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Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times
Living from 1215 to 1294 Khubilai Khan is one of history's most renowned figures. Here for the first time is an English-language biography of the man. Morris Rossabi draws on sources from a variety of East Asian, Middle Eastern, and European languages as he focuses on the life and times of the great Mongol monarch.
Author Biography: Morris Rossabi is Professor of History at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and Visiting Professor at Columbia University.
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First published January 1, 1988
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March 21, 2021
A book on a Mongol conqueror should have more zap
OK, so maybe Morris Rossabi was right not to speak of this great Khan as "a most excellent barbarian" as if he emerged from some "Sandal and Vandal" Hollywood epic. But, this historical figure lived amidst some of the most colorful, interesting times (not to mention extremely bloody ones). A little more pizzazz could have livened up the biography of an undoubtedly important character in world history. Rossabi's book is competent, it is scholarly, it is well-organized, it is impressively wide-reaching in its use of English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese sources (and the author seems to have some knowledge of Mongol and Tibetan too). Nobody could fault such a book for incompleteness. Certainly I am not qualified to spot any inaccuracies. We learn the antecedents of Khubilai Khan, how he emerged from the welter of contestants for the top job, how he organized the bureaucracy, picked his advisors, dealt with the various religions and their factions, how he conquered the Southern Sung (rulers of 50 million Chinese), how he became a patron of the arts, and how he tried and failed to conquer Burma, Vietnam, and Japan. On finishing the book, I felt sure that I had read most of the available information on Khubilai Khan a major figure in world history. But....I would have liked some wider insights, which I believe Dr. Rossabi could have provided.
Where can we place Khubilai Khan in the long history of struggle between nomad and sedentary farmer in North Asia ? How did he stack up against previous and later rulers ? What were the results of the various policies he followed and were they very different from what the Chinese had done ? And ? Well, I might not be able to come up with many more possible themes like this, but I would have enjoyed being shown a broader picture.
Still, if you need a book on the life of Khubilai Khan which is clearly written and avoids jargon---though, in proper academic style, the author does tend to insert a few too many Mongol and Chinese terms which are useless to non-academic readers---you could do worse than obtain this volume, probably the premier work on the subject in English.
OK, so maybe Morris Rossabi was right not to speak of this great Khan as "a most excellent barbarian" as if he emerged from some "Sandal and Vandal" Hollywood epic. But, this historical figure lived amidst some of the most colorful, interesting times (not to mention extremely bloody ones). A little more pizzazz could have livened up the biography of an undoubtedly important character in world history. Rossabi's book is competent, it is scholarly, it is well-organized, it is impressively wide-reaching in its use of English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese sources (and the author seems to have some knowledge of Mongol and Tibetan too). Nobody could fault such a book for incompleteness. Certainly I am not qualified to spot any inaccuracies. We learn the antecedents of Khubilai Khan, how he emerged from the welter of contestants for the top job, how he organized the bureaucracy, picked his advisors, dealt with the various religions and their factions, how he conquered the Southern Sung (rulers of 50 million Chinese), how he became a patron of the arts, and how he tried and failed to conquer Burma, Vietnam, and Japan. On finishing the book, I felt sure that I had read most of the available information on Khubilai Khan a major figure in world history. But....I would have liked some wider insights, which I believe Dr. Rossabi could have provided.
Where can we place Khubilai Khan in the long history of struggle between nomad and sedentary farmer in North Asia ? How did he stack up against previous and later rulers ? What were the results of the various policies he followed and were they very different from what the Chinese had done ? And ? Well, I might not be able to come up with many more possible themes like this, but I would have enjoyed being shown a broader picture.
Still, if you need a book on the life of Khubilai Khan which is clearly written and avoids jargon---though, in proper academic style, the author does tend to insert a few too many Mongol and Chinese terms which are useless to non-academic readers---you could do worse than obtain this volume, probably the premier work on the subject in English.
