Incidents of Fire-set Live Animals in Mongol Sieges of the Chinggis Khagan Period from Historical and Psychological Perspectives
Çetin KayaPeople’s use of animals for various needs dates back to ancient times. Although nutrition is the primary need, their scope of use has begun to expand over time. Animals were used as an element of superiority in the struggles of people. Animals have various emotions. One of these emotions is fear. Over time, animals’ sense of fear has been turned into a weapon by humans. The most striking example of this was the siege of Beijing, which the Mongols conducted between 1211 and 1214. This event is described in detail in at work written by Mongolian author Saghang Sechen in 1662. According to this work, while the Mongols were besieging Beijing, the Jin Emperor made a peace offer to Chinggis Khagan on the advice of his advisors. Therefore, Chinggis Khagan stated that he would lift the siege if 10,000 swallows and a thousand cats were given to him. The Jin Emperor accepted this request. However, the Mongols tied cotton to the feet of the swallows and wrapped cotton around the tails of the cats. Then they set the flammable materials on fire. The animals ran for their lives toward their nests in the city. Thus, they caused the wooden structures there catch fire. After this incident, the city surrendered. As a result, the Jin Emperor gave his daughter to Chinggis Khagan and established a friendship with him. This study focuses on the confirmation of this event in Saghang Sechen’s work through historical chronicles and their psychological aspects.
Tarihi ve Psikolojik Açıdan Çinggis Kagan Dönemi Moğol Kuşatmalarında Canlı Hayvanların Ateşe Verilmesi Vakıaları
Çetin Kayaİnsanların hayvanları çeşitli ihtiyaçları için kullanmaya başlamaları çok eskiye dayanmaktadır. Bu ihtiyaçların başında beslenme gelmesine rağmen zamanla kullanım alanları genişlemeye başlamıştır. Hayvanlar, insanların birbirlerine karşı verdikleri mücadelelerde üstünlük unsuru olarak kullanılmışlardır. Çoğu canlı gibi hayvanların da çeşitli duygulara sahip oldukları bilinmektedir. Bu duygulardan biri de korkudur. Zamanla hayvanların korku duygusu insanlar tarafından silaha dönüştürülmüştür. Bunun en çarpıcı örneği de Moğolların 1211-1214 yılları arasında gerçekleştirdikleri Pekin kuşatmalarında görülmüştür. 1662 yılında Moğol müellif Sagan Seçen tarafından yazılan eserde bu olay ayrıntılı şekilde anlatılmaktadır. Esere göre, Moğollar Pekin şehrini kuşattıkları sırada, Jin İmparatoru müşavirlerinin tavsiyesi üzerine Çinggis Kagan’a sulh teklifinde bulunmuştur. Çinggis Kagan da eğer kendisine on bin kırlangıç ve bin adet kedi verilirse kuşatmayı kaldıracağını iletmiştir. Jin İmparatoru bu isteği kabul etmiş ve ona istediklerini vermiştir. Ancak Moğollar getirilen kırlangıçların ayaklarına kumaşlar bağlamış, kedilerin de kuyruklarına pamuklar sarmıştır. Ardından da bu yanıcı maddeleri ateşe vermişler. Ateşten duydukları şiddetli korkuyla serbest bırakılan hayvanlar can havliyle şehirde bulunan yuvalarına doğru kaçmışlardır. Böylece oradaki ahşap yapıların alev almasını sağlamışlardır. Bu olayın ardından savunma gücü kırılan şehir teslim olmuştur. Neticede Jin İmparatoru kızını Çinggis Kagan’a vererek onunla dostluk tesis etmiştir. Yapmış olduğumuz çalışma Sagan Seçen’in eserinde geçen bu olayın tarihi kroniklerce teyidi ve psikolojik yönlerine odaklanmaktadır.
