There artisans and merchants from all over the known world could be seen plying their trades. Weatherford speaks glowingly of Shangdu, the capital city of Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan and one of his successors. Freedom of religion was granted in the empire. Taxes under the Mongols were lower than under other kings. He claims that Russia and China were united into the large nations they are today. The Mongols also reformed the social systems of the peoples they conquered. Weatherford attributes the European Renaissance to their encounter with knowledge from the Mongol empire. Playing cards and noodles were introduced to Europe, the checking of the pulse was introduced to the Middle East, and lemons were introduced to China. Vast areas of Asia along the silk-road were opened up to international commerce. However, the primary importance of the Mongols was their facilitation of cultural exchange. They created the first international postal service, introduced paper money, and modified the previous Chinese invention of gunpowder so that it would explode instead of burn. Weatherford attributes various important innovations to the Mongols. The Mongols also avoided torture, he argues, even when it was gruesomely practiced by the civilizations they conquered. Weatherford instead attributes this practice to Tamerlane who falsely (according to Weatherford) claimed descent from Genghis Khan, but who was really more a Turk than a Mongol. Mongols never viewed death as a form of art. He deems it unlikely that the Mongols would have built large piles of human bones because their taboos around death were very strict. Weatherford also discusses Mongol beliefs. Portrait cropped out of a page from an album depicting several Yuan emperors (Yuandjai di banshenxiang), now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei 14th century They would do such tasks as pushing siege engines, or filling moats for the Mongol soldiers to cross. The peasants would be used as a labor force for the Mongol Army. Those with special skills such as the literate, craftsmen, or entertainers would be taken as captives to the rest of the empire where they would hone their talents in the service of their new Mongol overlords. The rest of the population would be divided into groups according to skills. According to Weatherford the Mongols executed outright the aristocrats, the soldiers, and those who had no apparent value for them. The Mongol conquests of China and Persia are described in great detail. of paper for money and the burning of coal for heat (see excerpts below). In this revisionist history, Jack Weatherford chooses to portray the Mongols as builders as well as destroyers of civilization and not nearly as destructive as they are portrayed. A book of new scholarship, Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire, coming out in June details major finds that archeologists have made in recent years, which shed light on what life was like in. At the height of the Mongol Empire, Marco Polo served Emperor Kublai Khan in. Genghis Khan and the Mongols are generally portrayed as ruthless butchers who slaughtered entire cities and left behind great piles of human bones as memorials to their conquests.
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