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40 Awe-Inspiring Facts About Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire

Khalid Elhassan February 3, 2019 24 min

Steppe mounted archers. Volcano Ridge Mounted Archres

34. Genghis Khan Was Preceded by Other Terrifying Steppe Warlords

Genghis Khan and his Mongols were not the first Steppe tribesmen to terrify the civilized world. In the 7th century BC, the Scythians – Iranian speaking nomads who inhabited the Steppe between China and the Carpathians – began raiding into the settled lands of the Middle East. In 612 BC, the Scythians played a key role in destroying the Assyrian Empire, forever extinguishing a nation that had existed for over a millennium, and that had dominated the Middle East for centuries.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.