15. 1200-1400 Pastoral and Mongol Women 

Despite men, primarily Genghis Khan, being the focus of the pastoral and Mongol empires between 1200-1400 women still existed and played a vital role. Some behind the scene and other were more forward. In addition, women's everyday lives were affected by the conquests of the Mongols in particular and often there were violent consequences. This section will discuss rape and sexual assault. 

Börte and Ghengis Khan, Wikimedia Commons

It would be a big mistake to assume that because women had more freedoms that they were equal or even protected members of society. Some historians argue that the nomadic stress on bride-wealth degraded women to chattel, and they were effectively purchased by husbands like property. Mongol women both before and after the unification of the tribes were often subject to rape and kidnapping during times of war. 

Pastoral Women:
Pastoral women often held a higher status compared to their settled peers. They had fewer restrictions on their role in public life and were involved in productive as well as reproductive labor. Mongol women were frequently used as political advisors. Misogyny was absolutely present, but pastoral communities’ religious sermons showed some individual focus on women’s spiritual needs, as well as some authentic depictions of the complexity in women’s lives. The presence of such ideas and understanding in a religious context is significant, given the long history of preferential treatment toward men. 
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The pastoral roles of women can be seen most explicitly in the Mongol Empire (1206-1368), an initially small pastoral empire from the steppes of Mongolia. This empire was founded by Genghis Khan who united the feuding and volatile Mongol clans with his charisma and reliance on friends over kin. Khan was raised by his resourceful mother, Hoelun, when their family was forced into exile. They abandoned pastoralism and ascribed to a hunter-gatherer like life. This was an enormous drop in social standing. Before and during the unification, the Mongols herded horses for their prolific cavalry, sheep, goats, yaks, and more. When a European visitor to Mongolia described Mongol women. He wrote, “Girls and women ride in Gallup as skillfully as men. We even saw them carrying quivers and bows, And the women can ride horses for as long as the man; they have shorter stirrups, handle horses very well, and mind all the property. [Mongol] Women make everything: skin clothes, shoes, leggings, and everything made of leather.They drive carts and repair them, they load camels, and our quick and vigorous and all their tasks.They all wear trousers, and some of them shoot just like men.”

Börte was the first and favored wife of Khan. She was betrothed to Khan at a young age and married at 17. At some point she was captured by a rival clan and he decided to rescue her. This decision may have launched him on his path toward conquering the world. Little is known about her life but she had nine children by Khan, who’s bloodline would help the expanding empire
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Mongol women owned property, served in religious roles, rode horseback as the men did, at times fought in battle and served as regents. They made camps and transport supplies for the army. Raising children was the responsibility of both parents, and marriages were arranged by both families. However, men could practice polygamy, though only the first wife was his legal wife, and thus her and her children would inherit his property. Most widows would not remarry, but rather became the head of household themselves. This was a far cry from the lives of women in neighboring civilizations.

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Chinese shoes for bound feet, National Museum of American History

Song China:
By comparison, the Chinese under the Song Dynasty were in a “Golden Age” for men but was a horrifying age for women.
The Song Dynasty reunified China and ruled from the late 900s into the 1300s. The decreasing influence of steppe nomads whose women had less restricted lives, and the return to fundamentalist Confucianism led to the Song Chinese keeping women separate in almost every domain in life. They emphasized women’s weakness, delicacy, and sexuality.

The best example of increasing restrictions for women was a new practice of foot binding. Foot binding involved breaking and strapping a young girl's feet to a mold so that her feet would remain perpetually small even into adulthood. Foot binding was commonly accepted among elite families and later became widespread in China. It served to distinguish Chinese women from barbarians and peasants. It reinforced female frailty and emphasized their small size. Mothers impose this painful procedure on their daughters in order to improve their marriage prospects and help their daughters compete with concubines for the attention of men. Foot binding became a rite of passage and was usually accompanied by beautiful gifted slippers. 

The Song Dynasty did however witness some positive trends for women. Women continue to work in textiles spinning silk threads and weaving silk fabrics. In cities women had businesses in restaurants, as maids, and dressmakers. Property rights for women expanded when some officials began urging the education of women so they can teach their sons economics.

