Persian Culture and the Mongols

As in China, when the Mongols invaded Persia they found a country with a long and rich cultural history. At its peak around 500 B. C.E., the Persian Empire reached from the Oxus River to northern Egypt, and it absorbed the art and technology of ancient civilizations, such as Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria. After the Persian Empire began to weaken, it came under the influence of ancient Greece and Rome. The last major cultural influence on

The region was Islam, which reached Persia soon after it was founded in the seventh century.

Hot-Air Balloons

The Mongols borrowed another military idea from the Chinese and brought it with them on their European invasion of 1241. The Chinese developed the first simple hot-air balloons. At Liegnitz, in Poland, the Mongols used one shaped like a dragon as a signal for their troops. Later, European scientists began exploring the idea of using hot gases to lift humans off the ground. The first balloon flight with a human onboard took place in France in 1783. Today hot-air balloonists still rise above the ground for races, long-distance travel, and short rides over beautiful countryside.

In the Mongol government also the wonderful world of Persian

The rulers of Persia before the Mongols were the Seljuks, a nomadic Turkic people who had converted to Islam. Under their rule, both Arabic-the language of Islam in religious affairs-and Persian were used. Eventually Persian became the official language of the state, and since the Mongol Ilkhans relied on Persian officials to run the government, Persian remained the major everyday language. According to modern scholar Abolala Soudavar (writing in The Court of the II-Khans, 1290-1340) Persian officials “were able to lure Mongol royalty. . . into literature and culture.”