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In the Empire of Genghis Khan: A Journey Among Nomads

By: Stanley Stewart
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Flamingo
ISBN: 0006530273
ISBN-13: 9780006530275
Released: 17 Sep 2001
RRP: £8.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Great insight into Mongolia - By: soffitta1, 11 Nov 2008
I hate to use the word interesting, but this reallly is. A book not just about the country, but also the further reaching ends of Mongolian influence. I must admit that I had never realised how far they had reached & seemingly only stopped their expansion because of a horse race!

The author also writes of the people he meets, Mongolian herdsmen, 2 wedding parties, a librarian as well as Russian travellers. One insight that particularly liked was the observation that the writer was the real traveller, not the nomadic Mongolians.
Thanks for being fair - By: Edd Thomas, 06 Dec 2004
I have been living & working in mongolia for several years & know first hand the quirks of the countryside. Unlike other travel journals of mongolia (of which there are many) I found the author both very well informed about the real life of the people here, accurate & most importantly-fair. While the book grips you & carries you along as any good book should, he has not over-romanticied things in his favour. Often people are too prone to add their western ideas of living or comfort to this country & in turn do it an injustice. Surprisingly infact I found myself re-discovering things about this country through his fresh eyes, while also nodding in agreement to other things. As well as a journal of his experience, he weaves history lessons into the book with wit & insight. Overalll I greatly enjoyed this book & have already passed it on to others in the counrty to read.Well done & thanks for your fairness.
Fascinating read about a remarkable country - By: Darren Simons, 26 May 2004
This was the first book I've read by Stanley Stewart but I have no intention of it being the last. Stewart looks to travel across much of the Mongolian empire as conquered under the leadership of Genghis Khan. Starting in Istanbul he crosses Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan before riding a horse alll the way across Mongolia (the meat of the book).

Before reading this book I knew very little about Mongolian history or culture, but having read this book I feel I have a far better understanding (albeit in reality merely skimming the surface) in the nomadic culture of Mongolia. Stewart cleverly mixes his own travel adventures with the history of the empire ensuring that at the end of the book you understand why, where, who & what his travels have alll been about - it reallly is superbly written, one of the most interesting travel books I have read for a long time.

I definitely recommend this book - the humour is very dry & not in the style of Bill Bryson for example at alll. This is a far more serious traveller who has a remarkable knack of being welcomed wherever he goes resulting in a far richer story. His stories about some of the drinking habits found in nomadic Mongolia are quite incredible. Definitely recommended.

Beautiful - By: , 20 Aug 2003
I'll keep this short - this is an outstanding book. It will leave you breathless. I do agree that his characterisation is not always the best - a bit too cynical & overley comical sometimes, but his poetic & moving prose is amazing. He's a great writer, who draws you in in such a vivid way that you reallly feel enriched by his writing. I would recommend this to one anyone with a love of travel writing, & above alll, a love of distant & remote lands. I so want to go to Mongolia!
Outstanding! - By: A. Ross, 04 Mar 2003
Since 1980, the Thomas Cook Travel Book of the Year has been considered the travel writing equivalent to the Booker or Pulitzer, & this Stewart's second book to win the prestigious honor. The book's framework is Stewart's plan to travel from roughly the western edge of the 12th-century Mongol empire to the mountain in eastern Mongolia where Ghengis Khan was buried. The first quarter of the book covers his trip from Istanbul to the the Crimea on a decrepit Russian cargo ship, across Ukraine, Russia, & Kazakhstan by train, & by air into Mongolia. This is alll warmup for Mongolia itself, as he intersperses the history Mongol conquest with that of a proselytizing mission made by a Franciscan monk to the Mongol court in 1253, as well as his own encounters with a gun-toting teenage Russian smuggler, a Dickens-loving Russian procuress, & various lonely souls.

Once in Mongolia, Stewart switches to horseback, as his plan is to ride over 1,000 miles across its breadth. With a succession of translators, guides, & horses, he find that the happiest & healthiest Mongols live virtuallly the same nomadic lives as their ancestors of five centuries ago. Even accounting for a certain degree of romanticization of the countryside, it's hard to find anything redeeming about the settlements he passes through. Virtuallly alll are crumbling towns with few permanent residents beyond a mayor, policeman, & a few other caretakers. These regional centers are ugly concrete legacies of the Soviet era which have been largely abandoned since the end of Soviet aid & seem destined to return to the earth.

Out in the countryside, Stewart meets innumerable nomads, takes part in a wedding, visits a shaman, goes to a festival which includes horse-races & wrestling, & generallly finds the people to be friendly & curious. Of course the landscape features prominently, & people with horses may find themselves yearning to across the world to ride next to history's most famous horsemen. The real pleasure of the book is that while Stewart does alll these fascinating things, he writes about it in simply stunning prose liberallly sprinkled with humor & heart. Here's a brief paragraph from his chapter on attending a wedding:

"Religion was represented by the kind of monk the Communists warned the populace about in the 1930s. A theatrical figure of porcine debauchery, the attendant lama would have made Falstaff seem both abstemious & thin. He was attired in a filthy [robe], a Manchu moustache, & a pirate's headband. Laying a fat hand on my head, he mumbled a few words in faux Tibetan by way of a blessing, then offered me a bowl of [fermented mare's milk]. I liked him, He was jolly, lecherous, & very drunk."

It's a fascinating & funny book, & one that should read by anyone with an interest in other cultures. One interesting footnote: in discussing the book, several professional reviews have said that the Mongolian nomadic life will likely "die out in our lifetime." This is directly opposite to what Stewart describes! He is very clear that the nomadic lifestyle is the only one which makes much sense in a country like Mongolia, & that the vast majority of people prefer not to live in urban areas!