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February 9, 2023An exhaustively academic history of the life and times of emperor Kublai Khan, whose long and spectacular reign saw Mongol power reach its zenith, and then begin its precipitous decline. Although relatively brief, this book is packed with interesting information. We learn, for example, about the political contributions of Kublai Khan’s remarkable mother, Sorghagtani Beki, who might well have been history’s original “tiger mom.” (Where is her biography?) Details about the acrimonious dispute between Taoism and Buddhism in medieval China, which Kublai Khan was called upon to adjudicate. Accounts of Kubla Khan's ill-fated invasions of Japan and Southeast Asia that finally undermined the illusion of Mongol invincibility. The deadly succession conflict between Kubla Khan and his brother, Ariq Boke, The savage splendor of Kublai Khan’s famous court at Shangdu, romanticized in the west as “Xanadu.”
The author's pedestrian prose didn't do justice to any of this, but the subject matter was compelling enough to keep me reading—really, I can just never seem to get enough of Mongol history. I don’t think Kubilai Khan: His Life and Times would even crack the top ten best books I’ve read on the Mongols. My three favorites might be: Genghis Khan's Greatest General: Subotai the Valiant by Richard A. Gabriel, Genghis Khan: Life, Death, and Resurrection by John Man, and Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World by Justin Marozzi.
The author's pedestrian prose didn't do justice to any of this, but the subject matter was compelling enough to keep me reading—really, I can just never seem to get enough of Mongol history. I don’t think Kubilai Khan: His Life and Times would even crack the top ten best books I’ve read on the Mongols. My three favorites might be: Genghis Khan's Greatest General: Subotai the Valiant by Richard A. Gabriel, Genghis Khan: Life, Death, and Resurrection by John Man, and Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World by Justin Marozzi.
June 16, 2020
If you need to write a term paper on Khubilai Khan, this is your book. Incredible research, over 90 pages of chapter notes, bibliographies, glossaries, etc. If you want something to put you to sleep, again, this is your book. Easily meets the two toothpick rating level, one each eye to keep them open as you learn about taxation regimes in North China or the crucial conflicts between Taoists, Buddhists, Shintoists, whatever. Deserves many stars for scholarship but I can only give it 2 Stars because I could barely stay awake.
August 15, 2017
Okuduğum en iyi biyografi kitaplarından biriydi. Aslında sadece bir biyografi kitabı demek yanlış olur. Büyük bir tarih okudum. Uzun bir zamanın, bir insan ömrüne sığabilecek bir tarihe göz gezdirmiş oldum.
Kitap oldukça güzel hazırlanmış. Objektif bir gözle işlendiği çok açık. Aynı zamanda olayları geçtiği zamana göre anlatan ve değerlendiren bir algıyı hissetmemek mümkün değil.
İş Bankası Yayınlarının bu serisinin yani dünyaya yön verenler dizisinin iyi bir kitap dizisi olduğunu biliyordum fakat bu kadar iyisini inanın beklemiyordum. Tarihi böylesi özenli, kaliteli ve doğru kaynaklarla okumak en doğrusu ve iyisi.
İyi okumalar.
Kitap oldukça güzel hazırlanmış. Objektif bir gözle işlendiği çok açık. Aynı zamanda olayları geçtiği zamana göre anlatan ve değerlendiren bir algıyı hissetmemek mümkün değil.
İş Bankası Yayınlarının bu serisinin yani dünyaya yön verenler dizisinin iyi bir kitap dizisi olduğunu biliyordum fakat bu kadar iyisini inanın beklemiyordum. Tarihi böylesi özenli, kaliteli ve doğru kaynaklarla okumak en doğrusu ve iyisi.
İyi okumalar.
