--- John Bizwas <bizwas at lycos.com> wrote: My 'memory' of the Mongols from history class (though I admit the idea of Asiatics on horses kicking butt all over was the initial attraction)? Formed the largest empire ever seen in the history of the world. Were racially mixed, but ethnically and linguistically their cultures would appear to be ancestors or at least relatives of many cultures in Asia, from Europe to the Far East. Put Europe, the ME and E. Asia in touch with each other, in a big way (culture, religion, material culture, art of warfare, horse and cattle raising, trade routes, spread of Altaic languages, etc.). Were (usually) religiously diverse and tolerant. Set precedents for Turks and Persians to make Islam a world religion away from the Arab centre. Helped propagate Buddhism. Provided refuge to Jews, some Mongols even likely converted to Judaism (no, don't read the Koestler book, just go to real sources on the subject, o.k.?). Other things? Couldn't sail for shit (knew little about typhoons apparently), h!
owever good they were with horses and cavalry. Had an interesting material culture that is still very much evident in the empire's four quarters. Etc. etc. Next I'll be hearing how American kiddies lose sleep fearing 'redskin injuns' will scalp them at night (or is that OBL and Zarqawi?). F
---
They certainly weren't primitives. A great deal of Russian vocabulary dealing with commerce and government comes from Tatar/Mongol.
Of course it is correct that the "Mongols" were actually not one people but a big collection of them, which is why I prefer to write Mongol/Tatar, though that's not accurate either. (Similarly, the "Cossack uprising" against Catherine the Great under Pugachev was not just Cossacks, but also Tatars, Kalmyks and Kyrgyz, but since most people outside Russia have only heard of Cossacks, it became the "Cossack uprising.") Their descendents live in Eurasia all the way from Europe (the Kalmyks, whose name means something like "those that stayed" in Turkic, and who later worked as cavalry for the tsars), the Tatars (like Safin and Russian pop star Zemfira -- http://www.zemfira.ru/?go=photo) further to the east, and then the Kyrgyz, Kazaks, Uzbeks etc.). Later some people added an extra "r" to "Tatar" to make "Tartar," to make it sound more like "Tartarus."
Casting off the "Mongol Yoke" was the foundation myth of the Russian state, so it's not really comparable to "red Indians." There is a Russian urban legend that WWII was precipitated by the opening of Tamarlane's tomb. Supposedly a priest present said that he felt a dark presence and warned them not to open the tomb, then the next day the Nazis invaded. It's also why the Russian equivalent for the expression "don't judge a man by the color of his skin" is "don't trust a man by the shape of his eyes," i.e., on whether he's a Mongol/Tatar or not.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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