I've been binge watching the Marco Polo series and I'm really enthralled with the clothing designs and decor. I'd love to find more resources and illustrations about all of the beautiful colours, textures and clothing. What material is it, is there symbolism in the colours etc?
The Blue princess' bodyguard mentions that he is of 'the third sex', what is he referring to?
I've vaguely heard of Batu, grandson of Genghis Khan, how did he impact Mongol life/culture?
Khutulun seems to be deep into wrestling - how common was it for Mongols to wrestle? How common was it for women to join in battle, be warriors or be involved in wrestling/hands on activities?
How common were harems, how does marriage and courting go down with Khans? Everyone seems to have 3 wives and a buttload of women in their harems.
Tl;dr - Getting into Mongols, want to know more.
I can answer some of the questions:
Marco Polo is set at the time of Kubelai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan. By this time the Mongols had already conquered large swathes of China and the Mongol nobility had integrated a lot of the fashions and practices of Chinese nobility (the Mongols didn't really have a nobility as such before). So the majority of materials and designs would have been Chinese, i.e. Silk and Song dyntasty patterns.
Most likely a Eunuch. Eunuchs were often used to guard important women because they would not be able to do certain things with them, and would have no long term ambition (i.e. establishing a dynasty) due to not being able to produce heirs.
Batu lead the Golden Horde which had a huge impact on the societies and cultures in Central Asia, particularly what is now Russia and the Turkic states (all the -stans of today). I actually read an article, the name escapes me now, which proposed that the Ottomans were pushed into Persian territory fleeing the Golden Horde, bringing about their empire (just a theory, but interesting nonetheless).
Don't know much about Mongol recreation, but many warrior cultures use forms of physical contact and mock fighting as a way of both recreation and training, so it's possible, hopefully someone who knows can shed some light here.
Don't know about this.
There are many good books about the Mongols out there, but just be weary, there is a new movement trying to portray the Mongols as kind of historic good guys. Every society has its pros and cons and submitting history to such a subjective light can often sacrifice historical accuracy.