# Religious Tolerance Under the Mongols

An episode of [Human History ASMR](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6793196842), 11 Oct 2026, 1 h 09 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75561055/religious_tolerance_under_the_mongols_human_voiced_no_ads.mp3



## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: In the year 218, the people of Kashgar watched in
[0:05] Speaker 1: awe as Mongol horsemen stormed through their city. But not
[0:11] Speaker 1: to obliterate their faith, they came to announce its freedom.
[0:15] Speaker 1: A Persian chronicler relates that the Mongol conquerors permitted the
[0:21] Speaker 1: recitation of the Takbir and the Azan, and caused a
[0:25] Speaker 1: herald to proclaim the town that each should abide by
[0:29] Speaker 1: his own religion. and follow his own creed. Then we
[0:35] Speaker 1: knew the existence of this people, the Mongols, to be
[0:39] Speaker 1: one of the mercies of the Lord. This scene was
[0:44] Speaker 1: repeated across a vast empire. The Mongols, fearsome warriors who
[0:49] Speaker 1: sacked cities all the way from Beijing to Baghdad, often
[0:53] Speaker 1: showed an extraordinary and, frankly, surprising tolerance for the religion
[0:59] Speaker 1: of those they conquered. It's a striking paradox. How can
[1:05] Speaker 1: the same empire that spread terror on the battlefield foster
[1:08] Speaker 1: a realm where Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and others generally worshipped
[1:13] Speaker 1: in complete peace? It's the kind of paradox we explore today,
[1:19] Speaker 1: examining the religious tolerance of the Mongols from the time
[1:23] Speaker 1: of Genghis Khan's rise around 1206 through the heights of
[1:27] Speaker 1: the unified empire and into later Khanates like the Yuan
[1:31] Speaker 1: dynasty in China, and the Il Khanate in Persia. We'll
[1:36] Speaker 1: travel from the felt tents of Genghis Khan's encampment, where
[1:41] Speaker 1: shamans and imams might both find favour, to the cosmopolitan
[1:45] Speaker 1: capital of Karakorum, where as one visitor marvelled, quote, twelve
[1:51] Speaker 1: temples of idols, two mosques, and a Christian church, all
[1:56] Speaker 1: stood within the walls. So, by going on a 13th
[2:02] Speaker 1: century world tour, we'll see Genghis Khan forging unprecedented policies
[2:07] Speaker 1: of religious freedom to bind together his sprawling conquests. We'll
[2:12] Speaker 1: sit in on debates among monks, mullahs and priests at
[2:15] Speaker 1: the great Khan's courts. We'll observe Kublai Khan in later times,
[2:20] Speaker 1: honouring every prophet he knows in a grand gesture of
[2:25] Speaker 1: respect to all faiths. But we'll also scrutinize things where
[2:30] Speaker 1: we can. A band ritual here, a zealous prince there.
[2:36] Speaker 1: Everyone's tolerance has its limits. I think by the end,
[2:42] Speaker 1: you might just view the Mongol Empire in a new light.
[2:47] Speaker 1: Not only as history's largest contiguous empire, but as a
[2:51] Speaker 1: unique experiment in medieval coexistence. Well, let me welcome you
[2:59] Speaker 1: to the channel first. It's good to see any newcomers
[3:03] Speaker 1: coming along today. Interesting topic. Thank you very much for
[3:07] Speaker 1: those supporting on the Patreon and who visited the merch store.
[3:11] Speaker 1: And thank you to those who clicked the subscribe button,
[3:14] Speaker 1: which is conveniently located next to the like button. Well,
[3:19] Speaker 1: thank you very much. Well, that's enough of that. Let's
[3:24] Speaker 1: get into the topic. Nice and relaxed, as always. Well,
[3:31] Speaker 1: we better start with Genghis Khan, then. It seems like
[3:34] Speaker 1: the best planes were the only place to start with
[3:36] Speaker 1: the Mongol Empire. If you don't know, he came to
[3:40] Speaker 1: power in 1206 as the supreme leader of a once
[3:44] Speaker 1: fragmented cluster of Mongol and Turkic tribes. His unification of
[3:50] Speaker 1: the steppe was achieved through blood and iron, sure. Yet
[3:54] Speaker 1: from early on, Genghis showed a notable openness towards diverse religions.
[4:02] Speaker 1: Raised in the shamanistic tradition of the Mongols, a belief
[4:06] Speaker 1: in the eternal blue sky, Tengger, and in shamans who
[4:10] Speaker 1: could communicate with the spirit world, Genghis nevertheless sought wisdom
[4:14] Speaker 1: from many sources. The secret history of the Mongols, the
[4:20] Speaker 1: Mongols' own 13th century chronicle, depicts him as a man
[4:24] Speaker 1: who believed he was guided by heaven's will. While it
[4:27] Speaker 1: does not lay out explicit policies on foreign faiths, it
[4:30] Speaker 1: certainly recounts how Genghis valued spiritual power. For example, he
[4:35] Speaker 1: curbed the influence of an overreaching shaman once, Kokotju Devtengir,
[4:40] Speaker 1: when it threatened his authority, indicating that Genghis respected religion,
[4:46] Speaker 1: but only so long as it did not challenge his rule.
[4:50] Speaker 1: Once again, we say that tolerance has its limits. So
[4:55] Speaker 1: from the start of his imperial conquests, Genghis realized that
[4:59] Speaker 1: pragmatic toleration could be a powerful tool. His empire exploded
[5:05] Speaker 1: outward in all directions, quickly encompassing Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Taoists,
[5:12] Speaker 1: and others. Imposing a single belief on these disparate peoples
[5:18] Speaker 1: was neither desirable nor practical to him. Instead, he famously
[5:23] Speaker 1: declared that all religions should be respected, so long as
[5:26] Speaker 1: they do not undermine the state. According to Juvaini, a
[5:31] Speaker 1: Persian historian who served the Mongols, Genghis introduced a formal
[5:36] Speaker 1: policy of religious freedom during the war against the Khwarazmian Empire,
[5:40] Speaker 1: that is from 1219 to 1221. In the midst of
[5:44] Speaker 1: that ferocious campaign in Central Asia, he proclaimed that Islamic
[5:49] Speaker 1: practices were to be allowed. Juvaini specifies that Mongol leaders...
[5:56] Speaker 1: permitted the recitation of the Islamic call to prayer, called
[6:00] Speaker 1: the Azzan, even as Mongol armies occupied Khwarazm's cities. And
[6:06] Speaker 1: this was no small gesture. If you are familiar with it,
[6:10] Speaker 1: the call to prayer is a public and, frankly, very
[6:15] Speaker 1: open symbol of Islam, very powerful, very loud. It's hard
[6:20] Speaker 1: to miss. for the newly subjected Muslims to hear Allah
[6:24] Speaker 1: Huakbar ring out unmolested in Mongol rule, was a clear
[6:29] Speaker 1: sign that their faith would not be persecuted. Genghis likely
[6:35] Speaker 1: saw that contented subjects were easier to govern, and that
[6:39] Speaker 1: by respecting their gods, he might win their hearts even
[6:44] Speaker 1: as he held their lands. In 1218, Another episode solidified
[6:49] Speaker 1: Genghis's reputation for tolerance, his intervention in the lands of Karakit-Tai.
[6:56] Speaker 1: The ruler of that Central Asian kingdom, a prince named Kuchlug,
[7:01] Speaker 1: had brutally persecuted his Muslim subjects. In fact, he tried
[7:05] Speaker 1: to force them to abandon the Islamic rites. Muslim envoys
[7:11] Speaker 1: fled to Genghis Khan for help. Seizing the opportunity, Genghis
[7:16] Speaker 1: marched in. defeated Koçlug, and lifted any ban or restriction
[7:22] Speaker 1: on Islam. The people of Kashgar, as we saw in
[7:26] Speaker 1: the introduction, welcomed the Mongols as liberators who restored their
[7:30] Speaker 1: freedom to worship. And it was here that Genghis first
[7:36] Speaker 1: earned the honorific Defender of Religion among the grateful Muslims.
