The story starts with Genghis Khan's plunder of Merv and the mass murder that was ordered by him. It mentions the artisans who were kept alive. Then it swerves to the plunder of Merv by the Oghuz, continues in the next paragraph, and then returns to Genghis Khan by announcing his death.<p>Again, it returns to the artisans,but mid-paragraph (as is typical in that article), switches to battles again, and returns yet again to silk and artisans.
At last, it connects the battles and the silk together.<p>This is probably why it appears very hard to read. Especially, the mid-paragraph context switches continuing to the subsequent paragraph.<p>Nevertheless , a fascinating read.
Nostalgic - Mongols using silk shirts to make removing arrows easier was a favorite anecdote of my World History teacher in High School. Movies and stories always make pre-gunpowder war seem like a face-to-face battle between warriors, but arrows were always the biggest killer, both in battle and through attrition due to infections and laming. Another anecdote I always remembered was that the lead balls fired by early muskets were often more deadly than modern firearms because they were so slow and heavy that when they got into the body they wouldn't pass through but instead roll around along the bones and mess up the insides, similar to the modern street lore about .22 pistols being the worst to get shot with. Cannonballs also rolled and bounced through the battlefield, taking out limbs and crushing people rather than exploding like modern artillery.
Video of Traditional Mongolian Cavalry performing Horseback Archery by Namnaa Academy archers.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/qzTaYvMmNYU?si=e-BiruFuNRm6Bzqr" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/qzTaYvMmNYU?si=e-BiruFuNRm6Bzqr</a>
There are plenty of debunking videos on YouTube but none that are particularly scientific but honestly I'm very skeptical of this silk shirt story.
I thought it was all because of a genetic mutation that allowed them to digest milk... <a href="https://annemontgomerywriter.com/2022/02/11/the-power-of-milk-who-knew/#:~:text=It%20seems%20that%20Genghis%20and,Europe%20in%20a%20relative%20flash" rel="nofollow">https://annemontgomerywriter.com/2022/02/11/the-power-of-mil...</a>.
“…the deep structure of silk appear to be embedded proteins that are antiviral, and yet others that can damage the fortressing walls of bacterial cells.”<p>“Both the fibroin that forms the silk and the sericin that binds it can hasten the healing of wounds.”<p>“…silk without sericin, and even the sericin routinely discarded in the manufacture of silk, would be manipulated by doctors and engineers. They would create sponges and gels; films and mats of silk as scaffolds seeking to support wounds that struggle to heal; matrices for the regrowth of blood vessels and broken skin; formulations to attract cells as they migrate and regenerate.”