Book Review: Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford
How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued his Empire
This is one of those books with a title that fascinated me the moment I saw it: Mongol Queens and Secret History, Yes Please! The Mongol Era has been a weak point in my history once you get past Genghis Khan, so I was excited to learn more. Plus, I’m always interested to read more about women’s role in power and politics through history because they typically wield ‘soft’ power that isn’t all about armies and lopping people’s heads off.
Well, it’s the Mongols, so there’s lots of lopping people’s heads off anyway, but it was truly fascinating to read how Genghis Khan’s relationships with his wives shaped his beliefs, and how he used his daughters to dramatically increase the reach of the Mongol people.
Ghengis Khan trained his daughters up to rule, and trusted them with immense power and control throughout his reign. When he first became Khan, the Mongols were not only fractured into numerous tribes and factions, they were hemmed in by various geographical features which were controlled by other peoples. In order to gain control over these disparate peoples, Genghis Khan would marry his daughter to the local ruler with numerous stipulations which essentially consolidated all the local power in her hands, then he would ‘honor’ his new son in law by making him a front line general. In this way, he largely prevented rebellions and was able to maintain peace in the areas he brought under his control.
But this isn’t just the story of the Khan’s careful disposing of his daughters. Because he empowered them and generally left them to run much of the empire, it was Genghis Khan’s daughters and daughter in laws who largely built and managed the infrastructure of the Mongol Empire. They created a written alphabet for the Mongol language, established a courier service, set up civic institutions and law codes, and reoriented much of Asia and the Middle East to the Mongol Steppes.
Sounds fascinating right? And it is, for the little space that is devoted to it. Weatherford appears to be a good historian, and as such, he is careful not to extrapolate too far, or to fabricate history, however much he might like to. Because of this, he is limited by the fact that Genghis Khan’s sons, grandsons, et all went to great lengths to erase the Mongol Queens from history. For any of you who read The Dark Queens by Shelley Puhak, it’s the same story all over again.
After Genghis Khan’s death, and as his daughters and wives grew older, much of the structure he and his daughters had built fell apart under the mismanagement of his sons and others, many of whom resented being told what to do by women. Thus, much of the second half of Weatherford’s book is devoted to the power struggles, vendettas, and fights for survival as the Mongol Empire fell into squabbling.
This is also where I had the most difficulty. The Mongols had a reputation for brutality against their enemies, but against each other they seemed to take it to the next level in efforts to humiliate and terrify rivals. While I appreciate that Weatherford takes pains to be accurate without being overly graphic, there were more than a few sentences that were deeply uncomfortable to read.
Even taking a sentence or two to relate, very straightforwardly, how someone was tortured and executed can still make the blood chill at the cruelty that was often shown. However, Weatherford does not linger on these moments and recounts them in what I feel might be the most straightforward way possible to move forward with the story. And the manner of executions is important to the story, because it shows how quickly the laws Genghis Khan implemented were thrown aside after his death, even as his heirs claimed to venerate him.
The book ends however with the accounts of Queen Mandukhai, who reunited much of the Mongol Empire and waged war against both the Muslim warlords to her west, and the Ming Dynasty. A fascinating bit of information that I picked up here was that it was Mandukhai and the threat she posed that finally drove the Ming Dynasty to build the Great Wall of China.
Overall reaction to the book. What I enjoyed, what wasn’t for me.
My disappointment with this book lies only in the fact that I wanted to read more about the day to day lives of the Mongol Queens, to get to know each of them better, and to understand more about how they helped build and hold together the Mongol Empire. I felt like I was constantly getting just a taste of it all, but though Weatherford does a masterful job of bringing to light the information we do have, we are unfortunately limited by the very small amount of information that has survived. I do think I learned a fair bit about this period in history, and the history of the Mongol Queens is a fascinating one, so while I do wish there had been more detail, I still enjoyed most of the book and am glad I read it.
This is a good general history that I would recommend. My only caution would be that there are some disturbing moments, but it is this way throughout history. At times Weatherford’s writing can sprawl, almost as if he forgets for a moment that the reader is not as familiar with the Mongols as himself, but with a little focus this can be overcome. If you enjoy history, especially the history of empires and how they rise and fall, you will very much enjoy this book.
If this book sounds interesting to you, and you’d like to help support me, you can check it out via the amazon affiliate link below. It’s no extra cost to you, and I get a small advertising fee from Amazon for helping you find a new book.
