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sooo… I realize I’ve neglected this thing completely since I made it, I suppose I should write something.

At this point my research is pretty much in its infancy, as I am an incurable procrastinator.  With that said, I’m pretty much depending on Jack Weatherford’s Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (2004) as a jumping off point for my own research.  It’s a great book- I bought it on a whim at Border’s a couple years ago, read it twice, and wrote a paper on it comparing with Harold Lamb’s biography of Genghis Khan for Great Lives last semsester.  I really like Weatherford because he’s so readable- the book may have been intended for a wide audience but the guy really knows what he’s talking about and has really done his research and is a phenominal writer. Anyway, I guess his bibliography is what interests me most for my purposes in this class.

I’m writing about European reactions to the Mongol conquests as they were happening (or shortly after they happened).  The interesting thing is that the Mongols never went farther than Eastern Germany (long story short, they realized that 13th century Europe had nothing to offer that was better than what they themselves had- an awesome reality check for all those eurocentric historians out there).  Since they were never a huge military presence in most of Europe, most of the Europeans writing about them had never even seen a mongol.  they had just heard about them from the thousands of terrified peasants fleeing west.

So, basically what we get here is monks and other educated people writing from third or fourthand accounts about the terrible barbarian hordes that were supposedly advancing West into Christendom, which is where Matthew Paris comes in.

Paris was a benedictine monk in England writing in the mid 13th century (the mongols conqured Russia around the 1240s). He basically has two reactions to the Mongol threat:

1. The mongols (he refers to them as Tartars) are a race of inhuman hellspawn barbarians who know neither civilization or law.

“…the Tartars, a barbarous race of people, who had invadaed the Christian countries and committed great slaughter, wandering here and there in Greater Hungary…” (vol. 1, p. 253)

“The men are inhuman and of the nature of beats, rather to be called monsters than men, thirsting after and drinking blood, and tearing and devouring the flesh of dogs and human beings…” (vol. 1 -. 313)

2. “OH MY GOD THEY”RE TERRIFYING AND THEIR COMING AFTER US!!! THIS IS GOD’S WRATH AGAINST SINFULNESS!!!” (paraphrased, of course.

“… thery are short in stature and compact in their bodies, and of great strength; invincible in battle, indefatigueable in labor…they have large and powerful horses…they have no human laws, know no mercy, and are more cruel than lions or bears…They have swords and daggers with one edge, they are excellent archers, and they spare neither sex, age, or rank… they came with the force of lightning into the territories of the Christians, laying waste the country, committing great slaughter, and striking inexpressible terror and alarm into everyone.” (ibid.)

One of the most interesting things about this project, I think, is reading about how Europeans rationalized who these mysterious invaders were. Paris again:

“These Saracens, the memory of whom is detestable, are believed to have been of the ten tribes, who abandoned the law of Moses…[and who were consequently shut up by God behind huge impassable mountains only to be released at the Last Judgement to slaughter everyone]… Indeed it appears doubtful whether these Tartars, who ar this time made their appearance, are the people mentioned; for they do not speak in the Hebrew tongue…But the reply to this is, that it nevertheless is probable that they are some of those were were inclosed in the mountains… their rebellious hearts were perverted to an evil way of thinking, so they they followed after strange gods and unknown customs… and their life changed to that of the cruel and irrational wild beast.” (vol. 1, p. 313-14)

Okay… I doubt anyone actually read all that, but basically Paris is saying that the Mongols are actually a lost tribe of rebellious Jews who have been perverted into the worship of evil gods and have been released from their mountain prison to exact revenge upon the Christian world.

Sensationalist language aside, Paris is essentially right in the second quote.  The mongols were bloodthirsty, spared no one who resisted, and were not even hesitant to kill the elites of the land they invaded.  And that is what made the mongols so inexpressibly terrifying to these people- they didn’t play by the rules. They had no use for “civilization” as the Christian, Islamic, and Chinsese empires knew it- they wised to continue their nomadic lifestyle but with the nice stuff they plundered from others.   they didn’t conduct warfare according to the “rules of war” at the time- because they simply didn’t give satisfactory results.  The mongols were not interested in war as a power play of naton against nation with an eventual return to the status quo- the mongols sought all out, bloody victory at any cost.  If a nation capitulated, then they were allowed to keep their religion, customs, and government provided they pay a hefty tribute.  If a nation resisted, however, then woe unto them.