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The essence of Chapter 3 for last-minute revision: definitions, names, dates, tables and a recap. The full explanation is in the detailed notes, available separately.
Genghis KhanTemujinquriltaitumannoyanulusyamPax MongolicayasaGolden HordeKarakorum
1 Every definition in one place
Learn these word for word
SteppeThe vast, flat grassland of Central Asia across which the Mongols moved with their herds
LiteratiEducated, literate, city-based writers; almost every source on the Mongols was produced by them
Secret History of the MongolsThe earliest surviving narrative of Genghis Khan’s life; its own Mongolian and Chinese versions disagree
GerThe portable, felt-covered tent Mongol families lived in, moved between winter and summer pasture
Patrilineal lineageA family line traced through the father’s side back to a common male ancestor
QuriltaiAn assembly of Mongol chieftains deciding campaigns, plunder, pasture and succession
Qa’anGreat Khan; the title conferred on Temujin at the quriltai of 1206 along with the name Genghis Khan, meaning Oceanic Khan or Universal Ruler
Decimal system / tumanArmy units of 10, 100, 1,000 and, on paper, 10,000; the last is a tuman. Old clan blocks were deliberately split up and mixed
NoyanThe specially chosen captains who commanded the new units beside Genghis Khan’s four sons
AndaBlood-brother; an honour publicly conferred on long-serving followers
NaukarBondsman; a freeman of humbler birth taken into the Khan’s personal service
UlusA son’s share of the conquests. Fluid in Genghis Khan’s lifetime, a fixed territorial dominion from the mid-thirteenth century
TamaA prince’s own military contingent, stationed inside every ulus to mark the dominion as shared
YamThe courier relay of outposts with fresh horses and riders that linked the empire
QubcurThe tax that paid for the yam: a tenth of a nomad household’s herd, in horses or livestock, paid willingly
Pax MongolicaThe Mongol Peace; the stability after the conquests that let Silk Route trade and travel reach their height
Paiza / geregeThe safe-conduct pass for travellers, paiza in Persian and gerege in Mongolian
BajThe tax traders paid for that same protection, acknowledging the Khan’s authority
QanatAn underground irrigation canal of the Iranian plateau; many decayed during the conquests and the desert advanced
Yasa / yasaqYasaq first meant law, decree or order. Yasa came to mean the whole legal code credited to Genghis Khan
GuregenSon-in-law; the only title Timur could claim, since he was not of Genghis Khanid descent
2 The Mongol world: peoples, places and phases
| What the book names | What to remember |
|---|---|
| Who the Mongols were | A diverse people tied by language to the Tatars, Khitan and Manchus in the east and to the Turkic tribes in the west. Some were pastoralists, others hunter-gatherers of the Siberian forests who traded furs |
| The setting | Rolling plains in what is now Mongolia, with the snow-capped Altai mountains west, the arid Gobi desert south, and the Onon and Selenga rivers and mountain springs watering them |
| The climate | Long harsh winters, brief dry summers. Some farming was possible, but unlike some Turkic peoples further west the Mongols never took to it |
| Why raiding began | A harsh winter or a drought forced families to forage further afield, sparking conflict over grazing land and predatory raids for livestock. Alliances around a powerful lineage stayed small and short-lived, with rare exceptions |
| China, in three realms | The Tibetan-origin Hsi Hsia in the north-west, the Jurchen Chin ruling the north from Peking, and the Sung holding the south, conquered only in 1279 |
| The Qara Khita | Held the Tien Shan mountains north-west of China. Their defeat in 1218 brought Mongol power to the Amu Darya, Transoxiana and Khwarazm |
| The western pursuit | Sultan Muhammad was chased into Azerbaijan, Russian forces were beaten in the Crimea and the Caspian Sea was encircled, while a second wing followed Jalaluddin into Afghanistan and Sindh, as far as the Indus |
| Phase one, 1236 to 1242 | Major gains in the Russian steppes, Bulghar, Kiev, Poland and Hungary |
| Phase two, 1255 to 1300 | All of China (1279), plus Iran, Iraq and Syria, after which the frontier stabilised |
| How the army fought | Speed and mobility from horsemanship, striking power from mounted archery perfected in hunting expeditions that doubled as manoeuvres, surprise from winter campaigns across frozen rivers, and siege engines with naphtha bombardment carried by light, portable equipment |