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Korea:
Further northeast, the expansion of Chinese influence in Korea led to the expansion of Confucianism there. This included Chinese models of family life and female behavior. Korean women, accustomed to raising their children in their parents' homes were now expected to live with their husband’s families who owned them. Women lost their rights to inheritance, divorce, and men were no longer buried in the wife’s family plot. Elite women, especially wealthy widows, were heavily restricted… because women’s money needed to be controlled. But on the upside, the practice of plural marriages ended. By 1413 men had to determine which wife was primary in which way for secondary, and the first wife had special privileges and status.

So by comparison, pastoral life with the Mongols might seem appealing… but the path to becoming Mongol involved conquest, and few fared well on the losing end of a battle with Mongols.

Rape Culture in War:
The Mongol Empire grew rapidly out of Mongolia and into China and the rest of Eurasia. They sacked Baghdad, marking the end of the Islamic Empire and destroying scrolls on science and theology. They proved vastly superior in war, especially on horseback compared to their Eurasian peers. They were better led, organized, and disciplined. As the Mongols marched on cities, they were known to be ruthless, and unnecessarily violent. Women were on the front lines of conquests, and helped manage the spoils of war. Conquered soldiers were scattered and redistributed into new units, so the army perpetually grew and created a sort of social revolution as tribe loyalty was replaced by loyalty to one's unit and commander. Commanders rode in the front and dressed in the same attire. Khan declared, “Whoever submits shall be spared, but those who resist, they shall be destroyed with their wives, children and dependents.” Thousands of enemy families who refused to surrender were executed in mass. 

Conquered women were often enslaved. Because this involves war and conquest, this section does take a more serious turn, as women have always been subjected to rape and assault during war. This is a trigger warning for sexual assault, and if needed, skip to the next section.

Genghis Khan's own armies had undoubtedly inflicted such “punishments” on the women in the regions they conquered, but Kahn imposed orders against it. He wrote detailed laws about the treatment of women, including that even married women would not engage in sex until age sixteen, and they would need to be the one to initiate this with their husband. He also imposed laws against rape, kidnapping, and enslavement.

Unironically, Khan himself would often have women lined up in order ranked by their beauty. Only the most beautiful women were entered into his harem, while the apparently “less beautiful” were given to his sons and commanders. He used sexual violence as a deterrent for future enemies and to terrorize conquered women– preferring to sleep with the wives and daughters of the defeated enemy rulers. Today 16% of men can trace their lineage back to Khan– evidence of how many conquered women were subjected to rape at the hands of him and his decedents. 

There are several stories of how he died. The most commonly accepted was that he died of injuries from a fall off a horse in 1227. One of the more questionable accounts, claims he was castrated and murdered while trying to rape a Chinese princess.

After he died, sexual terrorism remained a part of the empire he created. One of his own sons, Ogodei Khan, infamously ordered nearly four thousand girls repeatedly raped in front of their male relatives in lands he was seizing from his sister. He also took many others into his own personal harem, and doled others out to be sex slaves throughout his occupied lands. He used this monstrous act to not only seize his sibling’s lands, but intending to continue it while picking off the lands of his other siblings and his father’s other wives.
 
The Mongol Empire spread quickly and then fractured, stretching from China to Eastern Europe. Geography proved limiting for them. They tried to invade Japan but failed– sea faring was not their forte. They went for India, but the Himalayas were tall. While conquest was brutal, the empire itself was tolerant of various religions and established a sophisticated structure of governance for such a large empire.

Khan married Börte’s daughter Alakhai Bekhi off in a political marriage to secure the region south of Mongolia called the Gobi Desert. At some point the people revolted against their Mongol rulers. Her husband was killed, but she escaped back to the Mongol army. She married her step-son and regained stable control of the region and Khan gave her the title, "Princess Who Runs the State”. 

​Powerful Women:
Women shone most in the aftermath of Ghengis Khan’s death.  The Great Mongol Empire was split into four khanates, often opposed to one another. Khan’s eldest sons were at odds so he appointed his third son successor– in this climate, the daughters of conquered kingdoms who had been married off to Khan’s descendants were poised to undo the empire. Known as “widow queens,” many conquered women were left in charge when the governors of different parts of the empire died. Four queens in particular ripped apart Khan’s empire. Töregene, Oghul-Qaimish, Sorqoqtani, and Chabi, were all conquered wives who had witnessed their fathers and brothers murdered by the Mongols and the deteriorated status of their people. Their trauma was not documented, but certainly their loyalty was not to their new husbands. They used their status within the new government to subvert the empire.

