James Chambers' The Devil's Horsemen

By Paul Rice

Citation: The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe, by James Chambers (Atheneum, NY: 1979). 190 page hardback edition.

Note, I have used Chambers¹ spellings in this review. Seems like every author spells Chinggis/ Chingis/ Jenghis/ Genghis and Subodai/ Subedei/ Sabudai differently.

On Nate¹s recommendation, I read The Devil¹s Horsemen, the story of the Mongol Empire, concentrating on the European invasion. Below is a chapter by chapter summary.

1. The First Move West

This first chapter gives some history of early 13th century Islamic Persia, and Islamic Turkish ruler Muhammad II, Ali ad-Din; and discusses the 1219-1221 Mongol conquest (under Chingis) of Kara Khitai and Muhammad II¹s empire of Transoxiana and Khwarizm, and the defeat of everybody in their path.

2. Reconnaissance in Force

This aptly titled chapter discusses the 1221-1223 reconnaissance in force by Jebe and Subedei of Georgia, the Cumans, Russia, and lower Bulgar, and the defeat of everybody in their path.

Here we are first introduced to the mangudai, the Mongol favorite tactic of feigned retreat, which they used over and over and over again to devastating effect.

Chambers covers the battle of Kalka, where about 18,000 Mongols and 5,000 allies defeated a combined army of 70,000, killing probably about 40,000 of them. The preliminary skirmish to this battle, where 1000 Mongols in the rear guard were defeated, is one of only three Mongol defeats mentioned in the entire book. Kalka appears to have been one long nine day mangudai. What must the Russian knights have felt when the fleeing barbarians they¹d been chasing for nine days, who they apparently outnumbered two to one, suddenly turned on them and began to annihilate them?

Discusses campaign, strategy, and battle tactics. Like Caesar, the Mongols practiced divide and conquer, pitting one group against a traditional rival wherever possible.

Chambers points out an interesting anecdote that as early as 1221 Subedei made a secret and highly effective treaty with the Venetians. By this deal, the travelling Venetian merchants provided maps and military intelligence to the Mongols, and in return the Mongols destroyed all non-Venetian trading stations they found, and pledged to spare Venice.

Lessons to learn are the importance of reconnaissance, of casting aside one¹s own vanity and ego, and of ignoring politics and focusing on the enemy.

3. Aftermath

Details the total confusion, ignorance, and stupidity in Europe at the time, in general, and in particular as to who or what the Mongols were. The reigning theories were they were the army of Christian King David, Prester John, children of Gog and Magog, or some kind of devils, often thought to be part dog part man.

4. Interlude

Discusses a brief bio of Chingis, Ogedei, and various other characters. Here we see the first hints of unrest in the Mongol royal family.

Here¹s a quote attributed to Chingis himself, "There is no man alive who is braver than Yessutai, no march can tire him and he feels neither hunger nor thirst; that is why he is unfit to command." Compares Chingis favorably to Alexander and Napoleon.

5. The Mongol War Machine

The fifth chapter gives a good description of the 13th century Mongol army, and a brief contrast with European armies of the time. He discusses the weapons, tactics, training, organization, discipline, and structure of their army. Points out the folly of arrogance and vanity, as so frequently displayed in the west. Illustrates how the Mongol army was 500 years ahead of armies in the west in terms of professionalism. This chapter is must reading for professional soldiers.

Now for you wargamers: "An army, which was usually composed of three or more tumens" [10,000] "of cavalry accompanied by several minghans" [1,000] "of artillery and engineersŠ" Let¹s call that a 40:7 ratio of mounted to engineers and artillery. Within mounted, Chambers writes in the main line there is a 3:2 ratio of light to heavy, with 3 more units of light (left, right, and rear). We are left to assume these additional units are the same size as one line, and hence there is an overall 6:2 ratio of light to heavy. This gives a ratio of about 30:10:7 for light horse to heavy horse to artillery. Although they were armored and carried lances, in terms of tactics the Mongol heavy horse were probably closer to DBA¹s cavalry than DBA¹s knights. Putting this into a 12 unit army, this gives us 7 or 8 LH, 2 or 3 Cav, 2 art. Or 2 Cav, 7 LH, 1 Cav or LH, and 2 Art

This was the root Mongol army before adding slaves or allies. From the description of battles, in the European campaigns the Mongols went a little light on artillery. The allies were usually other light horse, frequently nomadic, or sometimes scattered foot with about the motivation of slaves. Hence adding slaves or allies would increase the percentage of LH or psiloi/ aux (your call) while decreasing the percentage of cav and artillery. Remember this book mostly addresses the wars in the west, not in the east, where the Mongols were more likely to use organized Chinese spear.

