gofer articles

The ancient Mongols have been caricatured as a bunch of short swarthy fellas riding horses and living out of a camping tent while hacking their way around the world, but the truth is somewhat different.
Far diverse, in fact; for one thing, the ancient Mongols were most proficient with the bow and crossbow, though of course they also knew how to work a sword and ax as with any other self-respecting marauder!

And that camping tent…isn’t.
They are yurts, which are like Native American tipis, only more spacious and likely even hardier, tougher, able to withstand the strong wind-swept steppes of Eurasia.
Additionally, though they did not achieve the high degree of civilization such as many of their Chinese, Arab, and Indian subjects did, they were not stereotypical barbarians, either, but also fairly enlightened as conquerors went during those times, fierce only in war but reasonably easy-going as rulers.

Actually, ancient Mongol rulers effortlessly traded their nomadic lifestyles for the settled living of their subject peoples.
From Persia and Babylonia to India and China, many Mongol rulers gave up the “camping tent” and lived the remainder of their lives in opulent palaces.
Such soft living may have precipitated the eventual breakup of their empire into a series of smaller successor-states.
Over not much time whatsoever, Mongol conquerors adopted the culture of the natives and would then become a part of the locals’ own histories, such as the Mughal Empire still fondly remembered by Indian chroniclers or the Il Khanate still recalled in modern-day Iran.

Indeed, the Manchu elite of China may have had their Mongol relatives in mind when insisting on regularly scheduled hunts to keep their royals and nobles reminded of their hardy heritage!
For it was an imperial Manchu decree, no less, that institutionalized the original hunt so that you can counteract the consequences of palace life – not forgetting the soft culture of subject native peoples!