[7:43] Speaker 1: To be sure that Genghis's motivations were not purely altruistic,
[7:47] Speaker 1: By toppling Kuchlug and championing religious freedom, he also tightened
[7:52] Speaker 1: his grip on a key region and the loyalty of
[7:55] Speaker 1: its populace. Yet the outcome was that, unlike many conquerors,
[8:01] Speaker 1: before and after, the Mongol Khan did not impose his
[8:05] Speaker 1: own religion on the conquered. Instead, he used his tolerance
[8:10] Speaker 1: as a tool of empire building. Beyond these grand pronouncements,
[8:17] Speaker 1: Kahn backed up his policy in concrete ways. One celebrated
[8:22] Speaker 1: measure was his exemption of the religious clergy from taxation
[8:26] Speaker 1: and labor. All holy men, whether Buddhist monks, Christian priests,
[8:31] Speaker 1: Taoist sages, Muslim imams, all of them, they were excused
[8:36] Speaker 1: from paying taxes and from corvy labor under Genghis's rule.
[8:41] Speaker 1: I'm sure The lines to sign up for being a
[8:45] Speaker 1: holy man were very, very long in those days because
[8:47] Speaker 1: of this. And this was also codified in decrees, and
[8:52] Speaker 1: continued by his successors. A preserved Mongol edict shows the
[8:56] Speaker 1: official formula, quote, According to the decree of Genghis Khan,
[9:02] Speaker 1: which says that may the Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Taoists be
[9:07] Speaker 1: exempt from all taxation, and may they pray to God
[9:10] Speaker 1: on our behalf, Basically, the Mongols invested in the goodwill
[9:16] Speaker 1: and prayers of the religious class. By lightening their burdens,
[9:20] Speaker 1: the Khans earned the gratitude of priests and monks, who
[9:23] Speaker 1: often in turn encouraged their flocks to accept Mongol rule.
[9:27] Speaker 1: Genghis also showed personal respect to religious figures. He met
[9:31] Speaker 1: with leaders of different faiths, famously inviting a Taoist hermit,
[9:36] Speaker 1: Chou Chou-Chi, to his camp in 1222 to seek spiritual
[9:40] Speaker 1: guidance on how to live longer. He treated the sage
[9:45] Speaker 1: with honour, calling him immortal, listening to his counsel. This anecdote,
[9:51] Speaker 1: recorded by the Taoist disciples, illustrates his curiosity and respect,
[9:57] Speaker 1: even to faiths far removed from his own shamanic roots.
[10:02] Speaker 1: But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. The
[10:05] Speaker 1: Mongol tolerance had its pragmatic limits. Genghis Khan's chief priority
[10:10] Speaker 1: was unity and obedience in his realm. That always came first.
[10:16] Speaker 1: And if any religious practice seemed to threaten social order—
[10:20] Speaker 1: or his authority. He didn't hesitate to crack down. Loyalty
[10:26] Speaker 1: to the Khan came before loyalty to anything else. A
[10:31] Speaker 1: clear example of this came later in his reign, when
[10:35] Speaker 1: despite his broad-minded stance, Genghis took an action against a
[10:38] Speaker 1: certain Muslim and Jewish customs. According to Rashid al-Din, a
[10:45] Speaker 1: 14th century Persian historian, Genghis at one point forbade halal
[10:49] Speaker 1: slaughter and kosher practices, as well as circumcision within his domains.
[10:55] Speaker 1: This decree meant that Muslims and Jews could not only,
[10:58] Speaker 1: or could not openly rather, slaughter animals in the ritually
[11:03] Speaker 1: prescribed way, or perform the rites of circumcision for a time.
[11:08] Speaker 1: At first glance, such a ban contradicts the idea of
[11:12] Speaker 1: Genghis as a defender of religion. So why did he
[11:16] Speaker 1: do it? Well, the sources hint that Mongol sensibilities were
[11:22] Speaker 1: offended by the aspects of these practices. For instance, the
[11:26] Speaker 1: Mongols' traditional reverence for blood and aversion to spilling it
[11:31] Speaker 1: on the ground clashed with the halal method of slaughtering
[11:34] Speaker 1: animals by bleeding them. Additionally, there were incidents of Muslim
[11:40] Speaker 1: subjects refusing to eat food offered by their Mongol overlords
[11:43] Speaker 1: because it wasn't prepared halal. which the Khans frankly just
[11:47] Speaker 1: saw as rude. Well, Genghis's solution was to temporarily prohibit
[11:55] Speaker 1: the practice causing friction. Notably, these restrictions were the exception
[12:01] Speaker 1: and not the rule, but they were born of a
[12:04] Speaker 1: specific practical concern and later lifted. Decades after Genghis, his
[12:10] Speaker 1: grandson Kublai Khan reissued a similar ban on halal slaughter
[12:14] Speaker 1: in 1280. when some Muslim officials refused to eat the
[12:17] Speaker 1: food at the imperial table. But even Kublai revoked that
[12:22] Speaker 1: decree after about ten years. It certainly shows that Mongol tolerance,
[12:28] Speaker 1: while broad, was not unconditional. The Khans expected that no custom,
[12:34] Speaker 1: however sacred, should undermine imperial authority. If a ritual was
[12:39] Speaker 1: seen as hindering governance or offending Mongol values, it might
[12:44] Speaker 1: be curtailed. Yet importantly, even these rare edicts did not
[12:48] Speaker 1: amount to general persecution. Genghis never tried to forcibly convert
[12:52] Speaker 1: Muslims or expel them. He merely curbed certain practices at
[12:58] Speaker 1: certain times. And by the end of his life, dying
[13:03] Speaker 1: in 1227, an institutional culture of religious pluralism was taking
[13:08] Speaker 1: root in the Mongol Empire. One could travel from the
[13:12] Speaker 1: Mongols' original steppe homeland across Central Asia and find Buddhist monasteries, mosques, churches,
[13:20] Speaker 1: all operating under Mongol protection. Inhabitants of this nascent empire
[13:27] Speaker 1: learned that as long as they paid their tribute and
[13:30] Speaker 1: did not rebel, the Khan would just leave them alone, basically.
[13:37] Speaker 1: Genghis himself is said to have summed up his view
[13:39] Speaker 1: in a simple metaphor. Just as God gave different fingers
[13:44] Speaker 1: to the hand, He has given different ways to men. Yeah,
[13:50] Speaker 1: that's an interesting way of looking at it. Well, whether
[13:54] Speaker 1: or not these exact words came from Genghis, they're often
[13:57] Speaker 1: attributed to a later Khan. The sentiment captures the early
[14:01] Speaker 1: Mongol attitude that multiple paths to the divine could certainly exist.
[14:07] Speaker 1: And this foundational ethos would be maintained and even expanded
[14:12] Speaker 1: by Genghis's successors, who ruled history's largest land empire by
[14:17] Speaker 1: becoming the guardians of many faiths. So, after Genghis Khan's death,
[14:26] Speaker 1: his immediate successors carried the torch of religious toleration and
[14:30] Speaker 1: held it high. Genghis's son, Ogedei Khan, who ruled from
[14:35] Speaker 1: 1229 to 1241, inherited an empire spanning from China to
[14:39] Speaker 1: the Middle East, filled with diverse peoples. Ogedei, a practical
[14:46] Speaker 1: and affable ruler, understood that supporting many religions boasted his legitimacy.
[14:53] Speaker 1: During Ogedei's reign, the Mongol capital city of Karakorum truly
[14:58] Speaker 1: became a showcase of the empire's pluralism. The city, rising
[15:02] Speaker 1: on the windswept plains of Mongolia, was but a tiny
[15:05] Speaker 1: microcosm of Eurasia. The Franciscan friar, William of Rubruck, who
[15:13] Speaker 1: visited Karakorum in 1254, provides a pretty good eyewitness description.
[15:20] Speaker 1: He marvelled at within Karakorum's mud and brick walls. There
[15:25] Speaker 1: were two quarters, one for the Saracens, the Muslims, and
[15:29] Speaker 1: one for the Cathayans, the Chinese. There were twelve idol temples,
[15:34] Speaker 1: two mosques where the lore of Muhammad is proclaimed, and
[15:37] Speaker 1: one Christian church at the far end of town. Consider
[15:41] Speaker 1: how astonishing that was in the 13th century. One small
[15:46] Speaker 1: city on the Asian steppe, where one could find Buddhist temples,
[15:50] Speaker 1: Muslim mosques, Nestorian Christian churches, all serving their faithful. Traders
[15:58] Speaker 1: from Arabia could say their prayers at a mosque. Chinese
[16:01] Speaker 1: artisans could burn incense to the Buddha. European captives or
[16:05] Speaker 1: merchants could attend Sunday Mass, all under the Khan's protection.
