was changiz khan cruel

was changiz khan cruel

it is the general impression that changez khan was a cruel person.

in fact. in that period, cruelty was a regular feature between adversaries but it has to be distinguished that it had many forms.

although the army of genghiz killed at an unprecedented rate and used death as a matter of policy, they deviated from the standard practices of the time in an important and surprising way. this can be contrasted with what their opponent did.

1.      in august 1228, four hundred mongol soldiers fell into enemy hands. the victors tied them behind horses and dragged them through the bazaar of isfahan. all the mongol prisoners were killed as public sport and then fed them to the dogs.

2.      in another incident, the iranians killed the mongol captives by driving nails into their heads.

3.      in 1305, a century later, delhi sultan had a public entertainment by getting prisoners trampled by elephants.

4.      in year 1014, byzantian christian emperor basil defeated the bulgarians and captured 15000 bulgarian soldiers. he had them blinded leaving one person out of 100 with eyesight that he may lead them back to their homes.

5.      holy (sic) roman emperor barbarosa besieged city of lombard in 1106. his men beheaded their prisoners and played football with their heads. the residents of the city brought their prisoners on the wall of the fort and pulled their limbs off in front of their colleagues down below. the army in the filed indulged in mass hanging of their prisoners. in response the city people did the same on the walls of the fort. the army down below gathered the children and strapped them in catapults and threw them on the walls of the fort.

by comparison. mongols never used torture as means to frighten their enemies. there was no blood lust or ostensious use of public cruelty.

the cities that surrendered experienced mild and benign treatment. bt some cities fooled by such mild treatment rebelled as soon as mongol army went away. the mongol army came back and showed no mercy to the inhabitants.

when the muslims in areas to the west of tian shan mountain invited genghiz khan to rid them of cruel budhhist rulers, khan obliged and because they were there by invitation, even looting was not allowed.