Customer Reviews

The march of the barbarians

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I found this book at a summer house and and once I opened it I knew my days would be spent reading it. This book relates the life of the Golden Family, Genghis Khan and his decendents in a way that makes it fascinating. How I never learned ANY of this history in school I can't believe. Lamb's greatest strength is his ability to tell the tales from the Mongol perspective. I HIGHLY recommed this book.

Either I was not paying attention in school or my history teacher neglected this chapter in history. The author did a very good job at letting the reader understand the primitive barbaric mind. How events preceeding helped develope the mongols into the superpower they became. It also gave insight on how it shaped our world today.

This is a great book. A friend gave this old ratty and torn book printed in the 1940's. I opened the cover and before I knew it, I was finnished. There are many interesting portions to this book namely Kubli Khan in 1257 became aware, upon listening to an Islamic Imam preeching, of the Quraan's objectives. Shocked upon what he heard Kubli Khan called for the most respected Mullah and asked him if it was true that with Islam's Quraan for the Moslem to kill all of the non-Moslems. The Mullah replied that the Quraan does. Kubli asked "Why do you not follow your Quraan?" The Mullah responded "It is not time. We are not powerful enough yet." Kubli relied "I am powerful enough!" and killed the Mollah and killed or expelled the rest of the Islamic population of indo-China. This seems to fit in with the realities that face the civilized world and also remends me of a quote by George Santayana....

Yes, yes, I know it was published in 1940. That's a long time, and a lot of archaeological and historical research ago. Nevertheless, this remains my favorite history of the Mongols simply because Harold Lamb is a superb writer. He is such a fine writer that this book has the readability of a novel.

Here is a sample of his style: "It was in one of the broken-down families, the refugees, that a boy was born during this year of the Hare, clutching a clot of blood in his hand. He came into the world with little except the strong instinct to survive" (p 39). Lamb is, of course, talking about Genghis Khan.

There is no way to overestimate the importance of the Mongol invasions. China would be knit together a greater empire, but also India, Russia, and the middle east would be changed by them forever.

Islamic armies had been poised to invade Europe after centuries of steady advance. It was the Mongols who ended that threat.

As warriors, the Mongols were fierce, cruel, and unyielding. If a town defied them, they killed everyone, and left the heads in a grisly pyramid behind. And they liked to return to the same town a few weeks later, to kill anyone who had escaped their original onslaught.

In the middle east, a "systematic slaughter went on. And the Moslems began to whisper that Genghis-Khan was a scourge of the supernatural, an implacable being, the Accursed.

"From one city all the inhabitants were led out, separated into groups and told to bind each other's arms. When they were all trussed up, the Mongol soldiery surrounded them and killed the masses with arrows--men, women, and children without discrimination. Then the Mongols retrieved their arrows" p 62).

Lamb is a superb storyteller. Make sure you get a copy.

Yes, yes, I know it was published in 1940. That's a long time, and a lot of archaeological and historical research ago. Nevertheless, this remains my favorite history of the Mongols simply because Harold Lamb is a superb writer. He is such a fine writer that this book has the readability of a novel.

Here is a sample of his style: "It was in one of the broken-down families, the refugees, that a boy was born during this year of the Hare, clutching a clot of blood in his hand. He came into the world with little except the strong instinct to survive" (p 39). Lamb is, of course, talking about Genghis Khan.

There is no way to overestimate the importance of the Mongol invasions. China would be knit together a greater empire, but also India, Russia, and the middle east would be changed by them forever.

Islamic armies had been poised to invade Europe after centuries of steady advance. It was the Mongols who ended that threat.

As warriors, the Mongols were fierce, cruel, and unyielding. If a town defied them, they killed everyone, and left the heads in a grisly pyramid behind. And they liked to return to the same town a few weeks later, to kill anyone who had escaped their original onslaught.

In the middle east, a "systematic slaughter went on. And the Moslems began to whisper that Genghis-Khan was a scourge of the supernatural, an implacable being, the Accursed.

"From one city all the inhabitants were led out, separated into groups and told to bind each other's arms. When they were all trussed up, the Mongol soldiery surrounded them and killed the masses with arrows--men, women, and children without discrimination. Then the Mongols retrieved their arrows" p 62).

Lamb is a superb storyteller. Make sure you get a copy.

Yes, yes, I know it was published in 1940. That's a long time, and a lot of archaeological and historical research ago. Nevertheless, this remains my favorite history of the Mongols simply because Harold Lamb is a superb writer. He is such a fine writer that this book has the readability of a novel.

Here is a sample of his style: "It was in one of the broken-down families, the refugees, that a boy was born during this year of the Hare, clutching a clot of blood in his hand. He came into the world with little except the strong instinct to survive" (p 39). Lamb is, of course, talking about Genghis Khan.

There is no way to overestimate the importance of the Mongol invasions. China would be knit together a greater empire, but also India, Russia, and the middle east would be changed by them forever.

Islamic armies had been poised to invade Europe after centuries of steady advance. It was the Mongols who ended that threat.

As warriors, the Mongols were fierce, cruel, and unyielding. If a town defied them, they killed everyone, and left the heads in a grisly pyramid behind. And they liked to return to the same town a few weeks later, to kill anyone who had escaped their original onslaught.

In the middle east, a "systematic slaughter went on. And the Moslems began to whisper that Genghis-Khan was a scourge of the supernatural, an implacable being, the Accursed.

"From one city all the inhabitants were led out, separated into groups and told to bind each other's arms. When they were all trussed up, the Mongol soldiery surrounded them and killed the masses with arrows--men, women, and children without discrimination. Then the Mongols retrieved their arrows" p 62).

Lamb is a superb storyteller. Make sure you get a copy.

Lamb wrote several books on this topic, including I believe two books on Ghengis Khan. This historical essay does what most history books fail to; it is very entertaining, partly due to the coloful lives and times of the Mongolian hordes.

I think any young person would do well to read this to gain an understanding of the real shape of the world, and some of the forces that have made it so -- and BTW, before giving in to the urge to admire these barbarians, to observe that while many other great leaders or nations left a lasting mark on the world, the greatest contribution that Ghengis and his culture made was that by their acts of genocide and wars of extermination a number of civilizations are no more. That is, Ghengis' greatest mark on the world was a void, or an absence. This is the greatest reason they are not a great name in many histories. (That said, they are still worthy of a history, and this is the one to start with!)

The great Mongol hordes were, however, an inspiration to one J.R.R. Tolkein, who was writing his whimsical series of novels at the same time as Lamb was working on this. His "Lord of the Rings" was in fact a rosy pastiche based fancifully on the very times that Ghengis and his hordes conquered Europe as far as Poland. Inasmuch as you can line up historical facts with Tolkein's fairy world, you might say that the orcs are generally the Mongols and Muslims invading from the east and south, Minas Tirith was the city of Byzantium, Osgiliath was of course the ruins of Rome, Rohan was the Germanic peoples, and Aragorn was partly borrowed from the Emperor Frederick. Numenor was the ancient Romans, and the Shire was of course Merry Olde England. (So if you take any actual history, give them names and magical powers, and throw in a few hobbits, well, it worked for him anyway ...)

But while Tolkein and his fellow "Inklings" were having tea and scratching each other's backs, Lamb was writing more realistic stories and histories, with more true-to-life character based on historic fact -- and for anyone who has read Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" I would strongly recommend you read a little bit of the stuff that Tolkien borrowed from, and discover or rediscover the joys of a well-written history of very colorful times. When you do, you will find that no fairy tale can be as exciting and fascinating as the real thing.