[16:11] Speaker 1: Rubruck's account shows that by the mid-13th century, the Mongols
[16:14] Speaker 1: had created an environment where multiple religions literally stood side
[16:19] Speaker 1: by side. And so, at Karakorum and other royal camps,
[16:25] Speaker 1: the great Mongol Khans patronized interfaith dialogues and debates. Mongol
[16:31] Speaker 1: rulers enjoyed pitting religious scholars against each other, learned at indisputation,
[16:37] Speaker 1: not to humiliate them, but to hear different philosophies and
[16:40] Speaker 1: perhaps glean some wisdom, and also some scholars known for entertainment.
[16:47] Speaker 1: Ogedei Khan reportedly sponsored such debates among Buddhist, Muslims, and Christians.
[16:53] Speaker 1: The tradition continued under his successors. The atmosphere at the
[16:58] Speaker 1: Mongol court was one of curious, if somewhat patronizing inquiry.
[17:05] Speaker 1: since the Mongols themselves had no dogmatic scripture beyond their
[17:09] Speaker 1: reverence for Tengger, heaven. They were intrigued by the teaching
[17:14] Speaker 1: of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, etc. One could encounter a
[17:19] Speaker 1: Taoist monk from China, a Syriac Christian priest and a
[17:23] Speaker 1: Sufi mystic from Persia, all dining together at the Khan's table.
[17:31] Speaker 1: Each would pray in his own fashion before the meal.
[17:34] Speaker 1: and the Mongols allowed each prayer, hoping to cover all
[17:39] Speaker 1: bases of divine favor. The Mongol elite often synthesized or
[17:45] Speaker 1: simultaneously practiced elements of different faiths. Many of them still
[17:49] Speaker 1: observed shamanic rituals honoring heaven and their ancestors, even as
[17:55] Speaker 1: they also attended, say, a Buddhist ceremony. There was no
[18:01] Speaker 1: notion of exclusive religions. The Mongols saw the spiritual world
[18:06] Speaker 1: as plural. Its outlook made them exceptionally adaptive and accommodating
[18:11] Speaker 1: rulers of a very broad empire. The reign of Mongkor Khan,
[18:19] Speaker 1: or 51 to 59, a grandson of Genghis, is particularly
[18:23] Speaker 1: notable for the Mongols' ecumenical spirit, but as well as
[18:28] Speaker 1: revealing some of its limits. Mongkor presided over the empire
[18:33] Speaker 1: at its territorial peak, and to get the firm policy
[18:37] Speaker 1: of toleration. Like his predecessors, Moncur exempted religious institutions from taxes,
[18:44] Speaker 1: and even granted some churches and mosques official privileges. He
[18:48] Speaker 1: was surrounded by a cosmopolitan court. His mother had been
[18:53] Speaker 1: a Christian from the Kerait tribe, and many of Moncur's
[18:57] Speaker 1: closest advisors were either Muslim or Christian. William of Rubric
[19:02] Speaker 1: spent several months in Munger's court, and left a detailed
[19:05] Speaker 1: report of religious life there. On feast days, Munger would
[19:10] Speaker 1: invite representatives of each creed, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, offering prayers
[19:15] Speaker 1: and blessings in turn. Rubruck describes one remarkable debate in
[19:20] Speaker 1: 1254 that Munger had organised between himself and, as a
[19:25] Speaker 1: Catholic friar, some Nestorian Christian clergy. a group of Muslim
[19:31] Speaker 1: clerics and Buddhist lamas. They argued theology in front of
[19:36] Speaker 1: the Khan, each defending his faith. Munger ensured the debate
[19:41] Speaker 1: remained civil, though heated, and reportedly enjoyed the theological sparring.
[19:50] Speaker 1: After one such debate or discussion, Mongke Khan gave Ruhlbrook
[19:54] Speaker 1: a candid explanation of why the Mongols patronized all religions.
[19:59] Speaker 1: Citing the one god above, Mongke said to the assembled visitors,'
[20:03] Speaker 1: We Mongols believe in one god, by whom we live
[20:09] Speaker 1: and die.' just as God gave different fingers to the hand,
[20:13] Speaker 1: so he's given different ways to men. Once again, this
[20:16] Speaker 1: is where we get the attribution to the later Khans.
[20:22] Speaker 1: In other words, the Almighty may be one, but he
[20:25] Speaker 1: granted diverse paths for worship to him. This profound analogy,
[20:30] Speaker 1: the hand with many different fingers, is one of the
[20:33] Speaker 1: most famous statements of Mongol religious policy, and I actually
[20:37] Speaker 1: really like it. I think it's a good saying. Either way,
[20:42] Speaker 1: it came straight from the great Khan's mouth as recorded
[20:45] Speaker 1: by a rubric, arguments notwithstanding. Mungo went on to chastise
[20:53] Speaker 1: the Western Christians for not following their own scriptures fully,
[20:56] Speaker 1: and explained that God gave the Mongols their own way,
[21:00] Speaker 1: in their case, relying on the shamans and their traditional
[21:03] Speaker 1: worship of heaven. The Mongol ruler's view was essentially pluralistic.
[21:09] Speaker 1: He had no need for all the peoples to share
[21:12] Speaker 1: one religion, as long as they all recognized the overarching
[21:16] Speaker 1: supremacy of heaven, and by extension, heaven's earthly instrument, the Khan.
[21:22] Speaker 1: It's worth noting that Mongke's statement also carried an undertone
[21:26] Speaker 1: of Mongol imperial authority. Immediately after the different fingers remark,
[21:33] Speaker 1: he warned that if any group defied the Mongols, believing
[21:36] Speaker 1: their religion made them superior, they would be swiftly dealt with.
[21:42] Speaker 1: Tolerance was extended by the Mongols, but they expected reciprocal
[21:46] Speaker 1: respect and political obedience. Another instructive encounter occurred during Mongols'
[21:53] Speaker 1: era with the King Hetham I of Cilicia, a Christian
[21:58] Speaker 1: monarch who visited Karakorum seeking alliance. Hetham reportedly urged Mongols
[22:05] Speaker 1: to convert to Christianity. Munker politely rejected him, stating that
[22:11] Speaker 1: he wished that all his subjects truly worshipped the Messiah.
[22:15] Speaker 1: An interesting remark, showing he admired Christian devotion. But, he said,
[22:21] Speaker 1: I cannot force them to change their religion. This response
[22:26] Speaker 1: shows a critical aspect of Mongol policy. Unlike many rulers
[22:29] Speaker 1: of that age, the Khans generally did not endorse forced conversion.
[22:33] Speaker 1: Munker saw value in Christianity. but he would not impose
[22:38] Speaker 1: it on the multitudes of Muslims and Buddhists and others
[22:42] Speaker 1: under his rule. For the Mongols, social stability and loyalty
[22:48] Speaker 1: were far more important than anything else. In fact, forcing
[22:51] Speaker 1: a new religion on conquered peoples would have been a
[22:55] Speaker 1: recipe for rebellion, and that's a mistake that the Khans
[23:00] Speaker 1: wisely avoided. Thus Mongols' reign continued the broad pattern. The
[23:07] Speaker 1: Mongol Empire was an umbrella, sheltering all faiths, so long
[23:12] Speaker 1: as those accepted Mongol dominion. That being said, even under
[23:17] Speaker 1: these enlightened Khans, not every Mongol princeling was tolerant, nor
[23:21] Speaker 1: was every incident harmonious. There are no perfect worlds, after all.
[23:28] Speaker 1: Some members of the royal family held personal grudges or prejudices.
[23:32] Speaker 1: An example comes from a hostile Muslim source, Juhaini or
[23:38] Speaker 1: Juziani in India, who despised the Mongols for their conquest.
[23:45] Speaker 1: He claimed that Genghis Khan's second son, Chagatai, was particularly
[23:50] Speaker 1: cruel to Muslims, alleging among the Mongol rulers there was
[23:54] Speaker 1: not one who was a greater enemy of Islam, and
[23:58] Speaker 1: that Chagatai even urged massacring them all. Well, the account
[24:04] Speaker 1: is likely a bit of an exaggeration colored by the
[24:08] Speaker 1: trauma of conquests. In fact, Juzjani was writing about the
[24:13] Speaker 1: destruction of Khwarezm and the slaughter in cities like Balkh
[24:16] Speaker 1: and Bukhara. It's true that Chagatai Khan enforced Mongol laws strictly,
[24:23] Speaker 1: which sometimes conflicted with Islamic customs. For instance, Mongol law
[24:28] Speaker 1: forbade washing clothes in running water during certain seasons, a
[24:32] Speaker 1: shamanistic injunction, frustrating Muslim needs for ritual cleanliness. Chagatai's reputation
[24:39] Speaker 1: in Muslim chronicles is that of a hardliner who showed
[24:43] Speaker 1: less sensitivity to Islam. Yet even in his realm, we
[24:49] Speaker 1: don't see evidence of a systematic persecution. Muslims remained in
[24:55] Speaker 1: a majority in Central Asia and continued to practice their faith.
