The Silk Road and the Political Economy of the Mongol Empire

Prajakti Kalra

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351850179
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Regional Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

The growing importance of Central and Inner Asia and the Silk Road is much discussed at present. This book compares the nature of present day networks in these regions with the patterns of similar connections which existed at the time of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century and its successor states. It considers settlement patterns, technology and technology transfer, trade, political arrangements, the role of religion and the impact of the powerful states which border the region. Overall, the book demonstrates that the Mongol Empire anticipated many of the networks and connections which exist in the region at present.

1 Rise of Chinggis Khan

By unifying all the Turko-Mongol nations

into a single empire, by imposing iron discipline

from China to the Caspian, Jenghiz Khan suppressed

the endless intertibal wars and afforded the caravans

a security they had never known.¹

The rise of Chinggis Khan (1206–1227) and his empire in the thirteenth century had its roots in the historical, political and social structure of nomadic peoples of Inner Asia. He exemplified adaptation to the changing pattern of steppe society. His policies were a reaction to the anarchy that had descended on the steppe in the eleventh to twelfth centuries as a result of shifting alliances and weak allegiances. His innovative strategies and charismatic personality put him in a position to attract followers and revitalise the region. His polices and reorganisation of the steppe led to its transformation into a place of functional order and stability which was used as a springboard for uniting the rest of Eurasia. The creation of a supratribal identity associated with the person of Chinggis Khan was passed down to his descendants who expanded the Mongol ideology and applied it beyond the steppe. The politics and society in the steppe at the time of Chinggis’ rise presented him with an environment of chaos and dysfunction which was crucial in determining his policies and their appeal to a majority of the tribes. Members of tribes that willingly chose to ally with him initially were dissatisfied individuals who found themselves on the periphery of existent tribes.² Chinggis Khan himself was an example of a dissatisfied member of a tribe that had left him and his family in their hour of need. His personal life experiences served as a backdrop for the principles which were to guide him in the governance of his empire. The paramount position of stable allegiances and loyalty remained at the centre of the institutions he created and remained the core of the Mongol state even under his descendants. Chinggis Khan’s legal code (yasaq) and the establishment of the imperial bodyguard (keshig) served as the backbone of a Mongol system which valued elements that maintained functional order on the steppe and beyond. He attracted followers as a result of his military successes and his sense of fair play when it came to the distribution of rewards. He exemplified steppe traditions of generosity and reciprocity³ by promising a share in the spoils of war for his army of conquest, returning favours to all the people who helped him in his struggle against his rivals (for example, he offered support to the Khitan brothers in their fight against the Jurchid for their help against his rival Jamugha) and opening trade routes for merchants.⁴ The reorganisation of the steppe through the process of detribalisation created a system which bypassed fleeting tribal loyalties and provided stability in the form of the person of Chinggis Khan and his consistent policies. The order was guaranteed by rights which were formalised in the legal code and provided functionality on the steppe. His policies changed the content rather than the form of the insitutions and in doing so he was able to fashion something new without alienating tribes on the steppe. This principle was followed in Mongol Eurasia which encompassed diverse societies with historical traditions dating back centuries.

A brief overview of the history of steppe leadership and tribes is essential at this point. Inner Asia had seen numerous strong empires over the centuries: Xiong-nu, Kok-Turks, Uyghurs, the Kyrghyz, etc. They all showed evidence of a set of common features and styles of leadership which broadly reflected the make-up of tribal society. Nomadic empires embodied three major principles – ‘qut’ (‘mandate of heaven’, ‘divine right to rule’), ‘anda’ (blood brother) and ‘noker’ (companion, entourage)⁵ which formed the backbone of the steppe imperial tradition. Steppe society until the thirteenth century had seen at least three distinctive styles of leadership. First, hierarchical leadership; second, leadership that changed hands due to civil wars, coups and weak emperors being replaced by stronger ones; and lastly, leaders that were elected by consensus.⁶ Tribal groups at the time of Chinggis Khan’s rise were roughly divided between two types of confederations: decentralised tribes (for example, the Mangut, Qongirrad) and tribes with hereditary leaders or centralised tribes (for example, the Kerait, Naiman).⁷ Chinggis Khan adapted these traditions to formulate a Mongol system which was based on stability, loyalty and valued allegiance. There is no doubt that ideas and characteristics of the steppe imperial tradition of ancient Turks filtered down from the Uyghurs through to the Mongols.⁸ To illustrate further, the full title of the Qaghan of the Xiong-nu was ‘Tengri kudu Jenuye’ (tengri translates as Heaven) which continued to remain the divine blessing associated with the Chinggissids. Chinggis Khan’s biography is riddled with references to the mandate given to him to rule by Tengri.⁹ This can also be seen when Chinggis Khan was elected ruler of all the peoples in an official ‘quriltai’ (election, decision-making body) in 1206¹⁰ in accordance with old steppe traditions.¹¹

