When the highly civilized Uighur people surrendered without a fight in 1209, Genghis deployed many of their officials throughout his realm as judges, generals, scribes, secret agents, and tax collectors. McLynn notes that this was another pivotal moment: Since their high skills, talents, and culture had been placed at the service of the Mongols, and their script accepted as the first official language of the governing class, they helped to give the empire ideological and spiritual legitimacy; it could no longer be said that this was just a congeries of cruel, bloodthirsty savages.
