Assessing sources: What are the strengths and limitations of these documents for understanding the Mongols? Taking the positions of their authors into account, what exaggerations, biases, or misunderstandings can you identify in these sources? What information seems credible, and what should be viewed more skeptically?
Characterizing the Mongols: Based on these documents and on the text of Chapter 11, write an essay assessing the Mongol moment in world history. How might you counteract the view of many that the Mongols were simply destructive barbarians? How do your own values affect your understanding of the Mongol moment?
Considering values and practice: How would you describe the core values of Mongol culture? (Consider the leaders’ goals, their attitudes toward conquered peoples, the duties of rulers, the views of political authority, and the role of women.) To what extent were these values put into practice in acquiring and ruling the Mongols’ huge empire? And in what ways were these values undermined or eroded as that empire took shape?