[25:01] Speaker 1: It's a pretty harsh portrayal of Chagatai. but it serves
[25:04] Speaker 1: to remind us that tolerance was not uniformly practiced by
[25:07] Speaker 1: every Mongol authority at all times. There were debates within
[25:12] Speaker 1: the Mongol elite as well. Some, like Chagatai, feared that
[25:17] Speaker 1: adherence to religious laws, like Islamic Sharia, could undermine obedience
[25:22] Speaker 1: to Mongol customs. Others, like Genghis's younger brother, Temuge, a
[25:28] Speaker 1: Buddhist convert, or various Mongol queens who were Christians, championed
[25:33] Speaker 1: their adopted faiths. Despite these internal differences, the official state
[25:39] Speaker 1: policy from Ogedei through Mongke remained one of general religious pluralism.
[25:46] Speaker 1: The exceptions, a zealous governor here and a restrictive edict
[25:50] Speaker 1: over there, they were bumps in an otherwise pretty smooth road.
[25:56] Speaker 1: By the end of Mongke Khan's rule, The Mongol Empire
[26:00] Speaker 1: had matured into a cosmopolitan realm. The connectivity of the
[26:04] Speaker 1: Pax Mongolica, Mongol peace, meant that an imam from Bukhara
[26:09] Speaker 1: could travel to the court in Karakorum, or a Buddhist
[26:13] Speaker 1: could find himself in Iran, all under Mongol protection. Missionaries
[26:19] Speaker 1: roamed freely. Franciscan friars preached in Mongol courts, Rubruk among them.
[26:25] Speaker 1: and Buddhist teachers from Tibet gained converts in the Mongol ranks.
[26:30] Speaker 1: The Mongols had effectively created a zone of religious freedom
[26:34] Speaker 1: rare for its time. The French historian René Grosset aptly
[26:39] Speaker 1: called the Mongol Empire a caravanserai of religions, a huge
[26:45] Speaker 1: caravan rest stop, where all traders and travellers, regardless of belief,
[26:49] Speaker 1: could pause and worship in their own way, without any fear.
[26:55] Speaker 1: This broad tolerance set the stage for what would happen
[26:58] Speaker 1: as the empire split into regional khanates, and as new
[27:02] Speaker 1: generations of Mongol rulers, some of whom personally embraced foreign religions,
[27:08] Speaker 1: came to power. In the year 1260, Kublai Khan, another
[27:16] Speaker 1: of Genghis's grandsons, became the Great Khan. Congratulations! Eventually, he
[27:24] Speaker 1: would found the Yuan dynasty in China and preside over
[27:31] Speaker 1: a flourishing culture of religious life in the East. Kublai
[27:35] Speaker 1: had been raised in a world steeped in religious diversity,
[27:37] Speaker 1: you see. His mother was a Nestorian Christian, famed for
[27:41] Speaker 1: her wisdom and charity, and she ensured that her sons
[27:44] Speaker 1: were educated in a spirit of openness. Kublai himself, while
[27:50] Speaker 1: staunchly Mongol in identity, developed a deep interest in Buddhism,
[27:55] Speaker 1: particularly the Tibetan Varayana school. Nowadays patronage Tibetan lamas like
[28:02] Speaker 1: Phagpa were elevated to high positions as spiritual advisors. Yet
[28:09] Speaker 1: Kublai did not make Buddhism the exclusive state religion. Instead,
[28:15] Speaker 1: he maintained the Mongol tradition of supporting all faiths. If anything,
[28:20] Speaker 1: Chinese influence and the vastness of his domains broadened that
[28:24] Speaker 1: pluralism even further. Well, now we have an interesting character
[28:30] Speaker 1: come in. Marco Polo. Sure you've heard of him. The
[28:35] Speaker 1: Venetian traveller who lived at Kublai's court for many years. Well,
[28:39] Speaker 1: he left us with a lively account of the Khan's
[28:41] Speaker 1: religious policy. One famous story relates is how Kublai honored
[28:47] Speaker 1: each of the major religions in his realm. During important
[28:51] Speaker 1: festivals of the Muslims, Christians, Jews, Kublai would show public
[28:57] Speaker 1: respect for each. Paulo describes Kublai's practice during one Easter.
[29:03] Speaker 1: The Khan, quote, commanded all the Christians to come before
[29:07] Speaker 1: him and bring their book of the Gospels. He then
[29:11] Speaker 1: had that book incensed with great reverence and kissed it devoutly.
[29:16] Speaker 1: Likewise did all his nobles. He would do the same
[29:19] Speaker 1: on the holy days of the Muslims and Jews, and
[29:22] Speaker 1: even for the, quote, idolaters, his terms for Buddhists and
[29:26] Speaker 1: other Indian and Chinese faiths. When asked why he performed
[29:31] Speaker 1: ceremonies for so many religions, he gave a characteristically pragmatic answer.
[29:38] Speaker 1: There are four great prophets. who are reverenced and worshipped
[29:42] Speaker 1: by different classes of mankind. The Christians worship Jesus Christ,
[29:47] Speaker 1: the Muslims Muhammad, the Jews Moses, the idolaters Sakyamuni. I
[29:53] Speaker 1: honour and show respect to all four, and invoke whichever
[29:57] Speaker 1: one is indeed the supreme in heaven. In other words,
[30:01] Speaker 1: Kublai was hedging his bets spiritually. By venerating all of
[30:06] Speaker 1: the major holy figures, he hoped to secure divine favor,
[30:11] Speaker 1: no matter who was truly in charge up there. It's
[30:15] Speaker 1: a kind of, well, almost you could say a playful
[30:19] Speaker 1: rationale to a very serious policy. That being that Kublai
[30:24] Speaker 1: refused to alienate any of his subjects on religious grounds,
[30:28] Speaker 1: So he went out of his way to make each
[30:31] Speaker 1: community feel valued. The fact that the Supreme Emperor of
[30:36] Speaker 1: China and much of Asia would publicly kiss a Christian
[30:40] Speaker 1: gospel one day and respectfully bow at a Buddhist shrine
[30:43] Speaker 1: the next left quite an impression on observers like Marco Polo.
[30:48] Speaker 1: It demonstrated a degree of official religious cosmopolitanism that was
[30:53] Speaker 1: virtually unheard of in medieval Christendom or the Islamic world
[30:57] Speaker 1: at that time. Under Kublai's Yuan administration, all faiths had
[31:03] Speaker 1: avenues to thrive. He established officers to oversee the needs
[31:08] Speaker 1: of the various religious groups. Muslims, often called Hui in China,
[31:15] Speaker 1: had their own officials and courts for personal law. Nasorian
[31:20] Speaker 1: Christians built churches in the capital of Khanbaliq, that is Beijing,
[31:24] Speaker 1: the old word for it at least. Buddhists received large patronage.
[31:29] Speaker 1: Kublai commissioned the building of grand Buddhist temples and monasteries,
[31:33] Speaker 1: and he supported translations of Buddhist scriptures. Confucian scholars, while
[31:40] Speaker 1: somewhat out of favor politically, were still respected and employed
[31:43] Speaker 1: in education and administration. The social fabric of Yuan China
[31:49] Speaker 1: was a mosaic. Mosques operating in Beijing, Islamic traders from
[31:53] Speaker 1: Central Asia enjoyed high status at court. In fact, One
[31:58] Speaker 1: of Kublai's favorite ministers was Ahmad Fadakati, a Muslim from
[32:03] Speaker 1: Central Asia. And in southern China, Taoist and local Chinese
[32:08] Speaker 1: folk religions continue to be practiced freely. Indeed, one could
[32:12] Speaker 1: argue that religious tolerance was one key that allowed the
[32:16] Speaker 1: Yuan dynasty to rule a culturally Chinese society, despite being
[32:21] Speaker 1: foreign conquerors. By not attempting to suppress Chinese religions, Kublai
[32:27] Speaker 1: avoided the mistake that later invaders made. He did not
[32:31] Speaker 1: force the Chinese to convert to some steppe shamanism. Instead,
[32:36] Speaker 1: he just adopted enough of their cultural norms and let
[32:39] Speaker 1: them continue venerating their ancestors and gods, thus securing a
[32:45] Speaker 1: smoother governance. But that's not to say that Kublai's era
[32:51] Speaker 1: was entirely without religious friction. One notable exception in Yuan
[32:55] Speaker 1: times was was Kublai's conflict with certain Taoist sects. There
[33:00] Speaker 1: had been long tension in client China between the Buddhists
[33:04] Speaker 1: and Taoists, and at Kublai's court, this came to a head.
