Today in a number of countries of Central Asia there is a boom on Genghis Khan. The question of kinship with the legendary conqueror causes heated disputes in the Internet. Some «researchers» criticize the conqueror for cruelty, others consider him their ancestor and national hero.
Meanwhile, the information about destruction of population of Central Asia by Mongols of Genghis Khan is presented in most parts and excluded from consciousness of inhabitants of Central Asia.
Many Central Asian schoolchildren believe that most of the territory of Central Asia was uninhabited before the arrival of the conquerors. However, before the Mongol invasion, the cities of Semirechye flourished here. Merv, Binokat, Khatlon, Vakhsh, Chagoniyon, Tirmiz, Balkh, Shodbokh, Nishopur, Naso, Shazfistan, Dehistan, Abeward and Tusa had larger populations than any city in Europe at that time.
By 1211 the Mongols, having conquered the lands of the Kereits, Kyrgyz, Naimans and Uyghurs, set their eyes on the richest cities of Central Asia, which for neighboring peoples were considered an oasis of wealth and prosperity.
In the early 20s of the XIII century, Genghis Khan’s troops, numbering 100 — 150 thousand people, invaded Central Asia, devastating the main centers of Semirechye, Bukhara, Samarkand, Merv, Urgench and others, subjugating the entire vast region to his power.
The entire conquest was accomplished in three years — from 1219 to 1221. Khorezmshah Mohammed underestimated the strength of Genghis Khan, as a consequence of which he was forced to flee. In pursuit was sent a tumen under the leadership of Dzhebe-noyon and Subedei.
The campaigns and pursuits folded in Eurasia a huge, multi-ethnic state, at the head of which stood Chinggisids, — the Mongol Empire.
Scientists have calculated that as a result of the Central Asian campaign Mongols destroyed about 10 million indigenous inhabitants of Central Asia.
The Mongol occupation of Central Asia forever changed the ethnic composition of the region and led to mass migrations of the population of these places. New mixed ethnic formations of Turkic-Mongol tribes began to emerge in the lands of the indigenous peoples.
Central Asian chroniclers counted the heads cut down in the period 1219 — 1223. For example, after the capture of Merv, this count lasted 13 days and yielded a figure of 1,047,000 killed.
During the invasion, the population of entire regions was sheltered behind the walls of large cities, so the number of victims was often enormous.
In Herat 1,060,000 people were slaughtered, in Balkh — 1,000,000, in Nishapur 1,747,000 men alone were killed, excluding women and children.
The vizier of Hulagu Khan Juwayni testified that «where there were a hundred thousand people, there was not left, without exaggeration, and a hundred souls, and confirmation of this statement can be the fate of many cities, about each of which it is said in the proper place».
The historian Ibn al-Asir characterizes the Mongol invasion of Central Asia as follows:
«What I am embarking on consists of a narrative of the most terrible event and the greatest calamity that the times have ever undergone, and which encompassed all the created [by God], and especially the Muslims… Perhaps people will never see such a calamity until the end of the existence of the universe…»
If a city could be taken by storm after stubborn resistance, Mongol officers carried out a «general massacre» (Arabic-Persian katli am).
The remaining inhabitants, having previously driven them out into the field, were divided among the soldiers, who converted them into slavery. So it was in Farab, Sygnak, Ashnas, Termez, Nisa, Balkh, Nishapur, Sabzavar, Tusa, Gurgandj, Herat (at the second capture after revolt) and in other places. At times their rural districts were also slaughtered along with the towns. After the massacre of captives, scribes were forced to count the number of those killed. According to Juweini, after the Merv massacre, the counting of the dead lasted 13 days.
French historian Rene Grusse in his book «Genghis Khan» writes that «the basis of the army of Khorezmshah was made up of gulams — Turks, who surrendered en masse to the Mongols when approaching their towns and villages. Later they, led by Mongol officers, together with the Mongol army participated in the extermination and destruction of Tajiks and Sarts, who fought to the last against «terrible barbarians from the east».
According to Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi, personal secretary of the last Khorezm Shah Jalal al-Din, an eyewitness of the Mongol invasion of Khorezm, the Mongols «burned the bones of all the buried sultans in whatever land they were in» (al-Nasawi 1996: 234).
The papal envoy to Mongolia, Giovanni del Plano Carpini, who traveled through these lands in 1245, wrote: «as we rode through their land, we found countless heads and bones of dead men lying in the field» (Plano Carpini 1957: 47).
