Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Turks sought to blend traditional nomadic herding with a life of agriculture, urbanisation
and commerce; consequently, they left more physical remains than the others in the ruins
of Turkic cities and ceremonial centres. Along the Orkhon Gol in central Mongolia, they
built their small cities of mud, the most famous of which were erected during the time of
the Uighurs, the last of the great Turkic empires of Mongolia. The Turkic era reached its
zenith in the early 8th century under Bilge Khan and his brother Kultegen, the military
general. Their monuments near the Orkhon Gol are probably the oldest known examples
of writing in a Turkic language.
At Noyon Uul in Selenge aimag, archaeologists have made curious finds inside Hunnu-
era tombs. Unearthed objects include Hellenistic mirrors and jewellery from Afghanistan.
Historians believe these were brought from Persia or Central Asia and traded by steppe
nomads until they reached the Siberian border.
Like the Huns before them, the Turks moved down off the Mongolian Plateau, spread-
ing from what is today China to the shores of the Mediterranean. Another invading
Turkic tribe, the Kyrgyz, overthrew the Uighur empire in AD 840, destroying its cities
and driving the Uighur people south into the oases of western China. But the Kyrgyz
showed no inclination to maintain the cities or the empire they had conquered. With the
expulsion of the Uighurs came another period of decentralised feuding and strife, before
the greatest of all Mongolian empires arose at the beginning of the 13th century: the rise
to power of Chinggis Khaan.
CHINGGIS KHAAN
Known to the world as a conqueror, Mongolians remember Chinggis Khaan as the
great lawgiver and proudly refer to him as the Man of the Millennium (a title be-
stowed on him by the Washington Postin 1995). His laws derived from practical
considerations more than from ideology or religion.
After the abduction of his wife Borte, Chinggis recognised the role of kidnapping
in perpetuating feuds among clans and outlawed it. Similarly, he perceived reli-
gious intolerance as being a source of violence in society, and so decreed religious
freedom for everyone and exempted religious scholars and priests from taxes.
To promote trade and communications, Chinggis built an international network
of postal stations that also served as hostels for merchants. He decreased and
standardised the taxes on goods so that they would not be repeatedly taxed. Under
these laws, the Mongol empire formed the first intercontinental free-trade zone.
