The Mongol Empire Trivia
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49 free The Mongol Empire trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous empire the world has known, stretching from Korea to Hungary within two generations of Genghis Khan's election in 1206, and this quiz covers the whole arc: the unification of the steppe tribes, the Yassa law code, the decimal army, the conquests of China, Persia and Rus', the sack of Baghdad, the typhoons that saved Japan, the succession wars that split the empire into four khanates, and the roads, relay stations and religious tolerance that let Marco Polo travel to Xanadu. Easy questions ask who founded the empire and what its capital was; harder ones dig into the caliph killed by trampling, the Parisian goldsmith's silver drinks tree, the battle that halted the Mongols in Galilee and the year Moscow finally shook off the Tatar yoke. It suits world-history students, strategy-game fans and quiz nights that want a round beyond Genghis himself. BrainPickle's Genghis Khan and Mongolia quizzes go deeper on the man and the modern country. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the empire, its khans, khanates and battles, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What record does the Mongol Empire hold in world history?
Largest contiguous land realm ever
Largest contiguous land realm ever: it ran unbroken from the Sea of Japan to Eastern Europe, while the larger British Empire was scattered across oceans.
Q 02What was Genghis Khan's birth name?
Temüjin
Temüjin was still a boy when Tatars poisoned his father Yesugei; the clan then abandoned the family, who survived by hunting and foraging on the steppe.
Q 03How did Genghis Khan come to rule the Mongols?
Uniting the tribes
Uniting the tribes came first: he was proclaimed ruler of all the Mongols in 1206, and his great conquests abroad came only after that.
Q 04What is a kurultai?
A Mongol assembly that elected khans
A Mongol assembly that elected khans, it needed the princes of Genghis's line in attendance, so one prince who stayed away could stall the choice of a great khan for years.
Q 05Genghis Khan organised his army on what numerical system?
Decimal units of tens, hundreds and thousands
Decimal units of tens, hundreds and thousands were led on merit: command went to proven followers, some of them low-born, rather than to the seniors of each clan.
Q 06What was the Mongol law code credited to Genghis Khan called?
The Yassa
The Yassa outlived him: generations later, his descendants ruling Iran still applied it side by side with sharia law.
Q 07Which people's writing system did Genghis Khan adopt for Mongolian?
The Uyghurs'
The Uyghurs' alphabet was pressed into service because Mongolian had only ever been spoken; the script that grew from it is written vertically, in columns running left to right.
Q 08Which group did Genghis Khan exempt from taxes across his empire?
Religious leaders
Religious leaders of every faith paid no tax. He had decreed freedom of worship to avoid strife, and contented subjects were less likely to rebel.
Q 09Which state did Genghis Khan invade after its ruler killed a Mongol envoy?
The Khwarazmian shahdom
The Khwarazmian shahdom's governor at Otrar had seized a Mongol trade caravan and killed its merchants; the envoy who died had come to demand that governor's punishment.
Q 10What happened to Genghis Khan's body after his death in 1227?
He was buried in a secret location
He was buried in a secret location, probably near the sacred mountain Burkhan Khaldun; legend has it that the funeral escort killed everyone it met on the way.
Q 11From what did the Mongols make kumis, their mildly alcoholic everyday drink?
Mare's milk
Mare's milk was poured into a big hide bag and churned with a stick until it soured, fizzed and turned mildly alcoholic.
Q 12Why was the paternity of Genghis Khan's eldest son Jochi in doubt?
His mother had been a Merkit captive
His mother had been a Merkit captive, and the doubt never left him: Genghis raised Jochi as his own, but rivals within the family disputed his legitimacy all his life.
Q 13Which city did the Mongols establish as their capital in 1235?
Karakorum
Q 21What was Töregene, who ruled the Mongol Empire as regent for five years, to the late great khan?
His widow
His widow held the throne just long enough to win the election for her own son Güyük, setting aside the grandson her husband had named as heir.
Q 22Which Christian princess was the mother of the great khans Möngke and Kublai?
