IMC highlight: how the Mongols changed the world

Hello all,

I’m back from Leeds’ International Medieval Congress, tired and inspired. It was a wonderful week for someone like me, filled with fascinating papers and interesting conversations. Unquestionably, however, the highlight was a late-night entry into the Royal Armouries current exhibition on the Mongols, followed by a round table discussion with ten experts from the Mongol Studies corner of the Congress.

The exhibition, Genghis Khan: How the Mongols Changed the World, will run until November 2026. It is curated by the wonderful scholar of Mongol history, Dr Marie Favereau, and produced by Nomad Exhibitions together with with Nantes History Museum and the Chinggis Khaan National Museum. Crucially, many of the 250+ objects in the exhibition have never previously left Mongolia, making this a really wonderful and rare opportunity.

As so often with such exhibitions, the name is in some ways misleading – a necessity to grab the attention of the public. The great twelfth century warlord Temüjin, usually known by the anglicisation of his title Chinggis Khan, does feature, as do his family members like his powerful daughter, Alakai Beki. The majority of the exhibition, however, focuses on the culture of successive nomadic peoples from Central Asia, and the ways they shaped the world around.

This amazing exhibition starts with the Xiongnu, considered by the Mongols to be their ancestors, with some fascinating grave goods, textiles, and weaponry. It moves through the centuries, using a wide variety of objects to explore Mongol society and the impact their imperial conquests had on arts, politics, and science around the world. Two of the most exciting pieces for most visitors seemed to be a passport, a Mongol innovation to support trade, and a rare piece of paper money from the thirteenth century. My personal favourite was a beautiful gold silk deel, a robe worn by the Mongol elite. It is incredibly well-preserved and one of many examples from the exhibition that reflected how much Mongol society cared about beautiful luxuries.

Each display was contextualised with education sections and videos and supported by replicas that visitors could engage with directly – the saddle was certainly popular! Throughout, care was taken to highlight stories of individuals beyond the famous Temüjin.

Afterwards, at the Round Table, each scholar picked an object they felt resonated with them personally and spoke about why it mattered. Intriguingly, it was noted that the obsession with Temüjin himself is not a modern phenomenon but one that began immediately after his death and has been sustained in the eight centuries since.

A recurring theme of the panel discussion, reflected in the exhibition and range of popular histories on sale outside, was how much Mongol Studies has developed as a discipline over the past thirty years: not just in terms of greater cross-discipline and cross-linguistic boundaries but also in terms of focus. Administration, agriculture, art, culture, governance, science, and trade are all major topics now, as well as the traditional study of military. In fact, both the exhibition and round table could have been neatly summarised as “Culture & Conflict”!

Until next time,

Rhiannon