世界历史上的蒙古征服

by Timothy May, 梅天穆, 马晓林 (Translator)

本书是近年来蒙古帝国史研究领域中的重量级新作，作者在世界史与全球史的视野下，重点描绘了由成吉思汗推动的欧亚文化交流，以及蒙古各汗国陆续崩解后，一个新的欧亚世界 的产生过程。在蒙古统治者的强制推动下，东西方之间开始了互相交流的过程，在“蒙古治世”之下孕育出了崭新的欧亚文化，从而在一定程度上使蒙古过去被视为毁灭文明世界的蛮族形象得到了修正。

Genres: History, Asia, Nonfiction, World History, Medieval History

377 pages, Hardcover

First published December 15, 2011

About the author

(Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is Professor of Central
Eurasian History at the University of North Georgia and serves as Associate Dean
of Arts & Letters. A scholar of the Mongol Empire, he focuses on Mongol military
history and strategy. He is the author of The Mongol Art of War (2007), The Mongol
Conquests in World History (2012), The Mongol Empire (2018), The Mongols
(2019), and Simply Chinggis (2021). In 2014, he was named the University of North
Georgia Alumni Distinguished Professor, and he earned the UNG Distinguished
Teaching Award in 2021.

Reviews

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

In short: five stars for information quality, four for readability (with a general audience in mind).

This book does two important things: it corrects a few ideas that you are still likely to meet in other coverage; and it looks at the Mongols from a world history perspective (the two are probably interconnected).

Timothy May teaches World History, and he says the advent of this subject has been a leap forward for Mongol studies. It makes sense, of course: I imagine that you can either look at them from a Mongolian viewpoint, or from this one of world history, and these are your only chances to see them accurately. Scholars primarily invested in the Chinese or the Iranian worlds won’t see the Mongols as a whole, or in their own terms; while I myself find David Morgan’s standard text The Mongols indescribably European in viewpoint. “The Mongols brought military innovation, international commerce, the spread of world religions and the diffusion of technology and ideas together in one crucible – the Mongol conquests. After the dust had settled, the world had irrefutably changed…” – but to see and assess this, you need to look and think in World History terms. (Another author on the steppe with interesting ideas, David Christian, is into Big History… that’s even bigger…)

The only drawback I see with this book is in its first part, a historical run-through of the Mongols in a hundred pages: the speed, perhaps, makes this inevitably too much like names-and-dates. On the other hand, he does see events consecutively, and so, for instance, one of the corrections I mentioned: “This certainly should not be misconstrued as a view that Chinggis Khan planned the entire thing. Indeed, I am not convinced that Chinggis Khan even wanted an empire, but rather that he would have been quite content ruling Mongolia.” The importance of this is seen in part two, on the Chinggis Exchange.

The Chinggis Exchange is a term he’s made up as “a bit more pithy than ‘The Mongol impact on world history,’” and after the coinage ‘the Columbian Exchange’. I think it’s catchy; let’s help put it into circulation. The chapters in here are self-explanatory: Pax Mongolica and Trade; New Forms of Warfare; The Mongol Administration; Religion and the Mongol Empire; The Mongols and the Plague; Migrations and Demographic Trends; Cultural Exchanges. A couple of notes. To follow on from my thought above: because Timothy May accepts that Chinggis Khan did not intend to go to war with Khwarazm until his trade caravan was attacked, he can take the trade policies of the early Mongols more seriously, and examine them. To my mind, he also takes their religious policies more seriously; it may be just me, but I think there’s a new wave of dismissal of their ‘religious tolerance’, as merely indiscriminate, a sign of their primitive religiosity, where the khans just wanted everybody to pray for them. May is not thus condescending, and that means you get more information out of him.

On the Chinggis Exchange. This is a time when art history has been telling us more about the Mongols than other sorts of history (The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353)… which indicates the importance of cultural exchanges. Timothy May himself calls Thomas T. Allsen “arguably the greatest scholar of the Mongol Empire” for his more “integrated perspective” and work on cross-cultural transmission: Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia, Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles. It’s not just art, or science, or cloth of gold: it’s changed our understanding of the Mongols, and the old political/military history won’t do. Thomas Allsen was the one to introduce the idea that the Mongols weren’t simply dumb facilitators of exchange, but were influential in that they had their own (cultural) predilections and as the patrons, chose what to exchange; and at times they had to clap the scientific heads of Persia and China together, who weren’t much interested in each other’s schools.

Timothy May’s Chinggis Exchange is the place to find overviews of these topics, in the light of the research going on. Since at present we don’t have an up-to-date standard history, while popular accounts of uncertain value proliferate, this book may be your best bet.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

May covers the basic history (convoluted though it is) of the Mongols and the Mongol Empire. The second half of the book is more about how they fit into world history as a whole from the plague to religion.

