GENGHIS
KHAN (1162 – 1227) WAS THE WORLD'S GREATEST CONQUEROR CIVILIZED AND
INNOVATOR.GENGHIS KHAN AND THE MONGOL EMPIRE THAT CAPTURE HIS LARGER
THAN LIFE LEGACY FROM HIS HISTORIC WARS.HE WAS THE LARGEST BRUTAL
MONSTER IN WORLD HISTORY,HE KILLED TENS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE.
Tribal
warfare was a major hindrance on the Mongol tribes, preventing similar
people from becoming a larger collective. Neighboring empires like China
capitalized on this disunity for their own goals.It wasn’t until a guy
by the name of Temujin (soon to be Genghis Khan) was able to unite the
tribes, even the Turkic ones, into a growing military threat to the rest
of Asia and even Eastern Europe.The Mongol invasion of Europe from the
east took place over the course of three centuries, from the Middle Ages
to the early modern period.
Genghis
Khan was born in Delüün Boldog in 1162. He died in 1227 at the age of
65. According to legend, he was born with a blood clot in his clenched
fist, foretelling his emergence as a great leader.Genghis Khan is a name
that resonates with all who have heard of his harrowing exploits.
History books portray him as a brutal emperor who massacred millions of
Asian and Eastern European people. However, he also practiced religious
and racial tolerance, and his Mongolian Empire valued the leadership of
women. Khan also brought law and civilization to Mongolia and is
regarded as a hero in his native land. Western impressions are heavily
influenced by negative Persian accounts, whereas Eastern impressions
vary.The Mongol Empire (1206–1368) was the largest contiguous land
empire in world history (with its only rival in total extent being the
British Empire). Founded by Genghis Khan in 1206, it encompassed the
majority of the territories from southeast Asia to eastern Europe.
Historically the time of Mongol Empire facilitated great cultural
exchange and trade between the East, West, and the Middle East during
the time between 13th century and 14th century.The rapid expansion of
the Mongol Empire was possible as a result of military skill, brilliant
political and economic organization, and discipline. It unified large
regions, some of which (such as uniting eastern and western Russia, the
western parts of China) continue as nations even now. While much of the
Mongol culture was integrated with local customs, and the descendants of
the empire adopted Islam, the imprint of empire may be in us in other
ways - recent genetic tests appear to indicate that one out of every 200
males in Eurasia may be descended from Genghis Khan.At the time of
Genghis Khan's death in 1227, the empire was divided among his four sons
with his third son as the nominal supreme Khan, but by the 1350s, the
khanates were in a state of fracture and had lost the organization of
Genghis Khan. Eventually the separate khanates drifted away from each
other (e.g. Golden Horde, Yuan Dynasty).Genghis Khan, through political
manipulation and military might, united the Mongol tribes under his rule
by 1206. He quickly came into conflict with the Jin empire of the
Jurchen and the Western Xia in northern China. Under the provocation of
the Khwarezmid Empire, he moved into Central Asia as well, devastating
Transoxiana and eastern Persia, then raiding into southern Russia and
the Caucasus. While engaged in a final war against the Western Xia,
Genghis fell ill and died. Through much hard work, Genghis had built an
empire that in his mind was the heritage of the imperial house. Before
dying, Genghis Khan divided his empire among his sons and immediate
family, but as custom made clear, it remained the joint property of the
entire imperial family who, along with the Mongol aristocracy,
constituted the ruling class.The empire's expansion continued for a
generation or more after Genghis's death in 1227 — indeed, it was under
Genghis's successor Ögedei Khan that the speed of expansion reached its
peak. Mongol armies pushed into Persia, finished off the Xia and the
remnants of the Khwarezmids, and came into conflict with the Song
Dynasty of China, starting a war that would last until 1279 and that
would conclude with the Mongols' successful conquest of China.Then, in
the late 1230s, the Mongols under Batu Khan invaded Russia, reducing
most of its principalities to vassalage, and pressed on into Eastern
Europe. In 1241 the Mongols may have been ready to invade western Europe
as well, having defeated the last Polish-German and Hungarian armies at
the Battle of Legnica and the Battle of Mohi. However, at this point,
news of Ögedei's death led to first the partial suspension of the
invasion and then to its effective conclusion as Batu's attention
switched to the election of the next Great Khan.During the 1250s,
Genghis's grandson Hulegu Khan, operating from the Mongol base in
Persia, destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad and destroyed the
cult of the Assassins, moving into Palestine towards Egypt. The Great
Khan Möngke having died, however, he hastened to return for the
election, and the force that remained in Palestine was destroyed by the
Mamluks under Baibars in 1261 at Ayn Jalut.When Genghis Khan died, a
major potential weakness of the system he had set up manifested itself.