[33:08] Speaker 1: In 1258, before he was great Khan, by the way,
[33:13] Speaker 1: Kublai presided over a famous debate between Buddhist monks and
[33:16] Speaker 1: Taoist priests, regarding whose teachings were superior. The Buddhists, aimed
[33:22] Speaker 1: by Kublai's Tibetan lama, Padpa, convinced him that certain Taoist writings,
[33:28] Speaker 1: particularly those claiming Lao Tzu was the Buddha reincarnated, were heretical,
[33:34] Speaker 1: and even some of them were plagiarized. After becoming emperor,
[33:40] Speaker 1: Kublai took the rather unusual step of suppressing Taoist clergy
[33:44] Speaker 1: who refused to cooperate. He banned the printing of some
[33:47] Speaker 1: Taoist texts, and reportedly ordered many Taoist monasteries to be
[33:52] Speaker 1: turned into Buddhist temples. Some Taoist monks were compelled to
[33:56] Speaker 1: renounce their teachings. And this stands out as a case
[34:01] Speaker 1: where the normally tolerant Kublai acted against a religion, albeit
[34:07] Speaker 1: it was within the context of an internal Chinese religious dispute,
[34:13] Speaker 1: and arguably more for the sake of resolving doctrinal chaos
[34:16] Speaker 1: than had a pure bias. It shows that even in
[34:19] Speaker 1: an intolerant Mongol world, the Khan favour could shift. and
[34:24] Speaker 1: religion might be curbed if it was seen as socially
[34:27] Speaker 1: disruptive or intellectually fraudulent. Yet Kublai did not persecute Taoism wholesale.
[34:35] Speaker 1: Taoist practitioners continued to exist, and many Taoist temples persisted
[34:39] Speaker 1: in Yuan China. The action was targeted, not a general
[34:44] Speaker 1: ban on Taoism. Marco Polo also hints that privately, Kublai
[34:51] Speaker 1: Khan had a soft spot for Christianity. He comments that
[34:55] Speaker 1: the Khan seemed to regard the Christian faith as truest
[34:58] Speaker 1: and best, praising its moral teachings, though Kublai never converted.
[35:05] Speaker 1: He allegedly told Marco's father and uncle that he didn't
[35:09] Speaker 1: become Christian because the Christians in his land were not
[35:13] Speaker 1: impressive enough and because he needed the prayers for all
[35:17] Speaker 1: faiths for his enormous empire. This pragmatic streak in Kublai's
[35:22] Speaker 1: thinking cannot be said enough times. He was managing a
[35:26] Speaker 1: diverse realm, and he saw religion as a means of unification,
[35:30] Speaker 1: not division. In Yuan society at large, the benefit of
[35:36] Speaker 1: Mongol tolerance was a mingling of cultures never before seen.
[35:41] Speaker 1: Persian astronomers worked in Kublai's observatories, bringing Islamic science to China.
[35:47] Speaker 1: Christian artisans, some from as far as Russia or Georgia,
[35:51] Speaker 1: built bridges between managed workshops. One legend even credits a
[35:56] Speaker 1: Nestorian Christian from the Middle East with designing Kublai's siege engines.
[36:02] Speaker 1: Muslim physicians ran hospitals in the Mongol Empire. This whole
[36:07] Speaker 1: interplay of ideas was vibrant. Tibetan Buddhism gained converts among Mongols.
[36:14] Speaker 1: Islam spread along the Silk Road, reaching new communities in
[36:18] Speaker 1: western China, many which are still there. Christianity, too, saw
[36:23] Speaker 1: a boost, with churches in major cities and even a
[36:26] Speaker 1: Mongol royal, Prince Godan, showing interest in Christian theology earlier.
[36:34] Speaker 1: Yuan China's art and literature bear the marks of this diversity.
[36:40] Speaker 1: Miniatures and paintings depict Mongol princes with Buddhist icons and
[36:43] Speaker 1: Christian crosses in the same scene. And that's definitely something
[36:48] Speaker 1: to behold. A veritable... united nations for all faiths. And
[36:57] Speaker 1: so by the end of the Yuan Dynasty, which lasted
[37:00] Speaker 1: until 1368, the Mongols in China had themselves been changed
[37:05] Speaker 1: by this tolerant environment. Many Mongols there had adopted Tibetan
[37:09] Speaker 1: Buddhism as their main faith, a legacy that continues, by
[37:13] Speaker 1: the way. These days, Mongolia is predominantly Buddhist. Some had
[37:19] Speaker 1: intermarried with Chinese and taken on local religious customs. The
[37:22] Speaker 1: policy of tolerance had not only kept the peace, it
[37:26] Speaker 1: had facilitated a cultural transformation and exchange. And when the
[37:30] Speaker 1: Yuan eventually fell, it was not due to religious strife,
[37:34] Speaker 1: but other political and economic issues. In fact, even the
[37:38] Speaker 1: succeeding Chinese Ming dynasty, which ousted the Mongols, continued to
[37:43] Speaker 1: have significant communities of Muslims and Christians. And that is
[37:48] Speaker 1: a testament to how deeply religious diversity had taken root
[37:52] Speaker 1: during the Mongol era. And so, while Kublai ruled in
[37:59] Speaker 1: the east, another branch of Genghis Khan's family governed the
[38:03] Speaker 1: Middle East and Persia, the Ilkhanate, founded by Hulegu, the
[38:09] Speaker 1: grandson of Genghis. The Ilkhans offered a fascinating study of
[38:14] Speaker 1: Mongol religious policies, Because you see, over a few generations
[38:19] Speaker 1: they went from being pluralist patrons of many creeds to
[38:22] Speaker 1: themselves just converting to Islam, the majority religion of their subjects.
[38:29] Speaker 1: Through this transition we can see both the high tide
[38:31] Speaker 1: of Mongol tolerance and the subtle shift when a Mongol
[38:36] Speaker 1: state adopted an official religion. So let's talk about that.
[38:41] Speaker 1: Hulegu Khan, to establish the Ilkhanate around 1256 after his
[38:46] Speaker 1: devastating conquests in Iran and Mesopotamia, was religiously quite eclectic.
[38:54] Speaker 1: Hulegu was a Buddhist, or possibly shamanist by inclination, but
[39:00] Speaker 1: he also strongly influenced by his Christian wife, Dokuz Khatun,
[39:06] Speaker 1: who was a Nestorian from the Karyat tribe. The Karyats,
[39:09] Speaker 1: by the way, had been Christians for generations. When Hulegu's
[39:14] Speaker 1: forces infamously sacked Baghdad in 1258, ending the Abbasid Caliphate,
[39:20] Speaker 1: they slaughtered a huge number of the city's inhabitants. This
[39:25] Speaker 1: massacre is often remembered for its brutality towards Baghdad's Muslims. population.
[39:31] Speaker 1: Yet notably, the Mongols spared the city's Christians. In temporary accounts,
[39:37] Speaker 1: credit Dokuz Khatun's intervention, she purportedly asked Kulegu to protect Christians,
[39:43] Speaker 1: and thus, quote, many of the citizens were massacred, but
[39:47] Speaker 1: Christians were spared. Indeed, the Christian community in Baghdad only survived,
[39:55] Speaker 1: but was favoured under Hulegu, churches that were left intact
[39:59] Speaker 1: while mosques were burned. That's one example. For the Islamic world,
[40:06] Speaker 1: the fall of Baghdad was, as you can imagine, a
[40:09] Speaker 1: horrific blow, a nightmare come to life, and some saw
[40:13] Speaker 1: it as a sign of Mongol impiety. But from the
[40:17] Speaker 1: Mongol perspective, They were punishing a political enemy, the Caliph,
[40:22] Speaker 1: who had failed to submit, rather than targeting a faith.
