Dr. Ben Braddock

Can you please for the love of GOD find some French music to put on these please

Ghengis Khan was not an "evil tyrant", but actually one of the most compassionate leaders in human history. His first law as Khan, for example, was to ban bridal kidnapping. After, he created a welfare system for captured women in which they were financially cared for, along with their children. Captured women and children were allowed full rights and integration within the Mongol civilization. Captured children, especially, were encouraged to join the military and could rise to its highest ranks like any other Mongol. “As long as men kidnapped women, there would be feuding on the steppes. Genghis Khan’s first new law reportedly forbade the kidnapping of women, almost certainly a reaction to the kidnapping of his wife”. Furthermore, he “forbade the abduction and enslavement of any Mongol", ending all slavery within his lands. The motivation of these laws was due to the facts that Chingis was born from a kidnapped mother, enslaved as a boy, and his first wife was kidnapped. It is suspected by all scholars and especially the children of Chingis, that his first son was illegitimate and that the true father was the kidnapper of his wife. The child's name translated into english is something like "visitor", proving this claim to scholars. Yet, despite this problem, Chingis always insisted his first son was legitimate and consistently tried to make him the sole inheritor of the Empire, a task he failed to accomplish. These actions prove, without a doubt, the quality of Chingis' compassionate character. For those who do live in the steppe as I do, you may be surprised to know that bridal kidnapping is the most common form of marriage now today in the region with the sole exception of Mongolia. Locally, in Kyrgyzstan, we practice two types of kidnapping - "Ala-ka-chu" and "kyz kuumai". Ala-ka-chu is a forced kidnapping where men form a type of gang and plot the kidnapping of a local woman. Typically, the "rules" are that if a man kidnaps a woman and brings her to his home for 24 hours, she becomes his property. Families can even coordinate together to kidnap a woman and force her hand in marriage. Women are stolen so commonly, even a student from my university was abducted right in front of the gate recently. Ala-ka-chu is not an authentic tradition but rather an unjustly modified version of a legitimate tradition called "kyz kuumai", a consensual form of bridal kidnapping in which a man races after a woman on horseback and if he captures her, she becomes his property. If the woman wrestles the man or escapes from him, then she declines the marriage. It's her choice. Typically, it's like a quick game of chase, the woman allows the man to kiss her on the cheek and then she jumps off his horse into the sunset. Ancient Mongolia was much like my world in that sense that women and goods would constantly be stolen again and again and again in an endless cycle by all the various rival tribes. The kidnappings were always of the most violent character. Women, like Hoelun (Chingis Khan's mother), would routinely throw themselves to their kidnappers by submission so that their families could escape and survive. Chingis Khan was the sole person to stop this trend in Mongolia forever. These violent practices may continue today in various regions of the steppe, but never in Mongolia. The benevolence of Chingis Khan becomes clear with this example alone. His genius can be further seen with his tax policies. He established a free tax zone throughout the Silk Road. "He lowered taxes for everyone, and abolished them altogether for doctors, teachers, priests, and educational institutions.” Generally, there was a maximum of a 10% flat tax at maximum. We often look down upon Chingis Khan as some type of monster, yet his citizens had some of the lowest tax rates in human history, or, at the least, certainly lower than anything we currently face. Keep in mind, when we discuss "taxes" we mean captured enemies like Chinese farmers. Mongolian herdsmen, for example, paid a 1% tax. Military members could void all taxes by simply performing various acts of community service. With such an abundance of new cultures consistently conquered, Chingis Khan became perplexed. These foreign populations never fought over women as they did at home. Instead, the sedentary folk fought over religion. To solve this problem, “Genghis Khan decreed complete and total religious freedom for everyone. Although he continued to worship the spirits of his homeland, he did not permit them to be used as a national cult.” It is indeed written that Chingis' motivation for religious freedom laws was due to infighting between captured enemies, yes. However, I like to think personally that this law hails from his early exposure to Christians. For example, his father was named “Yesugei", translating to "Jesua" after Jesus. The Khan of his father and the first Khan Chingis served was a devout Christian, along with a majority of his members. This is not to say they experienced Christianity like a modern person. Certainly they were Mongols first, and Christians second. It is additionally important to note that the Empire was always ruled by women, while the men were at war. These