The Mongol Empire
Not much hobby happening recently, as England is now engaged in its third war with the angry ball of heat in the sky this summer.
Yet another heatwave. Not exactly conducive to sitting down with a paintbrush, a pot of paint and several hundred tiny plastic men.
Instead, I have been making the most of the weather by getting out and about, so today I am posting some photographs from a recent visit to the Royal Armouries in Leeds.
The Royal Armouries is a great, free museum filled with weapons and armour from across the ages, along with plenty of interactive exhibits. Nothing particularly unusual there for a modern museum.
The special exhibition running over the summer, however, was one I particularly wanted to see when I first saw it advertised.
Two tickets later, and me and the Mrs were on our way.
The exhibition is, obviously, centred around Genghis Khan, but it also covers the wider Mongol Empire and the successive Mongol states that emerged from it. At its height, Mongol rule stretched from China and Korea across Central Asia and into Eastern Europe, reaching areas of modern Poland, Romania and Ukraine, as well as Turkey, Iran and Syria.
Here are all the photographs I took of the things we were allowed to photograph inside the exhibition. Several exhibits were off-limits to photography, while others were unfortunately obscured by reflections from the lighting on the glass cases.
*****
Obviously, the exhibition begins with an introduction to perhaps the most famous warlord in history.
What I found particularly interesting, however, was that it didn't simply concentrate on the conquest and warfare associated with the Mongols.
It went on to detail what happened after conquest.
The Mongol rulers encouraged rebuilding, restored cities after taking control and established systems intended to maintain peace between the many different peoples they governed.
It was a useful reminder that empires are not built purely by winning battles. Eventually, somebody has to govern the place you just conquered.
And then there is the other half of Genghis Khan's story.
Börte, his wife and Empress of the Mongol Empire.
She was an influential political figure in her own right and ultimately outlived Genghis.
Her presence throughout the exhibition was a good reminder that women occupied important positions within Mongol society and the imperial administration, something that is often rather lost beneath the familiar image of the mounted Mongol warrior.
Given the amount of historical rewriting and the tendency for certain aspects of history to disappear from popular accounts, it was particularly interesting to learn about women who ruled territories and exercised genuine political authority in their own right.
Of course, when your father is Genghis Khan, I imagine that provides a certain level of security when dealing with ambitious rivals.
Although presumably only up to the point where you annoy your father.
This piece of artwork was particularly interesting.
The exhibition also went further back into the history of the region.
I had no idea about the Xiongnu Empire, so this was a particularly interesting section for me.
It was also amusing to see just how many things we regard as features of later medieval politics were already firmly established.
- Political marriages.
- Tribute.
- Diplomatic alliances.
People discovering that marrying somebody else's daughter is sometimes easier than invading their country.
Humanity has apparently been running the same patch for several thousand years.
This piece of artwork was particularly interesting.
Originally painted on silk, this is obviously a copy, but the original survives in Mongolia and is now more than 700 years old.
It is quite something to stand in front of something that was created that long ago and realise that the original artwork has survived across all those centuries.
The Imperial Family Tree was another fascinating exhibit.
The Imperial Family Tree was another fascinating exhibit.
Obviously, the most famous Mongol leaders are represented, but it also shows the enormous number of lesser-known members of Genghis Khan's dynasty.
It was also the point where I started noticing just how many names I recognised from various science-fiction and fantasy settings.
Games developers have clearly been shopping in the Mongol historical catalogue for quite some time.
At its zenith, this was the extent of the Mongol Empire.
Even at the height of their empire, the Mongols remained fundamentally a nomadic people, and the importance of the horse to their culture was impossible to miss.
This section on the “walking cities” was particularly interesting.
There was a section I wanted to photograph but couldn't because people were standing directly in front of it, which explained how the Mongols developed an early intercity postal and communications network.
Riders could travel enormous distances by changing horses at strategically positioned stopping posts.