Bukhara
In February 1220 the main forces of Genghis Khan approached Bukhara. When five thousand warriors from among the Turks of Inanch-khan instead of protecting «noble Bukhara» replaced military valor with the shame of flight, the most noble imams, scholars and ulemi gathered in the main mosque of the city. They knew about the cruelties of the Mongol invaders and were not ready to repel the blow, so they sent parliamentarians headed by Kaziy Badr ad-din to Genghis Khan with a request for pardon.
On February 16, 1220 the Mongols occupied Bukhara. Only 400 militiamen led by Gurgkhan heroically resisted for 12 more days, locked in the arch. The Mongols used all means to dislodge them from there. Only with the death of the last hero-defender the citadel was taken.
Contemporaries report that in the battles for Bukhara more than 30 thousand people were killed, the rest were converted into slavery. Bukhara, considered the center of Maverannahr since the time of Samanids, was defeated. Architectural monuments, books and other valuables were mercilessly destroyed. Scholars and enlighteners found themselves in the service of Mongol warriors. Bukharans, who were distinguished by enlightenment and ethical behavior, were humiliated, their dignity was trampled.
Some noble citizens, such as Kazi Badraddin, Imamzadeh Rukuddin and his son, could not withstand the abuse and threw themselves on the enemies and died in a fleeting battle. Many residents of Bukhara did not agree with the surrender and continued guerrilla warfare, making night sorties against the victors. Then the enraged Genghis Khan ordered to burn the city.
Bukhara burned for several days and turned into a huge ashes. The remains of buildings, palaces, cathedral mosques and madrassahs erected of stone and burnt bricks protruded above the ashes as black hulks.
The Mongols took all the artisans from Bukhara as prisoners. Strong and healthy men were ordered by Genghis Khan to be used for heavy siege work in subsequent military operations.
As the author of the XIII century Ibn al-Asir wrote, the captives could not keep up with the mounted Mongol troops, hungry and exhausted, they fell from fatigue. Those who could not walk were killed by the conquerors.
Bukhara was burned, and the entire male population, including boys whose height was taller than a whip, suffered a cruel death.
Samarkand
Having left Bukhara in ruins, Genghis Khan on a valley Sogdiana has gone to Samarkand which numbered on various data 40 thousand soldiers.
When the Mongols approached the gates of the city, the Turkic defenders opened the gates and met the Mongols with the words: «We completely submit to the great Mongols and do not want to fight with you» and surrendered the city without a fight.
Genghis Khan knew very well that if they betrayed their people, at the right moment these Turks would betray him too. Therefore, he decided to execute every single one of the 30 thousand warriors-Kangles, who had previously been the support of Khorezmshah Mohammed and his mother Turkan.
As the historian Ibn al-Asir wrote:
«On the fourth day they [the Mongols] announced in the city that the entire population should come out to them, and if anyone delayed in doing so, he would be killed. All men, women and children came out to them, and they did to them what they had done to the inhabitants of Bukhara — they committed robbery, murder, enslavement and all sorts of outrages. When they entered the city, they plundered it and burned the cathedral mosque and left the rest as it was. They raped girls and tortured people in all sorts of ways, demanding money. Those who were not fit for captivity they killed on the spot.»
According to the Chinese pilgrim Chang Chun, only 50,000 of the 400,000-strong population of Samarkand survived.
Balkh
At the beginning of 1221 Genghis Khan decided to cross the Amu Darya and take the city of Balkh. It should be said that Balkh is one of the most ancient cities in the history of world civilization. And during the heyday of the Great Silk Road, about one million people lived in Balkh. Jalal ad-din — the son of Khorezmshah, having heard about the approach of Mongols, took his army and left Balkh.
Relying on Genghis Khan’s promise of mercy, the inhabitants opened the city gates to him without a fight. However, Genghis Khan deceived the inhabitants and became enraged by the flight of their elite. The population was massacred by Mongols.
Walls and fortifications, as well as mosques and palaces were destroyed, the city was devoted to fire. Smoke from the fires was visible many kilometers away from the city.
«After the defeat and devastation caused by Genghis Khan,» writes Degin, «Balkh could not recover for a long time and never again reached its former heyday.
Merv
Then came the turn of Merv. In a dozen of its libraries were 150 thousand books — it was the largest repository of knowledge in Central Asia. Genghis Khan, who by that time had not learned literacy, ordered to burn all the books. The city was razed to the ground and its inhabitants were slaughtered. Each of 7 thousand Mongols had to cut the throats of 300 townspeople. Thus, 7,000 Mongol warriors killed a million people in two hours.
A group of Mongols went into the steppe towards Nishapur, where they encountered a crowd of Tajik refugees who had managed to escape from Merv. And these refugees met the same fate as their fellow citizens, they were killed.