January 14, 2022
Excellent overview of the life and times of Khubilai Khan, just as the title reads, by one of the foremost authorities on the Mongols and steppe culture. This is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in the life and works of Chinggis Khan's famous grandson. The footnotes provide excellent leads to more focused reading, which led me to some excellent and rare resources I wouldn't otherwise have found. The illustrations were also unique amongst works on steppe life for they included some works of art I haven't seen in other references, for example, manuscripts found in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
This is a book that covers Khublai's life and roles in considerable depth, but I found the chapter on Khublai in his role as a 'cultural patron' (Chapter Six) particularly interesting given that some scholars (for example, Sherman Lee, Chinese Art Under the Mongols: Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368.) have to my mind credited the Chinese with the Yuan Dynasty's great achievements in the arts too much, not recognising the role that Khublai Khan and others played. ("The Mongols' Eurasian commitments, their nomadic origin, their cult of virility and movement--combined with the short period of their domination largely eliminated any possibilities of a direct and significant contribution to Chinese Art.") Perhaps so, but as Rossabi shows, a good number of significant advances were made during the Yuan, many encouraged by Khublai's desire "to be accepted as the Chinese Son of Heaven" rather than a "crude, unsophisticated barbarian" (p. 153). His point is that "It would be erroneous to suggest that Khubilai himself or his people made a major direct contribution to China's arts and crafts. Yet their patronage of the arts is undeniable." (p. 171)
The Mongols' role in promoting trade enormously helped develop China's foreign export market and fill the dynasty's Treasury. As early as 1295, the first comprehensive inventory of papal treasures in Rome lists a large inventory of the famous panni tartarici or heavily brocaded cloth that originated in Mongol territory, which became a highly desirable prestige import item amongst Europe's aristocracy. Even before the S. Song had fallen, the Mongols reopened the famous ceramic centre of Jingdezhen (which had been closed due to the wars), and promoted the export of its wares through the ports of SE China as a means of bringing foreign revenue into China. The new mass-market trade ceramics produced during the Yuan (Longquan, B&W platters, iron-spotted Qingbai...) became highly desired goods in Southeast Asian and West Asian markets as museum collections in these countries can attest to.
All too often histories of the Yuan focus on its early formative years with an emphasis on mounds of skulls (fair enough), so it is very refreshing to read of the later advances the Mongols helped foster in the arts and sciences, travel and trade as Rossabi so ably introduces.
This is a book that covers Khublai's life and roles in considerable depth, but I found the chapter on Khublai in his role as a 'cultural patron' (Chapter Six) particularly interesting given that some scholars (for example, Sherman Lee, Chinese Art Under the Mongols: Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368.) have to my mind credited the Chinese with the Yuan Dynasty's great achievements in the arts too much, not recognising the role that Khublai Khan and others played. ("The Mongols' Eurasian commitments, their nomadic origin, their cult of virility and movement--combined with the short period of their domination largely eliminated any possibilities of a direct and significant contribution to Chinese Art.") Perhaps so, but as Rossabi shows, a good number of significant advances were made during the Yuan, many encouraged by Khublai's desire "to be accepted as the Chinese Son of Heaven" rather than a "crude, unsophisticated barbarian" (p. 153). His point is that "It would be erroneous to suggest that Khubilai himself or his people made a major direct contribution to China's arts and crafts. Yet their patronage of the arts is undeniable." (p. 171)
The Mongols' role in promoting trade enormously helped develop China's foreign export market and fill the dynasty's Treasury. As early as 1295, the first comprehensive inventory of papal treasures in Rome lists a large inventory of the famous panni tartarici or heavily brocaded cloth that originated in Mongol territory, which became a highly desirable prestige import item amongst Europe's aristocracy. Even before the S. Song had fallen, the Mongols reopened the famous ceramic centre of Jingdezhen (which had been closed due to the wars), and promoted the export of its wares through the ports of SE China as a means of bringing foreign revenue into China. The new mass-market trade ceramics produced during the Yuan (Longquan, B&W platters, iron-spotted Qingbai...) became highly desired goods in Southeast Asian and West Asian markets as museum collections in these countries can attest to.
