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The Silk Roads: The Extraordinary History that created your World – Illustrated Edition

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Peter Frankopan

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“In a hundred years no one you know will be alive. What will it matter if we fight or just spend our days sleeping in the sun?" Zhenjin blinked at him, unable to understand his father's strange mood. "If it doesn't matter, then why are we going to fight your brother?" "Perhaps I haven't said it well. I mean it doesn't matter if we change the world. The world moves on and new lives come and go. Genghis himself said he would be forgotten and, believe me, he left a long shadow. It does matter how we live, Zhenjin! It matters that we use what we are given, for just our brief time in the sun." He smiled to see his son struggling with the idea. "It's all you can say, when the end comes: 'I didn't waste my time.' I think that matters. I think it may be all that matters.”

CallingMeaningNihilismGenghis Khan
Book:Conqueror
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“[D]uring the years 1219-21 Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol empire in eastern Asia, burst into western Asia. Offended by the insolent behaviour of the same ruler of Khwarazm who a few years earlier had annihilated the Ghurids, the Mongol leaders personally marched across Asia to punish the impudent monarch. In the course of this expedition, Mongol cavalry inflicted fire and fury throughout Central Asia and Khurasan, driving many thousands of terrified town-dwellers and semi-nomadic peoples into India, where they sought and found refuge. It was a propitious moment both for them and for Iltumish, who needed men skilled in civil and military affairs in order to govern his fledgling kingdom. The influx of a host of refugees in search of a stable state with a successful and generous Muslim ruler boosted the Sultan's claims to being precisely that sort of sovereign. For Iltumish and the youthful Delhi sultanate, then, the Mongol holocaust in Central Asia proved a timely book, unlike the catastrophy it represented for millions in Asia and the Middle East.”

HistoryIndiaGenghis KhanMongol
Book:India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765
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“The Mongols did not find honor in fighting; they found honor in winning. They had a single goal in every campaign—total victory. Toward this end, it did not matter what tactics were used against the enemy or how the battles were fought or avoided being fought. Winning by clever deception or cruel trickery was still winning and carried no stain on the bravery of the warriors, since there would be plenty of other occasions for showing prowess on the field.”

Genghis Khan
Book:Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
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“Parviz continued, “Do you even know why we refer to it as toman?” “No, never thought about it, why?” Hooman replied with as much spirit as his mask could muster. “Well, it’s from the Mongolian word tümen, which means ‘unit of ten thousand.’” He gritted his teeth, agitating Hooman more than hearing about his son getting caught and arrested. Money was his only real love. “That terror, Genghis Khan, still lives with us to this day.”

IranIranianPersiaGenghis KhanGenghis Khan QuotesRialIranian CurrencyTomanIranian History
Book:Tajrish
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