After the Mongols left, a man named Sayyid-Iz-ad-din Nasafi, who was famous for his piety and virtue, and several other people conducted a count of the dead, which lasted 13 days and nights. The number of dead according to their data amounted to one million thirteen thousand people, and, as they say, it did not include the number of killed townspeople who fled from Merv or hid in hiding places and shelters.
Shocked to the core, Sayyid-Iz-ad-din recited a rubai of Omar Khayyam, as if specially written for such a terrible occasion:
«The shape of the pyal in which it was molded together,
Even a drunken man won’t let it be broken,
How many beautiful heads and feet have been joined
Whose love united, and whose hate divided it…»
Herat
Undoubtedly, the Herat uprising were links in the same chain, but unfortunately, Herat’s defenses acted in a highly uncoordinated manner. The rebellion itself was crushed by the Mongols with incredible brutality and there were no other uprisings in this region during this period.
This resistance was long and heroic. It was so until June of the following year 1222, when the Mongols still managed to take the city. Eljigedei carried out the instructions: the entire population should be killed, «and not a head with a body, nor a body with a head left».
Seifi defines the number of killed as about 1,060,000, and Juzjani’s work mentions that in one quarter there were 600,000 killed, and on this basis estimates the total number in the whole city as 2,400,000.
Nishapur
Nishapur was also a victim of this barbaric invasion. This war became a festival of death. There are reports that for seven days and seven nights there was no water in the city. After Tulu Khan’s troops left, people counted the dead for 12 days and found that 1,047,000 people had been killed in Nishapur.
This year was a tragedy-filled event for Nishapur and had a heavy impact on its future fate. Life in this glorious city died out. Where Genghis Khan’s troops had passed, there remained a desert, chroniclers wrote.
«How terrible when a man sees how barbarians like a raging hurricane rushing through the gardens and valleys, all toppling and sweeping on their way. The Mongols continued to act in this way until they captured Khorasan to its outskirts», — writes a contemporary of those days.
There is a number of accounts testifying to the special attention that the conquerors paid to the heads (skulls) of the captives. Sources give data about mass decapitation of captives and various manipulations with severed heads. Sometimes after the capture of cities the Mongols built whole pyramids or hills of skulls: after the capture of Nishapur, during the storming of which Genghis Khan’s son-in-law named Togochar was killed, the Mongols killed almost all the surviving inhabitants of the city, «cut off the heads of the killed from their bodies and piled them up, putting the heads of men separately from the heads of women and children» (Juweini 2004: 118).
Genghis Khan did not go further than Samarkand, having decided to rest. He sent Tului with 70 thousand army to conquer Khorasan, and at the beginning of 1221 50 thousand army of Juchi, Chagatai and Ugedei approached the capital of Khorezm — the city of Urgench. After a seven-month siege, the Mongols took it, defeated it, and sent the inhabitants with caravans to the east as prisoners.
As the historian Rashid-ad-din wrote, «the Mongols fought fiercely and took quarter after quarter and palace after palace, demolished them and burned them, until within seven days they took the whole city in this way. [Then] they drove all the people into the steppe at once, separated from them about a hundred thousand artisans and sent [them] to the eastern countries. Young women and children were taken captive, and the rest of the people were divided among the warriors to kill them. For each Mongol there were twenty-four people, the number of soldiers [Mongols] was more than fifty thousand. After that the Mongols opened the dams, the water of Amu-Darya rushed and flooded the whole city, so that the people hiding in different shelters died, and none of the inhabitants survived».
Thus, for the period 1219 — 1223 years were destroyed:
-Bukhara — 1 million people (1220)
-Samarkand — 350 thousand people (1220)
-Balkh — 1 million people (1221)
-Merv — 1 047 000 people (1221)
-Gurganj — 1,200,000 people (1221)
-Herat — 1,060,000 people (1222)
-Nishapur — 1,470,000 people (1222)
This is only a list of the seven cities killed. In total, more than 50 major cities of Central Asia and Greater Iran were turned into ruins.
The destruction of entire cities and the almost total slaughter of inhabitants and even animals and birds had a sacral meaning for the Mongols: «the doomed city was transferred from the world of social relations to a forbidden zone where the laws of otherness ruled — to the ‘sanctuary of death'» (Drobyshev, Yurchenko 2009: 165; Yurchenko 2006: 161-166; Drobyshev, Yurchenko 2009: 161-166; Drobyshev, Yurchenko 2009: 165). (Drobyshev, Yurchenko 2009: 165), these territories were labeled as forbidden (Yurchenko 2006: 161-166; Drobyshev, Yurchenko 2009).