Tārīch-i Jahāngushāy
Tārīch-i Jahāngushāy ( Persian تاريخ جهانگشاى, DMG Tārīḫ-i Ǧahāngušāy , 'History of the World Conqueror [d. i. Genghis Khan] ') is one of the Persian scholars ' Ala ud-Dīn Atā-Mulk Juwainī (1226–1283;علاءالدين عطا ملك جويني; sometimes Ǧuwaynī ) wrote a detailed historical report describing the conquest of Persia by the Mongols Genghis Khan , Hulegü and the Ilkhan , and is a valuable work of Persian literature .
This account of the Mongol and Turkic-Tatar invasions of his native Iran , based on reports from survivors, is a major source of the rapid advance of Genghis Khan's forces through the nomadic tribes of Central Asia and the fortified cities of the Silk Road , including Otrar , Bukhara and Samarkand in 1219, and subsequent campaigns up to Genghis Khan's death in 1227 and beyond.
Sometimes he exaggerates, for example when he estimates the strength of the Mongolian armed forces at 700,000, while other reports put the number between 105,000 and 130,000. His descriptions are often written from a sense of drama: of the fall of the Assassin Mountain Fortress Maymun-Diz in November 1256, during the siege of which he was present, he describes the effects of the trebuchet (catapult) bombing on the defenders on the battlements:
“The first stones fired from them broke the defenders' trebuchet and many were crushed under it. Fear of the arrows of the crossbowmen overcame them, so that they panicked and tried to make shields out of veils [d. H. they did their best to defend themselves with very inadequate equipment]. Some who stood on towers crawled in their fear like mice into holes or fled like lizards in crevices. "
Together with Raschid ad-Dins Jami 'at-tawarich and the Mongolian / Chinese version of the Secret History of the Mongols , however, Juwainī's descriptions are a very valuable source for the Mongolian history of the time.
One of his most convincing descriptions is that of Mongolian hunting, or nerge, as a military exercise for the nomadic Mongols. In a nerge , the armed forces round up all the animals in a large region in order to get dried meat before winter sets in . At the time of Genghis Khan, the nerge was transformed into a discipline exercise , with severe penalties for the commanders of groups of tens, hundreds, or thousands of people who let animals escape. Once surrounded, the animals were mercilessly massacred, first by the Khan, then by the princes, and finally, on orders, by the armed forces. This was done to provide a model for the ruthlessness of Mongol attacks on fortified human settlements.
Much of the unscrupulousness in this report may have been exaggerated, however, possibly because there was no stigma in the Mongolian ethos against killing resisters. For example, after the fall of Merw in what is now Turkmenistan, people were rounded up and divided among soldiers into groups of tens, hundreds, and thousands, and each in the remaining Mongol army was charged with executing "three to four hundred people." However, there is no doubt that this type of terror was part of Mongolian warfare .
Quote
“[…] Unquestionably the best and most authoritative account of one of the most important events in the world's history, namely the sudden rise and expansion of the Mongol power in the thirteenth century of our era. [...] ”
literature
- Juvaini ('Ala-ad-Din' Ata-Malik), Translated from the Text of Mirza Muhammad Qazvini by John Andrew Boyle with a foreword by The Hon. Steven Runciman : The History of the World Conqueror (2 volumes). Manchester: Manchester University Press 1958
- Hugh Kennedy: Mongols, Huns, and Vikings. 2002.