Abstract:

At the beginning of the 13th century, the Mongols under the leadership of Genghis Khan began the largest and fastest conquest movement in military history. They won brilliant victories in great military campaigns that took place in a very wide area from China to Central Europe. In this process, one of the most important factors involved in the success of the Mongols was that they attached great importance to intelligence activities and had a well-functioning intelligence mechanism. Before any campaign, Mongol armies took great care to collect all kinds of information about the political, military, social and economic conditions of the target region. They generally used spies, traders and ambassadors in the intelligence gathering process. Those local elements of target countries that changed sides or were recruited also played an important role in the intelligence mechanism. Besides, detailed intelligence studies were conducted in the military field through reconnaissance expeditions, pioneer units, observers and guides. The transmission of all intelligence gathered and the communication between army units was carried out by arrow messengers through a fast postal system called yam.

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