The Mongols ruled over China for about one hundred and
fifty years. During this period they became thoroughly imbued with Chinese
culture. "China," said an old writer, "is a sea that salts all
the rivers flowing into it." The most eminent of the Mongol emperors was
Jenghiz Khan's grandson, Kublai (1259-1294 A.D.). He built a new capital, which
in medieval times was known as Cambaluc and is now called Peking. While Kublai
was on the throne, the Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, visited China, and he
describes in glowing colors the virtues and glories of the "Great
Khan." There appears to have been considerable trade between Europe and
China at this time, and Franciscan missionaries and papal legates penetrated to
the remote East. After the downfall of the Mongol dynasty in 1368 A.D. China
again shut her doors to foreign peoples. All intercourse with Europe ceased
until the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century.
TIMUR AND BABER IN INDIA
Northern India, which in earlier ages had witnessed the
coming of Persian, Macedonian, and Arabian conquerors, did not escape
visitations by fresh Asiatic hordes. Timur the Lame, at the head of an
innumerable host, rushed down upon the banks of the Indus and the Ganges and
sacked Delhi, making there a full display of his unrivaled ferocity. Timur's
invasion left no permanent impress on the history of India, but its memory
fired the imagination of another Turkish chieftain, Baber, a remote descendant
of Timur. In 1525 A.D. he invaded India and speedily made himself master of the
northern part of the country.
EMPIRE OF THE MOGULS
The empire which Baber established in India is known as
that of the Moguls, an Arabic form of the word Mongol. The Moguls, however,
were Turkish in blood and Mohammedans in religion. The Mogul emperors reigned
in great splendor from their capitals at Delhi and Agra, until the decline of
their power in the eighteenth century opened the way for the British conquest
of India.
