Yet Another "Use" of History

In both his books on the Mongol empire, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World and its follow-up, The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, Jack Weatherford refers to something called The Secret History as a source. I always wondered why it is called “secret”. Sure, history is disputed, written by the winners, revised to suit whatever ideology is in vogue – we know all that. But “secret” history? That’s new…

 

Strangely, the Mongols didn’t seem to covet jewels and treasures as much as they did their documents and records! The Persian historian Rashid al-Din points out the Mongols went even further in how they maintained their records:

“From age to age, they have kept their true history in Mongolian expression and script, unorganized and disarranged, chapter by chapter, scattered in treasures, hidden from the gaze of strangers and specialists, and no one was allowed access to learn of it.”

Not only was it secret, it was deliberately chaotic in its organization! Why?

 

The answer lies in the purpose of Mongol history. No, it wasn’t record keeping for posterity or even self-glorification. Rather, it was kept for vilification purposes:

“With such an unorganized history, the person who controlled the treasury of documents could pick and choose among the papers and hide or release parts as served some political agenda of the moment. If a leader needed to discredit a rival or find an excuse to punish someone, there was always some piece of incriminating evidence that could be pulled from the treasury.”

 

Sneaky! I guess the Mongols had learnt a great (albeit cynical) truth very early:

“Knowledge constituted their most potent weapon.”

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