preliminary remarks 25
qurultai of 1206, marked the triumph of a new identity with similarly all-
encompassing values.
When the same assembly of nobles saw the proclamation of empire, this
was a marked break with the tribal past. the military was reorganised on the
lines of units of ten men, then of a hundred, a thousand and so on upwards
in a unitary principle,78 and this too marked a decisive point in the long
process of breaking up the kinship society. Blood ties had been a source of
strength but also of wider disunity, and now they gave way to a new, feudal
or vassal loyalty.79 this supplanted tribal or clan solidarity or enmity, and
opened the way to a new, imperial identity for the nomads as the Mon-
gol ulus, formed and proclaimed at the qurultai. 80 at the same time, the
imperial army took shape. this was to be a formidable instrument in future
conquests, and was born of the mass movement ushered in by these radical
changes in the world of the steppe-dwellers. chinggis Khan was the son of
this revolution.
In both cases rigorous monotheism contributed decisively to cement-
ing nomad power, whether this was focused on allah,81 or on the cult of
the eternal Blue heaven (Kök Tengri).82
chinggis Khan has the distinction not only of having brought the nomad
fighting forces together under one banner with exemplary organisational
skills, but also, equally important, of having enthused them with a mobil-
ising ideal above and beyond their expectations: his imperial vision was
ideologically present, albeit only in nuce, as early as 1206. the underlying
idea of world conquest soon became state doctrine and thereby the ultimate
goal of expansion. By the mandate of heaven, chinggis Khan and his fam-
ily were designated as the executors and beneficiaries of the mission. From
the chinese emperor to the pope in rome, those who did not submit to the
ultimatum of unconditional surrender were considered “rebels” and treated
as such. the talk was no longer of raiding expeditions but rather of world
domination. this sets the Mongol expansion clearly apart from the usual run
78 Geheime Geschichte, pp. 154–161; these units were not solely military in nature, since
they were also the basic building block of the territorial administration (cf. allsen, Impe-
rialism, pp. 190–194).
79 cf. Vladimirtsov, Régime, passim.
80 although named after the population that had founded the empire, the ‘Mongol
ulus’ was multiethnic in character from the start, as it were a supranational entity.
81 cf. Gardet, “allāh.”
82 cf. roux, “tängri.”