It took many months to summon the kurultai, as many of its most
important members were leading military campaigns thousands of miles
from the Mongol heartland. And then it took months more for the kurultai
to come to the decision that had been almost inevitable from the start —
that Genghis's choice as successor, his third son Ögedei, should indeed
become Great Khan. Ögedei was a rather passive ruler and personally
self-indulgent, but he was intelligent, charming and a good
decision-maker whose authority was respected throughout his reign by
apparently stronger-willed relatives and generals whom he had inherited
from Genghis.On Ögedei's death in 1241, however, the system started
falling apart. Pending a kurultai to elect Ögedei's successor, his widow
Toregene Khatun assumed power and proceeded to ensure the election of
her son Guyuk by the kurultai. Batu, though, was unwilling to accept
Guyuk as Great Khan but without the power in the kurultai to procure his
own election. Therefore, while moving no further west, he
simultaneously insisted that the situation in Europe was too precarious
for him to come east and that he could not accept the result of any
kurultai held in his absence. The resulting stalemate lasted four years —
in 1246 Batu eventually agreed to send a representative to the kurultai
but never acknowledged the resulting election of Guyuk as Great
Khan.Guyuk died in 1248, only two years after his election, on his way
west apparently to force Batu to acknowledge his authority, and his
widow Oghul Ghaymish assumed power pending the meeting of the kurultai.
But she could not keep the power. Batu again remained in the west but
this time gave his support to his and Guyuk's cousin, Möngke, who was
duly elected Great Khan in 1251.It was Möngke Khan who unwittingly
provided his brother Kublai with a chance to become Khan in 1260. Möngke
assigned Kublai, to a province in North China. Kublai expanded the
Mongol empire, and made several good military moves, putting him in the
favor of his brother the khan.Later, though, when he began to rule and
abide by more Chinese laws, his brother, Möngke, was persuaded by his
advisors that Kublai was becoming too Chinese and would become
treasonous. After meeting in person and several diplomatic moves on
Kublai's part, they were at peace. Möngke kept a closer watch on Kublai
from then on until his death campaigning in the west. After his older
brother's death, Kublai placed himself in the running for a new khan
against his younger brother, and, although his younger brother won one
election, Kublai won another, staged in a less traditional place. Kublai
was soon known as Kublai Khan.He proved to be a good conqueror, but
critics said he dwelt too long in China. When he moved his headquarters
to Peking, there was an uprising in the old capital that he barely
staunched. He focused mostly on foreign alliances, and opened trade
routes. He dined with a large court every day, and met with many
ambassadors, foreign merchants, and even offered to convert to
Christianity if this religion was proved to be correct by 100
priests.However, as his eyes strayed from the Mongol empire he ruled,
the war-ravaged Mongol masterpiece he had worked so hard to expand began
to decline, and only his returning attention saved it from a swift
fall. Although turmoil always happened when a khan died, even as the
empire grew larger, khans were still elected in the traditional manner.
The decaying empire sagged when Kublai Khan died, and it rotted through
after Kublai's successor failed to maintain the Pax Mongolica policy.
