NCERT Solutions for Class 11 History - Nomadic Empires

Q1: Why was trade so significant to the Mongols?
Ans: 

• The region which was occupied by Mongols lacked natural resources. The steppe region of central Asia had an extreme climate.
• Cultivation of food was not possible there, only trade could help their survival.
• The Mongols were forced to trade as the scanty resources of the steppes did not help cultivation. So the Mongols traded with neighbouring countries and it was beneficial for both parties.

Nomadic EmpireQ2: Why did Genghis Khan feel the need to fragment the Mongol tribes into new social and military groupings?
Ans: Genghis Khan felt the need of fragmentation of  the Mongol tribes into new social and military groupings on account of the following reasons:

• Mongols were their own separate identities and were the inhabitants of the steppe region. Genghis Khan wanted to bring them in contact with other tribals through social grouping or ties like a mirage with other tribal communities.
• Mongols were very brave taking the advantage of their bravery Genghis  Khan organized them into military groups and established a formidable empire.

Q3: How do later Mongol reflections on the yasa bring out the uneasy relationship they had with the memory of Genghis Khan.
Ans: Yasa was the rules and regulations. These were approved by Quritali during Genghis Khan’s reign. These rules were mainly concerned with the Mongol army, hunting, postage system, social ladder, etc. They were the compilation of traditions and customs that prevailed in Mongol tribal society itself.

Q4: ‘If history relies upon written records produced by city-based literati, nomadic societies will always receive a hostile representation.’ Would you agree with this statement? Does it explain the reason why Persian chronicles produced such inflated figures of casualties resulting from Mongol campaigns?
Ans: Yes, I agree with the statement. I give the following reasons for my view:
(i) Persian chronicles produced inflated figures of casualties resulting from Mongol campaigns to prove their cruelty or to prove them as cruel assassins.
(ii) There was a vast difference between The secret society of Mongol and macro polo’s Travelogues in terms of event and their descriptions.
(iii) Being the transcontinental span of the Mongol empire, the sources were written in different languages.

Answer in Essay

Q5: Keeping the nomadic element of the Mongol and Bedouin societies in mind, how, in your opinion, did their respective historical experiences differ? What explanations would you suggest account for these differences?
Ans: The steep dwellers themselves usually produced no literature, so our knowledge of nomadic societies under Mongol are quite different and the Italian and Latin version of Marco Polo’s travels to the Mongol court do not match. Since the Mongol produce little literature of their own and were instead ‘Written about’ by literati from foreign cultural milieus, historians have to often double as a philologist to pick out the meanings of phrases for their closest approximation to Mongol usage. The work of scholars like Igor de Rachewiltz on 'The secret of History' of the Mongol and Gerhard Doerfer on Mongol and Turki terminologies that infiltrated into the Persian language brings out the difficulties involved in studying the history of the central Asian nomads. Despite their incredible achievement there is much about Genghis Khan and the Mongol world empire still awaiting the diligent scholar’s scrutiny.

Q6: How does the following account enlarge upon the character of the Pax Mongolica created by the Mongols by the middle of the thirteenth century?
Ans:

• Mongol rulers were not fanatics and anxious to get the blessings of all the people. They recruited administrators and armed forces from people of all ethnic groups and religions. There was a multilingual, multi-religious regime that did not feel threatened by its pluralistic constitution.
• It became clear that the French MONARCH LOUIES iX had sent his ambassador William of Rubruck to the Karakorum, the capital of Mongke in 1254 this depicts that Mongols rulers had established a well-knit with their neighbors.
• Guillaume Boucher provide that Mongol rulers lived with great pomp and show and they had brought servants to serve them from different parts of the world. They were paid good salaries. That is why they reached to serve Mongol court from far away.