[40:27] Speaker 1: After the conquest, Hulegu welcomed Buddhist monks and Christian clerics
[40:32] Speaker 1: to court, and he maintained the traditional Mongol stance of
[40:36] Speaker 1: patronizing all religions. He financed the building of Buddhist temples
[40:41] Speaker 1: in Iran, remarkably as Buddhism had almost vanished in Persia
[40:45] Speaker 1: since ancient times. and allowed Nestorian Christian churches to flourish.
[40:51] Speaker 1: His chief minister was the famous Persian scholar Nasir al-Dintusi,
[40:58] Speaker 1: whom Hulegu saved from Baghdad and employed to build a
[41:00] Speaker 1: great observatory at Marrakeh. That Hulegu, a nominal Buddhist, had
[41:07] Speaker 1: a Muslim, albeit a Shiite Muslim, vizier and Christian queen
[41:12] Speaker 1: exemplifies the multi-faith elite of the Ilkhanate's early years. and
[41:17] Speaker 1: in the late 13th century it remained a tapestry of
[41:20] Speaker 1: those beliefs. Hulegu's son, Abaka, succeeded him and continued to
[41:25] Speaker 1: favour Buddhism and Christianity, while also dealing diplomatically with his
[41:29] Speaker 1: large Muslim populace. Many Ilkhan princes and princesses were baptised Christians,
[41:36] Speaker 1: and Eastern Christian Nestorian influence was also strong at the court. However,
[41:43] Speaker 1: The Mongols in this region did not force their own
[41:46] Speaker 1: leanings on the majority. The bulk of the population in
[41:50] Speaker 1: Persia and Mesopotamia was Muslim, and they were generally allowed
[41:55] Speaker 1: to continue Islamic law and customs under Mongol oversight. A
[41:59] Speaker 1: number of Persian Muslims served in the government. For instance,
[42:03] Speaker 1: the historian Atta Malik Juvahini was himself a Muslim official
[42:08] Speaker 1: under Hulegu and Abaqa. rewarded with the governorship of Baghdad
[42:13] Speaker 1: after the conquest. The Mongol rulers valued talent over creed,
[42:18] Speaker 1: you see. Juvaini's Islamic faith was no barrier to high office.
[42:23] Speaker 1: As long as officials were loyal, they could worship as
[42:26] Speaker 1: they wished. The Ilkhans even took advice from Sufi mystics
[42:30] Speaker 1: and Islamic scholars on governance. There is an interesting report
[42:35] Speaker 1: that when Ilkhan Ghazan, before he became Khan, once dressed
[42:40] Speaker 1: incognito to visit a noted Sufi holy man to discuss spirituality,
[42:46] Speaker 1: showing the private fascination that Mongols often had with these
[42:49] Speaker 1: local religions. One could find Christian monasteries, mosques and Buddhist shrines,
[42:56] Speaker 1: all receiving patronage in Ilkhanid lands during the 1260s to 80s.
[43:02] Speaker 1: The cosmopolitan city of Maraga, the Ilkhanid capital for a time,
[43:06] Speaker 1: housed the observatory, where Muslim and Chinese astronomers worked together.
[43:12] Speaker 1: Nearby were monasteries for both Christian and Buddhist monks. Marco Polo,
[43:18] Speaker 1: travelling through Ilkhani territory on his way to China, noted
[43:21] Speaker 1: that the Mongol rulers of Persia showed great honour to
[43:24] Speaker 1: Christian sites. He mentions that Hulegu's successors even invited Catholic
[43:30] Speaker 1: emissaries who were curious about Western Christianity. Though ultimately, they
[43:36] Speaker 1: aligned more with Eastern Christianity. The Ilkhans also extended tolerance
[43:42] Speaker 1: to the Jewish communities in their domain, which is noteworthy,
[43:47] Speaker 1: since medieval Persia's Jews often suffered under other regimes. Under
[43:52] Speaker 1: Mongol rule, Prashad al-Din Hamadani, a Persian Jew who converted
[43:57] Speaker 1: to Islam, rose to become the Ilkhanate's vizier, kind of
[44:01] Speaker 1: like a prime minister, and one of the most influential
[44:04] Speaker 1: figures in the realm. Rashid al-Din, whose monumental work, Jami al-Tawarik,
[44:11] Speaker 1: the Compendium of Chronicles, is a major source on world
[44:15] Speaker 1: history up to the Mongols. Definitely recommended if you want
[44:20] Speaker 1: some homework. And in this work it embodied the Mongol
[44:25] Speaker 1: ethos of inclusion. You see, his own background was multi-religious.
[44:30] Speaker 1: Born Jewish, practising Muslim, working for Buddhist or shamanistic rulers.
[44:37] Speaker 1: It's complicated. He also champions scholarly study of all religions.
[44:43] Speaker 1: In Rashid's histories, he respectfully recounts the stories of Mahmud, Buddha,
[44:48] Speaker 1: Jesus and many other prophets, reflecting the open intellectual climate
[44:53] Speaker 1: that the Mongols supported. The Ilkhanate, in essence, became a
[44:59] Speaker 1: bit of a melting pot of sorts. a place where
[45:02] Speaker 1: a Syrian Christian bishop, a Mongol shaman, a Tibetan monk,
[45:07] Speaker 1: might all be present at court, advising on different matters.
[45:12] Speaker 1: But there was a turning point. There are no happily
[45:16] Speaker 1: ever afters, I'm afraid, and it came at the close
[45:19] Speaker 1: of the 13th century. In 1295, a great-grandson of Hulegu,
[45:25] Speaker 1: Ilkhan Ghazan, took power and converted to Islam. This is
[45:31] Speaker 1: It was a watershed moment. The Mongol ruler of Persia
[45:36] Speaker 1: formally adopted the religion of the majority of his people,
[45:40] Speaker 1: becoming not just a patron of Islam, but a practitioner.
[45:45] Speaker 1: But why did he do it? Well, it was driven
[45:49] Speaker 1: by several factors. Personal conviction, the influence of Muslim generals
[45:54] Speaker 1: and administrators, and a pragmatic sense that embracing Islam would
[45:58] Speaker 1: stabilize his realm by uniting Mongol and Persian elites. Once Muslim,
[46:04] Speaker 1: Kazan set about reorganizing the state along more traditional Islamic lines.
[46:12] Speaker 1: So did this mean the end of Mongol tolerance in
[46:15] Speaker 1: the Ilkhanate? Not entirely, but it was certainly a noticeable shift.
[46:23] Speaker 1: Kazan made Islam the official religion of his government. He
[46:26] Speaker 1: ordered the construction of mosques and Islamic schools, and sometimes
[46:31] Speaker 1: restricted other faiths in ways his forebearers would never have done.
[46:35] Speaker 1: For instance, Buddhist temples that had been established by earlier
[46:39] Speaker 1: Ilkhans were converted into mosques or repurposed, since Buddhism had
[46:43] Speaker 1: very few local adherents and was now seen less favourably.
[46:49] Speaker 1: the active public promotion of Buddhism and Christianity had got diminished.
[46:55] Speaker 1: Many of the Nestorian Christian nobles either converted to Islam
[46:58] Speaker 1: to maintain influence or simply saw their roles reduced. Ghazan
[47:04] Speaker 1: also reinstated the collection of the Jizya, attacks on non-Muslim
[47:08] Speaker 1: subjects under Islamic rule, from his Jewish and Christian subjects,
[47:13] Speaker 1: which the Mongols had generally not enforced earlier. and this
[47:18] Speaker 1: suggests a move towards the more normative Islamic model of governance.
[47:24] Speaker 1: That said, Ghazan did not carry out persecutions. It wasn't
[47:28] Speaker 1: like he was rounding everybody up and burning them. But
[47:32] Speaker 1: he remained relatively tolerant by the standards of other regimes.
[47:37] Speaker 1: Christians and Jews in the Ilkhanate were still protected. Indeed,
[47:42] Speaker 1: his vizier, Rashid al-Din, was a convert from Judaism and
[47:45] Speaker 1: continued in office. and the Buddhists, though out of favour,
[47:50] Speaker 1: were simply asked to leave without causing a fuss, or
[47:55] Speaker 1: integrate into other communities. Ghassan even continued correspondence with European
[48:01] Speaker 1: Christian monarchs, presenting himself as a potential ally, somewhat opportunistically,
[48:07] Speaker 1: despite now being a Muslim. In short, the Ilkhanate gradually Islamised,
[48:14] Speaker 1: and as it did, its pluralistic shine dulled a bit.
