Mongol Warrior 1200–1350

This extract is taken from the chapter entitled ‘Recruitment and training of the Mongol Army’

The Mongol numbers were indeed large when seen from the point of view of the proportion of fighting men taken from within their society, because the Mongols were able to mobilise a greater proportion of their people than comparable sedentary societies. But the impression of invariable huge numbers was often illusory, and in some cases the size of the Mongol army was actually inferior to its enemies. In 1211 Genghis Khan began his campaign against the Jin Dynasty of China with about 110,000 men. This was less than a quarter of the manpower that could be mobilised by his opponents.

One reason for the impression of large numbers was that an individual warrior would typically have had with him five or six horses used for remounts. Sometimes, the Mongols also mounted dummies on these spare horses. Yet even if we play safe and use the most conservative estimates, the numbers are still very large.

However, as many campaigns were carried out far from the Mongol heartlands then the question of reinforcements arises. Recruits from Mongolia would reach the various armies from time to time, but they cannot have been great in number, and there would have been a certain time lapse before they joined up with the forces they were sent to augment. The alternative practice was for the Mongols to make good their losses on the spot. This happened in Persia, Afghanistan and southern Russia. The previous rulers had been destroyed, and the Mongols were able to recruit auxiliaries from among those of the population who led a pastoral or nomadic life. When Subadai continued his move towards Europe with only the smallest of reinforcements from Genghis Khan in 1221, his numbers were swollen by Kurds, Turks and Turcomans willing to share in the fighting and the loot. In such ways the growing Mongol army acquired an ‘imperialist’ appearance from quite early on in its activities. During the northern Chinese campaign auxiliaries like these provided Genghis Khan’s first foot soldiers, but even more important were the artisans and engineers recruited because of their skills in building and operating siege weapons. They were made very welcome in the Mongol ranks.