Sorkhogtani and Tolui, World History Encyclopedia

Töregene:
Töregene was a Shiite Muslim gifted as a wife to Khan’s third son and ruled at his death as regent for her son. She replaced all of her husband's advisors and brought in her own, including a Persian woman named Fatima. Despite her help, when her favorite son, Guruk, took power, he battled with his mother claiming Fatima was a witch. Fatima was drowned and Töregene died in unknown circumstances– a threat to his reign.

Sorkhogtani:
Across the empire, Sorkhogtani was the wife of Genghis’s youngest son, Tolui. Sorkogtani was an Eastern Christian from north of the Baltic Sea. Tolui was a reckless drunk, and she was basically ruling in his name until he died of poisoning– wonder who was behind that? As Mongol society dictated, she became the head of household and inherited his property. Guruk tried to marry her to expand his power, but refused claiming “loyalty” to her deceased husband. 

After Guruk murdered his mother and began to move on other territories ruled by wives, Sorkhogtani likely had him killed. 

She became regent for her sons in the region of Iran. Though she herself could not read, she insisted that her sons be well educated to properly run the empire. She also ensured that each learned the languages of the people they would rule, and encouraged religious tolerance. She even donated to both Christian and Muslim churches. During her time as regent, she helped with opening trade, encouraged the exchange of ideas throughout the empire, and advised Ogodai and other leaders about the dangers of exploiting their conquered people, which often meant greater tolerance and security for the people under the Khans. 
 
Sorghaghtani fell ill and died in February or March 1252. As one of the most powerful people in the Mongol Empire she helped to ensure its longevity and transition into the future. She was one of those rare figures that was well regarded in a number of different historical sources, and her importance may be rivaled only by Genghis Khan himself.
 
As the Mongols became more settled and less nomadic, women fell prey to many of the shortcomings of other societies. Their rights and freedoms fell deep into the recesses of men’s shadows, and violence toward women increased, even under the reign of Sorkhokhtani’s sons. Her eldest son would still appoint some women as queens, but made sure they had no power independent of him. Despite Genghis’s system of balancing the powers of men and women, his successors would simply not share this vision of the future.

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Portrait of Chabi, Wikimedia Commons

Chabi:
Chabi was the wife of Kublai Khan, Ghengis Khan’s grandson and ruler of China. Chabi mixed freely with men at social gatherings, rejected foot binding, and forced Khan into treating the Chinese better. Khan relied heavily on female advisors. 

In China, intermarriages were forbidden. The Mongols lived in “ger cities,” a type of yurt, outside major Chinese cities and maintained their lifestyle not imposing it on their Chinese subjects.

Japan: 
The Mongols under Khan and Chabi tried to invade Japan by sea, but failed. This allowed for continuity, stability, and the growth of the arts in Japanese culture. Learn more about Japan’s culture in 13. Women in Feudal Europe and Japan.

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Delhi Sultanate:
Safe from Mongol conquest on the other side of the Himalayan mountains, in the 1200s Century, northern India saw the rise of the Delhi Sultanate. There Razia Sultana became the first female Muslim leader of the region. She began her political career under her father, Iltutmish, tending to the administrative needs of their people while he was away at war. He put his trust in her because he believed his sons were all too selfish and focused on having fun to properly manage the state affairs while he was gone, and even after his death. Thus, when he returned, he named her as his heir, telling his nobles that she was the most capable of his children.
 
The nobles didn’t quite buy it, however, and appointed her half-brother after their father’s death. In response, she successfully led a rebellion to claim power. It was not only an anomaly to have a woman as a leader, but further, her rebellion was one based on public support. She galvanized the people and they would be the ones to drive her to the throne. Despite her meteoric rise, when she claimed the throne in 1236, many of her political allies and enemies alike still expected her to serve in a ceremonial role while they pulled the strings behind the scenes, but she refused to relinquish her power. She even began to create a new class of nobles from her supporters to temper their power.
 