3 Who is who
| Name | Remember them for |
|---|---|
| Temujin | Genghis Khan’s own name; son of Yesugei of the Kiyat, within the Borjigid clan |
| Yesugei | His father, murdered while Temujin was a boy |
| Oelun-eke | His mother, who raised the family in hardship |
| Borte | His wife, kidnapped soon after the marriage and recovered by force |
| Boghurchu | His first and lifelong trusted ally |
| Jamuqa | His anda, later his bitter rival, finally defeated in 1206 |
| Tughril / Ong Khan | Kereyit ruler, his father’s old blood-brother and then his own ally, defeated by 1203 |
| Sultan Muhammad | Ruler of Khwarazm; executed Mongol envoys and brought on the campaigns of 1219 to 1221 |
| Jalaluddin | His son, pursued by a Mongol wing into Afghanistan and Sindh |
| Juwaini | Persian chronicler of the Il-Khans; recorded the fall of Bukhara and the Merv death toll |
| Mongke (1251-60) | Great Khan; sent the warning letter to Louis IX of France (1226-70) |
| Batu | Led the campaigns of 1236 to 1241 into Russia, Poland, Hungary and up to Vienna |
| Hulegu | Took Baghdad in 1258 and founded the Il-Khanid state in Iran |
| Berke (1257-67) | Turned the Golden Horde towards Islam and allied with Egypt against the Il-Khans |
| Qubilai Khan (d. 1294) | Great Khan from 1260; presented himself as protector of peasants and cities |
| Ghazan Khan (1295-1304) | First Il-Khanid ruler to convert to Islam; warned his commanders against plundering peasants |
| Rashiduddin | Ghazan Khan’s Persian wazir, who probably drafted that speech |
| Yeh-lu Ch’u-ts’ai | Chinese minister who restrained Ogodei’s harsher instincts |
| William of Rubruck | Franciscan monk sent by Louis IX; reached Karakorum in 1254 |
| Guillaume Boucher | Parisian goldsmith at Mongke’s court, employed by Queen Sorghaqtani |
| ‘Abdullah Khan | Late sixteenth-century Jochid descendant who prayed at Bukhara “according to the yasa” |
| Hafiz-i Tanish | His chronicler, who recorded that phrase |
| David Ayalon | Modern scholar who traced how the yasa’s memory was reshaped |
| Vladimirtsov and Bartold | Russian scholars; Bartold’s sympathetic account was suppressed until the 1960s |
| Igor de Rachewiltz, Gerhard Doerfer | Philologists of the Secret History and of Mongol words in Persian |
| Attila (d. 453) | The only earlier confederation of comparable size; unlike Genghis Khan’s, it broke up at his death |
| Timur (1370-1405) | Claimed rule only as guregen, son-in-law of the Genghis Khanid family |
4 The dates that get asked
c. 1162 / c. 1167Birth of Temujin; NCERT itself gives both years
1203Tatars, Kereyits and Ong Khan defeated
1206Naiman and Jamuqa defeated; the quriltai proclaims Genghis Khan
1209Hsi Hsia defeated
1213The Great Wall breached
1215Peking sacked
1216Genghis Khan returns to Mongolia, leaving China to his subordinates
1218Qara Khita defeated; Mongol power reaches the Amu Darya
1219-21Khwarazm campaigns: Otrar, Bukhara, Samarqand, Balkh, Gurganj, Merv, Nishapur, Herat
1227Death of Genghis Khan
1227-41Ogodei rules as Great Khan
1234The war against the Chin dynasty finally ends
1236-42Batu devastates Russia, Poland and Hungary and camps outside Vienna
1246-49Guyuk rules as Great Khan
1251-60Mongke rules as Great Khan
1253-55Fresh campaigns launched in Iran and China
1254William of Rubruck reaches Karakorum
1257-67Berke’s reign; the Golden Horde turns towards Islam
1258Baghdad taken, the Abbasid caliphate ends, the Il-Khanid state founded
1260Qubilai Khan becomes Great Khan; the dominion fragments into lineages
1279The whole of China under Mongol rule
1295-1304Ghazan Khan rules Iran and converts to Islam
1350sDefinitive conversion of the Golden Horde to Islam
1368End of the Yuan dynasty in China
1370-1405Rule of Timur
1495-1530Babur, descendant of Timur and of Genghis Khan, founds the Mughal empire in 1526
1500Shaybani Khan takes Transoxiana and drives out the Timurids
1759The Manchus conquer Mongolia
1921The Republic of Mongolia is founded
5 The four ulus, and what each became
| Son | Share in 1227 | Later khanate |
|---|---|---|
| Jochi (eldest) | The Russian steppes, “as far west as his horses could roam” | The Golden Horde |
| Chaghatai | Transoxianian steppe and the lands north of the Pamirs | The Chaghataid khanate, “Turkistan” |