[Eressea · Rating 5 out of 5]

從記錄上來看，本書2019年就買了
放了六年才看，我做出版業慈善家的資歷也是夠深了XD

本書內容很符合我退化的注意力
將蒙古人在世界史上的意義分成十大主題
每個主題都相對獨立，很適合分段閱讀
不需要去努力記憶前後文的關聯
但全書又給人一個明確的印象
告訴讀者蒙古人建立了舊大陸首個超大地域的統一國度
為各種知識器物制度交流帶來很多方便
也為後世帶來巨大的影響

又因為自己喜歡這類型的題材
所以在看本書的過程中，好像能夠想起一些以前看的書
(譬如本書常常提到的愛爾森，就看過他的兩本著作)
但蒙古人主題過往看得不多
所以一邊覺得題材熟悉，一邊又覺得學到很多新知
可謂一種讀書的舒適圈
這都是以前很閒記性又好的時候慢慢累積下來的
現在想要在新領域複製一樣的過程，卻往往力不從心Orz

[Robert Jeens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This workmanlike book does the job it advertises, but with little flair or fanfare. What it does is explore the legacy of the Mongol Empire on the areas it conquered and beyond. The author labels this period “The Chinggis Exchange” for the extraordinary diffusion of commerce, technology, ideas and people that were involved, literally kick-starting the modern world. At no other period in world history besides the last 200 years has Eurasia been so interconnected, and so the Mongol Empire marks a huge dividing line in history, which remade the map with the stamp of their influence. The Mongol Conquests are world history.
The book is divided into two parts. The first briefly charts the rise and fall of the Empire from the late 12th Century and ends with a description of how Eurasia stood in 1350 as a result of this flowering. The second is thematic in nature, and looks at how the largest empire in history led to developments in areas such as trade, religion, warfare, administration, demography, and technology.
The main points of the first part of the book are these. Chinggis Khan came of age and to power in the Mongolian steppe lands, and rose from being the son of a minor, murdered leader to becoming the ultimate authority of middle Eurasia. He did this by appealing to the common warrior and organized his army to break down old tribal barriers and cultivate a new, unified identity. He had no plan to conquer the world, but rather fought a series of ever-expanding defensive wars with the object of protecting newly-conquered territory. Chinggis’ son, Ogedai, however, did set out to conquer the world. The author posits that Ogedai founded a religion known as Tenggerism, with the idea that there is only one khan and only one god and god intended that the khan rule the whole world in his name. This looked plausible at the time. Under Ogedai’s son, Mongke, the empire reached its greatest extent, and probably had about 1 million soldiers under arms. And then it split up, divided up through warfare among Ghengis’ grandsons. There were originally four divisions, but eventually some of these split up further. There is much more detail than that.
The first part is all names and dates and hard to follow, but I suppose it would be the same for a Chinese person who was trying to read a history of the American Civil War. Actually, it is probably worse, because it is about 300 years of history over the largest part of Eurasia. Also, May is not the most engaging author – fact, fact, fact, fact, here’s another fact, therefore… He mentions "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by the anthropologist Jack Weatherford and the comparison is a good one. That is the only other book about the Mongols that I have read. Weatherford was not as good a historian but a much more effective writer.
The second part is much better. To very briefly summarize, the Mongols encouraged trade, set up a postal system, and increased and improved stopovers for merchant caravans along the Silk Road, which was actually a series of trails. He documents the spread of Mongol fighting methods, featuring horse archers with composite bows in swift, choreographed movements.. Siege engines were improved and gunpowder was introduced from China to Europe and the Middle East. There is a discussion of Mongol theories of politics and methods of administration, and how these had a lasting impact on the areas they conquered. In the area of religion, the Mongols were generally tolerant but mostly kept to their own until the breakup of the Empire, and then those in the West mostly turned to Islam and those in the East mostly to Buddhism. There was a great intermixing of people throughout the empire: slaves, merchants, refugees, artisans, entertainers and warriors. Old groups on the steppe were integrated into new military units and new groups formed. China was unified. The East became more Turkish and Persian as the empire broke up. There were slaves with Asian faces in Italy and slaves with blonde hair in Mongolia. Add all that to the plague that broke out and caused massive depopulation and disruption.
The book is informative and reliable. It is the product of a professional historian who knows his sources and what the arguments in different areas are about. I just wish he was a little less dry. Three important facts on the impact the Mongols had on the world. Gutenberg built his printing press more than 200 years after the Koreans had first invented a movable metal type printing press. Middle Asian astronomers first conceived of a heliocentric universe in a Mongol-sponsored astronomical observatory, hundreds of years before Copernicus. And Christopher Columbus set off to find the Great Khan in 1492. Flair or not, it is a fair read.