After Kublai died in 1294, his heirs failed to maintain the Pax
Mongolica and the Silk Road closed. Already during the reign of Kublai
Khan, the empire was in the process of splitting into a number of
smaller khanates.Inter-family rivalry (compounded by the complicated
politics of succession, which twice paralyzed military operations as far
off as Hungary and the borders of Egypt, crippling their chances of
success) and the tendencies of some of the khans to drink themselves to
death fairly young (causing the aforementioned succession crises)
hastened the disintegration of the empire.Another factor which
contributed to the disintegration was the decline of morale when the
capital was moved from Karakorum to modern day Beijing by Kublai Khan,
because Kublai Khan associated more with Chinese culture. Kublai
concentrated on the war with the Song, assuming the mantle of ruler of
China, while the more western khanates gradually drifted away.The four
descendant empires were the Mongol-founded Yuan Dynasty in China, the
Chagatai Khanate, the Golden Horde that controlled Central Asia and
Russia, and the Ilkhans who ruled Persia from 1256 to 1353. Of the
latter, their ruler Ilkhan Ghazan was converted to Islam in 1295 and
actively supported the expansion of this religion in his empire.
Mongol
invasion of Hungary and Poland,In 1241, the Mongol army marched into
Hungary, defeating the Polish and Hungarian armies and forcing the
Hungarian king to flee. In 1242, despite meeting no significant military
resistance, the Mongols abruptly packed up and left.A cold and snowy
winter yielded to a particularly wet spring in Hungary in 1242,
according to data from tree rings. As a result, the grasslands of
Hungary turned to marsh. The
invasion of Hungary happened well after the death of notorious Mongol
leader Genghis Khan in 1227. His successor, his son Ogodei, led the
Mongols into Russia in 1235 and into Eastern Europe by 1240.
Genghis
Khan was tall, had a long beard, and likely sported red hair and green
eyes, although he would have looked oriental. This mixing of European
and Asian characteristics was quite common in Mongolia at the time.He
founded the Mongol Empire when he united the tribes occupying the Mongol
plains. These plains are situated between China and Russia in central
Asia.He accomplished what no other human before him had ever done and
what none have done since. Through brutal military force, he amassed one
of history's greatest armies and built the largest contiguous empire
the world has ever seen.Second only to the British Empire in terms of
overall size, Khan's Mongol Empire controlled much of Asia and laid
claim to a quarter of the world's population during the 13th century.
His conquests not only changed the ancient world .For example, some
fairly recent research has suggested that 0.5 percent of men worldwide
(about 16 million people at the time of the study) can most likely trace
their genetic lineage back to male-line descendants of Genghis Khan.A
conqueror of such great power and influence, Genghis Khan was destined
to be a leader from birth according to Mongolian folklore. Local
tradition holds that the blood clot found in his hand upon his birth in
the mountains of northeast Mongolia circa 1162 — meant that he would
become a ruler.Born with the name Temüjin and part of the Borjigin
tribe, Khan had a difficult childhood. His father, the tribe's leader,
was poisoned when he was just a young boy and the family spent much of
his childhood living a nomadic and meager lifestyle without the
protection of a tribe.However, this only fueled Khan's quest for power.
He soon aligned himself with his father's sworn ally Toghrul, leader of
the Keraite tribe confederation. The alliance proved fruitful and the
young warrior was able to gather 20,000 fighters and defeat the rival
confederacy of Merkit.These early military campaigns allowed Khan to
slowly unite the various Mongolian tribes and launch larger campaigns
that eventually allowed him to conquer nearly all of Eurasia.Like other
conquerors of the ancient world, Genghis Khan (a name he didn't adopt
until middle age) was known for his fearsome military tactics and
ruthless bloodshed. Entire cities were burned and those left alive were
incorporated into the Mongol's growing population.This gave Khan's
empire an incredibly diverse population for the time and one that was
made up of multiple faiths and skilled artisans of various trades.
