The History of Kazakhstan from the Earliest Period to the Present time. Volume I. Zhanat Kundakbayeva

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СКАЧАТЬ army disappeared into the desert and suddenly, out of nowhere, he appeared at the city of Bukhara. The city garrison was stunned, and was quickly defeated. Next Genghis marched towards Samarkand, the capital of the Khwarezmian Empire. The magnificent city was heavily fortified and had a garrison of 110,000 men, which vastly outnumbered Genghis ' besieging army. The city was expected to be able to hold out for months, but on March 19, 1220 its walls were breached in just ten days. After the fall of Samarkand, the Mongols overran much of the Empire. The destruction was profound. Cities were leveled and populations were massacred. At the Merv city, accounts described an execution of 700,000. At Samarkand, women were raped and sold into slavery. Devastation was so great that the Kwarazmian Empire itself was nearly wiped away from history. The conquest of the Kwarazm also created another remarkable event. After his defeat, the Khwarezm Shah fled to the west and Subedei followed in pursue with a force of 20,000 men. The Khwarezm Shah died, however, but Subedei went further. He brought his army to the north and defeated a heavily outnumbering Russian and Cuman army at the Khalka River. He went further and attacks the Volga Bulgars before returning back. As said by the famed history Gibbons, Subedei's expedition was one of the most daring expeditions in history, unlikely to be repeated ever again.

      During the entire campaign, the Khwarezm Shah failed to assemble an army to fight the Mongols on the battlefield. The Khwarezm strategy relied on its extensive city garrisons that outnumbered the besieging Mongol armies. This of course, failed in every way. The only well organized resistance against the Mongols came from Jalal ad-Din, who after the fall of Samarkand, organized a resistance force on the territory of modern day Afghanistan. At Parwan, he defeated a Mongol force led by one of Ginghis' adopted son, making it the only Mongol defeat in the entire campaign. Genghis chases after Jalal ad-Din and destroyed his army at the Indus River. The defeat of Jalal ad-Din meant the consolidation of rule of Transoxania. However, the southern parts of the Khwarezmian Empire were left unconquered and later turned into a collection of Independent states. It is said that the Mongols decided not to advance when the sight of a unicorn demoralized their vanguard.

      At the age approaching sixty, Genghis Khan' health was at a decline. He sought the legendary Daoist monk Changchun for the elixir to Immortality. His wish did not come true, as Changchun had no magical elixir, but Genghis praised his wisdom and the two became good friends. Following the meeting with the Daoist monk, Genghis returned to the administration side of his objectives. Unlike Attila the Hun and Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan realized the importance of a smooth succession after his death. Before he completed his conquest of the Khwarezmian Empire, he had already carefully chosen his son Ugedei to be his successor. After Genghis returned to Mongolia to finish establish the administration structure of his empire, all the matters were in good order, except for the Tanguts. The Tangut Xi Xia Empire had long been defeated by the Mongols, but became more of a tributary rather than being annexed. However, the Tanguts had stopped complying with terms while Genghis was away. In 1226, Genghis Khan led his army against Xi Xia and captured its capital.

      In 1221 with subjugating of the Khwarezm the conquest of Central Asia was finished. By 1225 the main Mongolian forces had left for Mongolia. Only the30-thousand group of Zhebe and Subedeja continued the war in the west.

      The Kazakh lands as a part of Mongolian uluses

      Genghis Khan, according to Dzhuvejni, even in his lifetime distributed special territories named yurts, to each of his sons. In research literature the territories distributed among sons by Genghis Khan is accepted to name apanages or uluses.

      The territory of Kazakhstan entered the structure of three Mongolian uluses:

      The most part of steppe spaces of the north of the country and the areas from the upper reaches of the Irtysh to Alakul lake and farther to the West to Or and Syr Darya Rivers entered Juji's ulus.

      Southern and Southeast Kazakhstan entered Chaghatai's ulus. Besides, outside of modern Kazakhstan that ulus included the following territories: East Turkestan and Maverannahr.

      Northeast Kazakhstan was a part of Ugedeja's ulus, which included the territory of Western Mongolia, the area of the Upper Irtysh and Tarbagatai.

      During Genghis-khan's lifetime the lands alloted to his sons, were for them only served as source of income for them, but nevertheless they remained themselves subordinated to the head of the empire. After his death the situation had changed. Extensiveness of the Mongolian power, remoteness of a residence of uluses from theball-empire the centre on Orkhon conducted possessors to that the local authorities became the valid power only.

      The dynasties began introducing an appanage appanage system, transition to the real power in uluses to the descendants of Genghis Khan's sons raised aspiration among the Genghizid uluses to make their dynasty completely independent, and their uluses Independent possession.

      Control questions:

      1. What do you know about the origin of the Kidans?

      2. Why were strain relations between gurkhans and their vassals in the Ili valley in the middle of the twelfth centuries?

      3. Give arguments in favor of the presence on Naimans signs of statehood

      4. How did the Turkic traditions influence on the forms of the Mongolian statehood?

      5. Compare the characteristics of Genghis Khan according to Raþîd ad-Dîn and Cuvaynî, Juzjani and Abulgazy.

      3.2 Kazakhstan in the structure of the ulus Juji and Golden Horde (the XIII – the first half of the XV centuries)

      The formation of the Golden Horde in the Juji Ulus

      Until his death in August 1227 Genghis Khan managed to lay the foundation for a new territorial enormous empire, which amounted to earth people, not only lived in the vicinity of Mongolia, and China, Central Asia and the steppes to the west of the Irtysh. Death of Genghis Khan did not change the policy of his successors. They made every effort to fulfill the will of the founder dynasty – to capture new lands.

      History of the Golden Horde is directly related to Ulus of the eldest son of Genghis Khan – Juji, which was located in the steppes to the north of Lake Balkhash and the Aral Sea, from the Irtysh to the Yaik. Juji died even before his father Genghis, so the bequeathal passed (in left and right wings) to Juji's sons Orda and Batu. Successor, of Juji who died six months before Genghis Khan, became his son Batu. The circumstances of his accession to the throne were described by Utemish Haji.

      According to the decision of the Mongolian kurultai in 1229 Batu was instructed to gain the land located in the West, in the form of compensation for the eastern part of the Ulus, assigned Ugadei (some land to the east of the Irtysh River). But in this campaign the Mongols managed only to reach Yaik. At the Congress of 1235, where the second time the question of the conquest of western land (located in the west of the Ural and Volga rivers) were discussed. Thus, in 1236-1242 took place the western campaign of Mongols. As a result of the campaign the Mongols conquered territory to the west of the Volga River and reached the river Danube. The Mongols destroyed the state Volga Bulgaria in the Middle Volga, Poland, Lithuania, and Czech.

      After the campaigne Batu returned to the Volga steppes, where the average over the Volga River had begun building a headquarters – Saray-Batu. That was the beginning of a new Mongolian state – the Golden Horde. It was established on the basis of Ulus Juji and a conquered lands to the west (to the river Danube). Until 1269 the Golden Horde was a member of the Mongol Empire. The Mongol Empire included: Ulus Juji – The Golden Horde, Chagatai Ulus – Chagataid's State, Ulus of Ugedei, and Ulus of Tulyi.

      We can choose the following periods in the history of the Golden Horde:

      1. 1242-1266. – Period of СКАЧАТЬ