[Tsai Wei-chieh · Rating 4 out of 5]

之前應H-War的邀稿，在寫這本書的書評。下面是書評全文。我自己覺得這本書寫得不錯，算是世界史風行以來，新近的研究中寫得最完整的一本。跟Rossabi之前出版的世界史教材The Mongols and Global History: A Norton Documents Reader相比，這本書更像是一本專著。雖然內容有些小瑕疵，例如把Erdene Zuu的興建者喀爾喀的阿巴泰汗誤植為土默特的阿勒坦汗，但是瑕不掩瑜。第三章「1350年的世界：一個全球的世界」，是我目前讀過用最短的篇幅而能恰當總結蒙古帝國崩潰後的歐亞世界概況，特別是內亞部分。由於作者本身研究蒙古軍事史，所以第五章有關軍事的部分寫得也很不錯，特別是蒙古的戰術對現代戰略思想的影響。推薦給有興趣的朋友。:-)

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Link: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev....

Timothy May. The Mongol Conquests in World History. London: Reaktion Books, 2011. 304 pp. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-86189-867-8.

Reviewed by Wei-chieh Tsai (Indiana University)
Published on H-War (September, 2012)
Commissioned by Margaret Sankey

Reevaluating the Heritage of the Mongol Conquests

The Mongol conquests shook Eurasia and were of significant influence in world history. Since the 1970s, a great number of articles and books have been written or edited evaluating or re-examining its heritage. Among those works, J. J. Saunders’ The History of the Mongol Conquests (1971) and David Morgan’s The Mongols (first published in 1986 and second edition in 2007) are of great use for students and experts of Mongol history. In the past two decades, Thomas T. Allsen has made an immense contribution on this topic. His books Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles (1997) and Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia (2001) expand our vision about the cultural exchange in Eurasia. As new archaeological evidences are found, we can better understand the technological and material exchange between East Asia and the Middle East. Many papers about these topics have been edited into books, such as The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353 (edited by Linda Komaroff and Stefano Carboni, 2002) and Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan (edited by Linda Komaroff, 2006). By dint of those works, May’s new book The Mongol Conquests in World History digests those modern findings and shows us the latest development in this field. [1]

Opening with a concise introduction of sources and theoretical concerns, May’s book is divided into two parts: “The Mongol Conquests as Catalyst” and “The Chinggis Exchange.” May considers the Mongol conquests to have changed the political map of Eurasia and offered a platform for the Chinggis Exchange, a term which was coined by its initiator, Chinggis Khan. The first part has three chapters and respectively deals with the formation, dissolution, and aftermath of the Mongol empire. Since May is an expert of Mongol military history, he offers his readers a fairly clear account of Mongol conquests in Eurasia. The third chapter is a succinct overview of the Eurasian regimes in the post-Mongol era.

The second part includes seven chapters, each discussing a different dimension of the Chinggis Exchange: trade, warfare (and technology), administration, religion, germ (bubonic plague), human (migration), and culture. In the trade chapter, May mentions how Chinese paper money influenced the monetary reform in the Middle East (pp. 128-129). He also points out that the Mongol capitals Karakorum and New Saray rose and fell with the development of the Mongol empire since the Mongols deliberately arranged the post-road routes for merchants (p. 119, 126). The warfare chapter is based on May’s first book and is an admirable account about Mongol military and its modern influence. He is also cautious in pointing out that at that time the gunpowder might not have been applied outside of China since we have no archaeological evidences and philology is not enough to support this theory (p. 152). [2] In the administration chapter, May demonstrates that the Mongol governance was coherent inside of the empire by means of taxation, and the pervasive census facilitated the implement of taxation. The Mongols left their successors a new model for administrating their territories. As for religion, the Mongols were known for being tolerant of world religions, but they did not convert to any of them until the dissolution of their empire. In May’s opinion, the main reason is that the Mongols believed they obtained a mandate from heaven to conquer the world, and to adopt another religion meant losing their identity. Even though the Mongols converted to Buddhism and Islam, they actually adopted the syncretic form of those religions which was more flexible to foreign elements. Therefore the Mongols would not need to convert at the expense of changing their identity (p. 197). In the migration chapter, May argues that the Pax Mongolica not only facilitated migration, but also contributed to the establishment of Turkic states in Eurasia. In the final chapter, May probes some cultural exchanges which have been undervalued, like food and apparel.

