People need to be careful when reading accounts that were written by the Mongols' enemies. You need to take some of these stories with a large serving of salt.
Just look at some of the stories about Vlad Țepeș (aka Vlad III the impaler) for example. A lot of exaggeration and outright lying. Impaling mice in prison indeed.
Here is another conqueror who has been literally demonized down through the ages. Especially by the Germans and German settlers as well as the Turks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_III_the_Impaler
Just look at some of the stories about Vlad Țepeș (aka Vlad III the impaler) for example. A lot of exaggeration and outright lying. Impaling mice in prison indeed.
Here is another conqueror who has been literally demonized down through the ages. Especially by the Germans and German settlers as well as the Turks.
Vlad the Impaler's reputation was considerably darker in Western Europe than in Eastern Europe and Romania. The fame of his cruelty spread in the form of a pamphlet, seriously exaggerated, and promoted by Matthias Corvinus. Matthias tarnished Vlads reputation and credibility for a political reason: as an explanation for why he had not helped Vlad fight the Ottomans in 1462, for which purpose he had received money from most Catholic states in Europe. Matthias employed the charges of Southeastern Transylvania, and produced fake letters of high treason, written on 7 November 1462.
In the West, Vlad III Țepeș has been characterized as a tyrant who took sadistic pleasure in torturing and killing. The number of his victims ranges from 40,000 to 100,000.[19] According to the German stories the number of victims he had killed was at least 80,000. In addition to the 80,000 victims mentioned he also had whole villages and fortresses destroyed and burned to the ground.[20] These numbers are most likely exaggerated.[21]
The atrocities committed by Vlad in the German stories include impaling, torturing, burning, skinning, roasting, and boiling people, feeding people the flesh of their friends or relatives, cutting off limbs, and drowning[citation needed]. All of these punishments mainly came from things people did that displeased Vlad the most; stealing, lying, and adulterous relations. Other methods of punishment included skinning the feet of thieves, then putting salt on them and letting goats lick off the salt. This was a way that Vlad kept his people in order and taught them that stealing would not be tolerated in his lands. No exceptions were made: he punished anyone who broke his laws, whether men or women, no matter the age, religion or social class[citation needed].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_III_the_Impaler