Without his seemingly unquenchable thirst for expansion of the Mongol
Empire, the Silk Road likely would not have been as expansive as it
became.Despite his extraordinary influence, the number of verifiable
Genghis Khan facts that we know today is still quite small. Depictions
of his appearance vary and the uncertain location of his tomb has
remained both a point of frustration and intrigue for
archaeologists.However, the fact that we only know about small parts of
Genghis Khan's life and death is probably what he would have wanted. His
soldiers actually went to great lengths to keep his tomb a secret.As
these interesting facts about Genghis Khan above show, however, what we
do know about him proves that his life was one of monumental impact that
the world still feels today.After this look at the most astounding
Genghis Khan facts, check out the most interesting facts about Ancient
Egypt. Then, read up on Khutulun, Genghis Khan's
great-great-granddaughter, and one of history's fiercest warrior
princesses. Genghis's mother appears in the traditional Mongol sources
as a savior and great heroine. According to the Chinese government:
"When Temujin was 9 years old, his father was poisoned by the Tatars.
The Boerzhijin clan lost their leader, and Temujin lost his backer. The
clansman dispersed one after another, and their properties were
ransacked. The family had to make their livings by fishing, mousing, and
picking wild fruits. Still, some forces like Taiyichiwu didn't let them
pass, and they were afraid that when the Temujin brothers grew up, they
would revive their family force, and that would be a threat to their
status and interests. Thus, they sent arms to capture Temujin, and
wanted to "cut the weeds and dig up the roots" and put an end to the
future trouble. Fortunately, Temujin was saved by a kind-hearted man
Suoerhanshila, and escaped from danger. In such difficult and dangerous
environment, Temujin's family had endured all hardships, but at the same
time, his willpower was tempered, and his brave and fearless spirit in
fighting was cultivated. Genghis Khan was named Temüjen (meaning
"blacksmith") after a Tatar chief his father had just killed. He was
born in the 1160s, purportedly with a clot of blood in his hand (a good
omen to the Mongols). His officials date of birth is 1162 but estimates
of when he was really born vary form 1155 to 1167. Describing the origin
of Genghis Khan, Secret History reports, 'There was once a blue-gray
wolf who was born with his destiny preordained by Heaven Above. His wife
was a fallow doe." The exact location of Genghis Khan's birthplace and
his burial place are unknown but we do know that he was raised in the
upper regions of the Onon (Orkhon) River, a forested region rich in
game. Many Mongolians believe that he was born in a valley called the
Gurvan Nuur where there is a spring where he washed and a pine-cloaked
mountain where he prayed.Around the time of Genghis Khan's birth,
Mongolia was inhabited by 1.5 to 3 million people who were divided among
several dozen Turkic- and Mongol-speaking tribes. The same general
region is believed to have also given birth to the Huns, Turks and
Xiongnu a people that had raided China for centuries.Dadal (350 miles
northwest of Ulaan Baatar) is the purported birthplace of Genghis Khan.
