Nomadic Empires

1. Write a note on nomadic societies.

Ans: 1.No chronicles, travelogues and documents produced by city-based litterateurs by steppe dwellers. City-based litterateurs produced by only ignorant and biased reports of nomadic life.

2. Who were the main writers on Mongol historiography.

Ans:Imperial experience of Mongols: Many individuals from Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, Turkish and Muslim background wrote about the Mongols.

3.Russian scholars of 18^th and 19^th centuries wrote much about the Mongols.

4.The main sources for writing Mongol history were eulogies.

5.What is the place of Genghis khan and the emerging Mongol empire in the history according to the Marxist historiography.

The latter Russian historians followed the Marxist historiography for writing the Mongol history particularly the Genghis Khan. The Marxist historiography kept Genghis Khan and the emerging Mongol empire within a scale of human evolution that was witnessing a transition from a tribal to a feudal mode of production from a relatively classless society to one where there were wide differences between the lord, the owners of land and the peasant.

3.Name two important scholars of Russia who worked on Mongol history.

1. Boris Yakovlevich Vladimirtsov 2.Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold

4.Give a note on Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold’s writings on Genghis Khan.

1.His sympathetic and positive assessment of the career and achievements of the

Mongols under Genghis Khan and his successors got him into trouble with the censors during the Stalin rule of Soviet Union and his writings were not allowed to publish.

2. Later during the period of Khrushev his writing were allowed to publish in USSR..

5. Give a note on different sources (works) for the writing of the history of Mongols .

There are several sources available to write the Mongol history. These include the following.

1. Most of the sources were written in Chinese, Mongolian, Persian and Arabic but vital materials are also available in Italian, Latin, French and Russian languages.
2. The earliest narrative on Genghis Khan that is “The Secret History of the Mongols”

(Mongqol-un niuea tobeaan)

3. Eulogies: which challenged and complicated the otherwise hostile, city based tiradeagainst the steppe marauders. The history of the Mongols, therefore, provides interesting details to question the manner in which sedentary societies usually characterized nomads as primitive barbarians.
4. Marco polo’s traveler’s account during his visit to Mongol court.
5. Mongols produced little literature.

6. Write a note on the territories located in the Mongol Empire.

Mongolia, China, Tibet, Russian Principalities, Transoxiciana, Afghanistan, eastern Iran

and Iraq and Persia etc.

7. What was the political vision of Genghis Khan?

-Creation of a confederacy of Mongol tribes in the steppes of Central Asia.

-He declared that he has a mandate from God to rule the world.

- He wanted to create the largest empire in the world.

8. What do you mean by the term “barbarian”.

Ans: The term barbarian is derived from the Greek, someone whose language sounded like a random noise: “barber”. In Greek texts, barbarians were depicted like children, unable to speak or reason properly, cowardly, effeminate, luxurious, and cruel. Slothful, greedy and politically unable to govern themselves. The Romans used this term for German tribes , Gaulas and the Huns. The Chinese had different terms for the steppe barbarians but none of them carried a positive meaning.

9. What did Genghis Khan throughout his life?

Ans: Throughout his life Genghis Khan spent consolidating his hold over the Mongol tribes, leading and directing campaigns into adjoining areas in north China, Transoxiana, Afghanistan, eastern Iran and the Russian steppes.