Although May has done a good job evaluating roles of different peoples under the Mongol rule, the part concerning the importance of the Uighurs could still be elaborated. It is correct that Xi Xia was the first sedentary power that the Mongols invaded (p. 38). But we need to notice that the first sedentary power that joined the Mongol camp was the Uighurs. The Uighurs’ obligations to the Mongols became a model for later states that were incorporated into the Mongol empire. For instance, the subordinate ruler had to pay homage to the Mongol khan in person, he had to send his relatives as hostages, and his territory was subject to Mongol taxation, military recruitment, and post-road system. As for Uighur cultural influence on the Mongols, Chinggis Khan ordered to adopt the Uighur script for writing Mongolian. Tata Tong’a, the creator of Mongolian writing, is Uighur. Uighur script and scribes were popular for the Mongol administration. Chinqai (?-1252), chief minister of Ögedei and Güyüg Khan, was also Uighur. The Mongol conquests also made the Uighur culture spread across Eurasia. [3]

As for the transformation of the Mongol identity, May mentions the Khamag Mongol Ulus, a common identity created by Chinggis Khan for replacing the old ethnic identities, such as the Kereits and the Naimans (pp. 36-37). May uses this term as a proper noun and for him it seems that there existed a Khamag Mongol Ulus in the pre-Chinggis era. Therefore, Khamag Mongol Ulus served as the archetype of the Yeke Monggol Ulus (p. 213). Although some Soviet and Mongol scholars had the same assumption, Igor de Rachewiltz demonstrated that this might not be an acceptable reading and the khamag Mongol ulus simply means all the Mongols, not a proper noun or an appellation for the pre-Chinggis Mongol state. [4]

Some minor mistakes in the editing were found in the book. Zhao Gong 趙珙, the author of Mengda beilu (Record of the Mongols and Tatars), is erroneously transcribed into Zhao Hong (p. 17). Zhongxing 中興, the capital of Xi Xia, was wrongly transcribed into Zhongxiang (p. 39, 45). The famous Mongol Buddhist monastery Erdene Zuu was not sponsored by Altan Khan of Tümed, but Abatai Khan of Khalkha (p. 116).

May’s book reveals to us that during the Chinggis Exchange of the medieval world the Mongols played an active role. Before the rise of the Mongols, the Islamic Middle East and the Confucian East Asia were not interested in international exchange. Without the Mongols, the major Eurasian civilizations might not have been forced to start large-scale interactions and exchanges since they were all highly self-conceited and looked down on other civilizations. As the subject of world history becomes more and more popular, May’s work is an admirable contribution in this field and a necessary guide for teaching and research today.

Note

[1]. Although Rossabi published two books about the Mongols recently and also touches this topic, one is more like a textbook or reader for students and the other is a booklet for introducing the Mongols to the public. The main audience of both books is not academic researchers. See Morris Rossabi, _The Mongols and Global History: A Norton Documents Reader_ (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011) and _The Mongols: A Very Short Introduction_ (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).

[2]. See Timothy May, _The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System_ (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2007).

[3]. For the Uighurs under Mongol rule, see Thomas T. Allsen, “The Yüan Dynasty and the Uighurs of Turfan in the 13th Century,” in _China among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th-14th Centuries_, ed. Morris Rossabi (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983), 261-269.

[4]. Igor de Rachewiltz, trans., _The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century_, 2nd impr. with corr. (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 296.

[AskHistorians]

Another excellent introductory text, more detailed than Morgan. Also provides the best clarification of the unholy mess that is terminology in early Mongol government. If that makes it seem dry let me assure you the book isn't, it very readable and very well informed.

[Tsai Wei-chieh · Rating 4 out of 5]

按：內文已經過修訂。原註已略去，請參閱本書內文。全文參見 https://www.academia.edu/36282444/0039

如果要票選在世界史上影響最大以及最具爭議性的帝王，我想成吉思汗應該有機會排入前三名。過去成吉思汗與他一手建立的蒙古帝國在歷史上的評價一直相當兩極，即便在其故鄉蒙古亦然。在伊斯蘭世界中，成吉思汗被認為是上帝之鞭，而且殘殺了許多穆斯林，而後來其孫旭烈兀更終結了阿拔斯王朝的哈里發統治，自此伊斯蘭世界失去了共主；但是蒙古帝國的征服與伊斯蘭化也有助於伊斯蘭教的廣為傳播。在俄羅斯世界中，蒙古統治所造成的「韃靼桎梏」（Tatar Yoke）被視為是俄羅斯發展落後於西歐的主因，但是在蒙古庇護莫斯科大公國作為收稅與統治的代表下，也創造了後者日後崛起的條件。在中國，元朝的統治過去被認為是中國歷史上的逆流，漢文化與儒家思想受到打壓，科舉制度一度停擺；但是蒙古人打破超過百年的中國南北分裂態勢，使漢地重新得到一統，也奠立了後來大中國的領土規模。在蒙古國，原先在社會主義時期（一九二四～一九九二年），成吉思汗被認為是壓迫蒙古人民的封建領主，不能公開崇拜。直到一九九二年民主化之後這種情況才逐漸好轉。

