Hmm... the Mongols were definitely not civilized, nor comparable with anyone - especially the Muslims. One of their first conquests was China (where they slaughtered a rather large percentage of the inhabitants - about 7 to 11%, according to modern estimates) and that' s where their alleged "culture" comes from - mocking the most advanced culture you find on your path of looting, raping and destroying, is hardly "culture" by itself.

The Mongols have completely annihilated more than 200 large settlements - every man, woman, kid, and animal would die in those. They have completely erased from the face of the planet two large and prosperous cultures (Xsi Xsia and ...what was the other?) by slaughtering every man, woman and chil. They would carry with them in battle thousands of prisoners and force them to march in front of their army, so they would absorb the brunt of the enemy attack. They would kill every person in a city that would resist them. Glorious cities, with maybe even hundreds of thousands of inhabitants that faced the Mongols, were rendered into mere rabble, or - if they were lucky - to a little village population-wise ...

...I mean, if all that ain't barbarism, then we've lost any sense of proportion, haven't we? I would call the slaughter of more than 20 million people (and that's only in Chinghis's conquest) a rather hefty price to pay to be able to travel from Persia to Korea unhindered.

And I am quite sure that much of the backwardness of Asia can be contributed to the Mongols. When they started conquering, Asia was way ahead of Europe. When they finished with it... Europe was catching on and the only Asian culture that still was on the rise, where the Ottomans, and they were outside the Mongolian sphere of inlfluence.