The book begins with a synopsis of original essay by the author, Morris Rossabi, one of the leading scholars in the world on the Mongols. His essay provides a chronological and interpretive outline of the Mongols and outlines their invasions and consequent rule over the greatest contagious land empire in the history of the world. The book includes a rich collection of major sources translated from Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Franco-Italian, Latin, Korean, Persian, Syriac, Russian, and Tibetan into English. This gives the reader a clear picture of the amazing geographic and lingual diversity of the Mongol Empire and an understanding into the rise of this empire, how it ruled and the way it came to an end. For every major source used by the author is a head note and revision questions. The author provides a list of further readings at the end of this book.
The author is focused on exploring the whole Mongol Empire, unlike most sources who focus on the Golden Horse in Russia or Yuan China. Rossabi intends to explore on all the aspects of the Mongol people and the empire in terms of their contribution in culture, art, technology and science. The Mongol occupied the biggest land–based empire in the global history, extending from Korea to Russia in the north and in the south stretches from China to Syria during the thirteenth century. Together with their king Chinggis Khan, they invoke images of pillage and total damage. Chinggis and his successors establish a level of violence that had probably never been witnessed in the history of the world (Rossabi 87-94). The way the author achieves his purpose is through a constant and in depth exploration of the Mongols.
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In addition to highlighting the devastation and murders wreaked by the Mongols, the author reveals the community’s contributions. In two complete generations, they moved from conquerors and hunters seeking plunder to rulers who formulated policies to promote the economies of the farms they had conjugated. Conforming to economic and political institutions known to the defeated enemies and seeking natives support in administration, the Mongol won over most of their enemies. Mongol aristocrats were passionate patrons of culture and art. They supported and facilitated the design and production of Chinese textiles and porcelains, Russian metalwork and Iranian tiles and exemplified scripts.
Mongols most significant contribution was to promote the greatest relations among different civilizations in the global record. The peace of the Mongol which was imposed on great of Asia and their support of trade led to substantial travel and relations among scientists, merchants, entertainers of different cultures as well as missionaries. This explains why Europeans such as Marco Polo, first settled in China during this time. According to the author, Eurasia and probably the history of the world originate with the Mongol kingdom. Further Rossabi traces the Mongol kingdom through to demise as a result of internal wrangles. Struggle for power and poorly planned and pricey military campaigns finally brought to knees one of the world’s most powerful empires in history (Rossabi 125-34).
Part II of the book is interesting as it provides a history of the Nation of the Archers and their lifestyles as nomads. The chapter explores the various communities of Mongol across the different locations in the world including China, Russia, Persia, and Japan. The lifestyles of the Mongol were dominated by a variety of activities including trade. They travelled to foreign land in building business relationships. They also engaged in the promotion of art and culture. Regardless of the different ethnicities in the Mongol empire, culture was perceived as an important part of life. Most of the cultural wealth in today’s China for instance is founded on much of the developments of the Mongol empire. The chapter also addresses the travels and the movement of the Mongols across different parts of the world (Rossabi 78-86). The exploration of the Mongol people is described as exceptional and the way they were able to conquer communities through their leadership. This chapter is important as it introduces the reader to the broader way of life of the Mongol people. It is an eye opener of the kind of people the Mongolians were in general.
The book is very detailed. The author’s approach of writing tries to break down the book in various parts. Each part contains different chapters. In general, the book has six parts. The first part is the introduction, the second part deals with the lifestyle of the Mongol; part three explores life and conquests of Chiggins Khan, while part four covers the expansion or growth of the Mongol empire, part five focuses on Mongol rule and the final part six covers the fall of the Mongol empire. This breakdown is quite helpful as it enables the reader to explore the book part by part. It is easier for retrieval of information as it is well organized.
The Mongols and Global History is a book with a wider readership. The book is therefore ideal for students and scholars of the Mongolia, Mongols, the Silk Road and China, as well as for people travelling to Central Asia and Mongolia. Military and global historians also can benefit from the knowledge presented in this piece. It is a great book, well organized and easy to ready. It is detailed and thus useful for anyone seeking knowledge about the Mongol empire as a whole.
- Rossabi, Morris. The Mongols and global history: a Norton documents reader. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011. Print.