Nomads had their own political culture which included characteristic features of charisma, dual kingship and models of rule, imperial titles and symbolisms (for example, qan, Qaghan, yagabu, etc.), specific succession patterns (for example, lateral), notions of collective and joint sovereignty and patrimonial modes of governance.¹² Not only did steppe tradition foreshadow the political nature of Chinggis Khan’s empire, there was also a continuation of other steppe traditions that characterised the social strata (for example, the custom of marrying the widowed wife of a brother lost in battle, son-in-laws who lived with their in-laws for the initial one or two years before taking their bride with them, the importance of consort-clans where the majority of the wives came from, not shedding the blood of members of the imperial family) and illustrate the continuation of steppe tradition before, during and after Chinggis Khan’s reign.¹³ Furthermore, he continued to employ his predecessors, like the Uyghurs, who represented a successful steppe empire that had relied heavily on trade and control over neighbouring tribes.¹⁴ The Uyghur were replaced by another tribe, the Kyrghyz, who are referred to as forest-dwellers who foreshadowed the Mongol Empire. As mentioned above their rule on the steppe is best described as disjointed and chaotic which was a result of shifting alliances and a breakdown of steppe order.¹⁵ As a direct consequence, Chinggis Khan’s power on the steppe stemmed from his ability to create institutions which could produce stability. The fashioning of an empire based on institutions, fairness and loyalty was an outcome of Chinggis Khan’s military genius and administrative acumen. The conditions thus created which offered stability for economic, social and political development are not only noteworthy but deserve a special place in history, especially in light of the transformation of Eurasia under Chinggissid Mongols. The next section considers Chinggis Khan’s establishment of the early Mongol state.

The state

In his struggle to become the Qaghan, Chinggis Khan was in no way guaranteed victory in the steppe. His accession to power was not smooth and uncontested. He came very close to losing to Jamugha, his anda, and Ong Khan (leader of the Kerait), his father’s anda. Both, Jamugha and Chinggis Khan were young and ambitious men who wanted control of the tribes and neither would have accepted a subservient position willingly, leading to an inevitable rift.¹⁶ This conflict was described by Togan as a fight to maintain tribalisation of the steppe tribes under Jamugha and detribalisation of the steppe represented by Chinggis Khan. Other historians have described this as a conflict between the old steppe hierarchical order clashing with the new democratic style of leadership of Chinggis Khan. According to the former argument, Chinggis Khan wanted to create a more stable and secure society free of shifting alliances.¹⁷ He instituted a central structure of civil and military government and reorganised society into tightly bound units with the Qaghan at the apex. The organisation of the military in tumen based on the decimal system was already in use on the steppe and was transformed into a cohesive unit.¹⁸ One of the main tenets of Chinggis Khan’s yasaq refers to the punishment of death if soldiers abandoned their units. The reshuffling and reorganisation of tumen remained one of the easiest ways for regularising society as late as the fourteenth century. For example, Qaidu and Kebek in Central Asia organised society into tumen in the 1260s and then again in the 1320s. In the conflict between Chinggis and Jamugha, the former won and spurred the creation of the Mongol Empire which was to rule over one-fifth of the world. Tribal loyalty underwent a sea change as a consequence of the policy of detribalisation and moved away from to traditional kin-based loyalty and came to represent voluntary association to a leader based on his individual charisma.¹⁹ This was best exemplified by the institution of noker which was to influence the creation of the keshig that formed the ranks of the core administrators and officials of the Mongol state. Steppe leaders had always had followers but now a multitribal or supratribal elite had been secured which was loyal to Chinggis Khan’s person and his yasaq.²⁰ This new supratribal military unit superseded other loyalties and produced stability and security in society.²¹ He also tried to streamline the succession process in order to avoid problems of lateral succession endemic to steppe society until then. According to Togan, the society thus created differed from older steppe societies and shared common aims and goals proposed by Chinggis Khan.²² The Mongol worldview a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Rise of Chinggis Khan
• 2 Institutional framework of Mongol Eurasia
• 3 The place of religion in Mongol Eurasia
• 4 Mongol cities of Eurasia
• 5 Trade and economic relations in Mongol Eurasia
• 6 Echoes of the past in present day Eurasia
• Epilogue
• Appendix 1: keywords
• Appendix 2: golden lineage
• Appendix 3
• Appendix 4
• Appendix 5
• Appendix 6
• Appendix 7
• Bibliography
• Index