Posted on 08/10/2022 6:52:06 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1284, the deposed Mongol ruler Tekuder was put to death.
The Mongols had conquered half the world on the back of steppe horses and religious toleration. Mongols variously adopted Nestorian Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam, as well as tribal shamanism; it even sponsored debates among the rival confessions. What counted in the end for the men who commanded its armies was wins and losses.
Our man Tekuder was the son of Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan who exemplified pluralistic competence. The son of a Christian but an eventual convert to Buddhism, Hulagu Khan’s signal achievement in the religious arena was done by his sword-arm: he defeated and destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate.
In time, three of the four large khanates comprising the Mongol ascendancy would declare themselves for Islam … but in the 13th century the doctrine most likely to get you in trouble was simply to be too doctrinaire.
Hulagu’s son and heir Tekuder, though once baptized into his parents’ Christian faith, turned to Mohammed’s faith with a convert’s zeal and demanded the compliance of his military brass. He declared the Ilkhanate of Persia and Mesopotamia a Muslim sultanate, and tilted Mongol diplomacy away from the Franks and towards Mamluk Egypt...
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Most interesting.
Genghis Khan side stepped the religion question by allowing all religions to practice in his empire. Whenever asked about God he would answer “There is but One God in heaven” and would shut up. He supposedly never gave preference to the beliefs of any religion and never had a religious uprising.
Genghis was brutal and brilliant. As there were never that many Mongols, his empire was a cunning meritocracy.
He was brutal, if it served his purposes.
At other times he was cunning when he needed to be.
It has been thought that he never had more than 250,000 men under arms, and that rarely. And they were spread out over his entire empire.
Because as a boy he had been abandoned by most of the clan after his father’s death, and hunted by his father’s enemies, he valued loyalty above anything else.
One of his best friends, and later a general in his army, was Bo’orchu whom he met as a boy.
About Bo’orchu....
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%27orchu
There are stories that if a trader tried to haggle with him Genghis Khan would take the trader’s wares and probably kill him.
There are other stories that if a trader presented a sample of his wares, a list and gave everything to the Khan the trader would be paid many times over and sent on his way singing the praises of the Great Khan.
He could also take advice.
When he conquered China he was going to kill the bureaucrats. A few convinced him that they could ensure that his laws were posted in every city, town and village in his empire. They also promised they could the history of his life and conquests.
He let them live and put them to work.
His wife was abducted by some old enemies of his father. When he was finally able to get her back she was pregnant. Not knowing if the child was his or not he presented the baby as his own and raised it that way.
Temujin/Genghis Khan was a very interesting man.
Excellent info on Temujin. He has always been the most interesting historical figure to me. I wish Netflix or Amazon would make a mini series on him similar to the non-woke seasons of Vikings. If done properly, it would be very popular. I will read up on Bo’orchu as well.
There was a movie made some years ago. They actually used actors who were Asians. Unfortunately they played so loose with the history it was laughable. I couldn’t even watch half of it.
Most amazing that the fatherless, tribeless, hunted boy who had to eat rodents to survive would grow up to be one of the great military leaders of history with the largest empire ever established.
Never as simple as some make him out to be and shrewder than modern academia gives him credit for.
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