(September 19, 2022 at 10:08 am)Jehanne Wrote:(September 19, 2022 at 8:29 am)GUBU Wrote: The Mongols were no different than any other warlike people in those days, except for they were more effective at conquest. And in some ways they were more restrained than other people, if you surrendered for example the would let you live and only impose a relatively minor tax. Contrast that with the behaviour of those who lead the first crusade or the Cathar ceusade.
And the Mongol conquest of Persia and the Central Asian steppe was precipitated by the sultan of Khwarezm murdering an embassy Chinngis sent without any provocation.
Among certain historians, there has been a recent movement to rehabilitate the Mongols, which is the view that you are presenting (defending?); in my book, they were/are mass murderers, even if they lived in an era of mass murder.
Very true. I'm not disagreeing with that.
But, along with that, Ulug Beg created a first class observatory that outdid anything until Tycho Brahe. The scholars there did some of the mathematics preliminary to Copernicus. There is even some suggestion that Copernicus used, without attribution, the Tusi circle required for some of his calculations.
It is not unusual in history that mathematics and science advance during times that are otherwise brutal. To deny the achievements is being just as dishonest as denying their destruction.
And, once the wars were over, the civilization thet was created was remarkably peaceful, especially for the time. it is said that a young woman alone could travel from one end of the empire to the other wearing gold and never be harassed. That is probably an exagerration, but it does convey the views of that empire.
