The Mongol Storm

The Mongol Storm, story by story.

1. IMongolia, 1170s to 1206
   

   Chapter I · Mongolia, 1170s to 1206

   Genghis Khan

   You play Temujin

   Your oldest friend has been handed to you in ropes. What is loyalty worth, and to whom?

   The grasslands of Mongolia, about 1205. For as long as anyone remembers, the tribes here have stolen each other's horses and kidnapped each other's wives.

   Your first call · Your army: watching what betrayal earns

   Reward them for bringing him inExecute the five who betrayed him

   Sources

   • The Secret History of the Mongols, trans. Igor de Rachewiltz, shorter version ed. J. C. Street (Western Washington University, 2015): §61 (Temujin nine years old), §§67 to 69 (Yesugei poisoned by Tatars at a feast, dies after three days; Monglik sent to fetch Temujin), §§73 to 75 (the Tayichi'ud abandon Hoelun and her sons; wild onions and leeks, fishing with needles bent into hooks), §§110, 116 to 118 (Borte rescued, 'Borte, Borte'; anda at eleven on the ice of the Onon with knucklebones; 'sworn friends share but a single life'; a year and a half together, the remark about camping by the mountain or the river, Borte's 'grows easily tired of his friends', leaving by night), §§128 to 130 (Taichar killed over stolen horses; Dalan Baljut; seventy cauldrons; followers including Father Monglik and his seven sons leave Jamukha), §147 (Jebe shoots the war horse through the neckbone, owns up, is named Jebe), §149 (Naya'a and his father free their chief Tarqutai; Chinggis: they would have been cut down had they laid hands on their lord), §153 (Tatars defeated, autumn 1202), §§193 to 196 (Naimans crushed 1204), §§200 to 201 (Jamukha's five companions seize him over a roasted wild sheep; the crows and the duck; the five cut down 'in his very presence'; the offer of companionship; 'a louse in your collar'; death without shedding blood; burial), §202 (1206, source of the Onon, white standard with nine tails, title of qan, ninety-five commanders of a thousand), §§244 to 246 (the seven Qongqotan beat Qasar; Teb Tenggeri's prophecy; Qasar seized at night; Hoelun's white camel and black cart, the bared breasts; Qasar left 1,400 people; Temuge humiliated; Borte's warning; three strong men break the shaman's back; Monglik rebuked)
   • Same translation, PDF mirror used for the text checks (Fordham Internet History Sourcebooks)
2. IICentral Asia, 1218 to 1219
   

   Chapter II · Central Asia, 1218 to 1219

   The Murdered Envoys

   You play Genghis Khan

   The Shah killed your traders, then your envoys. How far do you go to get even?

   Central Asia, 1218. Genghis Khan rules the steppe and has torn a bloody hole in northern China, and to his west sits Khwarazm, a huge Muslim empire.

   Your first call · China: still unfinished

   Go to war with the ShahLet it go. Finish China first

   Sources

   • Juvaini, The History of the World-Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle (Manchester, 1958), vol. 1, ch. XI to XII, pp. 77 to 82 (the three Bukhara merchants, Balchikh's price, the royal stores, the others paid in gold; 450 Muslims sent with capital from his family and commanders; 'the abscess of evil thoughts may be lanced'; Inalchuq, kinsman of Terken Khatun, Ghayir-Khan; the Indian trader who called him plain Inalchuq; arrest, the Sultan sanctions the killing; one escapes; three days bareheaded on a hilltop, 'I was not the author of this trouble; grant me strength to exact vengeance'; envoys sent to warn; Otrar besieged five months, Ghayir put to death), and pp. 104 to 105 (Bukhara: 'I am the punishment of God')
   • Shihab al-Din al-Nasawi, Histoire du sultan Djelal ed-Din Mankobirti, trans. O. Houdas (Paris, 1895), ch. XIV to XV, pp. 58 to 61 (the envoy Mahmud's flattery: Genghis's army no more than one rider in a squadron; Inal-Khan, son of the Sultan's maternal uncle, writes that the merchants are spies; Ibn Kafraj Boghra, whose father served Sultan Tekish, with two Tatar envoys: the written safe-conduct, hand over Inal-Khan and spare bloodshed, or prepare for war; the Sultan cannot give him up because most of his soldiers and great emirs are of Inal-Khan's tribe; the envoys put to death)
   • Bar Hebraeus, The Chronography, trans. E. A. W. Budge (1932), the cause of the Mongol invasion of Persia (merchants from Bukhara, the caravan to Sultan Muhammad, Otrar, one escapes, three days on the mountain without food or drink)
   • The Secret History of the Mongols, trans. Igor de Rachewiltz, shorter version ed. J. C. Street (2015), §§254 to 257 (the envoys slain, the broken 'golden halter'; Yisui's advice, 'when your body, like a great old tree, will fall down'; Jochi asked to speak, Chagatai's 'bastard offspring of the Merkit', the brothers held apart by Bo'orchu and Muqali; Chagatai proposes Ogedei, Jochi agrees; 'Mother Earth is wide'; the Tanguts asked to be the right wing; Asha Gambu's reply; 'when I come back... this matter shall be dealt with'; the march of 1219), §§265 to 268 (the Tangut campaign and Chinggis's death)
   • Yuan shi juan 119, Biography of Muqali: named Grand Preceptor and Prince of State in 1217 with command south of the Taihang; campaigning in Shanxi in 1219
3. IIIRussia and Hungary, 1235 to 1246
   

