Looking Back: The Mongol Trail

Well, today we came close to the conclusion of the trail convicting the descendants of Ghengis Khan for crimes against humanity, specifically genocide, terrorism and kidnapping. Looking back on the trail, for which I was the cross examination attorney for the defense, I thought it was a very enjoyable experience. Although overall I think I did a good job with the cross examination. I definitely had a few blunders, especially in questioning the Abbasid caliph. Although it was a much smaller blunder, I also said that it was the grandson of Kublai Khan, this was a false statement, it had been his second son. Although the point behind the fact still stands valid, the fact itself was incorrect. I think I could have been able to ask more direct questions, and not have tripped over my words so often. But, given the job I was to do I think that I did OK.

As for my beliefs, I think that the Mongols were perhaps overzealous in their conquests, they were not as bad as they have been made out to be. They are responsible for opening trade routes and for spreading culutre throughout Eurasia, two very important aspects of the Mongol story often left out. It is also overlooked often I believe that the mongols were warriors and nomads, and that their culture was significantly different than the cultures of those whom they were invading. That being said, they were not innocent people. They killed hundreds of thousands people and did horrible things to almost every society that they encountered. Although they deserve to be admired for the incredible empire that they built, I really can't help but see them as anything but overambitious conquers who went about regardless of the harm and suffering that they caused.

If I had watched the trail today, I most likely have said that the mongols were guilty. The prosecution hit hard right were it counts. Of course, it is hard to be objective since I was the cross examiner I really am unaware of what my impact on the trail was, since I was not observing. As I went through my research, I did realize that the mongols are hard to defend. Not impossible, but very difficult. Like I said earlier, there seems to be a very strong bias and I think that really impacts the information that is openly available for research. I would find the Mongols guilt of kidnapping and terrorism, but I think that the case against genocide was too weak to sway my opinion from not guilty to guilty.

Ghengis Khan: A Psychopath? Or not.

The video we watched in class today was not the first time and will absolutely not be the last time that Ghengis Khan is portrayed as a psychopath. But was he? The point is debatable, there is not doubt, but I do not believe that he was. I think a key point in developing this opinion is the definition of a psychopath:

"a person afflicted with a personality disorder characterized by a tendency to commit antisocial and sometimes violent acts and a failure to feel guilt for such acts."  - Collin's English Dictionary 2009 10th Edition

There is no doubt that Ghengis Khan was a violent man, but there was nothing abnormal or violent about his behavior. The Mongol culture was violent and unforgiving. Stealing women from neighboring tribes for marriage was a common practice, and in a nomadic society there would be no incentive for the lives of tribesmen from other tribes to be valued. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that his violent behavior towards other tribes was violent (in context to his culture) or unusual. He grew up in a hostel society, and having grown up in this society held different values, nothing he did was unusually hostile in the Mongol culture, and so there is no reason for him to feel guilt, and so there is no reason to classify him as a psychopath. Whats more, Ghengis Khan valued the lives of others, and was concerned about wasting them. A psychopath would hold no value in the lives of others. From a psychological standpoint, there is nothing about Ghengis Khan that suggests that he is a psychopath. He merely did what his culture taught him to do and expanded it to a larger scale by commanding a powerful military, and is therefore not a psychopath. In my opinion, he was a ruthless and hostile general who held a tight reign on his troops, and because of this was an effective and powerful ruler capable of large scale expansion, even if it came at a cost. Nothing about being a powerful and ruthless ruler implies that a person is a psychopath, and there is no reason that the case of Ghengis Khan should be seen differently.

The Final Thoughts: A Reflection

Well, now that I have the submission of this project behind me, I think it would be worth it to comment on how I think the project went. Please keep in mind the post with my submissions is the one below this post.
I think overall that the medium I chose worked very well for the project. Sharing the final products through the blog was very easy, and I am very pleased with my final products. Somethings that could have gone better for this project: fact finding. This was not an easy task, but between the book I found, many online resources I found what I needed. Another thing that I found today that I wish I had found earlier was one of the databases that the school is subscribed to. I used it today to make sure that all of my letters were accurate according to this source too, which they were. It felt good to have that final source corroborating what can sometimes on the internet be very different stories. Overall though I can say that I am happy with and confident in my letters.

The Final Step: The Letters to the Editors (The Submission)

Below are the three letters to the editors that I wrote, there is one for each of the crusades that I covered, which were numbers 3, 5 and 7. And, of course there is a bibliography too. They are all Google Docs that are public, so there should be no problem viewing them.

 Letters to the Editor:

1. Third Crusade 
2. Fifth Crusade
3. Seventh Crusade

And of course because no project is legitimate without legitimate sources, a bibliography:

Crusade Project Bibliography

A Charity Post:

This is for those of you having trouble finding information to use for your project. Below is a link to a google doc that you will be able to view, it has the websites I used in no particular order. Enjoy.

