ABSTRACT
In the thirteenth century, Mongolia was prosperous. It was not hungry nomads or nomads being pressed from behind by other groups who set off on campaigns but a rising power seeking to expand. Among the Mongols, as among all the nomad peoples who preceded them, disunity and conflict prevailed until Genghis Khan subjected them to a common discipline. Until the thirteenth century, compared to the Turkic-speaking peoples, the Mongols had played a relatively secondary role in High Asia. At the death of Genghis, the Mongol empire covered the whole of High Asia, the north of Iran and Afghanistan as well as northern China. The empire of the Mongols survived longest in the traditional area of nomad empires—the Eurasian steppe, from Mongolia through Turkestan to southern Russia. The descendants of Jochi and Chagatai Khanate, masters of central Asia and Russia, retained their power longest.