| Ogodei | Named successor as Great Khan; capital at Karakorum | Ogodeid line defeated and absorbed into the Toluyid |
| Toluy (youngest) | The Mongol homeland, by the custom of the home hearth | Yuan dynasty in China, and the Il-Khanid state in Iran under Hulegu |
6 The machinery of empire, at a glance
| Institution | What it did |
|---|---|
| Decimal army | Units of 10 to 10,000 with clans deliberately broken up and mixed; unauthorised transfer punished harshly |
| Noyan, anda, naukar | A nobility of personal loyalty replacing one of inherited clan rank |
| Ulus and tama | Four shares for four sons, with each prince’s contingent stationed in every share |
| Quriltai | Collective decisions each season on campaigns, plunder, pasture and succession |
| Yam and qubcur | A courier relay funded by a tenth of the herd, letting the Khans watch the farthest frontiers |
| Paiza, gerege, baj | Safe conduct for travellers and traders, in exchange for acknowledging Mongol authority |
| Recruited administrators | Chinese secretaries in Iran, Persians in China; trusted as long as they raised revenue |
7 Steppe confederacies before the Mongols
| Confederacy | Approximate date | Mainly |
|---|---|---|
| Hsiung-nu | 200 BCE | Turks |
| Juan-juan | 400 CE | Mongols |
| Epthalite Huns | 400 CE | Mongols |
| T’u-chueh | 550 CE | Turks |
| Uighurs | 740 CE | Turks |
| Khitan | 940 CE | Mongols |
8 Numbers to quote, and how to quote them
17,47,000reported dead at Nishapur, 1220
16,00,000reported dead at Herat, 1222
8,00,000reported dead at Baghdad, 1258
13,00,000Juwaini’s figure for Merv, from thirteen days of counting
Common Mistake
Never present these as modern statistics. Juwaini reached the Merv figure by counting for thirteen days at a claimed hundred thousand corpses a day, and an Il-Khanid chronicle turned an eyewitness count of 400 defenders at Bukhara’s citadel into 30,000 killed. Smaller tolls in the same tradition: Nasa 70,000, the Baihaq district 70,000, Tun in Kuhistan 12,000. Quote them as chroniclers’ claims and say why they were inflated.
9 Two ways of remembering one man
9.1 The same career, seen from two sides
To the conquered
- Destroyer of cities
- Responsible for thousands of deaths
- Feared across China, Iran and eastern Europe
To the Mongols
- Their greatest leader of all time
- Ended tribal war and Chinese exploitation
- Brought prosperity and reopened the trade routes
Exam Tip
The chapter does more than set two views side by side. Its own point is that a single dominant perspective can erase every other one, which is why the Mongols’ own memory of Genghis Khan had to be recovered from sources written by their enemies. Add two closing facts to any answer on his place in world history: historians are still studying how the Mongols supplied an ideological model for later regimes, the Mughals of India among them, and modern Mongolia, after decades of Soviet control, has reclaimed him as its publicly venerated national hero.
Quick Revision : read this the night before the exam
- The Mongols wrote almost nothing themselves, so the sources are city-written, often hostile, in many languages, and must be read critically
- The steppe had no cities because neither pastoralism nor hunting could support a dense population, and trade with China was therefore essential
- Temujin rose through hardship and alliance to be proclaimed Genghis Khan at the quriltai of 1206
- He rebuilt the army on the decimal system, broke the old clans apart, and created a nobility of anda and noyan and naukar loyal to himself
- His four sons received the four ulus, still fluid frontiers rather than fixed kingdoms in his lifetime, held together by the tama, the quriltai and the yam
- Conquest devastated settled societies, including Iran’s qanats and Khurasan, but the Pax Mongolica that followed carried Silk Route trade to its height
- Policy towards peasants shifted from massacre in the 1230s to protection under Qubilai Khan and Ghazan Khan, because a settled state needs a taxpaying countryside
- The dominion split into four khanates, and the Toluyid branch, richest in literati, shaped how the family’s history was written
- The yasa grew from an administrative rule into Genghis Khan’s whole law code, because a Mongol minority ruling literate cities needed a sacred inheritance of its own
- He is remembered both as a destroyer and as a nation-builder, and modern Mongolia has reclaimed him as its national hero
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