Useful Sites for Crusades 3, 5 and 7

Some of these I found today perusing the internet, and so I put them on this list but I am not 100% about how good they are, so feel free to comment to this post with reviews if you think there is a sour link here.

This is also a great reference, I found it today and our school library has a login, so we can use it. I so far have been using it as a fact-checking reference.

Gale Database - The Crusades

The Second and Third Letters

So today I have finished writing the second and third letter, which collectively focused on the fifth and seventh crusades. I think that the letters do a good job of conveying the disdain and utter lack of respect which I tried to portray the Muslims as having towards the crusaders. Although writing the letters themselves was more of a challenge than I had anticipated, I think they are a great way to mix together fact and opinion into a format that is easy sharable and able to be posted on a blog. Right now the plan is to post them as multiple links, each link will be labeled and that will take you to the letter for each crusade, which will be Google Docs.
I wish I could have gone with a more artsy medium, but graphic design is REALLY not my strong suite and I don't think anyone would appreciate my idea of a drawing, so I stuck to what was most feasible for the time that had been allotted for the project, and I can confident in my choice of a series of letters to the editor.

Letter #1: A Relfection

Well, the first "letter to the editor" was finished last night, and I think I can safely say that it was a success. Although I will admit finding the right blend of "ha they lost" and "oh they got us thought..." was a bit of a challenge, since I did the third crusade, a military win but a loss in the end. Of course I also wanted my letter to sound like a disgruntled reader in Egypt, so I'm not so sure how that went. I also must say that the name I used on the letter, Soron Jidus, was not nearly what I wanted, but I decided I wanted the letters of my name real name in this one more than an authentic sounding name. You win some, you lose some. The letter was a success though. It allowed me to write about the crusades in a global context but also share my "disgust" towards the crusaders, and my slight annoyance with the loose terms of the treaty that was signed with Richard. I also got some good personal commentary in on Richard though, which I thought was good. The medium of writing has done its job, and I think (hope?) rather well. They will be easy to make blog accessible through a public google doc, which will make them open to all. I am now going to write the second letter. I have planned to do one letter per crusade, dated with the year the crusade officially ended. I am think that I might make this a series type thing, but I will have to see how letter 2 goes.

Conveying the Cruades: Where's the info?

As with any project, it is critical to have a stable and reliable base of information that has been verified and is from a reputable source. To do this, I have been using a variety of search engines and research methods, including... a book. That's right, a book.
As far as search engines are concerned, I have been using Google, Bing and SweetSearch. From these three, Google is by far the most transparent and provides an infinite number of pages to be sifted through. Bing has been overly helpful. It provides many of the same sites as Google, with a stray page here or there. The other majorly helpful search engine has been SweetSearch, which only provides more reliable content, which is much easier to sift through in order to find the sites that have been the most helpful.
Also, a book I found titled "Brassey's Book of the Crusades" has provided a great deal of information, which can be easily researched and provides context, along with other facts and geography associated with the crusades that is often left out of websites.
Wikipedia, while being good for summations of crusades is not great for incredibly specific notes, and so it is great as a starting point but needs some help from other sources. The only difficult part in finding data about the crusades is trying to uncover what is truly reliable and what is based on speculations and myths, but between three search engines and the book I found, the information is abundant.

Conveying the Crusades: How?

Being the time to start debating how I will communicate the opinions and feelings the Muslim people had about the crusades, I am thinking of sharing these opinions in the way many today share their opinions, be these opinions funny, angry, vulgar or depressing: through a letter to the editor. I am thinking that I will write a series of letters to the editor which will discuss the emotions and facts that are tied to the crusades and the Muslim people.

Not only do I think letters to the editor will be clear and concise, but I also believe that they leave alot of room for creativity, personality and a common, sharable medium which can be easily accessed by all through a blog.

Starting with the Crusades: What and Why?

Let's start with the what. After perusing the interwebs, I have decided that I would like to follow the 3rd, 5th and 7th crusades, but I will also be doing some research into (hopefully) the first crusade for some supporting material.

I think the first crusade is a great filler, there is lots of information available and it is a great crusade to gather supplement from, but not focus on, so that's what I shall do.

The 3rd crusade is a gripping tale of mistreating prisoners, a battle of culture and an loss, but this is nothing unique. Because of the size and some of the aspects associated with the crusade, I think that it would be a great one to gather information and try to synthesize and research an opinion on.

The 5th crusade is very similar to, but it offers a new perspective from the 3rd crusade. I think having some similarities and some differences that fall into broad themes is a good start for forming and relying opinions, as it reinforces and adds context.

Finally, the 7th crusade resulted in an incredible defeat with the christian army loosing almost every soldier. I feel like this provides another pressure point, and exemplifies the power of the Islamic army, and of course its another chance to discuss Egypt. These things being taken into consideration I think the seventh crusade provides clear examples but also embeds aspects of the imperial struggle between the pope and the imperial power, a juicy topic.