Also known as Bayan Ovoo, it is a small village in Khentii province
surrounded by beautiful forests, mountains and lakes. More than 43 sites
associated with Genghis Khan have been identified in the region,
including the place where he was crowned and the place he formed his
army. Huddu Aral is sometimes described as the home of the “Palace of
Genghis Khan." Encircled by the Herlen and Tsenheriin rivers and the
Herlen Bayan Ulaan Mountains, it is a grass plain about 30 kilometers
long and 20 kilometers wide, at an elevation of 1,300 meters. The site
of the Ikh Auring (Palace) of Genghis Khan was on this plain according
to the Secret Life of the Mongols. The remains of fortifications can be
found here.enghis Khan was orphaned when he was 13. According to one
story Temüjen's father, a petty warlord and tribal chieftain, was
poisoned by Tartars when Temüjen was nine and according to another story
he died in combat while a 12-year Temüjen hid in a lake breathing from a
hollow reed.Temüjen's father, Yessugei, was the leader of the
Kiyat-Borjigin tribe, who homeland was at the source of the Onon River
and before that southern Siberia. Many think that Genghis Khan's family
were not even Mongols but were Buriats, a Mongol-related group more
associated with the Orkhon River area than the Mongols.After the his
father death, Temüjen, his mother and the rest of his family enduring a
number of hardships. According to Secret History, they became so poor
they had to eat rats, marmots, berries and insects to survive. Temüjen
was constantly on the run from family rivals determined to extinguish
his family line. An early sign of his propensity to violence was the
killing of his half brother Bekter for stealing one of his fish while
still a teenager.According to the Chinese government: Later, with the
help of his father's sworn brother Wang Han, he gathered his men,
accumulated his forces and started his carving out process. In 1185, he
defeated Mieerqi. In 1189, he was elected as Khan by the noble class of
Qiyan family. After that, he spent more than ten years on
expedition.Under Genghis Khan, the Mongol army aggressively expanded
through Asia. With massive armies at their disposal, the Mongols
experienced success under Khan, attributed to the rapid movements of
cavalrymen during battle.Tactics employed by Genghis Khan and his army
were brutal. Each time a new city was conquered, large segments of the
population, both human and animal, were slaughtered.Survivors were
subjected to pillage and rape. Some were used as human shields in front
of the Mongol army during subsequent attacks.After conquering a
territory, Genghis Khan would get the first pick of women to add to his
harem. Some estimates suggest he impregnated over 1,000 different
women.The heirs to Genghis Khan were also prolific. One of his children
was thought to have had 40 sons of his own by wives and concubines, with
an unknown number of children from many other women.These children of
Khan having had many more children helped to expand his genetic legacy
across the continent.
Russia’s
history with the Mongols began with the defeat of the Khwarezmian
Empire, and the route the Great Khan’s generals took on their way home
to Mongolia. Subutai, one of the Khan’s most trusted and valuable
generals, suggested the army be split into two parts on their journey
home, to scout out and pillage different places on their return to
Mongolia. Genghis and the main body of the army, raided through
Afghanistan and Northern India, while Subutai and Jebe went through what
is now Georgia, the Caucasus, and modern day Ukraine and Russia with
their contingent of 20,000 elite horsemen.The terms Tatars
or Tartars are applied to nomadic Mongolic peoples who, themselves,
were conquered by Mongols and incorporated into their horde. They were
mainly composed of Kipchaks-Cuman people.Mongol-Tatar Golden Horde
forces led by Batu Khan, (a grandson of Genghis Khan), began attacking
Europe in 1223, starting with Cumans, Volga Bulgaria and Kievan Rus.
They destroyed many Rus cities including Kiev,Vladimir and Moscow in the
process, sparing Novgorod and Pskov however.
Genghis
Khan is a truly amazing man in many aspects. Amazingly cruel. Amazingly
ruthless. Amazingly smart. Amazingly daring. And perhaps amazingly
lucky. Genghis Khan was born as Temujin to the son of a khan of a small
Mongol clan in modern-day Mongolia in an unknown date. Anyway, Temujin,
while on his way to his new wife’s tribe at a rather young age, got news
back from his family that his father, Yesugei, had been poisoned by his
enemies. Temujin and his family was abandoned by the rest of the tribe
and forced to live as outcasts.At the beginning of 1223 the head of the
western tribal union of Polovetsi (Kypchaks – Cumans), khan Kotyan,
asked for help from Prince Mstislav Galitski against the troops of
Genghis Khan. Mstislav Galitski called for many heroic deeds. He was
successful and called all the princes to assemble to consider the threat
from the Mongols. They assembled in Kiev where the Polovetsi described
how terrible the Mongols were. The princes decided on a joint campaign.In
second half of March the princes started their preparations to conduct
the campaign. The backbone of each Prince’s forces was his own private
druzhina. The number of members of the druzhina that consisted of their
hired mercenary warriors must have been quite different, from dozens up
to 3-5000 troops, mounted warriors for the very rich princes. The first
part of the druzhina was the heavy cavalry – kopeishchiki (lancers).
This part of the druzhina was called “best” or “elders”. The “younger”
druzhina consisted of more lightly armed archers. The warriors belonged
in these two parts were quite different according to their status in the
feudal structure. Besides this the druzhina was divided into two parts,
the combat part and the supply train (oboz ) The combat part was the
main striking force of the detachment of every prince. The armaments of
the druzhiniki consisted of a spear of either the “steppe” or European
type, sword, which did not differ from the European type, combat axe,
bludgeon, spiked mace, shestoper (six flanged mace), sabre, dagger, and
knife. After a lot of battles with steppe warriors the use of bow and
arrow spread widely into Russia.The
main armour of the warrior was the kolchuga, but in the XIII century
almost all warriors wore over the kolchuga also a pantsir. Pantsir was
either of rings or scales (of Byzantine or west European type)
consisting of metal scales attached to a leather or cloth base or tied
together by leather thongs. Also in use which came from Europe were iron
ring stockings or trousers formed of metal plates on leather, and also
different types of knee and shoulder protectors.The
shield was large, round or almond shaped. The armament of the warrior
was completed by the helmet with half mask or a metal plate with eye
slits (which were called lichina) that came into use from the end of the
XII century in Europe and Asia. Besides the druzhina the princes had
the ability to appeal to the people and to assemble from them polki
(battles) from the city population. The village people who were
providing supplies for the army rushed to support in case of emergency.
These warriors as well as the younger drushina got their armour and
weapons from the prince’s or the city arsenal. This armament was not so
variable and consisted mainly of the kolchuga, helmet, sword and spear.
Besides this the troops organized by the prince might be the so called
volunteers which consisted of very different people. They provided their
own armament.At the
beginning of April after preparation, the princes began to come to the
assembly place. In this enterprise took part three main groups of
Russian princes. Kievan portion led by grand prince Mstislav Romanovich
consisted of his son, Vsevolod; son-in-law, prince Andrei; and also
Svyatoslav Shumski, and Yuri Nesvizhski. The second group –
Chernigovo-Smolenski, led by great prince Chernigovsi, Mstislav
Sviatoslavovich, consisted of troops of Prince Oleg Kurski, prince
Putivlski and prince TrubchevskiAt
head of the third group – the Galitsko-Volinski coalition – was great
prince Galitskii, Mstislav Mstislavovich. His group consisted of troops
of Danilo Romanovich Volinski; Mstislav Yaroslavovich Nemoi; prince of
Lutski, Prince Izyaslav Ingvaryevich; and prince of Izyaslav,
Vladimirovich Trebovl’ski.The
grand prince of Vladimir-Suzdal, Yuri, did not participate in the
campaign even though many asked him to join in the campaign.Yuri
at that time went on campaign against the Livonian knights and he could
only send the troops of his kinsman Vasili Konstantinovich, prince of
Rostov, but his troops arrived at the battlefield so late that they did
not take part in it.At the
end of April all troops rallied near the city Zaruba, 50-60 km below
Kiev. The cavalry came on horseback along the river banks and the
infantry by boats on the rivers. The waterways were used to move all the
various supplies and armaments.Here
at the assembly place of the Russian troops the Mongol ambassadors
arrived. The Mongols proposed that the Russians join with them against
the Polovetsi and each would take their spoils from the Polovetsi on the
one side or the other. Bu the Russians did not break their word to the
Polovetsi and warriors of Khan Khotan killed the Mongol ambassadors. Now
the war with Russia which initially was not in the plan of the Mongols,
according to their custom became inevitable. The assembly of the
Russians was accomplished and by the end of April the princes
transported their forces down the Dnieper; after a few days a second
Mongol embassy arrived, again proposing peace with the Russians. After
getting a new refusal the Mongols said to the Russian princes “If you
follow the advice of the Polovetsi, kill our ambassadors and coming
against us – go against us. But we did not trouble you and only God will
make his judgement.”The
Russian troops began their movement down the right bank of the Dnieper.
On 15 May at the mouth of the River Khortisa the Russian troops
assembled. The main part of the Polovetsi troops which mainly consisted
of mounted archers also arrived at this place. Their quivers made from
leather or birch bark were decorated with wooden plates. The richer
warriors had sabres, lances with narrow armour-piercing tips. Their
defensive consume consisted of a kolchuga and scale or plate armour.
Polovetsi helmets had a mask having a steel frame covered by iron plates
or pork. The whole number of Russian troops which rallied on the river
were about 80 – 100,000 people but only 15-20,000 of them were well
armed and skilful warriors.The
next day Mstislav Galitski with part of his druzhina and Polovetsi came
to the other bank of the river and charged against the Mongol outpost.
The result of this enterprise was tremendous. The Mongols fled. Mstislav
followed them and captured the head of the detachment Ghemyabek. He
killed him. The day after for reconnaissance the detachment of Danilo
Volinski crossed to the left bank of the river. They were also
successful. Meeting with a small Mongol detachment they overran the
Mongol troops. After returning to base, these leaders without any
trouble convinced the remaining princes to cross the Dnieper and attack
the Mongols. They built a bridge and the troops started to cross the
river. This lasted some days.A
small outpost of Subodai, beginning combat with the Russia troops moved
further and further into the steppe. The Russian troops collected
domestic animals and prisoners so their force became larger and larger.
The commander and chiefs of the Russian troops could not reach a common
concept on how to conduct the battle. All the princes had their own idea
about this. This contradiction among the princes became vivid on the
Dniper. Many of them thought it was no use to cross the Dniper but to
conduct the war carefully without penetrating into the steppe. Subodai
wanted to entice the Russian troops into the steppe. By very small but
active attacks by small groups he damaged the Russian troops. On 31 May
1223 the united troops reached the Kalka River. After several very
successful clashes with the vanguard of the Mongols, the princes
gathered the council to discuss the problem whether to go further or to
stop and take position for defence.After
long discussion of this point with clashes and contradictions among
them, the princes left the council without coming to one opinion. Prince
Mstislav Galitsi crossed the Kalka River and continued his advance.
Later on Mstislav Chernogovski followed him. Then the break between the
separated detachments of the Russian troops was so large that they were
waiting for a long time for this occasion, and gave the signal for a
charge. The marching order for the Mongols consisted of five lines of
dzhagunov (hundreds). The first two of them were made of heavy cavalry
of swordsmen wearing the heavy plate and scale armour. This armour was
made from layers of buff leather with a varnished surface.
The
Mongolian leader Genghis Khan was known to have fathered many children
with different women.One study suggests that up to 10 other men in Asian
history have rivaled the procreative prowess of Khan. Unfortunately,
except for this one ruler, we don’t know the names of any of the other
suspects.A study in 2003 found that up to 16 million men, half a percent
of the world’s male population, were genetic descendants of Genghis
Khan.Even more astounding was that up to 8 percent of men living within
the former area of the Mongol empire have Y chromosomes related to that
royal line. The line of descent goes back around 1,000 years.Genghis
Khan had about 500 wives, many of them given to him by opposing rulers
as peace offerings. In
Mongol society, men were dominant. The society was patriarchal and
patrilineal. However, Mongol women had far more freedom and power than
women in other patriarchal cultures such as Persia and China. While the
Chinese were binding women’s feet, Mongol women were riding horseback,
fighting in battles, tending their herds and influencing their men on
important decisions for the Mongolian Empire.Still, while
women were highly valued participants in Mongol society, they still held
less rank than their fathers, husbands and brothers. Work was divided
between men and women; the men handled the herds and went to battle, and
women raised the gers, made the clothes, milked the animals, made
cheese and cooked the food. Men and women raised their children
together. Children of the Mongols did not attend a school; rather they
learned from their families the roles and work of men and women. Mongol
children had toys and played games, much as children of any
culture.Marriages were usually arranged between families, with goods
traded between the families as bride prices and dowries. Occasionally, a
woman was stolen from one tribe by a man from another; Genghis’s father
Yesugei, for example, stole his mother Hoelun from another tribe.
