Review of The Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford

*The Secret History of the Mongol Queens* by Jack Weatherford (2010). Published by Crown Publishers.

One of my favorite places to collect books lately has been Savers. For our non-American friends reading this, Savers is basically a thrift store chain in the US that has nicer items. I prefer it for books, as for some reason all of the books that they get in tend to be right up my alley, especially when it comes to nonfiction.

I try to go to Savers every few months to see what kind of books I can pick up during this trip, and it was in May 2024 when I went for what I thought would be the last time in a year. Fate ended up playing out differently than expected, and I did end up getting to go when I was nearby in October 2024—when I wasn’t supposed to be in the US.

It was during that trip I found a copy of The Secret History of the Mongol Queens. It was the title that lead me to pick up the book, as I was fascinated with what this book could potentially say during our brief little time with it. I ended up deciding to buy it because it would be my fourth book. At Savers if you buy a certain amount of books, you get one free.

So over the course of three days I read the book. Here’s my review—I don’t want to keep rambling when you want to see more about the book itself!

The Mongol Queens were a big part of keeping the empire together.

As an American who grew up in a fairly decent education system, despite being from Baltimore County, I always remembered learning about Genghis Khan. I took AP World History, and I feel like if you got through the class without learning about him, then something was very very wrong.

I also focused on history in graduate school, and almost went into a PhD thinking I wanted to focus on Central Asia and Turkic populations, but I didn’t end up going down this path. Regardless, I knew a lot about Khan and his path towards conquering the world as much as he could.

This book is about the role of women in the world of Khan and his descendants. To get to this point, we learn a little bit of context about Khan’s conquests, and how he went about gaining more land for the Mongols. We also get a little bit about his history within the clan itself.

We then shift gears as Genghis Khan passes away and the land he conquered is divided among his sons. This is where the role of the women becomes more prominent, and Weatherford really starts to press on the gas for the story that’s unfolding.

Women’s roles in societies are often erased in the larger narratives, but Weatherford shows the gaps in the Mongol forms of storytelling. He pulls out specific examples from each of the sons, showing how their wives and daughters played more prominent roles throughout their reigns.

While the man gets all of the credit, the Mongol women were fierce themselves and willing to get their hands dirty whenever needed. We see that throughout these stories and histories traced, and it was fascinating to read about. Khan himself had eight daughters, and installed many of them to rule the land he conquered.

That’s a rare display of trust, but their stories get lost so quickly in the grand scheme of things. It was their legacy and influence that allowed the Mongol culture to spread even further beyond conquered territories and into the lives of everyday people, including the example of the Taj Mahal.

Overall Thoughts

I had personally never heard of most of these women, although I’m not deep in the lore of the Khans and what their descendants did, and I found this book to be critical. I was already painfully aware that this is going to be the case, as history does not look on women kindly.

We need more books like this. They’re hard to get through sometimes, but they’re a necessity as we work towards a more equitable and understanding world.

If you’re interested in the Mongols, cultural exchange, or even women’s history in general, I suggest picking this book if you haven’t already. It’s a deep dive into a history a lot of people say they know, but are then questioned about later and don’t know the details.

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