The Mongol Empire

By: Craig Benjamin, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Professor Craig Benjamin

Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

The Mongol Empire was the largest empire the world has ever seen, forged by conquests across Eurasia in the 13th and 14th centuries. Yet despite the unparalleled brutality of the Mongols, they played a key role in launching civilization’s evolution into the modern world. In 24 half-hour lectures delivered by award-winning teacher and historian Craig Benjamin of Grand Valley State University, explore the paradox of the Mongols’ extreme barbarity combined with their enlightened religious attitudes and respect for high civilization, in The Mongol Empire.

Professor Benjamin recounts the life of the most notorious Mongol of all, Chinggis Khan (also spelled Genghis Khan). He details the careers of other Great Khans, including Qubilai, Ogedai, Batu, and Hulagu, plus the saga of the last of the celebrated Mongol conquerors, Timur, also known as Tamerlane. You learn about the prehistoric origins of the Mongol nomads, the secret of Mongol military prowess, the Mongols’ remote capital of Karakorum, and the many great cities and empires they sacked in a virtually unbroken string of victories stretching from Hungary to China.

Even today, the Mongol conquerors are almost as shrouded in mystery as they were for the victims of their sudden raids. Yet their empire was crucial to the fate of the religions of Islam and Orthodox Christianity and to the civilization of China. Plus, the long period of stability they brought to Central Asia opened the door to dependable commercial and cultural ties between Europe and East Asia.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

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Too much jumping around

While I have no doubt Prof. Benjamin is very knowledgeable, he jumps around in time periods too much for it to be easy to follow. If I were taking a course, with notes I’d look back over later, that might not bother me, and might even make more sense, but I’m this venue, it’s just distracting and a bit confusing. He’ll say things like “this person did that, and we’ll discuss that in more detail later, but the important point is that X.” By the time he discussed it later, I remember that there is an important point, but I’ve forgotten exactly what it was.

His phrasing is also somewhat odd. He tends to speak quickly for 20-30 seconds, then take a breath or two, often in the middle of a sentence, after having almost run two sentences together. If I were sitting in his class, I might not even have noticed it. But since I am only listening, it’s a bit off-putting.

Definitely a worthwhile course, but not the most pleasant experience I’ve had with the Great Courses.

Good Overview of the Mongols

This was a great way for me to learn about the Mongols beyond tales of their devastating pillages and violent conquests. As another reviewer said, it's unfortunate that it doesn't touch on the daily life of the average Mongol citizen very much. Still, it was packed full of good information that will help you understand the Mongol civilization as well as some of the neighboring groups that they interacted with.

Great listen, learnt a lot

Professor Craig Benjamin is an energetic presenter. Not a Chinggis Khan apologist, nor incessant basher. I appreciate the Big History approach, this is a pragmatic and realistic history of the many people in their cultural, political, geographic, and historic context.

Great Intro to Mongol history, energetic lecturer

This was my first detailed exposure to the Mongol Empire over the many centuries, and its profound impact, both incredibly destructive and also liberating for trade and cultural intermingling in the long term. I felt like Professor Craig Benjamin was a very enthusiastic and energetic speaker. I'm so used to voice actors narrating audiobooks - its refreshing to hear the actual content creator also deliver the material himself.

Incredibly educational, with a balanced perspective of the many different ramifications of the spread of the Mongol nomads from their steppes into China, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and India. It's truly breathtaking how fierce and dominant their horsemanship and warfare skills were, allowing them to crush rivals and then ruthlessly put entire cities to the sword without mercy, men, women, children, even pets, if the cities did not surrender. It's hard to imagine in our modern world such ferocity and bloodlust that we fortunately do not witness on a such a large scale in the modern world. And yet their conquered territories paved the way for a surge in trade, cultural exchange, and tolerance for different religions before Islam came to dominate the later khanates.

And of the course the centuries-long ties with the various Chinese dynasties are also described in great deal. It is again hard to imagine that nomadic warriors once dominated much of China for centuries, but then assimilated to a large degree, changing both cultures in the process.

If anything, this course whetted my appetite for more of these Great Courses on history. Well done!

wow

the great courses are just incredible!!! power packed info and makes you feel like attending class over and over again. the insight definitely makes you see the world differently.

Seriously In-Depth

The professor is very knowledgeable covering so much fascinating information. It’s worth listening to once to learn how the Mongols changed the world forever!

Really wonderful experience

Overall, just a great course on Mongol Empire. Can easily see how much of Game of Thrones horsemen were based on Mongol customs including a killing that involved molten metal.

Awesome course

I have listened to a lot of the great courses that revolve around history and this is definitely one of my favorites

Well Summarized but lacking human touch

A great summary of Mongolian emperial history, but I was hoping to learn more about the day to day life of Mongolians. How they lived, what they ate, maybe more about the life off the battlefield and away from politics.

Good Followup to Jack Weatherford

I've been interested in the Mongol Empire since listening to the Jack Weatherford 'trilogy'. While those books are obviously still my favorites on the topic this is the best followup I've listened to on here so far (out of like 3 other Mongol Empire books). I think it's better to listen to or read Jack Weatherford's books first not only because they're the best (some of my favorite history books in general) but because they make the names of characters more approachable in a mostly linear telling of the story. You'll get to know the characters more in those books, but in this you'll hear more about a lot of the same individuals. These Great Courses lectures are the perfect followup because they give you more names and add more detail to a lot of events in the Jack Weatherford books, even citing parts of Weatherford's books in some of the lectures.

And also something I liked about these Great Courses lectures was a lot of the Timur the Lame portions near the end which aren't really in the Jack Weatherford books. I had been looking for more books about Timur the Lame but a lot of the books in English are ancient themselves. Definitely listen to this series if you enjoyed the Weatherford books.