[48:19] Speaker 1: But it did not entirely vanish. Kazan's successors, like Olyatou Khan,
[48:25] Speaker 1: went further into Islamic identity. Olyatou became a Shia Muslim.
[48:32] Speaker 1: By the 1310s, the Khanate was essentially a Muslim kingdom
[48:35] Speaker 1: in terms of state religion, yet the Mongol legacy of
[48:38] Speaker 1: tolerance had left its mark. For example, Olyatou continued to
[48:43] Speaker 1: employ Christian officers. and kept diplomatic channels with Christian Europe.
[48:48] Speaker 1: The administrative system built by Mongols was secular enough that
[48:52] Speaker 1: even under an Islamic banner it could accommodate non-Muslims. Notably,
[48:56] Speaker 1: when Oliatu's vizier, Rashid al-Din, was executed in 1318, on
[49:02] Speaker 1: charges of poisoning, by the way, likely trumped up, it
[49:06] Speaker 1: marked a sign that the new Islamic establishment was less
[49:09] Speaker 1: comfortable with a man of different origins in power. Over time,
[49:15] Speaker 1: The vibrant multi-religious court culture of the early Ilkhans gave
[49:19] Speaker 1: way to a more homogenized Muslim one, a natural outcome,
[49:25] Speaker 1: as the Mongols themselves were assimilated into the local population.
[49:28] Speaker 1: The Ilkhanate itself fragmented and collapsed by 1335, but by
[49:34] Speaker 1: then most of the Mongol elite in the region were
[49:37] Speaker 1: thoroughly integrated as Muslims and their earlier patronage of other
[49:42] Speaker 1: religions had largely ceased. Well, it's important to stress that
[49:49] Speaker 1: even during this transition, outright religious persecution was rare. Things
[49:54] Speaker 1: didn't descend into complete chaos like you would think. The
[49:58] Speaker 1: Mongols did not forcibly convert their subjects to Islam when
[50:01] Speaker 1: they themselves converted. It was more that they themselves just assimilated.
[50:09] Speaker 1: One exception could be seen in the occasional flare-ups, for example,
[50:13] Speaker 1: after Olegu's time. There were reports that some Mongol commanders
[50:17] Speaker 1: who became Muslims might harass Buddhist monks or destroy a
[50:21] Speaker 1: temple here and there. But these were not long-standing policies
[50:25] Speaker 1: from the top. Conversely, when the Muslims, or when the
[50:30] Speaker 1: Mongols rather, were not yet Muslim, there were cases of
[50:34] Speaker 1: anti-Muslim sentiment. For instance, Hulegu at one point executed the
[50:39] Speaker 1: caliph and many Muslims, and his son Aqaba later fought
[50:43] Speaker 1: Muslim Mamluks. Some have interpreted their actions as having a
[50:47] Speaker 1: religious tinge, especially since Hulegu allied with Christian powers against
[50:52] Speaker 1: the Muslim Mamluk Sultanate. Yet the Mongols' primary motive in
[50:56] Speaker 1: those conflicts was a geopolitical one, not ideological. Interestingly, the
[51:02] Speaker 1: defeat of Hulagu's forces by the Muslim Mamluks in 1260
[51:06] Speaker 1: at Ain Jalut was celebrated in the Muslim world as
[51:09] Speaker 1: a victory of Islam over the infidels, highlighting that many
[51:13] Speaker 1: Muslims did view the Mongols with suspicion religiously. Either way,
[51:20] Speaker 1: over time, the Ilkhanate Mongols disproved fears of being crypto-crusaders
[51:28] Speaker 1: by eventually embracing Islam themselves. All right, 51 minutes into
[51:35] Speaker 1: the video and I know what you're thinking. Why has
[51:38] Speaker 1: he not talked about the Golden Horde? What is he
[51:42] Speaker 1: hiding from us? Well, I would be remiss to omit that,
[51:49] Speaker 1: wouldn't I? The Mongol realms in Russia and the Western steppes. And,
[51:55] Speaker 1: of course, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia. They... were
[52:01] Speaker 1: too exemplified by religious tolerance, but they had their own
[52:06] Speaker 1: little twists. These western regions, ruled by descendants of Genghis's sons,
[52:13] Speaker 1: Joji and Chagatai, started out as pluralistic Mongol states, just
[52:19] Speaker 1: like the Ilkhanate, but eventually they became predominantly Islamic by
[52:23] Speaker 1: the 14th century. Now, what is the Golden Horde? Well,
[52:28] Speaker 1: it was the Mongol Khanate ruling over the Western Eurasian steppe,
[52:33] Speaker 1: including what is today Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, parts of the Caucasus.
[52:39] Speaker 1: In the mid-13th century, its leaders, such as Batu Khan,
[52:43] Speaker 1: another grandson of Genghis, adhered to an old shamanistic and
[52:47] Speaker 1: tengrist belief and had no state religion. Batu and his
[52:53] Speaker 1: immediate successors allowed the diverse peoples under their sway to
[52:57] Speaker 1: keep their religions, This included the Turkic and Mongol nomads
[53:00] Speaker 1: of the Horde, many of whom still worshipped dengar or
[53:04] Speaker 1: practiced shamanism. They conquered Turkic Muslim populations around the Volga too,
[53:12] Speaker 1: and the majority of the sedentary population, the Eastern Orthodox
[53:16] Speaker 1: Christians of the Rus principalities. They were all included. One
[53:22] Speaker 1: of the most remarkable aspects about Mongol rule in Russia
[53:26] Speaker 1: was their treatment of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Mongols
[53:30] Speaker 1: devastated Russian cities in initial conquests, but once domination was established,
[53:36] Speaker 1: they tended to prefer dealing with churchmen as intermediaries, finding
[53:40] Speaker 1: them pretty useful to keep people in control. The Orthodox
[53:46] Speaker 1: Church was granted exemptions and charitable treatment, much like clergy
[53:52] Speaker 1: in other parts of the empire. Chronicles note, that the
[53:56] Speaker 1: Mongol Khans confirmed the tax-exempt status of the Orthodox Church
[54:01] Speaker 1: and often allowed Russian metropolitans, that is, high bishops, to
[54:05] Speaker 1: travel to the Mongol capital, receiving charters of protection. In fact,
[54:12] Speaker 1: in 1267, the Khan Monger de Moor officially exempted the
[54:17] Speaker 1: Orthodox Church from taxes, a privilege reaffirmed by later Khans,
[54:22] Speaker 1: even when times were tough. The Mongols understood that antagonizing
[54:27] Speaker 1: the church could incite people. So they generally refrained from
[54:31] Speaker 1: doing it. A pretty wise choice. There is an illustrative incident.
[54:38] Speaker 1: In the 1340s, the Khan Yani Beg briefly imposed a
[54:42] Speaker 1: tax on the Orthodox Church in his lands. But within
[54:46] Speaker 1: five years, the decree was revoked and full exemption restored.
[54:52] Speaker 1: This suggests that any deviation from the norm of tolerance,
[54:56] Speaker 1: even just taxing the church, was quickly corrected, reaffirming the
[55:01] Speaker 1: Mongols' overall policy of accommodation toward the Russian faith. As
[55:06] Speaker 1: a result, the Orthodox Church actually strengthened under Mongol rule,
[55:11] Speaker 1: expanding its influence, while the Mongols kept the secular rulers, i.e.
[55:16] Speaker 1: the princes in check. For the common people in the
[55:21] Speaker 1: Golden Horde realms, religious life carried on with minimal interference.
[55:27] Speaker 1: Russian peasants continued to attend their churches and venerate icons.
[55:32] Speaker 1: If anything, the Mongols indirectly protected the church from meddling
[55:36] Speaker 1: by the often power-hungry Russian princes. In the Horde's capital
[55:41] Speaker 1: city of Saray, on the lower Volga, new religious communities
[55:46] Speaker 1: sprang up. There were mosques for the growing Muslim population
[55:51] Speaker 1: as well as churches for the immigrants and captives from
[55:53] Speaker 1: the West. Travellers reported that Sarai and other Horde cities
[55:59] Speaker 1: were pretty cosmopolitan, with markets where Central Asian Muslims, Italian traders,
[56:05] Speaker 1: Greek or Russian Orthodox clergy, and steppe shamans might all
[56:10] Speaker 1: cross paths. A significant turn in the Golden Horde came
[56:16] Speaker 1: when Birke Khan, Batu's brother, assumed power in the 1250s.
