The Rise of Mongol Tribes

During the early thirteenth century, a strong empire named Mongolia was founded on the Mongol plateau. The foundation of the united Mongol Empire provided favorable conditions for the development of social economy. Meanwhile, this empire launched successive wars to expand its territory to many of Asian and European countries.

The ancient Mongol tribes lived scattered in the areas of the southeast of Balkan Lake and the upper reaches of Heilongjiang River, which were written down in the historical books as the names of Mongushiwei in Tang Dynasty and Mongol, Monguly, Black Tata in Liao and Jin Dynasties. In the twelfth century, the group of Mongol tribes split into two cliques: the nomadic tribe in prairie and the hunting tribe in forest, in which the former group had a larger population, was better civilized, and raised herds of horses, sheep, and cows. They ate meat and drank mare's milk without planting grains. The latter group had a smaller population, was less civilized, and relied on hunting and catching fish for livelihood. Some of the forest tribes raised deer to transport goods. They usually bartered furs for animal products from the herdsmen in the prairie.

In the twelfth century, the social system of Mongols was characterized as the clan system. They formed big or small clans according to their blood relationships, and a few clans formed a tribe. Tata, Tai Chiwu, Kelie, Naiman and Mierqi were big tribes at that time. Divisions of labor in society such as blacksmiths and carpenters emerged, which showed a further development of productive forces. Mongols bartered goods such as livestock, furs with Han nationality. When bartering with Han nationality, they absorbed the advanced technologies to speed up the development of Mongol social economy. In the late twelfth century, the life style of group nomads (called “Go Lieyan” in Mongolian) was replaced by individual nomads (called “Ah Yinle” in Mongolian). Every family had its own livestock herds and tents. A man's property was inherited by his the youngest son, who was called Er Zhan, which meant the owner of a family. With the emergence of private property, social inequality arose. “Na Yan”(statesmen and military leaders in Mongolian), the representative figures of celebrated families split out from clan members. Using their superior social positions, they held the rights of controlling pastures and water resources. A group of people named “Na Ker”(soldiers and battle companions in Mongolian) gathered around “Na Yan”. They were enslaved by “Na Yan”, and “Na Yan” provided them life necessities and allotted them war trophies. Free clan members were mainly herdsmen, a few slaves served as servants and horsemen.

When the clan system of Mongolia nationality broke up, different tribes fought with each other for pastures and wealth. The wars not only damaged the production, but also impeded barters among tribes. At the same time, the Nuzheng rulers plundered and slaughtered in this area regularly, which deepened Mongol people suffering. In order to strengthen their ruler position, “Na Yan” required a united empire. This historical change was fulfilled under Genghiskhan's leadership.

Genghiskhan (A.D.1162-1227), whose original name was Tie Muzhen, was born in a noble family of a tribe. His father (called “Er Chige” in Mongolian) named Yie Sugai was the lord of most of the Mongol tribes. Yie Sugai had five sons among which Tie Muzhen was the oldest .He controlled many people and “Na Ker”, and got the title of “Ba Natuer”(hero or warrior in Mongolian). When Tie Muzhen was 13 years old, his father was killed by Tata people with poison on his way out. With his father’s soldiers’ support, Tie Muzhen firstly ensured his dominion in his own tribe, and then defeated tribes such as Tata, Kelie, and Naiman. The long-time splitting situation among the main tribes ended at last.