近年來在引介成吉思汗與蒙古帝國的歷史給大眾的通俗非虛構作品中，傑克‧魏澤福的著作應該是最受歡迎的作品之一。其首部與蒙古相關的作品《成吉思汗：近代世界的創造者》英文版於二○○四年出版。 在這部作品中，作者主張蒙古帝國所揭櫫的原則，諸如通行紙鈔、國家位階高於教會、宗教自由、外交豁免、國際法等，對於後來歐洲社會啟發甚大。而印刷術、火藥與指南針等三大科技在蒙古帝國時期東傳至西方，也促成了文學、戰爭與航海等方面的進步。可以說，成吉思汗所創建的蒙古帝國是近代世界的先聲。該書出版後一時洛陽紙貴，榮登紐約時報暢銷書排行榜長達數週。作者也因此獲頒蒙古國的北極星勳章，以表彰其推廣蒙古文化與歷史的貢獻。其第二本書《成吉思汗的女兒們》則探討女性在蒙古帝國建立的過程中被忽略的貢獻，例如成吉思汗的女兒們被作為政治聯姻的工具，穩定了蒙古帝國與周邊同盟國間的關係；成吉思汗過世後，其兒媳脫列哥那與孫媳斡兀立‧海迷失攝政所造成的混亂，還有其兒媳唆魯禾帖尼讓拖雷系的後裔能夠掌握大權的經過；最後是賢者滿都海可敦輔佐年幼的丈夫把禿猛可重振黃金氏族在蒙古的統治。 該書也堪稱是英語學界關於該主題的第一部綜合性專著，其重要性不可磨滅。而前揭二書的正體中文版也由黃中憲翻譯，並由時報出版社發行。二○一六年，魏澤福推出了他的第三部相關作品《征服者與眾神：成吉思汗如何為蒙古帝國開創盛世》英文版。如今正體中文版也由原班人馬擔綱出版，我個人也很期待本書中文版的面世。

在本書《征服者與眾神》的序言中，作者首先從吉朋在《羅馬帝國衰亡史》一書主張成吉思汗與歐洲哲學的寬容觀和新興國家美國的宗教自由之間的關聯開始談起，並且梳理了由法國學者佛朗索瓦‧佩帝‧德拉克魯瓦（François Pétis de la Croix）於一七一○年初版的《古代蒙古人和韃靼人的第一個皇帝成吉思汗大帝的歷史》（The History of Genghizcan the Great, First Emperor of the Ancient Moguls and Tartars）一書在北美十三州殖民地的流通與閱讀史。他發現美國獨立革命先賢之一的湯瑪斯‧傑佛遜（Thomas Jefferson）曾經受該書中提到成吉思汗將宗教自由形諸法律的影響，以及維吉尼亞成文法與美國憲法第一修正條款中對與成吉思汗的第一道法律在強調宗教自由的精神上的相似性。導論〈神的憤怒〉則說明成吉思汗自認為是上天派來懲罰穆斯林的人，因為穆斯林犯了過錯。自成吉思汗以降的蒙古大汗都深信上天透過祂所授予權力的那些人表達祂的意旨。而蒙古人的勝利和興盛正是他們得到天佑的證明。而成吉思汗晚年在阿富汗聆聽各宗教人士的說法，這種對神的追尋則必須要從他早年歲月的成長過程開始談起。

其後的正文分為四大部分，第一部分「成為鐵木真」強調了蒙古境內的「神山」不兒罕合勒敦山在成為成吉思汗以前的鐵木真生命中的重要地位。蒙古人信仰長生天，而不兒罕合勒敦山則是讓成吉思汗最接近天的地方。在自己氏族和部落不願保護鐵木真時，不兒罕合勒敦山保護了他，而從他母親訶額倫和老獵人札兒赤兀歹那兒，他學到尊敬這座山，並視它為世界中心與生命源頭。而來自不兒罕合勒敦山的札兒赤兀歹更是鐵木真名義上和行為上的精神導師，幫他指出人生的正道。也因此，成吉思汗要求之後世世代代的蒙古人都要崇拜不兒罕合勒敦山。