All too often histories of the Yuan focus on its early formative years with an emphasis on mounds of skulls (fair enough), so it is very refreshing to read of the later advances the Mongols helped foster in the arts and sciences, travel and trade as Rossabi so ably introduces.
July 3, 2019
Yalnızca Asya tarihinin değil, Dünya tarihinin de en büyük kişiliklerinden biri olan ve kendi zamanına kadar görülmüş en geniş ve en kalabalık imparatorluğunda, -Moğol egemenliğinde- ilk kez bir düşü gerçekleştirerek evrensel bir hükümdar olma yolunda ilerleyen Kubilay Han hakkında; Asya ve Avrupalı seyyahlar, yazarlar, din adamları, devlet adamları ve tarihçiler tarafından yazılan başarı ve başarısızlık hikayeleri ile yergiler ve övgüler, farklı kaynaklardan derlenmiş ve tarafsız bir görünüm içerisinde, güzel bir biyografiye dönüştürülmüş.
Yeni tanıştığım Kubilay Han’ın (belki de ölümüne kadar hükmünün her dakikasında kendisini bırakmayan meşruiyet kabusu nedeniyle), sınırlara, dinlere, insan haklarına, ırklara, yönetim biçimlerine ve sanatın tüm dallarına ve eğitime bakışından etkilenmemek mümkün değil.
1267 yılında Kubilay Hanı’ın, yönetimde huzur sağlamak amacıyla, devlet yöneticileriyle dini önderler arasındaki ilişkileri düzenlemek için, din ve devlet kurumlarının yetki alanlarını ayırması dikkat çekici.
“... Bu ayrımı şu yöntemle yapmaya çalışıyordu:
Dünyevi ve ruhani kurtuluş... bütün insanların ulaşmaya çalıştığı bir şeydir. Ruhani kurtuluş, sıkıntılardan bütünüyle ayrılmaktır, dünyevi kurtuluş ise gündelik rahatlıktır. İkisi de çiftli düzene dayanır, bu düzen de din ile devlet işleridir. Dini düzeni lama, devlet düzenini de hükümdar sağlar. Rahibin din öğretmesi, hükümdarın da herkesin barış içinde yaşayabileceği bir düzen sağlaması gerekir. Din ve devlet başkanları eşittir ama işlevleri farklıdır....”, sf; 141.
Yeni tanıştığım Kubilay Han’ın (belki de ölümüne kadar hükmünün her dakikasında kendisini bırakmayan meşruiyet kabusu nedeniyle), sınırlara, dinlere, insan haklarına, ırklara, yönetim biçimlerine ve sanatın tüm dallarına ve eğitime bakışından etkilenmemek mümkün değil.
1267 yılında Kubilay Hanı’ın, yönetimde huzur sağlamak amacıyla, devlet yöneticileriyle dini önderler arasındaki ilişkileri düzenlemek için, din ve devlet kurumlarının yetki alanlarını ayırması dikkat çekici.
“... Bu ayrımı şu yöntemle yapmaya çalışıyordu:
Dünyevi ve ruhani kurtuluş... bütün insanların ulaşmaya çalıştığı bir şeydir. Ruhani kurtuluş, sıkıntılardan bütünüyle ayrılmaktır, dünyevi kurtuluş ise gündelik rahatlıktır. İkisi de çiftli düzene dayanır, bu düzen de din ile devlet işleridir. Dini düzeni lama, devlet düzenini de hükümdar sağlar. Rahibin din öğretmesi, hükümdarın da herkesin barış içinde yaşayabileceği bir düzen sağlaması gerekir. Din ve devlet başkanları eşittir ama işlevleri farklıdır....”, sf; 141.