In 1206, Mongol nobles held a meeting named “Ku Liertai”(tribe congress in Mongolian) on the bank of Wonan River. Tie Muzhen was unanimously elected Khan of the whole Mongolia, whose honorific title was “Genghiskhan”(“Genghis” means something is as strong as steel; and “khan” means the emperor or the king in Mongolian). At that time, Khan was no longer the leader of a tribe union, but an empire. Firstly, the Mongol regime, which was founded by Genghiskhan, established a military administration. He divided Mongol people with units such as Ten thousand Families (called “Tubo” in Mongolian), Thousand Families (called “Minhan” in Mongolian), Hundred Families (called “Zhawen” in Mongolian), and Ten Families (called “Aerban” in Mongolian), in which troops with ten thousand, thousand, hundred, or ten soldiers could be provided. So, the administrative units of Mongolia were actually military orgnizations. Clan leaders became the leaders of the different units who were directly controlled by Genghiskhan. They gave the ranks to their descendants after they died. Genghiskhan conferred the leader of Thousand Families on 95 “Na Yan”s. At the same time, he granted “Na Yan” territories according to their ranks. A certain leader of Thousand Families controlled common people respectively. Those who transfer from a “Na Yan” to another without permission must be punished. Secondly, the regime organized a guard troop (called “Qie Xue” in Mongolian) among which were warriors chosen from “Nan Yan” or sons of free people. They were not only Genghiskhan's bodyguard troop, but also a standing army with which Genghiskhan exercised his military rule upon Mongol people. Thirdly, in order to protect the forming noble class's profits, Genghiskhan made new laws (called “Zha Sa” in Mongolian) in which stipulated that those who committing kill, steal, or keeping escaped slaves must be sentenced to death. Genghiskhan appointed a superior justice whose responsibility was to try both criminal and civil cases of the whole country. He also began to create Mongol characters, and set up an organization called “Bie Qi” to manage religious affairs. He practiced a tolerant policy on religions. The three measures mentioned above led to the disappearance of clan system, and unity of Mongol tribes, which provided favorable conditions for a further development of Mongol society.

In order to rob wealth, Mongol nobles expanded their territory soon after united. In 1205, Genghiskhan began to attack Xi Xia. In 1209, Mongol troops invaded Zhongxing Prefecture (Yinchuan), capital of Xi Xia. Xi Xia was forced to sue for peace. In 1210, Mongolia attacked Jing , and captured its capital Zhong du (Beijing) in 1215. In 1218, Mongol troops turned back to invade its old haunt Xi Liao. Then, Mongolia's territory was adjacent to that of Khwarem, a big empire in middle Asia. During the wars of striking Jin, Genghiskhan not only got plenty of gold, silver, silk and domestic animals, but also captured many craftsmen and technicians from Han nationality, among who were gun makers. Hence, powder weapons were introduced to Mongolia thus strengthened Mongolia’s military power.

Mongols and Khwarem

Before Genghiskhan was born, Mongols were not strong enough in northeast Asia. The title “ Mongolia”was not the name of all Mongol tribes, but merely meant tribes controlled by Genghiskhan. For a long time, the dominant nomadic tribe in the prairie was in the state of being apart for a while, and being together for a while. A power that really represented the interests of herdsmen in the prairie could not form. Although Genghiskhan was born in a noble family, and his father was the lord of most Mongol tribes, after suffering escaping for life and hardly being killed, he got a strong will in his heart. Because of the internal dissension among herdsmen in the prairie, Genghiskhan's father Yie Sugai was used by people in Jin Dynasty, and killed by Tata people. His mother named Huo Erlun brought him and his four brothers up bitterly. As the oldest son, Genghiskhan had a will of uniting the nomadic tribes in the prairie, and fighting for out invasion together when he was very young. So, he was resolutely supported by his father's bodyguard soldiers. Hence, a historical change of uniting the tribe in the prairie began.

Under his home tribe's great support, Genghiskhan successively united the Mongol tribes such as Tata, Kelie, and Naiman in the prairie, among which Naiman was a Mongol tribe at the very west end of Mongolian family. Although living in the west of the prairie, Tata tribe had frequent dealings with Uygur people who belonged to Turks language family, and were influenced by mainland culture. So, Naiman people drew on plenty essences of Han culture from Uygur people. Originally living near to the mainland, Tata tribe was quite influenced by mainland culture in many aspects: cultural, ideological, and political, and so on. Since Han and Tang Dynasties, China occupied a leading position in cultural, political, economic and military aspects that represented a nation's integral strength. So, tribes in the Western Regions and Mongolia prairie that were influenced by mainland were no doubt the more advanced and more superior tribes. This was the reason why Genghiskhan was eager to attack Tata and Naiman tribes.

