«Тахиййат»: Сборник статей в честь Н. Н. Дьякова

m 150 n John Masson Smith, Jr. that did the most hazardous work of trying to get up and over the walls, the Mongol archers had to be positioned within range of the defenders’ bow- and crossbow-men, and their various missile-engines. Armor would not obviate the danger, but it would reduce it, a constant concern of the Mongol com- manders 1 . Not many Mongols seem to have been armored in the first half of the thir- teenth century: [O]f the twenty [soldiers of our Mongol escort] there were two who had habergeons [coats of mail]. I asked how they had come by these; they said they had procured them from the [Alans of the Caucasus mountains], who are fine artificers of such things and excellent smiths. This makes me think [the Mongols] 1 Because heavy losses could be expected in taking a city or fortress, the Mongols would take no chances of needing a second siege, when adequate (non-Mongol manpower might no longer be available and require the Mongols to climb the walls themselves. “[The Mongols] were extremely conscious of their small numbers and employed terror as a tool to discourage resistance against them. Cities, like Herat, that surrendered and then revolted were put to the sword”, see: Barfield Th. J. The Perious Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China. Cambridge MA: Basil Blackwell, 1989. P. 203. Fig. 10. An outline of the Mongol cavalrymen from a miniature of Rashid al-Din’s World History, 1314 AD (Or. Ms. 20, Fol. 19R)