6. The Carving of the Mongol Yoke

Subedei and Batu's relatively easy conquest of Russia, and the defeat of everyone in their path. Covers numerous sieges and battles.

7. The Invasion of Europe Begins

Chambers points out the Russian conquest had far reaching effects, adversely effecting the economy as far away as England, due to the unexplained absence of Russian ships which no longer arrived in their ports to trade.

Baidar and Kadan had the diversionary task of distracting the Poles, Lithuanians, and the various Knights and Orders, and drawing European forces north of the Carpathians while Batu, Siban, Subedei, and Kuyuk conquered Hungary.

The politics starts to get heavy, and plays into the cold war going on between the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope, and the endless political infighting of the European royals.

8. The Fury of the Tartars

Baidar and KadanŒs battles against the Poles, Germans, and various knights. Details the battle of Liegnitz (a.k.a. Walstadt, a.k.a. Legnica). Details the battle of Mohi, where the Mongols killed about 60,000 combined Hungarian forces. After the defeat at Mohi and the occupation of Pest, the various European princes blamed each other for the arrival of the Mongols. Just like those of Russia, the princes of Europe continued their internecine feuding before, during, and after the Mongol invasion.

In 1241, a defenseless Europe was saved from probably total annihilation when Ogedei Khan died in Karakorum, and the invasion was called off, never to be renewed.

9. The First Ambassadors

This chapter discusses the various ambassadors and missionaries from Europe to the court of Karakorum, and the accompanying espionages, intrigues, and the sometimes bizarre roles the religions played. Discusses in boring detail the various court intrigues and politics from Europe to Mongolia.

The introduction of Batu and the Golden Horde.

10. The Tartar Crusades

And here it starts to get really complicated. Chambers goes into the politics, diplomacy, intrigues, assassinations, plots, conspiracies, and shifting alliances of the various subgroups of Moslem, Christian, and Mongol nations all competing for land in the middle east:

The sack of Baghdad and the sack of Aleppo are featured.

There were various calls in Europe for Christian crusades against the Moslems, or the Mongols. Recall that the Vatican was also in a long struggle against the Holy Roman Empire at the time. Here¹s just a snapshot:

In the 1250s the Mongols were beating up the Moslems quite badly. The Christian Crusaders in the mid east, realizing the Mongols were about to eliminate all Muslim forces in the general area, temporally combined forces with the Mongols. In 1259 Mangku Khan died, and again the hordes returned to Karakorum, this time saving Islam. When Berke (leader of the Golden Horde) ordered Hulegu (one the main leaders of the Mongols in the mid-east at the time) to withdraw forces from Syria, a few Christian knights -- forgetting or never having honored their alliance in the first place -- took raids into Mongol territory. The Mongols retaliated this breech of alliance by sacking Sidon and destroying the Templars. The various shahs, princes, and sultans of Islam were now split between allying with the Mongols or with the Christians. Into this vacuum the Mamluk Moslems consolidated their position, and decided to take on the Mongols. The Christians granted Kutuz and his Mamluk army safe passage to attack the Mongols, which resulted in the battle of Ain Jalut, 1260, where 120,000 Mamluks under Baybars defeated 25,000 Mongols, Georgians, and Armenians under Ked-Buka. This was the most significant defeat the Mongols suffered in the west, and was the turning point in the Mongol battles against Islam.

11. The End of an Era

Still more various intrigues and shifting alliances. Discusses the Mongols and the Golden Horde infighting for power within the empire. Details the battle of Hims in 1281, where possibly as many as 200,000 Mamluks defeated 50,000 Mongols and 30,0000 Georgians and Armenians.

Without ever once discussing it, Chambers points out over and over how the Mongols were masters of psychological warfare. Their use of feigned retreats played directly on the vanity of the knightly class and their self aggrandizement. On the battlefield the Mongols used smoke, maximizing confusion among an enemy that had no real organization or communication to start with, and terror weapons (essentially catapults firing firecrackers, naptha, and smoke grenades, which to the west were indistinguishable from magic). During campaigns and sieges their use of terror and propaganda was highly effective.

It¹s no wonder the Mongols are often forgotten. There isn¹t much romance associated with them. They pretty much destroyed everything they felt like destroying, committing wanton genocide in the process. Although they changed the path of Eurasian history forever, they added little to Eastern culture, and nothing to Western culture. Do not look for great Mongol sculptures, paintings, pottery, metalwork, architecture, or monuments. You won¹t find them. They added practically nothing to language, the sciences, law, music, or philosophy. Their only real contribution to culture was to the art of war, lessons the West refused to learn for another few hundred years.

And woe to the leader who forgets.

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