Introduction
The editions I have used for the main sources listed here are:
Onon, U. (ed. and trans.), The Secret History of the Mongols, New York, 2001.
Rashid ud-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan, trans. Boyle, J., New York and London, 1971.
Ata Malik Juvaini, The History of the World Conqueror, trans. Boyle, J., Manchester, 1958.
Waley, A., Travels of an Alchemist, London, 1931.
De Rachewiltz, I., Papal Envoys to the Great Khans, London, 1971.
Marco Polo, The Travels, trans. Latham, R. E. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1958.
For Juzjani and Nasawi I have had to rely on extracts in other works, principally Barthold, W., Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion, London, 1977. The numerous untranslated Chinese records are discussed in Martin, H. D., The Rise of Chingis Khan and his Conquest of North China, Baltimore, 1950. A valuable general overview of the contemporary sources appears in Morgan, D., The Mongols, Oxford, 1986. Man, J., Genghis Khan, Life, Death and Resurrection, London, 2011, discusses the present day
‘cult’ of Genghis Khan in Mongolia and China.
Chapter 1: Genghis’ World
The ethnography of pre-Genghis Mongolia is discussed in Ratchnevsky, P., Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy, Oxford, 1991, and De Hartog, L., Genghis Khan, Conqueror of the World, London, 1989. The latter is also the main source for geography and climatic conditions. For new research on rainfall variations see Scientific American, 12 March 2014 (www.scientificamerican.com-History of Science-Climatewire).
The beginnings of steppe warfare are discussed in Anthony, D., The Horse, The Wheel and Language, Princeton, 2007. Both Anthony and Di Cosmo, N., Ancient China and its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History, Cambridge, 2002, also present evidence for the self-sufficiency of steppe economies. For the Silk Road see Franck, I., and Brownstone, D., The Silk Road, a History, New York, 1986. The argument
for the nomads as victims appears in Beckwith, C., Empires of the Silk Road, Princeton, 2009. For events in China see The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368, Cambridge, 1994.
Chapter 2: War on the Steppes
This account is based principally on the Secret History. Juvaini and the Chinese sources in Martin (1950) discuss the Baljuna Covenant; Martin is also the main source for the Kirghiz campaign. For the role of the Muslim merchants see Ratchnevsky.
Chapter 3: The Khan’s Armies
The Secret History is the main source for the organisation of Genghis’ armies. See also Rashid ud-Din, Marco Polo, and Atwood, C. P., Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire, New York, 2004. On the question of numbers, see Barthold, De Hartog, and Morgan (1986). Morgan also discusses the development of the ‘tamma’ armies. For the Yuan dynasty the principal source is Hsiao, C. C., The Military Establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1978. Carpini is quoted in De Rachewiltz. For Haithon see Bretschneider, E. (trans.), ‘The Journey of Haithon, King of Little Armenia, to Mongolia and Back’, Medieval Researches Vol. 1, London, 1888.
Anthony, and Karasulas, A., Mounted Archers of the Steppe, 600 BC–AD 1300, Osprey Elite Series 120, Oxford, 2004, discuss the origins of the composite bow. Modern research into the properties of the Mongol bow is to be found in Karasulas, and McEwen, E., Miller, R. and Bergman, C., ‘Early Bow Design and Construction’, Scientific American, June 1991. Also useful, though devoted mainly to European archery, are Hardy, R., Longbow, Sparkford, Somerset, 1992, and Roth, E., With a Bended Bow – Archery in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2012. The classification of methods of arrow release, widely quoted in modern books but seldom acknowledged, is due to Morse, E., ‘Ancient and Modern Methods of Arrow-Release’, Proceedings of the Essex Institute, 1885. For Henry VIII’s longbows see Strickland, M., and Hardy, R., The Great Warbow, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2005. The limit of 85lbs for a typical archer, and the penetration tests against mail, are from Roth. T’ang dynasty archery is discussed in Ranitzsch, K. H., The Army of Tang China, Stockport, 1995, and that of the Manchus in Von Essen, M. F., Eight Banners and Green Flag: The Army of the Manchu Empire and Qing China, 1600–1850, The Pike and Shot Society, Farnham, Surrey, 2009. The effectiveness of relatively light bows is discussed, though in an earlier historical context, by Godehardt et al, ‘The Reconstruction of Scythian Bows’, in Molloy, B. (ed.), The Cutting Edge: Studies in Ancient and Medieval Combat, Stroud, 2007. The authors also make the point that cumulative damage to armour and shields by repeated hits may be as significant as a single powerful penetrating strike. For the archaeology of Mongol arrows
and other weapons, and poisoned arrows, see Nicolle, D., and Shpakovsky, V., Kalka River 1223, Osprey Campaign Series 98, Oxford, 2001. The quotes from Fakhr-i Mudabbir are taken from Digby, S., War-Horse and Elephant in the Delhi Sultanate, Oxford, 1971.
Archery tactics are discussed in Turnbull, S., Mongol Warrior, Osprey Warrior Series 84, Oxford, 2003. The fourteenth-century Mamluk manual is quoted in Amitai-Preiss, R., Mongols and Mamluks – The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260–1281, Cambridge, 1995. The views of Professor J. M. Smith have been put forward in several publications dealing with the Mongol-Mamluk wars: Smith, J. M., Jr., ‘Ain Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies No. 44, 1984. Smith, J. M., Jr., ‘Mongol Armies and Indian Campaigns’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44:2, 1984. Smith, J.
M., Jr., ‘Mongol Society and Military in the Middle East’, in Lev, Y. (ed.), War and Society in the Eastern Mediterranean, Leiden, 1997. Smith, J. M., Jr., ‘Nomads on Ponies versus Slaves on Horses’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1998.
