177. THE MONGOLS IN CHINA AND INDIA
MONGOL SWAY IN CHINA
The Mongols ruled over China for about one hundred and fifty years. During this period they became thoroughly imbued with Chinese culture. "China," said an old writer, "is a sea that salts all the rivers flowing into it." The most eminent of the Mongol emperors was Jenghiz Khan's grandson, Kublai (1259-1294 A.D.). He built a new capital, which in medieval times was known as Cambaluc and is now called Peking. While Kublai was on the throne, the Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, [9] visited China, and he describes in glowing colors the virtues and glories of the "Great Khan." There appears to have been considerable trade between Europe and China at this time, and Franciscan missionaries and papal legates penetrated to the remote East. After the downfall of the Mongol dynasty in 1368 A.D. China again shut her doors to foreign peoples. All intercourse with Europe ceased until the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. [10]
TIMUR AND BABER IN INDIA
Northern India, which in earlier ages had witnessed the coming of Persian, Macedonian, and Arabian conquerors, did not escape visitations by fresh Asiatic hordes. Timur the Lame, at the head of an innumerable host, rushed down upon the banks of the Indus and the Ganges and sacked Delhi, making there a full display of his unrivaled ferocity. Timur's invasion left no permanent impress on the history of India, but its memory fired the imagination of another Turkish chieftain, Baber, a remote descendant of Timur. In 1525 A.D. he invaded India and speedily made himself master of the northern part of the country.
EMPIRE OF THE MOGULS
The empire which Baber established in India is known as that of the Moguls, an Arabic form of the word Mongol. The Moguls, however, were Turkish in blood and Mohammedans in religion. The Mogul emperors reigned in great splendor from their capitals at Delhi and Agra, until the decline of their power in the eighteenth century opened the way for the British conquest of India.