第二部分「成為成吉思汗」則討論鐵木真在統一蒙古諸部後登基為成吉思汗，建立大蒙古國後。反對派以其父好友蒙力克之子闊闊出‧帖卜騰格理為核心集結起來，成為成吉思汗的最大對手。闊闊出是一名薩滿，他自稱能跟神靈感應，勢力漸強，並教唆成吉思汗對付有可能篡位的弟弟合撒兒與帖木格。但後來成吉思汗聽從妻子孛兒帖之建議，除掉闊闊出。但是此舉也開了一個血腥的先例，即蒙古可汗頭一次殺掉自稱權力高於國家或可汗的宗教領袖。

第三部分「成為世界征服者」討論的是成吉思汗在向外擴張的過程中遭遇到許多定居大國的賢者與宗教人士，例如兼通儒佛的耶律楚材、道教長春真人丘處機與佛教的海雲禪師等等。他利用這些賢者與宗教人士來協助他所征服的定居社會，因為他們大多有管理收稅和編纂法典的經驗。而成吉思汗應受佛教徒壓迫的西遼穆斯林之邀前往解救他們，則被作者視為是他的首次宗教戰爭。在征服西遼後，他下令每個人都應遵守自己的宗教，遵行自己的宗教信條--這也被視為是蒙古帝國首次將宗教自由的規定納入法律中。而成吉思汗後來拿下花剌子模後，創立了一個全新的穆斯林行政人員集團，並派他們到中國協助管理他們剛征服的領土。他利用穆斯林的文書本事，但又利用其中不同教派、族群，讓他們相互牽制，以限制每個宗教的潛在影響力。但一二二一年，蒙古人兵敗八米俺（即巴米揚），成吉思汗在這場敗戰中失去了他的愛孫莫圖根，成為他人生的一個轉捩點。成吉思汗尋求其他宗教，企圖找到能夠撫平人心的知識，並找到他所未參透的奧祕。因此成吉思汗在阿富汗時，召見了長春真人丘處機，但是這次會面卻不盡人意。他認知到宗教人士在治理他的龐大帝國上功用有限。他們會一些有用的技能，但長於論道，拙於行動，因此用處不大。

第四部分「成為神」則提到成吉思汗與薩滿、教士、學者、佛僧、道人、毛拉多次晤談之後，認為其中某些人真心求善，但無人展現了對道德、生命意義或神之本質的充分認識。他們和他一樣都只是努力想瞭解世界的人。而獨尊一教，貶抑他教，對其帝國是有害的。但是成吉思汗歸天後，蒙古帝國內部開始分裂，蒙古統治者也逐漸放棄宗教自由的政策方針。蒙哥汗為了征服南宋，必須爭取南宋周邊之佛教國家（如大理、吐蕃等）的支持，因此設計了一連串的佛道宗教辯論，而且偏袒佛教一方，以便崇佛抑道。後來旭烈兀西征，摧毀了阿剌木忒和報達（今巴格達），殺害哈里發和伊瑪目，則顯示成吉思汗的宗教寬容敕令已經不再得到尊重。直到成吉思汗過世後數百年，他的宗教自由想法才重獲十七世紀的法國學者關注。但他的遺風在十八世紀北美洲影響最大，北美殖民地的反英分子爭取獨立時，試圖尋求歐洲經驗以外的模式來借鏡。最後蒙古模式的宗教自由透過成吉思汗的傳記在北美流傳，而影響了湯瑪斯‧傑佛遜，並且成為美國憲法的基本精神。這也呼應了原英文版的副標題「世上最偉大的征服者如何給了我們宗教自由」（How the World's Greatest Conqueror Gave Us Religious Freedom）。

本書的內容與作者先前出版的兩部著作有不少重疊的部分，特別是在於蒙古帝國崛起與衰微過程的描述。如果說第一本書《成吉思汗：近代世界的創造者》是綜論成吉思汗與其子孫所建立之蒙古帝國的興衰史與其歷史遺產；第二本書《成吉思汗的女兒》說的是成吉思汗所建立的蒙古帝國，在其子孫不成材的情況下，有賴於其女兒與兒媳等人才得以維繫，那麼本書說的就是成吉思汗所建立的蒙古帝國之所以衰微的原因，在於未能嚴守成吉思汗所立下的宗教自由大札撒。然而這種以宗教為綱領貫穿蒙古帝國興衰史的寫作風格，是本書最大的特色。而且對於成吉思汗所揭櫫的以法律保障宗教自由的做法影響後世美國革命先賢的發現，更是讓人大開眼界。

