The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World

In the Mongol belief system, bones symbolized descent through the male line, so Mongol executions typically were carried out by strangulation or another method that left the victim’s bones intact. To break bones, as B
ö chek did Bashman’s, meant destroying an entire lineage.

After a quriltai on the banks of the Onon River in 1235, the Mongols launched large-scale operations to control the Volga-Ural region and the basin of the Volga.

Bashman’s actions prevented any new operations in the west. The lower Volga was a crucial nexus on the route to Europe; the Mongols needed to secure direct land communication between Qaraqorum, their newly established seat of power, and the western steppe, and Bashman was in the way.

He also had mastered the techniques of guerrilla warfare that the Bulgars had successfully implemented some years earlier.

Persian historian Juvayn ī , who provided one of the key sources on the Mongols,

The scouts Ögödei sent west after his 1229 enthronement learned that a new threat was rising among the Qipchaqs. His name was Bashman.

The pacification of northern China did not evolve as expected, and the Jin posed a continuous threa

After Chinggis Khan died, large-scale military operations were suspended for nearly two years.

Chi
n
ggis designated a new heir to the ulus of his eldest: Jochi’s son Batu would take over.

The Westward severely disrupted the fragile economic and political balance of the Caucasus, Crimea, and southern Russia, but as soon as the warriors turned their backs, “the route[s] opened up and goods were exported as before,” Ibn al-Ath ī