Sorghaghtani Beki
Sorghaghtani Beki, though a Christian herself, gave alms to Muslims as well, and all four of her sons became known for their religious tolerance.
Q 23Möngke's 1251 election shifted power from Ögedei's line to descendants of which son of Genghis?
Tolui
Tolui was Genghis's youngest son, and the switch to his line was sealed in blood: once elected, Möngke purged the house of Ögedei.
Karakorum never matched the empire it ruled: a friar who visited in 1254 rated it below the village of Saint-Denis outside Paris.
Q 14What did the Parisian goldsmith Guillaume Boucher build at the Mongol great khan's palace?
A silver tree that dispensed drinks
A silver tree that dispensed drinks, it had a trumpeting angel on top. A visiting friar wrote that a man hidden in a vault beneath blew the trumpet, because bellows had proved too weak.
Q 15Which dynasty ruling northern China did the Mongols destroy in 1234?
The Jin
The Jin were caught between the Mongols to the north and the Song to the south, who had allied with the invaders; the Song then became the next target and fell in 1279.
Q 16Which city, long the capital of the Rus', did the Mongols storm in December 1240?
Kyiv
Kyiv was stormed and most of its people killed, while Novgorod, far to the north, was never sacked, though it too had to accept Mongol overlordship.
Q 17Which grandson of Genghis Khan led the invasion of Rus' and Europe?
Batu
Batu was later offered the great khan's throne and turned it down, preferring to rule his own western lands and play kingmaker.
Q 18How did the Mongols kill the Rus' princes captured at the Kalka River in 1223?
Crushed under the victors' feast platform
Crushed under the victors' feast platform, the princes paid for killing the Mongol envoys sent before the battle; the victors dined on the boards above them.
Q 19Which kingdom did the Mongols lay waste in 1241 after routing King Béla IV at Mohi?
Hungary
Hungary lay open after Mohi: King Béla fled all the way to the Adriatic coast with Mongol riders on his heels, and his kingdom was ravaged for a year before the invaders pulled out.
Q 20What news halted the Mongol advance into central Europe in 1242?
The death of Ögedei Khan
The death of Ögedei Khan is the traditional reason, calling the princes home to choose a successor; yet the army's own commander never made the journey.
Q 24Which great Muslim city did the Mongols sack in 1258, ending the Abbasid Caliphate?
Baghdad
Baghdad fell after a brief siege and a week of slaughter followed; the caliphate that had reigned since 750 ended with the execution of its last caliph.
Q 25How did the Mongols execute al-Musta'sim, the last Abbasid caliph?
Rolled in a carpet and trampled
Most accounts have him rolled in a carpet and trampled, so that no royal blood touched the earth, a Mongol taboo; another tale has him locked away to starve among his treasure.
Q 26Which sect's Persian mountain stronghold of Alamut fell to the Mongols in 1256?
The Assassins
The Assassins had long picked off rulers and generals from their hilltop castles; their name, from an Arabic slur meaning 'hashish-eater', gave English the word assassin.
Q 27Who defeated the Mongols at Ain Jalut?
The Mamluks of Egypt
The Mamluks of Egypt had answered a Mongol demand to submit by executing the embassy, then won at a spring whose name is taken to mean Goliath's Spring.
Q 28Which two brothers fought a civil war from 1260 to 1264 after each was proclaimed great khan?
Kublai and Ariq Böke
Kublai and Ariq Böke fought for four years; Kublai won because he could draw on the wealth and grain of China, but the empire never truly reunited.
Q 29Which supreme deity did the Mongols believe had granted them the right to rule the whole world?
The Eternal Blue Sky
The Eternal Blue Sky, called Tengri, stood above all other powers, and the khans opened their edicts and their letters to foreign kings by invoking it.
Q 30Kublai Khan built his new capital, known as Khanbaliq or Dadu, on the site of which modern city?
Beijing
Beijing had been a frontier stronghold and a regional capital before him; under Kublai the whole of China was ruled from it for the first time.