[56:21] Speaker 1: Berke was the first Mongol prince of note to convert
[56:23] Speaker 1: to Islam, sometime around 1257. Unlike in the Ilkhanate, where
[56:29] Speaker 1: the conversion happened after several decades of rule, Berke's conversion
[56:33] Speaker 1: occurred relatively early, while the Mongol Empire was still united
[56:39] Speaker 1: under Monger Khan. Berke's Islam played a role in the
[56:44] Speaker 1: famous conflict between him and Hulegu, the Ilkhan. As Hulegu
[56:49] Speaker 1: attacked Baghdad, the Muslim Berke grew angry and allied his
[56:54] Speaker 1: horde with the Egyptian Mamluks to stop the expansion of Helugu.
[57:00] Speaker 1: This was the first instance of Mongols fighting Mongols with
[57:04] Speaker 1: a religious justification. Berke reportedly said, Helugu destroyed the caliphate
[57:10] Speaker 1: and killed Muslims, and he will have to answer for that. Nevertheless,
[57:17] Speaker 1: Berke did not impose Islam on the Horde's population. He
[57:23] Speaker 1: built a mosque in Saray and welcomed Muslim advisors, even
[57:27] Speaker 1: establishing Sharia courts for Muslims in his realms. But the
[57:32] Speaker 1: administration remained largely in the hands of traditional Mongol nobles
[57:36] Speaker 1: and some foreign merchants, many of whom were Muslim anyway, so,
[57:40] Speaker 1: you know, all's well that ends well. The horde thus
[57:44] Speaker 1: gradually Islamicised at the top, but it remained religiously diverse
[57:50] Speaker 1: at the ground level. Later, in the 14th century, Uzbek
[57:56] Speaker 1: Khan of the Golden Horde made Islam the state religion
[57:59] Speaker 1: more formally, and then got to encouraging the Mongol nobles
[58:05] Speaker 1: to convert, reportedly with some force against those who resisted.
[58:11] Speaker 1: Under Uzbek, reigning 1313-41, The Horde became a majority Muslim
[58:16] Speaker 1: ruling class. Even then, however, they did not try to
[58:21] Speaker 1: forcibly convert their Christian-Russian subjects. The Russians continued to practice Orthodoxy,
[58:27] Speaker 1: and the Khans continued to be patrons, at least in
[58:30] Speaker 1: a sense, of the Russian Orthodox Church, as it helped
[58:34] Speaker 1: maintain stability. The Horde's policy toward the Church remained a
[58:39] Speaker 1: protective one. Several Russian chronicles mentioned that, with gratitude, the
[58:45] Speaker 1: Pax Tatarica that allowed the church to function unmolested. As
[58:52] Speaker 1: Mongols themselves adopted Islam, their attitude toward the church did
[58:56] Speaker 1: cool somewhat. Vedakans less personally invested in fostering Christianity, but
[59:02] Speaker 1: generally they stuck to the precedent of tolerance established earlier.
[59:07] Speaker 1: The main difference was that Islam now enjoyed a favoured
[59:11] Speaker 1: status in the horde. We're talking state sponsorship, court ceremonies
[59:17] Speaker 1: in the Islamic style, this kind of thing, whereas before
[59:21] Speaker 1: it was but one among equals. Now that was clearly
[59:24] Speaker 1: a favourite. Non-Muslims in the horde increasingly became simple subjects,
[59:31] Speaker 1: peoples paying taxes or tribute to an Islamic state, rather
[59:36] Speaker 1: than partners in a pluralistic empire. But even so, religious
[59:41] Speaker 1: freedom at the personal level remained, at least in the
[59:44] Speaker 1: most part. There were no Mongol-led pogroms or mass conversions
[59:48] Speaker 1: in the Horde's vast territories. The conversion of the Golden
[59:52] Speaker 1: Horde rulers to Islam did lead to some cultural changes.
[59:56] Speaker 1: For example, by the 1330s, Coinage from the Horde bore
[1:00:00] Speaker 1: Islamic proclamations, and Mongol names were replaced by Islamic names
[1:00:04] Speaker 1: among the elite. But the everyday religious life of their
[1:00:08] Speaker 1: subjects carried on with continuity. Indeed, the Russian Orthodox Church
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: survived the entire Mongol period completely intact, and would later
[1:00:17] Speaker 1: become the centrepiece of Russian identity, when Mongol rule eventually receded. Meanwhile,
[1:00:25] Speaker 1: in the Chagatai Khanate, Central Asia, including much of Transoxiana
[1:00:29] Speaker 1: and Turkestan. The pattern was pretty similar. Chagatai's descendants ruled
[1:00:34] Speaker 1: over a mostly Muslim population. Turkic cities like Bukhara, Samarkand,
[1:00:40] Speaker 1: for example, were centres of Islam. Yet they themselves initially
[1:00:44] Speaker 1: clung to Tengriism or Buddhism. This caused a bit of friction.
[1:00:49] Speaker 1: As noted, one early Chagatai-ed Khan was reputed to having
[1:00:54] Speaker 1: been quite hostile to Islam. and there were episodes of
[1:00:57] Speaker 1: Muslims in Central Asia being penalized for following Sharia law
[1:01:01] Speaker 1: over Mongol law. But in general, even the Chagatai realm
[1:01:07] Speaker 1: operated on the principle of live and let live pretty rigorously.
[1:01:11] Speaker 1: In the late 13th century, during the reign of Khan
[1:01:16] Speaker 1: Barak and others, Buddhist influences were introduced. Yet Islam remained
[1:01:22] Speaker 1: deeply rooted among the people and many lower officials. Eventually,
[1:01:27] Speaker 1: like their cousins elsewhere, the Chagatai Mongols also embraced Islam,
[1:01:32] Speaker 1: most prominently with Dharmashirin Khan in the 1330s, who converted
[1:01:38] Speaker 1: to Islam and encouraged others to do likewise. After that,
[1:01:42] Speaker 1: Central Asia would firmly return to the Islamic fold. But notably,
[1:01:47] Speaker 1: even before that conversion, the Mongol rulers in Central Asia
[1:01:51] Speaker 1: did not stamp out Islam. They built new temples for Buddhists,
[1:01:56] Speaker 1: but left the mosques standing. And after conversion, they did
[1:02:00] Speaker 1: not wipe out the remnants of Buddhism or Nestorian Christianity immediately.
[1:02:05] Speaker 1: Those gradually faded in the face of the now dominant Islam.
[1:02:15] Speaker 1: And with that we get to the end. What did
[1:02:17] Speaker 1: you think? Were they really tolerant? At least by the
[1:02:23] Speaker 1: standards of the day, I think we can certainly say
[1:02:25] Speaker 1: that they were. We wouldn't say that they were intolerant,
[1:02:29] Speaker 1: that's for sure. Well, let me thank my top dear
[1:02:33] Speaker 1: patrons and supporters. Doing God's work, keeping the channel going. Doug, Kimberly, Christine, Sally, Ember, Susan, Cameron, Legitmus, Carrie, Charlene, Lynn, Therese, Katiana, Nicholas, Ulf, Edneir, Alexander, Charles, Christine, Dr. DuroNerd, Erin, Jayden, Jim, Jeffrey, Jessica, Madeline, Melissa,
[1:02:56] Speaker 1: Orthodox Review, Scott, Stark Factory, Shell, Wendy, Josie, Sarah, Ryan, Thor, Cameron, Stefan, Kevin, HMSHH, Crystal,
[1:03:06] Speaker 1: and Talvary. Thank you so much. And yes, once again,
[1:03:12] Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed all of this. Interesting topic. They
[1:03:16] Speaker 1: don't talk about the Mongols as much as they should.
[1:03:19] Speaker 1: And when I say they, I mean, well, other people.
[1:03:23] Speaker 1: I suppose I talk about them a bit. I just
[1:03:25] Speaker 1: went on for an hour or so. I hope you
[1:03:28] Speaker 1: enjoyed it. Go and tell your friends about the Mongols.
[1:03:33] Speaker 1: Go and tell them. Yeah, they'll enjoy it. Well, I'll
[1:03:39] Speaker 1: see you next time whenever you feel like coming back.
[1:03:42] Speaker 1: As always, good night and lots of love to you all.

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