Shadow of the Silk Road

I've been reading Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron, an astonishing work of travel and history, a gritty, informed description of the present and past of Central Asia.

The section dealing with the surrounding of Afghanistan describe the utter destruction of Islamic culture of those regions. They never recovered from the Mongol invasion. When the Mongols had conquered the city / town / village, they would take all the inhabitants outside the walls, and there they would kill them all, even the dogs and cats.

I tried to imagine that. I can get as far as a fence, the colour and shape of weathered Adelaide palings, and the ground, yellow dirt and a few white stones (the colour and composition of my primary school playground). I can imagine the head of a dead dog, one that has been euthanized. And there my imagination stops.

I can't imagine ruthlessness on that scale. The Mongols eventually abandoned their drive west to deal with the succession after the death of Genghis Khan.

I can't take in the pointlessness. I can't accommodate the idea that military genius is the boundary and canopy of human existence, that everything disappears into it and under it, that Aries is the greatest of the gods and will always defeat Hephaestus, Hestia, Hermes, Demeter.