   Chapter III · Russia and Hungary, 1235 to 1246

   The Turn Back

   You play Batu Khan

   Europe is open, and the Great Khan is dead. Push west, or go home?

   Eastern Europe, 1241. A Mongol army led by Genghis Khan's grandsons has crossed half the world, and the princes of Russia are dead or kneeling.

   Your first call · The Hungarians: double your number

   Cross the river by night and attackPull back and let them come to you

   Sources

   • The Secret History of the Mongols, trans. Igor de Rachewiltz, shorter version ed. J. C. Street (2015), §270 (Ogedei sends Batu, Buri, Guyuk, Mongke and others to support Sube'etei; Batu in command of the princes; every branch to send its eldest son), §§275 to 277 (Batu's report: the parting feast, Batu as eldest drinks the first cups, Buri's 'old women with beards' to be trampled, Guyuk's burning stick; Ogedei's anger, 'do you imagine the Orusut submitted out of fear of you', Guyuk sent to Batu to be judged)
   • Juvaini, The History of the World-Conqueror, trans. J. A. Boyle (1958), ch. XL, pp. 269 to 271 (Batu sends his brother Sibaqan ahead, who reports the Hungarians double the Mongol army; Batu on a hilltop a day and a night praying, the Muslims ordered to pray; the night crossing, the main army from behind, the royal pavilion ropes cut, the Hungarians flee; editor's notes: Mohi on the Sajo, 11 April 1241; the Danube crossed on the ice 25 December 1241), ch. on Tushi and Batu, pp. 266 to 268 (Batu's camp on the Etil (Volga), Sarai; Batu sets out to meet Guyuk, Guyuk dies, the khanate settled on Mongke), ch. on Guyuk, p. 249 (Batu did not come in person to the 1246 assembly and sent his brothers), and pp. 261 to 262 (Sorqotani suspected Guyuk meant to attack Batu and warned him)
   • John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, in W. W. Rockhill (ed. and trans.), The Journey of William of Rubruck (Hakluyt Society, 1900): the Emperor's aunt imprisoned for killing his father 'in the time when their army was in Hungary, and it was for this that the army had retreated from those countries'; Rockhill's introduction (Ogedei's death in December 1241 ended the invasion; the Pope and Frederick II at war)
   • John of Plano Carpini, as printed in the Silk Road Seattle texts (Rockhill trans.): Batu 'kind enough to his own people, but he is greatly feared by them. He is, however, most cruel in fight; he is very shrewd and extremely crafty in warfare'; his linen tents 'used to belong to the King of Hungary'
   • John of Plano Carpini, in Robert Kerr, A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 1, ch. 8: Kiev 'reduced to nothing, and scarcely has two hundred houses', 'immense numbers of human skulls and bones scattered about'
   • Rashiduddin Fazlullah, Compendium of Chronicles, trans. Thackston, part 2, Ogedei section: the princes sent to the Qipchaq steppe in 632 [1235]; in the autumn of 637 [1240] Batu and the princes take Mankarman (Kiev) in nine days; Orda and Baidar defeat the Poles (1241); Toqta 'who holds the throne of Jochi Khan' (about 1300)
4. IVBaghdad, 1256 to 1258
   

   Chapter IV · Baghdad, 1256 to 1258

   The Fall of Baghdad

   You play Caliph al-Musta'sim

   Hulagu wants you to tear down your walls. Can a five-hundred-year-old name stop an army?

