The caravan that destroyed a civilisation | WHAT STOPPED THE MONGOLS? Part 3

History Onion · Part 3 · 2:58

In 1218 a governor on the Khwarezmian border seized a Mongol trade caravan and killed the merchants. He was the Shah's own uncle, which made it a decision of the state — and it brought Genghis Khan across the Syr Darya with a hundred thousand men in four columns. Part 3 is the war, city by city: Otrar, Bukhara, Samarkand, Urgench, then the great Persian cities of Khorasan — Merv, Nishapur, Herat. What the Mongols offered before every siege, what happened to the cities that refused, the Shah hunted across Persia to an island in the Caspian, the libraries of Merv, and the one great city that held. Numbers & sources: the caravan is given as about 450 men by Juvayni, a Persian historian who served the Mongols. Genghis's three envoys were one Muslim and two Mongols; the Shah executed the Muslim and had the Mongols' beards shaved. The governor's execution by molten silver is Juvayni's account and may be legend. Death tolls for Merv above a million come from Juvayni and from Juzjani, a refugee from the invasion; modern historians regard both figures as impossible for a city of Merv's size, and the video gives them as the chroniclers' figures. Isfahan was not taken in Genghis's lifetime; it fell to Mongol armies around 1241. Names use familiar English spellings (Genghis Khan = Chinggis Khaan; Ogedei = Ögedei; Khwarezm = Khwārazm). Some scenes are cinematic reconstructions of documented events. All quotes, dates, and sources are historically verified. #history #mongols #genghiskhan #historyshorts #documentary #iran #persia