May 29, 2020
This is an essential book for understanding the founder of China's Yuan Dynasty. Morris Rossabi makes a careful analysis of Khubilai's rise to power and his need to balance Mongol and Chinese traditions. The most valuable aspect of this book for me was Rossabi's ability to look at both sides of the equation - providing, as an example, both the Confucian and the Muslim perspective on figures like finance minister Ahmad, who was denounced by Chinese sources for cronyism and various evils, but was praised in Persian accounts for promoting Chinese trade with the Muslim world. Rossabi also presents the grandson of Chinggis/Genghis Khan as not just a conqueror, but also as a cultural patron and an emperor able to make Christians, Buddhists, Daoists, Confucians and Muslims all think he had their support. Finally, Rossabi takes pains to see the women in Khubilai's world, and offers interesting portraits of Chabi the Empress and Khutulun the Mongol noblewoman warrior, among others.
February 5, 2018
3.5/5
Leider etwas unstrukturiert, aber durchaus gut gemacht. Zwar erwähnt er immer wieder, auf welche Quellen er sich stützt, doch selbst reflektieren tut Rossabi nur selten.
V.a. der Diskurs im Seminar, in dem wir das Buch dieses Semester gelesen haben, war bereichernd.
Leider etwas unstrukturiert, aber durchaus gut gemacht. Zwar erwähnt er immer wieder, auf welche Quellen er sich stützt, doch selbst reflektieren tut Rossabi nur selten.
V.a. der Diskurs im Seminar, in dem wir das Buch dieses Semester gelesen haben, war bereichernd.
February 9, 2018
I found this book to be a remarkably evenhanded book and one that gave a fair amount of credit for Khubilai's early success to the people he had around him, whether that included his wife or some good advisers, and as I tend to like books that present a nuanced view of important historical personages, this book definitely fits the bill nicely. If you have an interest in Mongol history [1] and enjoy reading moderate length biographies, this book will likely please you as much as it pleased me to read. I also found this book relevant for an unexpected reason, and not only as an antidote to books that seek to libel the book's subject, but also for the fact that the author spends a good deal of time mentioning repeatedly the fact that Khubilai Khan struggled with gout for a substantial period of his life and did not handle it in the best way. As someone who knows my way around a gouty foot myself, I found that discussion to add some surprising poignancy to the life of someone I must say that I have not read about at length and in detail before, despite being generally familiar with the Mongol's rise to power.
In terms of its contents, this book is a bit more than 200 pages and is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter of the book looks at the context of the early Mongols and their rise from nomadic obscurity to a position of power over a large stretch of Eurasia. After this the author looks at the rise of Khubilai among the descendants of Genghis Khan thanks to the sound diplomacy of his mother and the exploitation of divides within the family of the Great Khans. The third chapter examines the disputed election of Khubilai to the position of Great Khan and the growing freedom and rivalries of other parts of the family, which had divided the large Mongol Empire into smaller Khanates. Then the author looks at the conquest of China by the Mongols and how it was interrupted by internecine warfare. The author's period as Emperor of China and his efforts to play different advisers off of each other follows. Then the author looks at Khubilai's work as a cultural patron in areas like poetry, drama, art, and architecture, all of which had some notable influence thanks to Mongol support as well as international trade. The last two chapters, sadly, detail the decline of Khubilai and Mongol rule over China, including growing fiscal mismanagement, a dispute between incompatible goals of ruling gently over the Chinese and exploiting the wealth of China for failed invasions of Japan, Vietnam, Burma, and Java, before the book closes with a melancholy look at the succession after Khubilai.
This book excels at a few tasks, including a bit of historical investigation into the origins of some of the notable figures in Khubilai's reign as a Chinese ruler. Whether it is reflecting into the divisions within the Chinese religious community or the ruling families of the Mongols or even the Chinese intellectuals of the time, this book does a good job at pondering the way that the fate of large empires sometimes depends on matters like the health of an emperor, the susceptibility of his relatives to poisoning and alcohol abuse, and the way that it is sometimes impossible to govern well given the constraints that one is under. If this book is certainly a melancholy one, there is a lot to appreciate about it and the way that it shines a light on an area that has been neglected by a wide variety of contemporary historians because they have either not taken the writings of Marco Polo and others seriously enough or because they have taken Chinese mandarins hostile to the achievements of Mongols at face value and not examined the larger historical record to see the facts for themselves. That this book does so is certainly worthy of notice and praise.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2010...