   Baghdad, 1257. For five hundred years the caliph, successor of the Prophet and head of the Sunni Muslim world, has ruled from this city. Kings still bow to his name.

   Your first call · Hulagu: on his way

   Cancel it. Trust your family's nameSend the treasure and apologise

   Sources

   • Rashiduddin Fazlullah, Jami'u't-tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles, trans. W. M. Thackston (Harvard, 1998 to 1999), part 2, ch. 2, section 12, pp. 487 to 499: the flood of 1256 (fifty days, half the city under water, the rabble killing daily); the Dawatdar Mujahiduddin Aybak gathers the rabble and plots to depose the caliph; the vizier reports it, the caliph tells the Dawatdar and pardons him, his name mentioned in the khutba; Hulagu's letter ('is the brightness of the moon such that it can eclipse the brilliance of the sun?', destroy your ramparts, fill in your moats, turn the kingdom over to your son and come; or send the vizier, Sulaymanshah and the Dawatdar); the caliph's reply ('Young man, you have just come of age and have expectations of living forever', from the east to the west all who are God-fearing are soldiers in my army); the crowd tears the envoys' clothing and throws mud; 'as crooked as a bow'; 'an army as numerous as ants and locusts'; the vizier's plan (a thousand loads, a thousand camels, a thousand Arabian horses, khutba and coinage in Hulagu's name); the Dawatdar's threat to seize the envoys carrying the tribute; the caliph changes his mind ('the monarchs of the face of the earth stand as our army'); the commanders' complaint ('a friend of jesters and singers and an enemy of soldiers'); Sulaymanshah's offer; the muster, the caliph's excuse after five months; the dykes opened, twelve thousand killed; the bridges of boats and the Dawatdar's failed escape by river; the sons and the vizier sent out; 10 February, the caliph and his three sons with three thousand sayyids, imams, cadis and dignitaries; the people disarmed, come out and are killed; the pool full of gold; the caliph and his eldest son executed at Waqaf
   • The same translation, Baghdad section as republished by De Re Militari ('The Mongol's besiege and capture Baghdad in 1258')
   • Bar Hebraeus, The Chronography, trans. E. A. W. Budge (1932), 'Concerning the Taking of Babel (Baghdad)', pp. 429 to 431 of the translation (the flooding of the camp by breaching the canal banks; the caliph's embassy with gifts; the walls taken; the caliph in fetters; the slaughter of tens of thousands; the caliph sewn into sackcloth and kicked to death because his blood must not be shed on the earth)
5. VEgypt and Syria, 1259 to 1260
   

   Chapter V · Egypt and Syria, 1259 to 1260

   Ain Jalut

   You play Qutuz, Sultan of Egypt

   No caliph could stop them. Can a former slave?

   Cairo, 1260. Baghdad is ashes, its caliph is dead, and the Mongols have taken Syria. Only a strip of desert lies between them and Egypt.

   Your first call · Kitbuqa's army: in Syria

   Submit and send tributeKill the envoys and march

   Sources

   • al-Maqrizi, Kitab al-Suluk, trans. E. Quatremère, Histoire des sultans mamlouks de l'Égypte, vol. 1 part 1 (Paris, 1837), pp. 85 to 113: Qutuz takes the throne in Dhu'l-Qa'da 657 (November 1259), the emirs' anger and his answer ('as soon as we have beaten the enemy, you will raise to the throne whomever you wish'); Hulagu at Aleppo, seven days' assault, five days of slaughter, streets choked with the dead; flight from Damascus in winter, goods sold for nothing, many dying on the roads; Baybars strikes the emir who urged submission and rides to Gaza, then sends for Qutuz's oath; Hulagu's letter ('we are the soldiers of God on earth; He created us in His wrath'; swift horses, piercing arrows, swords like thunder, hearts hard as mountains; where will you flee?); the four envoys each cut in two, heads hung on the Zuwayla Gate, a boy in the party spared; the emirs refuse at Salihiyya ('Emirs of the Muslims, you have long eaten the riches of the treasury'), the drums at night, 'I will go alone to attack the Tatars'; the Franks of Acre offer help, Qutuz makes them swear neutrality; Ain Jalut, Friday 25 Ramadan, a wing broken, Qutuz throws his helmet down and cries 'O Islam', Kitbuqa killed; Baybars refused Aleppo; the murder after the hunt (the captive woman, the hand kissed as signal, the sword to the neck, the arrow); reign of eleven months and seventeen days; obituaries of 658: al-Nasir Yusuf, great-grandson of Saladin, the last Ayyubid sovereign
   • Rashiduddin Fazlullah, Jami'u't-tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles, trans. W. M. Thackston (Harvard, 1998 to 1999), part 2, ch. 2, section 12, pp. 503 to 506: Hulagu distressed by Mongke's death, the emissary to Egypt; Qutuz's council ('one of three things must be done: make a truce, offer resistance, or go into exile'; exile impossible across the desert to North Africa); Nasiruddin Qaymari: Hulagu does not keep his word, he killed Musta'sim after promises; Bunduqdar (Baybars): 'kill the emissaries and ride as one to attack Ket Buqa; win or die, in either case we will not be blamed'; the battle at Ayn Jalut; Ket Buqa's death; Hulagu's revenge put off by Mongke's death and the dispute with his relatives; Bunduqdar ruler of Egypt
   • Memoirs of John Lord de Joinville, trans. Thomas Johnes, vol. 2 (1807), extracts from the Arabic historians: the Bahri Mamluks 'originally Turks, and had been sold to the sultan Nedjm-Eddin by merchants'; Turanshah assassinated, 1250; the Circassian Mamluks rule Egypt 'until the conquest of that kingdom by Sultan Selim... A.D. 1517'
6. VIChina, Korea and Japan, 1266 to 1286
   

