War and Game

The Mongols were closely related to the Turks in custom and language. In the twelfth century they were one of a number of tribal groups which inhabited the steppe lands of what is now the republic of Mongolia. Their neighbours, the Tatars, Keraits, Naimans and Merkits were tribes who lived very similar lives and there must have been a certain balance between the groups. Until the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Mongols were scarcely known outside their homelands. All this changed, however, with the career of Temüchin, later known as Genghis (or Chinggis) Khan, probably born around 1170. He is said to have been descended from a family of khans but his father had been poisoned by members of the rival Tatar tribe and the young Genghis was brought up by his mother in conditions of desperate hardship and poverty. He soon distinguished himself by his ability and his ruthlessness. Slowly, by making alliances and playing off one patron against another, he made himself the leader of the Mongols. Next he launched attacks on the other tribes of the steppes, subduing the Merkits and the Naimans and almost exterminating the Tatars in a fearsome massacre. By 1206 he was master of the steppes and all the other tribes had submitted to his authority.

Compared with Turkish people further west, Mongols seem to have led a very pure nomad life. All the characteristics we have noted in the case of the Turks were here in an exaggerated and intensified form. The Mongols lived off their horses and flocks. Commentators always remarked on the extreme hardiness (and sometimes on the ugliness) of these sturdy ponies. There is a record of a Mongol on a single horse covering 600 miles in nine days. Genghis Khan's army once travelled 130 miles in two days, moving without a break. This astonishing mobility was to prove one of their most terrifying features and one of their most important military advantages. They could also move without needing to carry their fodder. In 1241 the emperor Frederick II wrote to his fellow rulers in western Europe to warn them against the Mongol invasions and to try to gather their support. His description of the Mongols and their methods of warfare is surprisingly well informed. Among their strengths he notes that 'when fodder fails them, their horses are said to be satisfied with the bark and leaves of trees and the roots of herbs which the men bring with them: yet they always find them to be very swift and strong in case of necessity'. Other commentators noted that Mongol horses knew how to dig down through the snow to find food whereas horses brought up in more comfortable conditions were unable to cope in the same way.

Like the Turks, the Mongols could survive off a diet of animal products. They drank the milk and ate the flesh of their horses, and we even have accounts of the Mongols drinking the blood of their riding animals in times of great hardship. Their travelling supplies might consist of dried milk curd, to which water was added to make it drinkable, and cured meat. In moments of relaxation they enjoyed the famous kumiz or fermented mare's milk. In contrast, the Mongols never practised agriculture and although they certainly ate grain products when available, they had no understanding of farming or sympathy with farmers. Mongol armies needed pasture as twentieth-century armies needed oil and petrol. If the land was occupied by buildings or tillage, then it had to be cleared. They had no interest in preserving orchards or irrigation canals, and needed no urging to convert the land to grass. Equally, Mongol armies could not maintain themselves in the absence of broad pastures. In India, and in the arid lands of southern Iran and Syria, the Mongol advance faltered and halted. In southern Russia and northern Iran, by contrast, extensive grazing meant that their armies could 'refuel' and multiply.

The Mongols also used wagons for transport. Unlike the Islamic Middle East, where wheeled transport was virtually unknown in the Middle Ages, the people of the steppes utilized them for carrying their tents, and necessary household equipment. Wagons were sometimes used on military campaign and wagons are mentioned, for example, in the 1241 battle of Mohi against the Hungarians when they were moved into a circle to provide a sort of improvised fortification. The Mongols were also adept at building rafts to cross rivers: Frederick II in his letter notes, 'They are incomparable archers and carry skins artificially made, in which they cross lakes and the most rapid rivers without danger.'
The bow was their principal weapon. The Mongol version was a composite bow of bone and sinew on a wooden frame. These bows had a very heavy pull, stronger even than the famous English longbows of the later Middle Ages. The effective range could be well over two hundred yards. What is astonishing, however, is that this formidable weapon was used from the back of a swiftly moving horse. Mongols could also fire with terrifying rapidity. When sources talk of the sky becoming dark with their arrows, this was no mere figure of speech. Like an aerial bombardment in modern warfare, it prevented the enemy from maneuvering or regrouping at will. Of all the nomad peoples of Asia, the Mongols were the most successful in the practice of mounted archery.

Life on the Mongol steppes was very hard and enemies were treated with the most extreme ruthlessness: there was none of the quasi-chivalry which characterized the Bedouin society of the period before Islam. Enemies could be surprised, poisoned (a technique which would have been regarded with the utmost horror by the Bedouin) or have their backs broken. Their women and children could be slaughtered or become the absolute property of the victors. It was a peculiarity of the Mongol scale of values that the shedding of blood was considered especially shameful for the victim. Hence men of high rank would be executed by trampling or suffocation rather than with the sword. This doubtful privilege might even be extended to distinguished outsiders, like the last 'Abbasid caliph of Baghdad who in 1258 was rolled up in a carpet and trampled to death by horses.

Unlike other nomads, the Mongol soldiers underwent systematic training. This was not done in camps or barracks but on the hunting field. The Mongol leaders mounted great annual hunts, called nerge, to provide meat for the winter. A huge ring of hunters would gradually close in on the game, driving it ever closer together. Anyone who allowed an animal to escape would face punishment. As the ring contracted so the press of animals would become more intense. Finally, when the khan gave the order, but not a moment before, the slaughter would begin. The nerge inculcated basic skills of teamwork, communication and co-ordination, of encircling the prey and above all, of obedience, which were to be key factors in the success of the conquests.