People’s use of animals for various needs dates back to ancient times. Although nutrition is the primary need, their scope of use has begun to expand over time. Animals have been used as an element of superiority in the struggles of people against each other. Animals, like most living things, have various emotions. One of these emotions is fear. Fear is one of the basic emotions that enable living things to survive. For this reason, this emotion is strongly felt by living beings. Over time, animals’ sense of fear has been turned into a weapon by humans. Human attempts to turn into weapons and the emotions of fear found in animals have been observed since ancient times. However, themost striking example of this was the siege of Beijing, whichthe Mongols conducted between 1211 and 1214. Information on these sieges can be found in various historical chronicles. However, this event is described in detail in the work written by Mongolian author Saghang Sechen in 1662. According to this work, the Mongols plundered many of the Jin Empire’s cities because of their wars with the Jin Empire in 1190. They then laid siege to Beijing, the city where Jin Emperor was located. While the Mongols were besieging Beijing, the Jin Emperor made a peace offer to Chinggis Khagan on the advice of his advisors. Therefore, Chinggis Khagan stated that he would lift the siege if 10,000 swallows and a thousand cats were given to him. The Jin Emperor accepted this request and gave him what he wanted. However, the Mongols tied cotton to the feet of the swallows and wrapped cotton around the tails of the cats. Then they set the flammable materials on fire. The animals, which were released due to their intense fear of fire, ran for their lives toward their nests in the city. Thus, they caused the wooden structures there to catch fire. After this incident, the city, whose defense power had been broken, surrendered. As a result, the Jin Emperor gave his daughter to Chinggis Khagan and established a friendship with him. This study we have conducted focuses on the confirmation of this event in Saghang Sechen’s work throughhistorical chronicles and their psychological aspects. The first point to be considered in this regard was the contradictory aspects of the information provided by Saghang Sechen with other accounts. The most important of these is that the author presents this attack as if it occurred in 1190. However, a Mongol expedition against the Jin Empire in 1190 cannot be confirmed by any accounts. Based on research on other accounts written more recently to the period in which the incident took place, the earliest date given for the Mongols’ first expedition to the Jin Empire is 1211. Therefore, 1190, as indicated by Saghang Sechen, was an extremelyearly date. For this reason, the date given here cannot be considered accurate. In addition, based on the information obtained from the accounts, it can be concluded that the Mongols attacked the city of Beijing during the reign of two different Jin Emperors. The first of these is Weishao. Upon his death in 1213, his nephew Xuanzong took over. It is not clear exactly during which emperor’s reign Chinggis Khagan carried out the attack in question. However, there are some clues in the information obtained from the accounts. The issue of Chinggis Khagan’s marriage to a princess from the Jin Empire dynasty played an important role in resolving the incident. However, the accounts we reference include different rumors about the emperor during which Chinggis Khagan had this marriage. Although Chinese accounts point to the time of Xuanzong, other accounts generally report that the incident occurred during the Weishao period. However, based on the 0information that the emperor gave away his daughter, we believe that this incident occurred during the reign of Weishao. Because there is information in Chinese accounts that Xuanzong gave away a princess, his cousin, to Chinggis Khagan. Therefore, it can be assumed that the incident occurred between 1211 and 1213 during Weishao’s reign. However, thefact that no account other than Saghang Sechen has provided information that birds and cats were used in this way during the siege of Beijing raises doubts about the reality of the incident. As a result, while scientific studies on emotions began in Europe at the end of the 19th century, it is important to mention that the Mongols systematically used animal emotions and turned them into weapons while describing an event that took place in the 13th century in a 17th-century account. This situation indicates the level of military development that the Mongols had at that time. Moreover, the above-mentioned Beijing siege is not the only example of this situation. A war tactic similar to that used by the Mongols during the siege of Beijing was also used during the siege of Bamian in 1221. During this siege, an arrow fired from the castle hit one of Chinggis Khagan’s grandsons, causinghis death. For this reason, the Mongols made great efforts to capture the city immediately to avenge the murder of the prince. As a result, the castle and city were captured. The accounts state that the Mongols slaughtered animals for no reason during this siege because of their anger toward the local people. However, it is not a logical explanation for a society that shapes its life according to animals to slaughter animals for no reason because of their anger toward humans. It is likely that during this siege, the Mongols set animals on fire to destroy the flammable buildings in the city. As can be seen from the examples above, the Mongols used the fear of fire in living creatures as a weapon in many sieges.
