A History of Agriculture in India v2.c63.5

v2.c63.5

While the two Sultans were busy fighting each other, a new menace threatened India in the north. These were the Mongols again. Here it would be pertinent to recapitulate the history of Mongols. In the middle of the thirteenth century, the great Mongol Empire was funded by Chingiz Khan. It extended from China to Eastern Europe and included a good bit of Russia. Chingiz Khan died in A.D. 1227. His successor, Ogdai, had conquered northern China, and his nephew Batu had led the Western Mongols into Europe. By A.D. 1240 they had reached the Dnieper, and destroyed Kiev. "Princes, bishops, nuns, and children were slain with savage cruelty. It is impossible to describe the barbarities that prolonged the death of the unfortunate inhabitants. None remained to weep or to tell the tale of disaster." They moved on into eastern Europe in two columns, the northern against Poland and the southern against Hungary. In A.D. 1241 the whole of Silesia was devastated, while Batu destroyed an Hungarian army, took Pesth and Gran, and sent expeditions into the Balkans. Central and Western Europe was saved only by the death of Ogdai in that year, which compelled Batu and the other Mongol chieftains to go back to Karakorum in Mongolia for the election of a new khan. The Mongols later returned to Poland and Silesia, took Cracow and Beuthen, and drove away great numbers of slaves, but contented themselves with imposing their suzerainty on Russia.