NOMADIC EMPIRE Class-xi

 NOMADIC EMPIRE

Class-xi

   SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1. Where did historians get information about Mongols?

Ans. Historians got information about mongols mainly from chronicles, travelogues and documents produced by city based scholars.

2.Name two Russian historians who did excellent research on Mongols.

Ans. Boris Yakovlevich Vladimirtsov and Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold were the two historians who produced some good quality work on Mongol's history.

3. Why was Bartold work on Mongols censored?

 Ans.Bartold sympathetic and positive view on the achievements of the Mongols under the Genghis Khan and his successors were against the view point of Stalin regime. So his works were censored and curtailed from circulation.

4.Who were Mongols?

Ans. The Mongols were a diverse body of people, linked by similarities of language to the Tatars, Khitan and Manchus to the East and the Turkic tribes to the West.

5. What did Mongols do for living? 

Ans. Some of the Mongols were pastoralists and some others were hunter-gatherers

6 Where did Mongols live and travel?

 Ans .Mongols lived in tents, gers (mobile tents) and travelled with their herds from their winter to summer pasture lands.

7 How was Genghis Khan's political system different from Attila?

 Ans .Genghis Khan's political system was stable enough to counter larger armies with superior equipment in China, Iran and Eastern Europe as compared to Attila: 

8 When and where was Genghis Khan born?What was his name?

 Ans.Genghis Khan was born around 1162 CE near the Onon river in the North of present-day Mongolia. He was named as Temujin.

9. Name the parents of Genghis Khan.

 Ans Genghis Khan's father was Yesugel, the chieftain of the Kiyat, a group of families related to the Borjigid dynasty and his mother name was Oelun-eke.

10 What reversals did Genghis Khan face in his early life?

 Ans Genghis Khan's father was murdered at an early age. In the next decade, he was captured and enslaved and after marriage, his wife was kidnapped.

11 How did Temujin become Genghis Khan?

Ans Temujin became Great Khan when an assembly of chieftains (quiriltal) proclaimed him with the title Genghis Khan ie the Ocean Khan or Universal ruler.

12 What did Mongol forces do in pursuit of Sultan Muhammad?

Ans Mongol forces in pursuit of Sultan Muhammad pushed into Azerbaijan, defeated Russian forces at the Crimea and encircled the Caspian Sea.

13 How was the army organised in the old steppe system of the Mongols?

Ans .Army was organised in decimal units i in divisions of 10s. 100s, 1000s and 10,000 soldiers

14. Name the four sons of Genghis Khan. 

Ans .The names of the four sons of Genghis Khan were Jochi, Chaghatai, Ogodel and Toluy.

15 What are qantas? How are they destroyed?

Ans.Qantas are the underground canals in the arid Iranian plateau They did not get periodic maintenance due to instability created by Mongol campaigns and thus they were destroyed.

16 What is baj tax?

Ans Traders paid boj tax for the safe passage and acknowledging the authority of the Mongol Khan.

17 Why did Mongols lose to Egyptians? 

Ans.As forces and supplies were diverted for Chinese conquests, the Mongols fielded a small, understaffed force against Egyptian military. This resulted in the defeat of the Mongols by the Egyptians.

18 Where did descendants of Toluy rule? 

Ans Descendants of Toluy ruled both China and Iran where they had formed the Yuan and Il-Khanid dynasties.

19 Why did descendants of Genghis Khan did not want to appear like him?

Ans. Descendants of Genghis Khan wanted to appear as convincing heroes to settled communities, so they did not want to appear the same way like him.

20 What is yasa?

Ans Yasa was a legal code of law that Genghis Jakhan promulgated at the quiriltai in 1206, with the aim to re-organise Mongol society and give it a new shape.

21 Who controlled Mongolia before it became independent?

 Ans Mongolia was under the Soviet control before it became an independent nation.

22 .What is paiza?

Ans Paiza is the pass which was given to the travellers by the Mongol regime for the safe passage through the empire.

23.Who drafted the speech of Ghazan Khan? What was it about?

Ans.The wazir, Rashiduddin drafted the speech of Ghazan Khan that was delivered to his Mongol compatriots asking them to protect

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and not to harass the peasantry. HOTS Who were more clever in presenting

their version of history?

Ans.The Toluyid branch of Genghis Khan dynasty was more clever in presenting their versions of the family disagreements in the histories.

25 .Was Mongol rule pluralistic or fundamentalist?

Ans.The Mongol regime was multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious in nature. They had a pluralistic constitution.

26 . Why was Timur hesitant to declare himself monarch?

Ans Timur was not the descendants of Genghis Khan, so he was hesitant to declare himself monarch.

Long type question

27. Discuss the expansion of Mongol's empire after the death of Genghis Khan. What differences arose among the family  members of Genghis Khan after his death?

Ans. Expansion of Mongol Empire after Genghis Khan's death was divided into two distinctive phases:

• The first was during 1236-42 CE 

• second was during 1255-1300 CE to owy do to

In the first phase : Mongols gained majorly the Russian steppes, Bulghar, Kiev, Poland and Hungary. 

In the second phase:the whole of China, Iran, Iraq and Syria were conquered. After this campaign boundaries of empire were established. Though Vienna, western Europe, as well as Egypt was within the grasp of Mongol forces, their retreat from Hungarian steppes and defeat at hands of the Egyptian forces signalled the emergence of new political trends.

Difference among the Family Members After the death of Genghis Khan:

the internal politics of succession within the Mongol family started. The descendants of Jochi and Ogodei gallied to control the office of Great Khan in the first two generations. These interests became add more important than the campaigns in Europe. Later, Toluyid branch of Genghis Khan descendants marginalised Jochi and Ogodei lineages.

When Mongke, a descendant of Toluy, accessed the throne, the campaigns were pursued in Iran during 1250s. But in 1960s, Toluyid interests were in the conquest of China, so forces and supplies were diverted to heartlands of Mongol dominion. As a result, the Mongols fielded a of small, understaffed force against the Egyptian military. Thus, their defeat with Egyptians and the increased preoccupation with China of the Toluyid family marked the end of western expansion of Mongols.

Conflict between Jochid and Toluyid descendants along the Russian-Iranian boundary diverted Jochids away from further European expansion. The turbulence between members of ruling family had mixed results. Mongol expansion was suspended in the West but their campaigns reunited China under the Mongols.