MONGOL LIFE AND CHARACTER
Like most nomads the Mongols dwell in tents, each family often by itself. Severe simplicity is the rule of life, for property consists of little more than one's flocks and herds, clothes, and weapons. The modern Mongols are a peaceable, kindly folk, who have adopted from Tibet a debased form of Buddhism, but the Mongols of the thirteenth century in religion and morals were scarcely above the level of American Indians. To ruthless cruelty and passion for plunder they added an efficiency in warfare which enabled them, within fifty years, to overrun much of Asia and the eastern part of Europe.
[Illustration: HUT-WAGON OF THE MONGOLS (RECONSTRUCTION) On the wagon was placed a sort of hut or pavilion made of wands bound together with narrow thongs. The structure was then covered with felt or cloth and provided with latticed windows. Hut-wagons, being very light, were sometimes of enormous size.]
MILITARY PROWESS OF THE MONGOLS
The daily life of the Mongols was a training school for war. Constant practice in riding, scouting, and the use of arms made every man a soldier. The words with which an ancient Greek historian described the savage Scythians applied perfectly to the Mongols: "Having neither cities nor forts, and carrying their dwellings with them wherever they go; accustomed, moreover, one and all, to shoot from horseback; and living not by husbandry but on their cattle, their wagons the only houses that they possess, how can they fail of being irresistible?" [3]
176. CONQUESTS OF THE MONGOLS, 1206-1405 A.D.
JENGHIZ KHAN
For ages the Mongols had dwelt in scattered tribes throughout their Asiatic wilderness, engaged in petty struggles with one another for cattle and pasture lands. It was the celebrated Jenghiz Khan, [4] chief of one of the tribes, who brought them all under his authority and then led them to the conquest of the world. Of him it may be said with truth that he had the most victorious of military careers, and that he constructed the most extensive empire known to history. If Jenghiz had possessed the ability of a statesman, he would have taken a place by the side of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.
MONGOL EMPIRE UNDER JENGHIZ, 1206-1227 A.D.
Jenghiz first sent the Mongol armies, which contained many Turkish allies, over the Great Wall [5] and into the fertile plains of China. All the northern half of the country was quickly overrun. Then Jenghiz turned westward and invaded Turkestan and Persia. Seven centuries have not sufficed to repair the damage which the Mongols wrought in this once- prosperous land. The great cities of Bokhara, Samarkand, Merv, and Herat, [6] long centers of Moslem culture, were pillaged and burned, and their inhabitants were put to the sword. Like the Huns the Mongols seemed a scourge sent by God. Still further conquests enlarged the empire, which at the death of Jenghiz in 1227 A.D. stretched from the Dnieper River to the China Sea.