Thus, she ran afoul of the aristocracy, who ultimately launched their own rebellion to depose her. She led an army out of Delhi to meet them, and after a few key victories, some of the rebels began to defect to her and the other leaders were caught and executed. From there, the nobles were forced to accept her authority, though she continued to face conflict throughout her reign including civil conflicts between Sunnis and Shias, as well as incursions by the Mongols. Still, despite these other threats, the nobles continued to be her greatest hurdle.
 
She increasingly broke from tradition to assert her authority and better connect with the people. She dressed as a man in public, and rode through the streets atop an elephant as the sultans of the past had. She regularly made connections and appearances among the people, rather than catering to the nobility. She even elevated formerly enslaved people to elite positions within her administration. Shy of four years after her reign had begun, enough of her nobles had joined forces to overthrow her and began unraveling the vision she had for Delhi. She would try once again to launch a rebellion, but failed, and was killed in the process.

Conclusion: 
Eventually the Mongols were expelled from China in a rebellion and declined elsewhere partly because women undermined their leadership. Everywhere women survive rape and sexual terrorism, there is a resilient force working for revenge. One of the greatest achievements of the Mongols would also be their undoing. Their vast networks and efficient communications and governance structure secured trade on the Silk Roads leading to flourishing trade during this time. But trade also led to the mixing of peoples– and this helped spread the plague from China westward. By some estimates 50-90% of various populations died. 

The Mongolian Empire would not survive. The Mongols left no major mark on the lands they left. Religions and cultures that existed before them reemerged in their wake. In its place, in China, the Middle East, and Europe, parts of Africa, would see a rebirth. But would women?

[Setting up the Inquiry] By the end of this era, so much remained in question. How would the Eurasian world rebuild after the Mongols? What role would women play in that effort?

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Bibliography

Broadbridge, A. (2018). Bibliography. In Women and the Making of the Mongol Empire (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization, pp. 299-322). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108347990.012 

"Chinggis Khan and his wife Börte in The Secret History of the Mongols," in World History Commons, https://worldhistorycommons.org/chinggis-khan-and-his-wife-borte-secret-history-mongols. 

History Editors. “10 Things You May Not Know About Genghis Khan.” History. https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-genghis-khan#:~:text=The%20traditional%20narrative%20says%20he,himself%20on%20a%20Chinese%20princess.

Mayell, Hillary. “Genghis Khan a Prolific Lover, DNA Data Implies.” National Geographic. February 14, 2003. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/mongolia-genghis-khan-dna.

Miles, Rosalind. The Women’s History of the World. London, UK: Harper Collins Publishers, 1988.

​Scharping, Nathaniel. “The Life of Genghis Khan, the Ruthless Warlord Who Created the World’s Largest Empire: 800 years ago, a young man rose to power in Mongolia. The world would never be the same.” Discover. October 17, 2020. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-life-of-genghis-khan-the-ruthless-warlord-who-created-the-worlds-largest. 

​​Strayer, R. and Nelson, E., Ways Of The World. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016.

Primary AUTHOR:

Jacqui Nelson

Primary Reviewer:

Kelsie Brook Eckert

Consulting Team

Editors

Kelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University

Dr. Nancy Locklin-Sofer, Consultant
Professor of History at Maryville University. 

Chloe Gardner, Consultant
PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University

Dr. Whitney Howarth, Consultant
Former Professor of History at Plymouth State University

Jacqui Nelson, Consultant
Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University

​Maria Concepcion Marquez Sandoval
PhD Candidate in History at Arizona University

Amy Flanders
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy
Ron Kaiser
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy
Chris Canfield
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy

Reviewers

Ancient:
Dr. Kristin Heineman
Professor of History at Colorado State University
Dr. Bonnie Rock-McCutcheon
Professor of History at Wilson College
Sarah Stone
PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University
Medieval:
Dr. Katherine Koh
Professor of History at La Sierra University
Dr. Jonathan Couser
Professor of History at Plymouth State University
Dr. Shahla Haeri
Professor of History at Boston University 
Lauren Cole
PhD Candidate in History at Northwestern University
Modern:
Dr. Jack Gronau
Professor of History at Northeastern University