This seems a good time to stop a moment and examine in a little more detail the method of living, the skill of fighting and traveling and other characteristics of these Mongol people. Their activities represent the last and most violent assault of nomadic barbarism on civilization. Ethnically their invasions resulted in the wide dispersal of Turkic peoples over western Asia, as from the beginning the Mongols augmented their sparse armies from Turkish tribes, sometimes the latter outnumbering the former and the Mongol language survived only in the homeland. Their original religion was an ancestral shamanism, embodied in the
Yasa or Law of Genghis Khan, but early they tolerated Christians, Buddhists and Moslems. (Ref.
8 ) The Mongol army was composed of
turnens , consisting each of 10,000 men and divided into 10
minghans of 1,000 men with each
minghan further divided into 10
jaguns of 100 men each and finally down to
arbans of 10 soldiers each. The commanders of both the
minghans and
tumens were called
Noyans and were appointed by the khan, while the
jaguns and
arbans elected their own leaders. An army, commanded by an
Orlok , consisted of 3 or more
tumens of cavalry, several
minghans of artillery and engineers. The more experienced soldiers of ten slashed their cheeks to make thick scars, thereby stopping beard growth and consequently eliminating the need for shaving. Each cavalryman carried two bows, at least 60 arrows, a lasso and a dagger. In addition the light cavalrymen carried a small sword and 2 or 3 javelins, while the heavy cavalrymen carried a scimitar, a battle-axe or a mace and a 12 foot lance. In their saddlebags were a change of clothing, cooking pot, field rations (yoghurt, millet, dried meat and
kumiz ), leather water bottles, fishing line, files for sharpening arrows, needle and thread and other tools. The composite bow had a pull of between 100 and 160 pounds and a range of over 350 yards. It was made from layers of horn and sinew and the string was pulled back by a stone ring worn on the right thumb for quick release. The horses were thickset, strong with short legs, but 13 to 14 hands high - at least a hand higher than the average Mongolian domestic horse of today. A few of these horses may have been even 16 hands high. All, from birth, were trained to follow each other. Mares were preferred as one could get milk as well as blood and as a last resort flesh, if necessary. (Ref.
27 ,
279 )
According to Marco Polo
See map of Marco Polo's journeys on page 753
, the Mongols skimmed off cream (for butter), then dried the skim milk in the sun until dry. They would take this with them and each morning take a pound out and put it in a leather flask with water so that while they rode the milk would dissolve and they would soon have reconstituted milk for breakfast. For a rapid 10 day journey, each man had a string of 18 horses and would take no provisions, living on the blood of the horses - piercing veins and drinking about 5/8 pint every 10th day from each animal. In this way the rider could be sustained without impairing the mounts. On such a forced trip the soldier would use no fire, in part because of the danger of being seen and in part because there was probably no fuel. In general, the nomad diet was high in protein, fat and vitamins A and B but low in vitamin C (except in Scythian territory).
OpenStax, A comprehensive outline of world history. OpenStax CNX. Nov 30, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10595/1.3
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