The Khitan military system is discussed in Wittfogel, K. A. and Feng, C., History of Chinese Society: Liao, Philadelphia, 1949. For the wider influence of the Khitans see Morgan (1986). The source for earlier Manchurian innovations is Dien, A., ‘The Stirrup and its Effect on Chinese Military History’, Ars Orientalis XVI, University of Michigan, 1986. The Political and Military Institutes of Tamerlane are quoted in Zaman, M. K., Mughal Artillery, Delhi, 1983. Amitai-Preiss cites the Egyptian account of the Battle of Hims. Witsen is quoted in Karasulas, and Marbot in Haythornthwaite, P., Napoleonic Light Cavalry Tactics, Osprey Elite Series 196, Oxford, 2013. For other Napoleonic parallels, see Nosworthy, B., Battle Tactics of Napoleon and his Enemies, London, 1995.
For Anna Comnena see Sewter, E. (trans.), The Alexiad of Anna Comnena, London, 1969. Other accounts of Turkish tactics appear in Smail, R., Crusading Warfare, 1097 to 1193, Cambridge, 1995, and Strickland and Hardy. Taybugha is quoted in Latham, J., and Patterson, W., Saracen Archery, London, 1970. For Turkish and Mamluk archery, see also Nicolle, D., Saladin and the Saracens, Osprey Men-at-Arms Series 171, London, 1986, and for Mamluk military exercises Smith, G. R., Medieval Muslim Horsemanship: A Fourteenth-Century Arabic Cavalry Manual, London, 1979.
For Yuan dynasty armour see Anon, Ancient Chinese Armour, Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 1996 (Chinese text). Nicolle and Shpakovsky discuss excavated swords and armour. The carrying capacity of Mongol horses is discussed in Smith (1998). Meng Hung’s account of Mongol shields is quoted in Martin. For Persian shields see Heath, I., Armies of the Middle Ages, Vol. 2, Worthing, Sussex, 1984. Ibn Battuta is quoted in Digby.
Smith (1998) discusses seated archers. Siege weapons are covered in Turnbull, S., Siege
Weapons of the Far East 1, Osprey New Vanguard Series 43, Oxford, 2001. For trebuchets see Hansen, P. V., Experimental Reconstruction of a Medieval Trebuchet, Copenhagen, 1992, and for gunpowder weapons Needham, J., Science and Civilisation in China Vol. 5, Part 7: The Gunpowder Epic, Cambridge, 1989.
The debate about the influence of pasture on the extent of the Mongol conquests is discussed in Morgan, D., ‘The Mongols in Syria, 1260–1300’, in Edbury, P. W., Crusade and Settlement, Cardiff, 1985. See also Smith, J. M., Jr., ‘Ain Jalut: Mamluk Success or Mongol Failure?’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies No. 44, 1984; Smith, J. M., Jr.,
‘Mongol Armies and Indian Campaigns’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44:2, 1984;
and Sinor, D., ‘The Mongols in the West’, Journal of Asian History Vol. 33, No. 1, 1999.
A contrary argument is put forward by Amitai-Preiss.
Chapter 4: The First Campaigns in the East
The narrative of the campaigns is based mainly on Martin. For the Tangut army and its wars with the Sung see Kycanov, E. I., ‘Les Guerres Entre les Sung du Nord et le Hsi-Hsia’, in Études Song Series 1 Vol. 2, Evreux, 1971. Gunpowder weapons are discussed in Needham. For the Jurchen army and the defences of the Chin empire see: Tao, J., The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China: A Study of Sinicization, Washington, 1976; Lovell, J., The Great Wall, London, 2006; and Turnbull, S., Chinese Walled Cities, 221 BC to AD
1644, Osprey Fortress Series 84, Oxford, 2012.
Chapter 5: War in the West
Juvaini is the main source for the events in this chapter, supplemented by Rashid ud-Din and Juzjani. Also valuable is The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 5: The Saljuq and Mongol Periods, Cambridge, 1968. Martin deals with the conquest of Qara-Khitai and the strategic situation on the eve of the Khwarizmian war. For the Khwarizmian army see Nicolle (1986).
The Black Sea campaign is neglected by Juvaini but has been well covered by several modern writers. See De Hartog, Sinor, Saunders, J., The History of the Mongol Conquests, London, 1971, and especially Nicolle, D., and Shpakovsky, V., Kalka River 1223, Osprey Campaign Series 98, Oxford, 2001.
Chapter 6: The Fall of North China
The main source here is Martin. The Secret History also relates the main events of the final campaign in Hsi Hsia. See Man for a discussion of the death and burial of Genghis.
Chapter 7: A Mongol Empire?
Morgan (1986) and Ratchnevsky discuss the administration of the empire and the careers
of Genghis’ successors. The theory of Genghis’ grand strategic plan is in Lattimore, O.,
‘The Geography of Chingis Khan’, Geographical Journal 129/1, 1963. See also Schamiloglu, U., ‘The Qaraci Beys of the Later Golden Horde: Notes on the Organisation of the Mongol World Empire’, Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 4, 1984.
The main sources for the massacres are Juvaini and Juzjani. Morgan, Man and (for China) Martin all attempt to put the allegations into context, but the main counter-argument is provided by Juvaini himself, in passages often ignored by sensationalist writers. Beckwith argues that the decline in the economy of Central Asia postdates the Mongol era.
Chapter 8: Genghis – the Verdict.
Liddell Hart, B. H., Great Captains Unveiled, London, 1927, has been very influential in presenting Genghis as a military genius. Ratchnevsky argues for the view of the Secret History as unsympathetic to Genghis.