誠如作者所言，成吉思汗允許其子民各自信仰其宗教。但是這不代表成吉思汗尊重所有的宗教儀軌與做法，而且也曾發布禁令干涉這些信眾的做法。例如本書作者曾提過成吉思汗反對以割喉、放血至死的方式宰殺動物。但是他沒有提到的是，成吉思汗曾經發布關於回回（包括穆斯林與猶太人）宰殺牲畜習慣的禁令。蒙古人傳統宰殺牲畜的做法是在牲畜胸部切開一道口子，伸手入胸腔掐斷心臟主動脈使牲畜斃命，而且讓血留在體內。以符合蒙古人不濺血於地的習慣。但穆斯林與猶太人實行「清真」（halal）或「潔食」（kosher）之法，宰殺牲畜時必須切斷牲畜的頸部動脈，將血放乾，而且在宰殺與食用過程中都必須祝禱。因此蒙古人宰殺的牲畜對回回人而言是不潔的，因而不願食用。根據《元典章》的記載，成吉思汗就曾經因為回回此舉否定了蒙古帝國的權威，故禁止回回抹殺羊的作法，並且強迫他們食用依蒙古傳統宰殺的羊。這道禁令在窩闊台汗與忽必烈汗也都曾被重申。

另外，雖然成吉思汗允許其子民各自信仰其宗教，但並非蒙古帝國境內所有的宗教都能得到大汗的承認，並享有豁免賦役的特權。美國賓州大學東亞系教授艾騖德（Christopher P. Atwood）就表示在蒙古帝國境內允許自由信奉各種宗教的政策應該要與獲得國家認可並且得以豁免賦稅的政策分開討論。根據《元史》記載，往昔僅有五個宗教的神職人員獲得免稅特權：儒家、佛教、基督教、道教與伊斯蘭教。然而考慮到一二三二年才是蒙古最早注意到儒家的時間。因此追溯到成吉思汗時期獲得免稅特權的宗教應該有四個：佛教、基督教、道教與伊斯蘭教。這裡我們可以發現，猶太教是一個特例。猶太教的信仰從未被禁，但是猶太教士則極少獲得免稅待遇或是得到國家的贊助。就我們所知，猶太教士一開始並未得到如同基督徒與穆斯林一般的免稅待遇，一二五一年蒙哥汗即位時再度確認了這項規定。直到一二九一年伊利汗國才給予猶太教徒免稅待遇，而要到一三三○年元朝才確認猶太教為得以免稅的宗教。成吉思汗所尋求的是能夠給予其統治宗教「卡里斯瑪」魅力（Charisma）的特定聖人，而非關注宗教的懺悔或教條。免稅優遇僅僅給予個體而非整個宗教。艾騖德認為宗教寬容並非蒙古宗教政策支持與保護四大宗教背後的主要思想。儒家與猶太教一開始被排除於豁免賦稅的宗教行列之外就是例證。兩者都同樣難以與蒙古的政治哲學相符合。由於儒士並未將其習慣解釋為一種對上天或神的祈禱，因而未被成吉思汗視為神職人員。而猶太教則由於未指向一個現存的國家，因此缺乏上天的確認，即所有真正的宗教都被賦予之至高無上的權力。

綜上所述，成吉思汗所給予其屬民的宗教自由與現代世界所謂的宗教自由的內容與實行上是否如此一致，其實還有值得探討的空間。不過本書從宗教信仰的視角來看待成吉思汗的崛起與蒙古帝國的興衰，以及對成吉思汗主張的宗教自由影響後世美國建國的主張也確實獨樹一幟。成吉思汗與蒙古帝國的歷史總能以各種不同形式，給予後世影響與啟發，我想這也是蒙古史之所以迷人的緣故吧。

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first reading about the Mongol conquests. What an incredible story! Entirely too improbable to pass as fiction. Any reader interested in the history of the wider world can enjoy this. The writing is good but not of the highest caliber.

My guess is that Genghis Khan (born about 1162) had no intention of conquering the Asian steppes, most of China, and far western Europe, when he set about uniting the nomadic Mongolian tribes and began conquering their immediate neighbors. The Mongols had fought among themselves for ages, and they learned about warfare from one another. They were nomads and so had mastered talents valuable for warfare: particularly horsemanship and archery, which facilitated their blitzkrieg military strategy. They will also have learned that an idle army is local trouble. As their army increased due to tribute from the conquered, which included levies of soldiers, an army whom Genghis kept always exceedingly busy, there was nothing but to expand west toward Europe and south to China, forming the largest contiguous empire in history. Unlike most conquests, these were not about territory but rather about people and tribute.

The Mongol rule of war was: submit or die; they preferred submission but slew tens of millions as the best strategy to encourage submission from others once word got around. Those who submitted came out rather well, usually paying tribute to the Mongols rather than to whomever they were paying before. Many must have benefitted eventually from improved economic conditions fostered by increased trade.

The lasting influences of the Mongol empire were great and many, but they are hard to discern today unless you read about them. Genghis was a genius of the highest order in warfare and political and economic administration.

