Although there is an extensive secondary bibliography dealing with different aspects of religion in the Mongol Empire, it is relevant to highlight the fact that the Mongols had their own native set of beliefs and practices generally referred to as shamanism that were shared by the majority of the nomadic societies of North Asia. As the empire grew, the Mongols’ own religious milieu came into direct contact with those of the conquered populations. This encounter highlighted not only the similarities and differences between them but played a role in shaping the religious landscape of the Mongol Empire. In this context, the present chapter looks at the interaction between women and religion in different areas of the empire in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

This encounter between the Mongols’ understanding of religion and the faiths of the conquered populations triggered changes in the beliefs of both the Mongol rulers and the subject populations, and the resulting interaction between these two parties has been interpreted in different ways. On the one hand, some scholars have seen the Mongols as exploiters of religion for political purposes. The attitude of the conquerors is seen as being governed by realpolitik, with a religion being favoured or persecuted simply in order to control the subject population. On the other hand, some studies have suggested that the pre-imperial Mongol worldview might have played a role in guiding their preferences towards a particular religion, or at least towards a particular sect or school within a given creed. As is generally the case with historical writing, both arguments seem to have solid foundations depending on where and when the historians have looked for evidence.

Ever since the confrontation between Chinggis Khan and the shaman Teb-Tengri in the early stage in the formation of the empire, the Mongols recognised the political threat powerful religious leaders could present to the political supremacy of Mongol khans. When Chinggis Khan arrived in Bukhara during the first Mongol invasion of Central Asia, he entered the Friday mosque, expelled the religious leaders from the building and claimed from the pulpit that he was there because he was ‘the punishment of God’.