Among the successive wars of annexing the other tribes in the prairie, Tata tribe was Genghiskhan's first target, because he always remembered that Tata people killed his father. Then, he killed king of Naiman, whose name was Da Yang Kahan and annexed Naiman tribe. The princess of Naiman named Gu Jierku escaped to the upper reaches of Oбь River and usurped Xi Liao's throne. After knowing the princess of Naiman's whereabouts, Genghiskhan sent his general named Zhe Bie to invade Turks and capture Gu Jierku. Although escaped to the mountains of Bactria from Xi Liao, Gu Jierku was finally found and killed by Zhe Bie's subordinates. Hence, Mongol tribes not only got a state of unprecedented unity, but also occupied East Turks's territory without any effort. General Zhe Bie acted an important role in the whole affair. Since then, he was also outstanding during the wars of invading Persia, Armenia, and Russia.

Having captured East Turks, Xi Liao and Mongolia prairie, Genghiskhan put his eyesight to the west of West Turks's territory: Khwarem, an empire located in the Iran Plateau. Khwarem was originally controlled by Saierzhu Turks, and became an independent empire in 1157. In the early thirteenth century, during the reign of emperor Aradine Muhammad, Khwarem became a strong empire in middle Asia. Its territory occupied SyrDar’ya River to the northeast, Aral Sea and Caspian Sea to the north, Azerbaijan to the northwest, Baghdad to the west, and India Ocean to the south. Knowing that Khwarem was a richly endowed empire; Genghiskhan made inquiries about Khwarem's military and economic conditions through diplomatic envoys and trade caravans. Meanwhile, the emperor of Khwarem was a versatile emperor knowing both military and literal knowledge, but he had many weak points such as over-indulging himself in wine and women, seeking vanity, and capricious temper. The other day, on his way from Iraq to ?γxαρα(a city in southern Uzbekistan), Muhammad accidentally encountered three envoys set by Genghiskhan, and took them to his palace. These three envoys were all Islam followers in middle Asia. They brought Muhammad precious gifts such as silver, musk, jadeite, white camel fur textile, and conveyed Genghiskhan's wish of trading with Khwarem, However, Genghiskhan let his envoys passed on greetings such as “Mongol emperor regards Muhammad as his own son”, which were common in Mongolia prairie. These greetings inevitably hurt Khwarem emperor's feeling. One of the three envoys was born in Khwarem.

On the night that they got to the palace, he was secretly called by the emperor of Khwarem. In order to probe the power comparison between Khwarem and Mongolia, the emperor gave him many diamonds. Knowing the emperor's bad temper, the envoy answered his questions ambiguously. Then, the three envoys went back to Mongolia, and told Genghiskhan that the emperor of Khwarem had received his gifts. So, Genghiskhan believed that the emperor of Khwarem was friendly to Mongolia and Mongolia could trade with Khwarem. Then, he made a decision to choose one or two moslims with gifts from each tribe, and compose a big caravan with four or five hundred people and five hundred camels. In 1218, Genghiskhan sent this caravan to Khwarem.

When the caravan that was fully loaded with gold, silver, and precious textiles got to the oasis of desert Kzyl-orda City on the bank of SyrDar’ya River, the defending general of the city, whose name was Yi Naerjike and had the same nationality with emperor of Khwarem commanded his subordinates to make a sudden attack to the caravan. Within a very short time, the four or five hundred people in the caravan were totally killed by Yi Naerjike. Knowing his goods being robbed and people being killed, Genghiskhan immediately sent three envoys, among which were one Mongol and two Muslims, to Khwarem to show his protestation, and strongly demanded Khwarem surrender the defending general of Kzyl-orda City, Yi Naerjike. However, the emperor refused to surrender his beloved general, which sharpened the whole affair. In the end, Emperor Muhammad, who was also a Muslim, killed the Mongol among the three envoys and burnt the other two Muslims' moustache to show insult. The two Muslims returned to Mongolia and told Genghiskhan the whole affair of being insulted.

This affair became Mongol nobles' fuse and excuse of attacking Khwarem.

Written by www.travel-silkroad.com
Translated by Beijing Star-light Translation Center
Oct. 15, 2000