Mongol Siege Warfare Engineers Who Conquered Castles

Temujin vs Jamukha: The Blood Brother War That Created Genghis Khan

Before he was Genghis Khan, Temujin fought his closest friend and blood brother Jamukha in a steppe civil war that forged the Mongol Empire. This episode explores their childhood oath as anda, the political fractures that turned allies into enemies, and the brutal Battle of Dalan Balzhut (1187) where Temujin suffered his first major defeat. We look at how Jamukha's traditional tribal aristocracy clashed with Temujin's meritocratic vision, and how the betrayal of key allies—like the shift of the Jurkin and later the Jalayir—determined the war's outcome. The legend of Jamukha's execution by being broken without spilling blood is examined as both historical fact and symbolic ritual. No one has covered this pivotal relationship that shaped the unifier of the Mongols. #History #FexingoHistory #GenghisKhan #Jamukha #MongolEmpire #SteppeWarfare #Anda #BloodBrother #DalanBalzhut #Temujin #MongolCivilWar #CentralAsia #SecretHistory #Khalkha #TribalAlliance #MongolConquest #HistoricalPodcast #SteppePolitics Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

Mongol Siege Warfare Engineers Who Conquered Castles

The Mongols are famous for horse archers and steppe tactics, but how did they crack the walls of China, Persia, and Eastern Europe? This episode follows the engineers—Chinese, Persian, Muslim—who built the Mongols' siege machinery. We meet Guo Kan, the Chinese commander whose counterweight trebuchets smashed Baghdad; the Persian brothers who defected with advanced mining techniques; and the Kipchak slaves who taught the Mongols to build floating bridges. From the Khwarazmian cities to the fortresses of the Caucasus, we trace how Genghis Khan and his successors integrated foreign expertise into a mobile siege corps that changed warfare. Along the way, we confront a dark controversy: the myth of the 'secret Arab powder' that supposedly blew up castles, and the reality of Mongol adaptability under leaders like Möngke and Hulagu. A story of cultural exchange, ruthless efficiency, and the forgotten architects of conquest. #MongolSiegeWarfare #GuoKan #CounterweightTrebuchet #MongolEngineers #SiegeOfBaghdad #Hulagu #GenghisKhan #MöngkeKhan #Khwarazm #Karakorum #ChinDynasty #IslamicScience #History #FexingoHistory #MilitaryHistory #Globalization #MedievalWarfare #CulturalExchange Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

Mongol Paper Money and the Birth of Fiat Currency

Before the Mongol Empire, paper money was a curiosity. Under Khubilai Khan's Yuan dynasty, it became the lifeblood of a continental economy. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the Mongols created the world's first large-scale fiat currency system — forcing merchants from Persia to Venice to accept chao, or paper notes, backed not by gold or silver but by the authority of the khagan. They trace the journey from early Chinese prototypes under the Song and Jin dynasties to Khubilai's radical expansion, supported by Marco Polo's awestruck descriptions. The system used mulberry-bark paper, official seals, and draconian counterfeiting laws. It financed Mongol armies, built roads, and facilitated Silk Road trade — but it also created inflation crises, especially in the Ilkhanate under Ghazan Khan. Lucas explains why Persian historian Rashid al-Din both praised and warned against paper money, and how the Yuan experiment collapsed with the dynasty. This episode offers a fresh lens on Mongol statecraft: an empire that conquered with horses but ruled with printing presses. #MongolPaperMoney #Chao #KhubilaiKhan #YuanDynasty #FiatCurrency #MarcoPolo #RashidAlDin #Ilkhanate #GhazanKhan #SilkRoadTrade #MulberryBarkPaper #Counterfeiting #EconomicHistory #PaxMongolica #SongDynasty #JinDynasty #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Mongols at Ain Jalut: How the Mamluks Broke the Invincible Army

In 1260, the seemingly unstoppable Mongol army suffered its first decisive defeat at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine. This episode unpacks the clash between the Ilkhanate under Kitbuqa and the Mamluk Sultanate under Qutuz and Baybars. We explore the strategic gambles, the use of the famed Mamluk 'fake retreat' tactic, the role of the Qutuz-Baybars partnership, and the long-term consequences: halting Mongol expansion into North Africa, reshaping the Islamic world's power balance, and cementing the Mamluks as a major force. We also touch on the political chaos after Möngke Khan's death that left Hulagu with a fraction of his army. Specific details include the spring at Ain Jalut (Goliath's Spring), the defection of the Ayyubid prince al-Ashraf Musa, and the execution of Kitbuqa after the battle. #BattleOfAinJalut #MongolEmpire #MamlukSultanate #Kitbuqa #Qutuz #Baybars #Ilkhanate #HulaguKhan #MongolWarfare #MamlukTactics #Palestine #AinJalut #MedievalHistory #Crusades #MongolExpansion #History #FexingoHistory #MilitaryHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

Mongol Siege of Baghdad: How an Empire Ended an Age

In 1258, Hulagu Khan's Mongol army laid siege to Baghdad, then the world's most dazzling city — home to a million people, the Abbasid caliphate, and the legendary House of Wisdom. This episode follows the siege from the approach of Mongol engineers with Chinese siege weapons to the fall of the Round City, the murder of Caliph al-Musta'sim, and the destruction of centuries of Persian and Arabic learning. We explore the strategic miscalculations of the caliph, the role of Hulagu's Nestorian Christian wife Dokuz Khatun, and the haunting legacy of the Mongol sack, which shattered the Islamic Golden Age and redrew the map of the Middle East. Along the way, we touch on the Mongol use of terror as a psychological weapon, the fate of the famed library's books thrown into the Tigris, and how the Ilkhanate emerged from the ruins. Fresh for listeners who know the Yam or the Yassa — this is the empire's most consequential conquest, in all its brutal detail. #SiegeOfBaghdad #HulaguKhan #AbbasidCaliphate #Ilkhanate #MongolEmpire #HouseOfWisdom #AlMustasim #DokuzKhatun #Nestorian #Baghdad1258 #MongolSiegeWarfare #IslamicGoldenAge #ChineseSiegeWeapons #CentralAsia #MedievalHistory #History #FexingoHistory #WorldHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]