All told, he was traveling for nearly thirty years.

These were his own maxims or sayings, known in Mongolian as biligs or bileks. The maxims were not laws but were used to guide proper behavior and conduct. A person who did not follow or who strayed from them was often viewed in a negative light, while someone who adhered to them was considered a paragon of virtue.

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most widely traveled man in the ancient world

He forbade Emirs to address themselves to anyone except the sovereign. Whoever addressed himself to anyone but the sovereign was to be put to death, and anyone changing his post without permission was also to be put to death.

The king speaks to this effect: — ‘Ye numerous officers who remain from the dynasty of Yin, great ruin came down on Yin from the want of pity in compassionate Heaven, and we, the princes of Chow, received its favouring decree.

the notion of tianming (“heavenly will” or “heavenly mandate”) has been used across the centuries to legitimate power, whether in imperial, republican, or Communist China, from 221 BCE to the present day.

If you can reverently obey, Heaven will favour and compassionate you. If you cannot reverently obey, you will not only not have your lands, but I will also carry to the utmost Heaven’s inflictions on your persona.

Then Heaven no longer regarded nor heard him, but disallowed his great appointment, and inflicted extreme punishment

It is recognized as perhaps the most important extant work for the study of ancient Chinese political thought — thought that still has wide influence on contemporary political structure in China.

When Mongol power declined in the middle of the fourteenth century, those trade routes shifted from land based to oceanic.

We stayed there [in Mogadishu] three days, food being brought to us three times a day, and on the fourth, a Friday, the q̣ádí and one of the wazírs brought me a set of garments.

At length on April 5th (1326) we reached Alexandria. It is a beautiful city, well-built and fortified with four gates and a magnificent port.

the Italian explorer Marco Polo (at least in the Western world), his extensive travels throughout Africa and Asia took him farther than anyone had journeyed up to that time.

11. He ordered that all religions were to be respected and that no preference was to be shown to any of them. All this he commanded in order that it might be agreeable to God.

At its height, the Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous kingdom in history, stretching from the Sea of Japan to the Carpathian Mountains in central and eastern Europe.

Unlike Hammurabi, the Babylonian ruler who is often credited with devising the first codified law (in the eighteenth century BCE), Genghis Khan did not have his laws carved onto stelae (inscribed stones erected throughout the empire) but rather kept them on scrolls that were viewed only by the Mongol nobility.

17. He forbade them to show preference for any sect, to pronounce words with emphasis, to use honorary titles; when speaking to the Sultan or anyone else simply his name was to be used.

Local laws remained in place as long as they did not run contrary to the desires of the Mongols. In many aspects, the Mongols ruled, but their subjects did not know what the law of the land was.

1. An adulterer is to be put to death without any regard as to whether he is married or not.

But Heaven was not with Yin, for indeed it would not strengthen its misrule. It therefore helped us; — did we dare to seek the throne of ourselves? God was not for Yin, as appeared from the conduct of our inferior people, in which there is the brilliant dreadfulness of Heaven.

The first use of the Mandate of Heaven to justify the takeover of a government is traditionally attributed to Zhou Gong, the duke of Zhou.

Several large states in Mesoamerica had already collapsed from a combination of outside pressures, the most recent of which was the Toltec Empire

The rise of the Mongol Empire and their conquest of China made the Asian power once again the center of the world

The founder of Mali, the Mandinka leader Sundiata (ca. 1217 — ca. 1255), overthrew the empire of Ghana using cavalry techniques adapted to West African conditions.

The fourteenth century saw Europe develop into a series of monarchical states — the forerunners of modern Europe.