Kublai Khan’s campaigns in Burma and Java
Screex After the final conquest of Southern China by the Mongols in 1279, Mongol Khan Kublai faced a difficult task.: What should I do next? He had a huge army that…
Who would win: the Mongols or the samurai?
History knows many examples of great military cultures clashing, but one of the most intriguing confrontations has never fully taken place. We are talking about an attempted Mongol invasion of…
The Battle of Orbulak: How did Kazakhs, Kirghizs, and Uzbeks defeat the Kalmyks together?
The Battle of Orbulak in 1643 was the first battle in the hundred-year Kazakh-Dzungarian war. Despite the fact that the Kazakhs won then, they suffered many defeats in the future…
The kingdom that became the first victim of the Mongols. It was completely wiped off the face of the earth
The Tanguts could not even imagine that their prosperous Buddhist kingdom would become the first testing ground for the Mongol military machine. The state of Xi Xia, which had stood…
Command and army in the Golden Horde
The basis of the military system in the Ulus Dzhuchi was a hierarchically organized system of Tatar clans' possessions. Its characteristic feature was the intertwining of military and administrative system.…
“The Nogai Massacre”
In 1547, the warlike Crimean Khan Sahib-Girey took Astrakhan and, “having defeated the Astrakhan Khan Yamgurji, scattered his subjects, and the men and women who had escaped death, with all…
Steppe Lords: The Dzungar Perspective on the Centuries-Long War with the Kazakhs
Western Campaign: Why the Sons of Choros Needed the Steppes of Desht-i-Kipchak The lands stretching west of the Tarbagatai and Altai mountain ranges always attracted the Oirat leaders. It was…
Batu’s Iron Fist: The Daily Life of a Warrior of the Great Steppe
Morning in the felt world: rituals and duties The sun had not yet had time to scorch the withered grass, and the camp-smoke was already buzzing like a disturbed beehive.…
Batu — the eldest of the Chingizids
Batu and Guyuk In December 1241, Khan Ugedei died. All power was concentrated in the hands of his wife and regent Doregene (Turakin in Russian sources). Doregene wanted to transfer…
Was Tamerlane a good individual fighter?
"Timur was tall and of good build, as if he belonged to the remnants of the Amalekites ... mighty in strength and courage ... sturdy in body, broad shouldered, with…