In terms of its contents, this book is a bit more than 200 pages and is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter of the book looks at the context of the early Mongols and their rise from nomadic obscurity to a position of power over a large stretch of Eurasia. After this the author looks at the rise of Khubilai among the descendants of Genghis Khan thanks to the sound diplomacy of his mother and the exploitation of divides within the family of the Great Khans. The third chapter examines the disputed election of Khubilai to the position of Great Khan and the growing freedom and rivalries of other parts of the family, which had divided the large Mongol Empire into smaller Khanates. Then the author looks at the conquest of China by the Mongols and how it was interrupted by internecine warfare. The author's period as Emperor of China and his efforts to play different advisers off of each other follows. Then the author looks at Khubilai's work as a cultural patron in areas like poetry, drama, art, and architecture, all of which had some notable influence thanks to Mongol support as well as international trade. The last two chapters, sadly, detail the decline of Khubilai and Mongol rule over China, including growing fiscal mismanagement, a dispute between incompatible goals of ruling gently over the Chinese and exploiting the wealth of China for failed invasions of Japan, Vietnam, Burma, and Java, before the book closes with a melancholy look at the succession after Khubilai.
This book excels at a few tasks, including a bit of historical investigation into the origins of some of the notable figures in Khubilai's reign as a Chinese ruler. Whether it is reflecting into the divisions within the Chinese religious community or the ruling families of the Mongols or even the Chinese intellectuals of the time, this book does a good job at pondering the way that the fate of large empires sometimes depends on matters like the health of an emperor, the susceptibility of his relatives to poisoning and alcohol abuse, and the way that it is sometimes impossible to govern well given the constraints that one is under. If this book is certainly a melancholy one, there is a lot to appreciate about it and the way that it shines a light on an area that has been neglected by a wide variety of contemporary historians because they have either not taken the writings of Marco Polo and others seriously enough or because they have taken Chinese mandarins hostile to the achievements of Mongols at face value and not examined the larger historical record to see the facts for themselves. That this book does so is certainly worthy of notice and praise.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2010...
August 8, 2017
This must be the definitive work on the famous Mongol emperor, visited by Marco Polo. It is very scholarly yet easy to read, although it turned out to contain more than I wanted to know. The early chapters about the rise of the Mongol empire, setting the stage for Khubilai, were very interesting as was the detail about succession of leaders. It turns out the Mongols could be violent -- who knew? Although they are considered barbarians, the Mongol states were surprisingly tolerant of various religious (Genghis's moom was a Christian) and they fostered a good deal of learning. Khubilai brought Moslem astronomers to the Chinese court and build fabulous astronomical facilities. Khubilai was successive in overrunning the South Sung Dynasty, but he suffered a big defeat at the hands of the Japanese, with a helping hand from some typhoons. I found the details of his administration of China to be a bit boring so I skipped a lot of that.
May 11, 2011
Morris Rossabi is one of the best scholars of Asian and Mongolian history writing today. If you ever liked Coleridge or wondered what Marco Polo's life was really like, you'll both enjoy and learn a lot from this biography.
July 6, 2024
Great overview of his life. I can't image how much research went into creating this book. I must admit I was hoping for more colorful stories of his campaigns, his intelligence, and his personal life. But I'm glad I took to time to read such a well balanced account of his life torn between trying to remain a true Mongol and attempting to bring multiple other religions and cultures under his hegemony. I think it's a tragic story. I feel like he could have been the greatest conqueror in history, but he was forced into trying to be the greatest ruler of the empire his grandfather created which seems to have been an impossible task.
