Ah yes, mongols, known for their gentle and easy going temperament.
(As per K&G youtube channel) I learned that when it comes to believe system, the Mongols believe that everyone worships the same god, Tengri, but in varied way in every culture/religion they encounter.
They believe that as long as everyone submit themselves under the Mongol rule, it means they obey Tengri/Mongolian god.
There are various religious communities inside the empire but they also don’t bother to do the worst thing possible to obliterate anyone who doesn’t submit to Mongol, regardless their believe.
But I think in a smaller level it’s also not as simple/straightforward as that. Mongolian Shamans also known to have conflicts with the Khan. Sometimes the Khan kept asking the Shamans to do a ritual over and over again until the result aligns with the Khan’s desire. Or sometimes the Shaman (being a regarded class in their society) have their own political motive to do something against the Khan.
Is this…Mongolian propaganda? Because the Kahns definitely did a whole lot of subjugating, raping and murdering. Not sure that really fits the “coexist” meme…
The meme format doesn’t really work, but the joke they’re trying to make is that even though they did all these terrible things, it was never because of religion. In fact, they just didn’t give a fuck in what you believed in. Genghis even allowed religious figures to be exempt from taxation.
And let’s be honest: the Mongolians were probably not worse than any other invader. War, destruction, looting and raping is kind of par for the course for most civilizations in history.
Honestly from the limited knowledge I have, Mongolians seemed to be the one of the chillest of invaders. They gave you a clear choice, let us rule you or die. And once they ruled you they allowed many freedoms that crusaders and colonizers didn’t. Their tactics were brutal and I think that’s why people see them as so evil.
Modern Mongolia, perhaps. The Golden Horde of Genghis Khan was not so tolerant!
Yes, they were. Genghis’ Mongols didn’t generally force religious change in the people who they subjugated.
It’s actually a cool belief system from what I’ve read, known as Tengriism; they had their own beliefs but (and I hope I have this right) that whatever religious worldview prevailed locally was considered not just valid as a personal or cultural expression, but actually metaphysically true as well. That seems fantastic, doesn’t it? Patchwork metaphysics.
I’m not an expert but from what I’ve read most ancient world deities were attached to certain geographies (it would be reasonable to sort of leave the boundaries of your gods) so I wonder if this comes from that tradition. The roman catholics sure successfully weaponized monotheism.
Provided you paid your tribute and obeyed the Khan’s laws they were cool with just about everyone. Fail to do either of those things and you’re in for a bad time.
I mean pretty consistent with today’s neoliberal values:
It’s okay to exploit people as long as we don’t discriminate.
Genghis Khan: Are you good at killing and terrorizing my enemies? Yes? Ok, see those fuckers over there? Conquer them. I don’t care how. Burn it all down. Re-route an entire river. I just want them paying tribute.
I find it interesting how the Mongolian empire has kind of taken a 180 in its historical image. Not long ago they were viewed as just cartoon villains that destroyed everything. But now you see so many people talking about some of the “good” aspects that it almost makes them seem strangely benevolent.
The reality of course was that they were an empire, and like all empires they steamrolled and destroyed anything that stood in their way while taking advantage of anything that furthered their goals. They probably killed far more people than they helped if you asked anyone living through the time.
Dan Carlin’s podcast, Hardcore History, has a series called Wrath of the Khans where he talks about this in length and it’s very interesting to think about.
from my understanding , it’s a chain of
You see that village over there? they resisted. we burnt everything , killed every man and child, and raped all the women.
See the other village over there? they joined us, and we gave them access to goods from across the world, the latest technology and treat them better than their previous rulers.
Your choice.
When people think about Rome they usually imagine the roads and the aquaducts and not so much the crucifixions and the slavery.
Yeah, the Mongolians front-loaded most of their atrocities. Rome was more of a slow burn
Rome was both. The mongols raped and slaughtered. The Romans were too civilized to do that as much, instead they just enslaved some of your village so they could die in the mines or fields or construction projects. And then there’s the internal atrocities. Rome had three servile wars and then without easing up even a bit never had another.
The Kahns were more like the Shahs, conqueror emperors seeking to hold the great titles of the world like emperor of China or pharaoh and in doing so became one. The Romans were like America “we’re different snd our own thing” before being a different kind of brutal
Strangely enough I feel like that crucification isn’t much associated with the Romans. Even though the Romans were the ones who carried it out Judas gets almost 100% of the ire.
Even Jews are given more blame by antisemitic Christians. Like, no one is starting up a pogrom against Italians because their great great great grandpa might’ve been the guy who stabbed Jesus in the ribs.
