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Rashīd al-Dīn Tabīb (1247–1318)

Teoksen The successors of Genghis Khan tekijä

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Rashid's work, The Successors of Genghis Khan is quite an amazing book. The author was born only seven years after the death of Ogedei Khaghan, Genghis' son and successor, and lived in the Ilkhanate of Persia. Even before the Ilkhanate became the property of the Mongols, it had been a great center of learning (and had played a large part in the rediscovery of Greek learning which was, at the time Rashid's birth, ongoing in Europe).

At the time he was working, the Mongols' oral tradition was still fresh in the people's minds. While the people who had actually served under Genghis were probably long dead, it was likely that some of the people who served Ogedei were still alive, able to relate stories of both the men and their conquests.He also would have had available records written by the scholars of Baghdad and other great cities which had yielded to the Horde. (Contrary to commonly-held belief, the Mongols always sent ambassadors to potential conquests, telling them to lay down arms, simply surrender and agree to pay reasonable taxes, after which the city and its people would be allowed to thrive.)

This is exciting stuff. It gives us a better insight into the how's and why's of the Mongol conquest, the success of which can still be seen in the faces of the people who live in the lands once ruled by the heroes of this story. It is well worth the time one spends reading it.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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bfgar | 1 muu arvostelu | May 12, 2014 |
Part of “the first World History in the full sense ever written in any language.”

To quote from Boyle's introduction:
Rashid al-Din's work is above all a repository of material on the history, legends, beliefs, and mode of life of the 12th- and 13th-century Mongols, material that has survived nowhere else in such profusion... We learn here too how this material was preserved: how “it was the custom in those days to write down day by day every word that the ruler uttered,” how these biligs or sayings, often couched in “rhythmical and obscure language,” were recited on festive occasions by such exalted persons as the Great Khan Ogodei and his brother Chaghatai; and how Temur Oljeitu was chosen to succeed his grandfather Qubilai because he knew the biligs of Genghis Khan better than his rival and declaimed them “well and with a pure accent.”

A primary source. There are tales in here that I have read twenty times in history books, but here I am moved by them, because they have human shading. You get such a different picture. In the first civil conflict of the Mongols: “But since the like machinations were unknown in the customs of the Mongols, especially in the age of Chingiz-Khan and his family, they were quite unable to believe him.” This is a sordid episode that ends in a great purge, but unlike in the histories it's told slowly here, with the disbelief and the distress, and people being emotional in general. At times – my example is Qubilai's trial of his brother Ariq Boke and party – the reported speech may be hard or impossible to follow (what do they mean? why did that Mongol proverb of his change his pardon to an execution order?). But it is speech. It's brilliant to have the exchanges, real or at least imputed by Mongols, to guess at.

The four pages on Tolui's last weeks are worthy of a play, I think. You see the gamut of Tolui, the heights and the lows. There's a gripping campaign story, a victory against great odds – through use of weather magic. Then he orders that they “commit the act of the people of Lot” on the prisoners – in answer to the enemy army's provocation, about what they were going to do to Mongol women. As far as I know this is a one-off, but Tolui was certainly the most violent of the Genghis sons. This is followed, straight on, by his sacrificial death. Ogodei is sick. “The qams (shamans), as is their custom, had pronounced their incantations and washed his sickness in water in a wooden cup. Because of his great love for his brother, Tolui snatched up that cup and cried out with great insistence...” Take me in his stead. If this is because of sins, I've committed more than him. If you want him because he's fine and handsome, I'm handsomer. He drinks down the illness-water; Ogodei recovers; a few days later Tolui falls sick and dies. As the translator says, Rashid's sources of information “contain many obviously legendary or folkloristic elements.” But it's authentic. The Mongols believed this tale; his widow Sorqoqtani holds it over Ogodei that he sacrificed himself (and Ogodei blames his drinking thereafter on his sorrow for Tolui). “They are valuable none the less as illustrative of the Mongol point of view and add considerable detail and colour to the somewhat laconic narrative of the Chinese chronicles.”

They also add point of view, detail and colour to the accounts in the history books. Don't miss them.
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Jakujin | 1 muu arvostelu | Mar 12, 2014 |

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Associated Authors

Karl Jahn Introduction, Translator and Commentary

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Teokset
13
Jäseniä
32
Suosituimmuussija
#430,838
Arvio (tähdet)
5.0
Kirja-arvosteluja
2
ISBN:t
14
Kielet
3