October 10, 2021
This was a rather quick overview of the life of Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis and the founder of China’s Yuan Dynasty. This was a surprising read as there many aspects of life in his court I’d only mostly read about in Marco Polo’s ‘Travels’ which I personally found boring and repetitive and so didn’t take too seriously when it came to the description of life in Yuan China. While this does reference some of Polo’s work, it also did well to look into Khan’s life and the operations of the Yuan court as well as how it blended in with the Mongol culture
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 13, 2021
An interesting book that challenges the traditional Chinese view of Kublai Khan as a Sinicized, Confucian Mongol.
August 26, 2022
could write more about his life and times. Had a hard time understanding those officials' names.
September 4, 2024
Deeply researched and well-written, this is the history of the Mongols in China.
May 29, 2015
An interesting and enduring historical character. I had to read and write a paper on him for my themes in world history class (medieval politics) I took in college and to my surprise he was one of my favorite historical figures we studied in this class. Khubilai khan was the product of a geopolitical estuary, an estuary as you may be well aware is where the salt water of the ocean meets the fresh water of the river and this weird mix of the hybrid environment occurs. The same can be said about kublai khan and how the two different worlds, the nomadic people and the settled chinese people (fresh water and salt water) often rubbed up against one another like sandpaper and over time evolved and smoothed out a creation known as khubilai khan.
October 1, 2009
Excellent book. Shows a Chinese saying, "It doesn't matter where the Chinese ruler comes from, he will always become Chinese.", unfold in a ruler's life. Excellent story telling of a historical figure.
April 4, 2013
Rossabi is one of the best modern scholars of Mongolian and Chinese history, and with this book, he provides a comprehensive and well-research biography of Kublai Khan. An enjoyable read, Rossabi draws on numerous Western, Chinese and Central Asian sources to create a very readable biography.
September 5, 2009
An amazing travel log.
January 6, 2019
It turned out to contain more than I wanted to know. If anyone has an interest in Mongol history and enjoy reading lengthy biographies, this book will likely please you as much as it pleased me to read. In terms of its contents, this book is a bit more than 200 pages and is divided into eight chapters.
As Nathan Albright indicates in his review, I totally agree with the below:
This book excels at a few tasks, including a bit of historical investigation into the origins of some of the notable figures in Khubilai's reign as a Chinese ruler. Whether it is reflecting into the divisions within the Chinese religious community or the ruling families of the Mongols or even the Chinese intellectuals of the time, this book does a good job at pondering the way that the fate of large empires sometimes depends on matters like the health of an emperor, the susceptibility of his relatives to poisoning and alcohol abuse, and the way that it is sometimes impossible to govern well given the constraints that one is under. If this book is certainly a melancholy one, there is a lot to appreciate about it and the way that it shines a light on an area that has been neglected by a wide variety of contemporary historians because they have either not taken the writings of Marco Polo and others seriously enough or because they have taken Chinese mandarins hostile to the achievements of Mongols at face value and not examined the larger historical record to see the facts for themselves.
That this book does so is certainly worthy of notice and praise.
As Nathan Albright indicates in his review, I totally agree with the below:
This book excels at a few tasks, including a bit of historical investigation into the origins of some of the notable figures in Khubilai's reign as a Chinese ruler. Whether it is reflecting into the divisions within the Chinese religious community or the ruling families of the Mongols or even the Chinese intellectuals of the time, this book does a good job at pondering the way that the fate of large empires sometimes depends on matters like the health of an emperor, the susceptibility of his relatives to poisoning and alcohol abuse, and the way that it is sometimes impossible to govern well given the constraints that one is under. If this book is certainly a melancholy one, there is a lot to appreciate about it and the way that it shines a light on an area that has been neglected by a wide variety of contemporary historians because they have either not taken the writings of Marco Polo and others seriously enough or because they have taken Chinese mandarins hostile to the achievements of Mongols at face value and not examined the larger historical record to see the facts for themselves.
That this book does so is certainly worthy of notice and praise.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews