1162?-1227, Founder of the Mongol Empire
Born into a family that was part of the minor Mongol nobility, Temüjin's formative years were shaped by the murder of his father when he was nine years old. His mother took on the duties of teaching him how to ride a horse, shoot a bow and arrow, and tend the animals. She instructed him that allies were most essential in the harsh environment they inhabited. From his earliest days, he set about forming an association of trustworthy and reliable allies who were drawn to him by his intelligence, bravery, and persuasive abilities. By the 1180s, he had organized a group of utterly loyal retainers (nököd) with whom he shared wealth or spoils that resulted from successful campaigns against other tribes. With more powerful leaders such as Jamukha, a childhood friend, and the Ong Khan of the mighty Kereyid tribes, he established relations of blood brotherhood (anda). Yet when he no longer needed these blood brothers, his pattern was to break with or betray them. He would eventually turn against and kill both Jamukha and the Ong Khan.
Temüjin continued to strengthen his army and his position until he was accepted as leader of all the
Mongols. He divided his forces into units of one thousand and then ten thousand men and scattered the tribes into different units so that each individual would develop a loyalty to the army, not to his original tribe. Temüjin promoted men of ability, not necessarily the old tribal chieftains, and the grateful new leaders became devoted to him. By 1204, he vanquished the Naiman, his last and most tenacious opponents, and in 1206, an assemblage of the Mongol nobility (khuriltai) ratified him as their leader and granted him the title "Genghis Khan," meaning "Oceanic Ruler" or "Fierce Ruler."
Genghis Khan's successes owed much to his military acumen and his administrative abilities. He imposed tight discipline on his troops, punishing them severely for infractions. He planned his campaigns meticulously and developed a sophisticated intelligence network. He devised tactics and strategy carefully to capitalize on the information about the enemy that he obtained from his spies and allies. Frequently, the mere threat of Genghis's attacks and devastating invasions induced opponents to capitulate. His superb cavalry offered the mobility he required in battle, and their ability to shoot a bow and arrow while riding gave them the upper hand in combat with ordinary foot soldiers.
Before an attack, Genghis dispatched envoys to foreign states with "orders of submission," demanding acquiescence to his rule. If the foreigners yielded, he would permit their rulers to govern as long as they provided taxes and performed labor and military service. If they refused to succumb, he would attack. The Tanguts of Northwest China were the first non-Mongols to reject his orders of submission. Since they controlled the oases vital to trade with Central Asia and the Middle East, Genghis was eager to compel their submission in order to dominate this lucrative commerce. In 1209, his troops trekked across parts of the Gobi desert and engaged the enemy. They did well in the open field but encountered obstacles in inducing towns to surrender, as they had not developed the techniques of siege warfare. Nonetheless, their relentlessness finally caused the Tanguts to sue for peace.
Genghis Khan's campaigns spread to North China and Central Asia. Commercial and tributary disputes had bedeviled relations with the Chin dynasty of North China and eventually resulted in war. The culmination of the conflict occurred in 1215 with the successful siege of the Chin dynasty's capital in the area of modern Peking. The Mongols' ability to prevent the resupply of the city and their use of catapults revealed a growing sophistication in sieges. Genghis's expeditions in Central Asia showed an even greater ability to besiege and capture large cities. Commercial and diplomatic conflicts with the Khwarazmian shah of Central Asia, who made the mistake of killing Genghis Khan's envoys, erupted into a full-scale war. In 1219, Genghis set forth toward the west with an army of about 200,000 men. Within the next two years, his forces besieged and then, in rapid succession, took Bukhara, Samarkand, Herat, Nishapur, and Merv, sizable towns that put the Mongols' skill in siege warfare to a test. Genghis remained in Central Asia for four years, but then headed eastward to punish the suddenly rebellious Tanguts. En route, he died in August of 1227.
Aside from his conquests and his military innovations, Genghis Khan bequeathed policies that proved invaluable in ruling the diverse ethnic and religious groups in the domains he had subjugated. First, he adopted a policy of religious toleration, which ingratiated the Mongols to the native clerics. Second, he recruited and employed foreigners in his army and in his administration. Without foreign assistance, he and his successors could not have governed the vast territories they dominated. Third, he issued the Jasagh, a set of orders and rules for his people. It imposed capital punishment for horse theft and severe sanctions on disobedient soldiers, prescribed a specific way of butchering animals, and legitimized the practice of the levirate, the marriage of a widow to her husband's brother. Fourth, by promoting trade, he and his descendants set the stage for an increase in travel across Eurasia, permitting European envoys, merchants, and craftworkers to journey, for the first time, as far as China.
The career of Genghis Khan defies easy characterization. A man who unleashed terrible destruction and death on his way to conquest, he paved the way for a peaceful era that resulted in the first direct contacts between Europe and China. An illiterate nomad, he ordered the development of the first Mongol written language, supported craftworkers and artists, and patronized a variety of religions. A military man prone to use violence, he nonetheless devised rules designed to resolve conflicts peacefully. He was neither a monster, as he is often depicted in the West, nor the greatest military genius of all times, as the Mongols perceive him to be.
Morris Rossabi
Paul Ratchnevsky, Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy, trans. T. N. Haining (1991).
