Genghis Khan and his Mongols attempted much the same sort of thing upon their invention of the stirrup?
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<http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/>All Things Considered, March 25, 2004 · <http://www.npr.org/about/people/bios/rsiegel.html>NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Jack Weatherford about his new book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Weatherford has spent the past eight years in Mongolia researching the man he deems the greatest ruler the world has ever seen. He says that Khan was not the stereotypical barbarian of lore, calling him a statesman responsible for laying the foundations for global trade and diplomacy.
Listen: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1791972
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"The kidnapping of women had caused feuding among the Mongols, and, as a teenager, Temujin had suffered from the kidnapping of his young wife, Borte, whom he had devoted himself to rescuing, and he made it law that there was to be no kidnapping of women. He declared all children legitimate, whomever the mother. He made it law that no woman would be sold into marriage. . . . In Mongol society, meanwhile, women had more independence than those in Islamic and western societies. Mongol women could own property and pursue litigation. And they served as auxiliaries in the military, remaining hidden in the encampment during combat but joining the fight if an emergency made that necessary." ("Genghis Khan and the Mongols," <http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h11mon.htm>). -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * "Proud of Britain": <http://www.proudofbritain.net/ > and <http://www.proud-of-britain.org.uk/>