   Chapter VI · China, Korea and Japan, 1266 to 1286

   The Divine Wind

   You play Kublai Khan

   The island that never answers your letters has killed your envoys. Do you invade again?

   China, 1280. Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai is Great Khan of an empire from Korea to the edges of Europe, and he has just conquered southern China and its fleets.

   Your first call · Japan: has killed your envoys

   Send the Korean fleet nowWait and build a far bigger invasion

   Sources

   • Yuan shi (History of the Yuan), juan 208, Biography of Japan (Riben zhuan), Chinese text: the letter of 1266 ('if it comes to using troops, who would want that?'); envoys turned back, refused at Tsushima, kept waiting at Dazaifu; 1272: Zhao Liangbi sends twenty-six men from the Dazaifu guard post to the capital; Yao Shu and Xu Heng advise they are spies sent to observe Mongol strength and should not be received, and Kublai agrees; 1274: nine hundred ships, fifteen thousand soldiers, Japan defeated but 'the army was disordered and out of arrows; they only plundered the borders and returned'; 1275 embassy of Du Shizhong; 1280 (Zhiyuan 17, second month) 'Japan killed the envoy Du Shizhong and the others'; Hindu and Hong Chagu ask to lead the punitive expedition themselves, the court decides to delay a little; Fan Wenhu summoned; 1281: a hundred thousand men; Kublai's instructions ('if you kill all the people, what use is the land?'; 'one thing I truly worry about: that you will not be in harmony'); the proposal to seize Hirado from a Japanese map and Kublai's 'let them decide for themselves'; Alaqan ill, replaced by Atagai; the storm on the first day of the eighth month; Fan Wenhu and the commanders take the soundest ships and abandon more than a hundred thousand men; the Japanese kill the Mongols, Koreans and northern Chinese and enslave the southern Chinese; 'of the hundred thousand, three returned'; 'the officials could not agree, so they all abandoned the army'; 1283 Atagai to build ships, Anggir pleads that the people are exhausted; 1286: 'Japan has never invaded us; now Jiaozhi violates our border; we should set Japan aside and deal with Jiaozhi'
   • Agency for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Heritage Online: Genko Borui (built from 1276 by order of the Kamakura shogunate, lengths assigned to the nine provinces of Kyushu, about 20 km from Kashii to Imazu)
   • James Murdoch, A History of Japan, vol. 1 (1910; 1925 printing), ch. on the Mongol invasions, pp. 500 to 524: the Kyoto court drafts a reply, the Bakufu refuses to forward it; the great storm of 14 to 15 August 1281; the belief that it was sent in answer to the nation's prayers
   • Yuan shi juan 8 (Zhiyuan 12, second month: Fan Wenhu surrenders Anqing to Bayan), juan 10 (Zhiyuan 16, first month: Zhang Hongfan at Yashan, the last Song prince dies in the sea), juan 17 (Zhiyuan 31, first month: the emperor dies in the Zitan Hall)
   • Masukagami (14th century), the Koan 4 (1281) passage: the great wind wrecks the foreign fleet, and Fujiwara no Tameuji's poem on the 'kamikaze', the divine wind sent in answer to prayers made by imperial command (Kochu Masukagami text, Japanese Wikisource)