The Secret History of the Mongol Queens cover art

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens

How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens

By: Jack Weatherford
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

The Mongol queens of the thirteenth century ruled the greatest empire the world has ever known. Yet sometime near the end of the century, censors cut a section from The Secret History of the Mongols, leaving a single tantalizing quote from Genghis Khan: “Let us reward our female offspring.”

Only this hint of a father’s legacy for his daughters remained of a much larger story. The queens of the Silk Route turned their father’s conquests into the world’s first truly international empire, fostering trade, education, and religion throughout their territories and creating an economic system that stretched from the Pacific to the Mediterranean. Outlandish stories of these powerful queens trickled out of the empire, shocking the citizens of Europe and the Islamic world.

At the conclusion of his magnificently researched and groundbreaking narrative, Jack Weatherford notes that the deeds of these Mongol queens inspired great artists from Chaucer and Milton to Goethe and Puccini, and so their stories live on today.

With The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, Weatherford restores the queens’ missing chapter to the annals of history.

©2010 Jack Weatherford (P)2010 Random House Asia Europe Historical Medieval Politics & Activism Royalty Women World Mongol Empire Imperialism Ancient History

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World cover art
The Mongol Empire cover art
Charlemagne, Genghis Khan, and Scipio Africanus cover art
The History of Money cover art
Who Was John Lewis? cover art
Genghis Khan: A Life from Beginning to End cover art
Return of a King cover art
Ancestors cover art
Challenging Destiny cover art
Red Rising (Part 2 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) cover art
Isabella cover art
Empress cover art
World Conquerors cover art
The History of the Ancient World cover art
Alexander the Great cover art
Blood and Thunder cover art

Critic reviews

"Uplifting, entertaining history.”—Kirkus Reviews
All stars
Most relevant  
I enjoyed it - it provides a new view of a society considered male dominated. Poor old Ghengis had a whole bunch of useless sons, but some pretty canny daughters. This history is constructed from fragments and folklore, but it hangs together nicely.

Scholarly, interesting view

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have bought this book to learn about Mongolia and as a co-listening book to Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by the same author. Both books are giving a complex view of Mongolian history roughly since Genghis Khan's birth till discovery of America by Columbus. The Mongol Queen's history is something new and fresh, something we do not learn in school and do not often hear of in educative media. Most people are familiar with Genghis Khan but I bet noone knows and is interested in his wifes, doughters and other female relatives, even though they formed an undisputable part in history and without their influence and interference the course of events would take completely different turns. I was happy to learn that they were not just nameless persons in the background but that they were able to capture the power and be real queens, respected and counted on. Compared to other nations of that time period Mongolian women were experiencing more freedom and opportunities than was habitual and some of them were able to use this advantage to pursue their ambitions
I enjoyed this book as well as narration that was clear and comfortable to listen to. I am tempted to buy this book in printed form for future reference and possible re-reading.

Well written, interesting, enligtening

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very insightful piece of historical investigation and delivered in a very meaningful and captivating manner.

A great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Love the book. Lost history of successful women rulers. But also an amazing story into life and values of nomadic cultures. Probably closer to the life of our hunter gathers ancestors who managed to live in harmony with nature. The clash between agrarians and nomads is unique and very interesting to follow.

Sone gruesome but nevertheless an amazing story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A load of this is pretty fascinating.

It can be quite hard to follow, but there were always going to be lots of people in Mongol history.
Narrator has a deep resonant voice that is clear, but other than that his reading was quite mediocre.

pretty amazing, narrator not to my taste though

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I knew I had to get this book after hearing about it on a podcast (What’s Her Name), and as I expected it kind of blew my mind.
It should come with a trigger warning, let’s just say that some pretty awful things also happened in the past, and quite rightly for a history book, it wasn’t glossed over, but it did feel like a gut punch.
I immediately bought this book for a friend of mine, and may have to buy a hard copy for myself for reference.

The work here to uncover a proud and rich history of women in the Mongolian Empire is wonderful and frankly I feel a must to anyone interested in history - so often I’ve been told in my life about how people of my sex just haven’t done things in the past…no! They did! They were quite literally written and torn out of history!

Kind of blew my mind!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
loved it. in my view it is better than the first one. intriguing, surprising, captivating.

Highly recommended

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Jack is for me the pre eminent historian on the mongals. His previous book was a joy to read and this is no different. Beautiful and impressive, this history should be heard

Detail

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.