Wells were dug at suitable locations so that horses could drink and rest, allowing messages to be carried enormous distances at remarkable speed.
News could travel from China towards Turkey in a matter of days rather than months.
For an empire that covered such an enormous area, that kind of communications network must have been absolutely vital.
At its zenith, this was the extent of the Mongol Empire.
Karakorum is shown as the capital, a dedicated walled city intended to project the power of the empire.
Today, only the foundations and traces of the buildings remain, leaving surprisingly little behind for what was once the centre of one of the largest contiguous empires in history.
Novgorod caught my attention for a slightly different reason.
The story goes that the Golden Horde were advancing towards the city, only for a change in the weather to force them to redirect southwards towards Kiev.
Quite an impressive demonstration of the old military principle:
Sometimes the weather gets a vote.
This was the entrance to the Silk Road section.
The Silk Road helped trade flourish across an enormous area, carrying goods, ideas, religions and technologies between cultures that were separated by thousands of miles.
The exhibition also covered the development of cartography during this period.
There was a fascinating map of the known world which had been recovered and restored. Looking at it and seeing how much geographical knowledge had already been accumulated was genuinely impressive.
It was nowhere near perfect by modern standards, obviously, but considering the distances involved and the technology available, the amount of information represented on it was remarkable.
Another section I found particularly interesting was the discussion of religious tolerance within the Mongol Empire.
It is something that doesn't tend to feature prominently in the popular image of the Mongols.
The familiar depiction is usually that of bloodthirsty horsemen sweeping across the map, rather than administrators running a vast and remarkably diverse empire.
Yet the exhibition described policies allowing religious figures to live tax-free and practise their faith freely.
The empire contained communities following Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, Confucianism and several Indian religions.
That level of religious diversity within a single empire is fascinating, particularly given the period in which it existed.
There were also several large screens throughout the exhibition displaying reconstructed images based on surviving scrolls and artwork.
These were accompanied by the sound of horses galloping at speed as you walked through the warfare section.
It was a simple effect, but it worked remarkably well.
After a few minutes of looking at Mongol cavalry, siege warfare and horse equipment while listening to hundreds of imaginary hooves pounding across the landscape, you start to understand why the Mongols developed such a terrifying reputation.
And then we come to Khutulun.
The Mrs immediately announced that she had found her spirit ancestor.
Khutulun was renowned for wrestling potential suitors and refusing to marry men who could not defeat her.
Her condition for marriage was simple enough.
Beat her in wrestling, and you could marry her.
Lose, and she took your horses.
Apparently, she accumulated quite a herd.
The Mrs was particularly impressed.
I suspect she has now added “large herd of horses” to the list of acceptable wedding gifts.
The Blue Princess was another figure mentioned in several of the cases.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get particularly good photographs of those displays, largely thanks to the eternal enemy of museum photography:
Glass + lighting + reflections.
You can have the perfect exhibit in front of you and still end up photographing what appears to be the ceiling of Leeds.
And finally, as you leave the exhibition, you pass this.
It sits in its own darkened area, surrounded by a backdrop of mountains and a night sky.
The lighting and sound design change completely here, with birds of prey calling in the background as you walk past.
It makes for a rather atmospheric ending to the exhibition.
After spending the previous hour or so looking at warfare, conquest, trade, politics, religion and the sheer scale of the Mongol Empire, it was a surprisingly quiet way to finish.
And that brings us to the end of the Mongolian Empire exhibition at the Royal Armouries.
There was plenty more that I couldn't photograph, either because photography wasn't permitted or because the exhibits were behind particularly reflective glass, but I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition.
It was also one of those museum trips where I went in thinking I knew roughly what I was going to see and came out with an entirely new list of historical rabbit holes to disappear down.
Which, frankly, is exactly what museums are supposed to do.
I will post the other photographs separately, especially the Samurai armour, which I spent a considerable amount of time looking at.
Until next time, have nice day.