The mongol religion was primarily shamanistic, but strangely enough there were Christians (mostly Nestorians), Buddhists, and other religions among his early warriors. Genghis and his descendants were generally fully tolerant of all religions, in fact protective of them until they failed to acknowledge the supremacy of the Kahn, whereupon heads were removed. They seemed eager to learn from all religions and must have been amused by the narrow, shortsighted and arbitrary dogmas and crude attempts at evangelism of the western church. There was no converting the a Mongol: their beliefs resulted in the largest empire on earth, so their gods were surely the best. But as they conquered and later settled in Islamic lands, they did eventually and voluntarily adopt that religion in general.

The Mongols reopened the Silk Road, and with that and the opening of many other trading routes, greatly expanded trade within and without their empire. Valuable goods, such as gold-threaded brocade and superior porcelain, soon made their way to the European aristocracy and thus alerted an introverted Europe to the brilliant and wealthy east. Among the many things they brought west were movable type and gunpowder from China (and the plague, likely from Mongolia, which put the stake in the greater Mongol empire, except for the Mughal empire of India, with whom the British East India Company traded and then contended). Gunpowder, however was not militarily significant, until about 300 years later with its use in cannons.

Genghis's grandson Kublai Khan (Yuan dynasty) conquered China (Song dynasty) and fostered such wealth that after his death the succeeding Ming dynasty sent out ships on a series of treasure voyages, about 3,000 ships each, from 1405 to 1433, south and west as far as the Persian Gulf and east Africa. They served to demonstrate Chinese power and wealth to the rest of the known world and to spread their sphere of influence and secure tribute from the control of a maritime economic and political network. The voyages were commanded by eunuchs and were highly successful. While the network collapsed after opposed factions in China gained the upper hand and discontinued the voyages, it is quite likely that Columbus and others were encouraged by the Chinese treasure voyages to seek a western route to the wealth of China.

Based on study of Mongols tactics, Russia in the 1930's began planning for a blitzkrieg type of warfare capability using the speed of tanks, until Stalin caused chaos by decimating his officer class, and the program faltered in the chaos. Douglas MacArthur suggested the same tank program for the US about the same time but was ignored. Then there was Hitler.

Genghis's empire upon his death fractured into four Khanates, each ruled by a son, and they kept control always within the family despite further fractures with later generations and inter-family rivalries. The last Khanate, in Crimea, ended when Catherine the Great forcibly annexed the peninsula about 1783. The family of the last Crimean Kahn survives, with the head of the house now living in London. The former prestige of the Mongolian empire has gone repeatedly in and out of favor in Russia and independently in China with shifting political winds.

[LXY]

记得在校园，北方秋季冰冷天听书的感受～这本书支撑我完成了一项课外作业。

[Kelly💘 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timothy May’s The Mongols in World History offers an in-depth exploration of the Mongol Empire’s impact on the world, providing an overview of Mongol history and analyzing its impact and legacy on the rest of the world. The author focuses on the empire’s military strategies, governance, and the vast cultural and economic changes that occurred under their rule. May’s central thesis is repeated in almost every chapter: the Mongol conquests facilitated what he terms the ‘Chinggis Exchange,’ profoundly altering the course of world history. May argues that the Mongols were not just violent conquerors but also agents of unprecedented cultural, economic, and technological exchanges across Eurasia. This exchange was fostered by the Mongols’ vast empire and their promotion of trade and communication, significantly influenced the development of societies, states, and global interactions in ways that continue to resonate through history. May’s approach is interdisciplinary, combining historical analysis with insights from military history, political science, economics, and cultural studies, while also remaining accessible enough for general audiences. He claims that the Mongols “always sem to have at least a cameo appearance, if not a starring role, in the discussion of world history…” to reinforce the notion of the Mongol Empire’s interconnectedness in contemporary world history. The author’s research is extensive and is supported by a lengthy bibliography of both primary and secondary source material. May’s work is unlike many other existing pieces in that he attempts to shy away from the popular image of Ghenghis Khan–who May adamantly refers to as Chinggis Khan– as a brutal warrior-king to provide a more nuances and comprehensive portrayal of more than just a conqueror, but a visionary leader who laid the foundations for a vast and sophisticated empire with a powerful legacy.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fleshed out a bit more for me the complicated impact the Mongols had, other than their battles. I like the term Chinggis Exchange to refer to the impacts they had on human history, both profound and long lasting. Not only were the Mongols able to conquer vast territory, they were able to rule over these lands for a few generations. They did this in very complex ways using both top down and incorporating local practices and people. This book goes a long way in the understanding of exactly how they pulled this off.

[WaldenOgre · Rating 4 out of 5]

虽然有一点小小的不如预期，但这种东拉西扯的宏大视野确实是其他史书无法替代的。