women rulers were typically of a Christian orientation themselves, rather than a Tengrianist like Chingis. Meanwhile, the scholars of Chingis' day were Tibetan Buddhists, Chinese Confucians, or most often Persian Muslims. Religious freedom was an obvious necessity. The answer of why no Westerner knows any positive attributes of Chingis Khan is due to a mistranslation in name. The Mongols were a mysterious, unknown force to the Europeans. The Rus originally confused them with the Tatar peoples. The Tatars were a tribe focused in the South Russia. In the 1100s, they were on par with the Mongols and were the sworn enemy of Yisügei, the father of Chingis Khan, who they later killed by poison. Eventually, Chingis had his revenge, defeated the Tatars, and then incorporated them into his army, along with dozens of other turkic tribes throughout the region. The Europeans built upon the Rus translations and referred to the Mongols as “Tartars”, “a play on the Latin word for hell, ‘Tatarus’”. On older maps, one may find regions referenced as “Tartary” or “Tartaria”; these lands are simply the territories controlled by the Mongols (and various Turkic tribes) until the Soviet era. It is logical for Westerners to continually liken the Mongols with demons from hell (Tartarus) and exclusively maintain an oral history of terror associated with the Mongols. This information comes to us from the first Catholic friar to visit the Mongols in 1200s. The policy of graciously accepting and then integrating the enemy tribes into the Mongol forces began with the Tatars. When we think of "raping and pillaging" by the Mongols, we confuse it with encouraged integration in which, for the first time in steppe history, enemies were Yes, all the men were killed; you're right. However, the children, as previously clarified were adopted and kindly raised into various positions of power, rather than as slaves, as was the previous system. Ethnically, Mongols are most related to the Tatrs, Khitan, and Turkic tribes. “They asserted, then and now, a direct descent from the Huns, who founded the first empire on the high steppe in the third century. Hun is the Mongolian word for human being, and they called their Hun ancestors Hun-nu, the people of the sun.” The physical appearance of Chingis was never written down and all reference to Chingis' appearance was illegal to capture in art form. All later notions of Chingis' appearance comes from modern art. However, being so closely integrated with Tatars and directly from the Huns does confirm that the Mongols had blonde/orange hair with blue/green eyes, much like any European. "Mixing" most often occurred through consensual inter-marriage between captured women and Mongols. Throughout Chingis' time, the majority of external genetics would have come from inter-marriage between the Persian population (in a very low percentage). Chinese genetics were introduced to the Mongols throughout the rule of Kublai Khan. Kubali successfully conquered the Chinese and formally set up the new Mongol capital in now what is considered Bejing. He massively shifted the focus from Mongol culture and practices to Chinese. The 1200s began the genetic shift in all steppe genetics and cemented them as a "mixed" population. Every semester, I have a minimum of one student cry on me and lament that she should have a more European appearance and that she curses the Mongols for their mixing. It's a core issue at the identity of the steppe folk. Locally, we have a unique genetic anomaly where it is common to see a child with pure white hair and blue eyes come from two parents with black hair and black eyes. We call them "Yenesei Kyrgyz", referencing the original appearance and location of steppe folk in Siberia. The depth of Chingis' khans magnanimity is boundless. In steppe culture, his kindness would be considered boundless without any comparison. My contention is that Westerners fear Mongols for their battle tactics certainly, but majority from the mistranslation related to tartarus. I will begin to write a formal article about the history of Chingis Khan, as noted from a variety of sources including classical French, Persian, Chinese, and more recently American scholars. If this article performs well, I will write a longer form post soon. All ideas in this thread hail from Jack Weatherford's book Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, a commentary on the Secret History of the Mongols, newly translated into English. To conclude, the final reason why Westerns have no accurate information about the Mongols is due to secrecy. Their history is literally translated as The Secret History. All records of the ruling Mongol family were kept hidden. It's not a conspiracy to make this claim, but entirely logical, as seen in Chingis' own law of how he should never be publicly depicted. The Mongol rulers consistently made a substantial effort to keep their lived experience hidden from public view. Later Soviet influence did not help with record keeping. The singular, positive historical record Westerners had access to about the Mongols was from the account of Marco Polo. However, Polo's account focused on Kubali and the then newly formed Chinese-esque empire, rather than the benevolent examples from Chingis' personal legacy.