blamed for the plague, see Rosemary Horrox, The Black Death (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1994), pp. 209–226.
the Mongol authorities increased repression: Regarding anti-Chinese policies on the Mongols, see John W. Dardess, Conquerors and Confucians: Aspects of Political Change in Late Yüan China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1973).
granted ever more favor and power to Buddhism: Regarding Tibetan Buddhism under the Mongols, see Hok-lam Chan and William Theodore de Bary, eds., Yüan Thought: Chinese Thought and Religion Under the Mongols (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), p.484.
the collapse came quickly: For an account of the end of Mongol rule in China, see Udo Barkmann, “Some Comments on the Consequences of the Decline of the Mongol Empire on the Social Development of the Mongols,” in The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy, ed. Reuven Amitai-Preiss and David O. Morgan (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1999).
expelled the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish traders: For more on the impact of trade, see Andre Gunder Frank, ReORIENT: Global Economy in the Asian Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), p. 112.
Columbus embarked on his voyage: For more on Christopher Columbus and the Mongol influence, see John Larner, Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).
“the most singular people on earth”: The quotes in this paragraph are from the Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, Trans. Thomas Nugent (New York: Hafner, 1949), pp. 268–280.
“I have confined my plan”: The quotes in this paragraph are from Voltaire, The Orphan of China, in The Works of Voltaire, vol. 15, trans. William F. Fleming (Paris: E. R. DuMont, 1901), p. 180.
“The more I see”: Ibid., p. 216.
“what have I gained”: Ibid., p. 216.
“The lips are large”: The quotes in this paragraph are from George Louis Leclerc Buffon, Buffon’s Natural History of the Globe and Man (London: T. Tegg, 1831), p. 122, quoted in Kevin Stuart, Mongols in Western/American Consciousness (Lampeter, U.K.: Edwin Mellen, 1997), pp. 61–79.
“The leading characters:” Robert Chambers, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (London: John Churchill, 1844; reprint, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 307.
“the northern Chinese”: Carleton Coon, The Living Races of Man (New York: Knopf, 1965), p. 148.
“Mongoloid race”: John Langdon Haydon Down, “Observations on the Ethnic Classification of Idiots,” Journal of Mental Science 13 (1867), pp. 120–121, Quoted in Stuart, Mongols in Western/American Consciousness.
“Parents too nearly related”: Chambers, Vestiges, p. 309.
“pre-human, rather than human”: quoted in Francis G. Crookshank. The Mongol in Our Midst: A Study of Man and His Three Faces (New York: Dutton, 1924), p. 21.
“Mongolian stigmata”: Ibid., pp. 72–73.
“Mongol expatriates”: Ibid., p. 13.
“Atavistic Mongolism”: Ibid., p. 92.
“from the East”: Vladimir Sergeevich Soloviev, Pan Mongolism, in From the Ends to the Beginning: A Bilingual Anthology of Russian Verse, available at http://max.mmic.northwestern.edu/~mdenner/Demo/index.htm.
“dream of the past”: Jawaharlal Nehru, Glimpses of World History (New York: John Day, 1942), p. 5.
calendar based on the year 1206: For Information on the Genghis Khan calendar, see Sechen Jagchid and Paul Hyer, Mongolia’s Culture and Society. Boulder: Westview, 1979), p. 115.
translation of the Secret History: During World War I, the Russian and Chinese Revolutions prevented much study of the Secret History. In the 1920s, the French sinologist Paul Pelliot prepared a French translation, but it failed to be published until after World War II. The German publisher Bruno Schindler of Verlag Asia Maior prepared the German text for publication in Leipzig, but because of growing Nazi persecutions, Schindler had to flee to England. He left the manuscript behind, where it was eventually taken over by another publishing house, Verlag Otto Harrassowitz, which managed to set it in type in 1940. In France, Pelliot’s translation was finally published in 1949. A complete Russian translation was made public about the same time, and the German edition appeared in 1981. Except for the few eccentric international scholars who worked on the manuscript, the world took little notice. Over the subsequent decades, these dedicated scholars from several countries labored to reconstruct and translate the history first into proper Mongolian and Chinese, then into Russian and French, and still now many debates still rage over particular passages. Some excerpts from Russian, German, and French translations did make their way into English, but overall the English-speaking world seemed to show a profound lack of interest in the Mongols in general, including this so-called Secret History.
“the fortress of old Bukhara”: Helene Carrere D’Encausse, Islam and the Russian Revolution: Reform and Revolution in Central Asia, trans. Quintin Hjoare (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), pp. 164–165.
“to place the bloodthirsty barbarian Genghis Khan”: Larry Moses and Stephen A. Halkovic Jr., Introduction to Mongolian History and Culture (Bloomington, Ind.: Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, 1985), p. 168.
Epilogue
“Is it our fault”: From “Chinggis Khaan,” composed by D. Jargalsaikhan and performed by the musical group Chinggis Khaan.
A Note on Transliteration
Transliteration
There are at least a dozen systems for transliterating classical and modern Mongolian names and words into Latin letters, but no single system has been agreed upon. In the belief that scholars can easily understand all the spellings, I opted to use the renderings that are easiest for the English speaker to read, understand, and pronounce, and in so doing I adhere to the following principles.
1. If a common form already exists in English, I use it. Thus, I use the Persian name Genghis, simply because that spelling is more recognized than Chinggis, Jenghiz, Djingis, or the many other renditions of the name. Similarly, for the old capital I use the widely known Turkic formKarakorum,rather than the modern Mongolian name Kharkhorin or the more scholarly name Qaraqorum.
2. For toponyms, I prefer modern Mongolian names whenever possible—such as Kherlen River, rather than Herlen, Kerulen, or Qerelen. I use the Mongolian version of the modern capital Ulaanbaatar rather than the Russian form of Ulan Bator.
3. I use khan for tribal leader or Mongol king, but I use Great Khan for the highest office. To follow modern Mongol usage of khan for king and khaan for the Great Khan would be too confusing for the English reader.
4. One of the most common consonants in Mongol is the Mongol kh—similar to ch in German ich or Scottish loch. It is sometimes written as q, h, or an apostrophe.
5. Whenever possible, I avoid umlauts or diacritical marks. In Mongolian, as in the other Altaic languages, the differences between front vowels and back vowels is of critical importance. Anyone who speaks the Mongolian language will know whether the names are pronounced in the front or the back of the mouth, and for most other readers, the marks are probably not relevant.