Just finished this absolutely fascinating book and highly recommend it:
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
It goes a long way toward explaining how much of the world was shaped well before Europe took too much Enlightenment credit. Compared to several other dominant cultures, Europe really needed enlightenment. The Mongols actually turned back after defeating Europe's armies because they realized there was relatively little loot compared to Muslim and Asian achievements. Genghis Khan was an astonishingly wise leader who incorporated all the best learning and technologies into his mobile empire from whatever culture he defeated by preserving the scholars, craftsman, etc. He rose from an outcast's status and achieved this. When he was a boy, his father died and his mother, kidnapped from a different tribe, was abandoned by the group. Among other things, he bent her sewing needles into fish hooks to keep the family alive. Then he took over the world.
