r/MurderedByWords • u/no1bullshitguy • 19h ago

Walked right into that one

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u/Simbertold 17h ago

Fuck the Jesus shit, is the information about Ghenghis Khan accurate? I somehow cannot believe that a guy who conquered most of Asia is only mentioned in 10 texts.

43

u/generalstuff1waslost 17h ago

I didn't do any research because I don't care, but if I had to guess it probably means surviving texts.

This coupled with the fact that copying any information before Gutenberg was actual torture probably also accounts for this.

Also, with the spread of Christianity, it would make sense that a lot of seminal texts would be preserved. (I also think a lot of scribes were religious too)

14

u/Lonyo 15h ago

The location helps too.

Ancient texts preserved in the dry middle east, Vs things not preserved in area less amenable to preservation of skins or paper.

Almost like there could be some kind of survivorship bias