Women and the Mongol empire

We have read and analyzed a diverse set of primary and secondary materials regarding the Mongols before, during, and after the empire. The final essays present an opportunity to synthesize your new knowledge into two argumentative essays, based on and supported by historical evidence from the course materials (including lectures, readings, film clips, and images). Strong essays will utilize historical documents as evidential support and offer specific critical analysis. Each essay must be 750-1000 words. If students are unsure of how to craft an argumentative essay, please review the instructions provided by the Purdue OWL, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/argumentative_essays.html. Choose one of the following two questions to answer. 1. Women and the Mongol empire: Recently, the historiography of the Mongol empire has witnessed an expansion in discussion of women under the empire. Explain the place of women in the Mongol empire. In what ways were Mongol women simultaneously both comparatively freer than their sedentary sisters and still subject to oppression? How do the historical sources depict elite women of the Mongol empire? What variations are visible between the khatūns of the nomadic and sedentary khanates? 2. Governing the Mongol empire: Governing the largest contiguous empire in world history required adopting a wide range of strategies to rule both nomadic and sedentary populations. Compare types of governance across two Mongol khanates. How did governing strategies differ? What accounts for the differences? How were they utilized by the Mongol empire? What do they tell us about variation in governance of a world empire? Students must answer the following question. 3. Bloodthirsty barbarians, world conquerors, or something else: Over the past four decades, the most significant debate in the historiography of the Mongol empire has centered on the “traditionalists” and the “revisionists.” The essay has two primary requirements. first, what is the historiographical argument? Describe the basic conflict between the traditionalist and revisionist camps. Second, as a budding historian of the Mongol empire, where do you position yourself? Choose a perspective and argue your point of view about the Mongol empire. Parenthetical Citation Examples: Readings: (Rossabi, 100) Videos: (Youtube, “The Silk Road and Ancient Trade”) Required Materials ROSSABI, Morris. The Mongols and Global History. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 2011. RACHEWILTZ, Igor de, trans. The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2015. https://cedar.wwu.edu/cedarbooks/4/. Recommended Materials MAY, Timothy. The Mongol Conquests in World History. London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2012. ROSSABI, Morris. The Mongols: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. You don’t have to read them all, just make sure that the article has some connection with the composition you wrote, because it has to be quoted in APA format. In terms of words and sentences, just make it look like a Chinese student’s writing LOL Six pages are divided into two pieces of three pages each.