Stealing women was not done often as it could lead to a blood feud
between the tribes. Men could practice polygamy, marrying more than one
woman. Each wife and her children had their own ger. Usually the entire
family got along well. The first wife was considered the legal wife,
although these distinctions didn’t matter much except in terms of
inheritance. The children of the first wife would inherit more than the
children from other wives.Married women wore headdresses to distinguish
themselves from unmarried women. These headdresses could be quite
elaborate, as all Mongols loved hats and headgear. Women remained loyal
to their husbands and didn’t often remarry if her husband died. A widow
inherited the property of her dead husband and became head of the
family.A good illustration of this, and of the power of women to
influence Mongol history and culture was Sorkhaqtani, wife of Genghis’s
son Tolui. Sorkhaqtani had been an advisor to another of Genghis’ sons,
Ogodai, when he was khan. When Tolui died, she became the head of her
household of sons, including Mongke, Kublai, Hulagu and Ariq Boke, who
all became khans in their time. She insisted they all become educated
and learned in the languages they would need to know as leaders of an
empire. After Ogodai’s death, Sorkhaqtani kept the empire together by
diplomatic means while Guyuk was khan. After his death, her son Mongke
became Great Khan.Genghis Khan would marry off a daughter to the king of
an allied nation, dismissing his other wives. Then he would assign his
new son-in-law to military duty in the Mongol wars, while the daughter
took over the rule. Most of his sons-in-laws died in combat, giving him
shield around the Mongol lands.There’s a place in Mongolia called Ikh
Khorig that was declared sacred by Genghis Khan. The only people allowed
to enter were the Mongol Royal Family and a tribe of elite warriors,
the darkhat, whose job was to guard it, punishment for entering being
death. They carried out their task for 697 years, until 1924.Researchers
have now recognized ten other men whose fecundity has left a lasting
impression on present-day populations. The team's study1 points
to sociopolitical factors that foster such lineages, but the identities
of the men who left their genetic stamp remains unknown.The founders
who lived between 2100 bc and 300 bc existed in both sedentary
agricultural societies and nomadic cultures in the Middle East, India,
southeast Asia and central Asia. Their dates coincide with the emergence
of hierarchical, authoritarian societies in Asia during the Bronze Age,
such as the Babylonians. Three lineages dating to more recent times
were all linked to nomadic groups in northeast China and Mongolia. These
included the lineages linked to Genghis Khan and Giocangga, plus a
third line dating to around ad 850.All three lineages seem to have
expanded westwards, possibly along the Silk Road trade route. Historians
have documented a series of polities based in inner Asia between
200 bc and the eighteenth century, such as the Qing Dynasty. Jobling
says that these civilizations could have fostered dominant male lineages
after the sons of a fecund founder decamped to satellite outposts,
where they, in turn, fathered powerful descendants.The researchers
identify several candidates for the lineage dating to ad 850, but say
that more research is needed. Recovering DNA from the candidate or or a
long-dead descendant would be the ultimate proof.
The Mongol
military structure was based purely on meritocracy. For example if a
Khan was not fit for military command, the troops would be led by
someone with more experience and victories an example being Subedei.
Genghis Khan refused to divide his troops into different units based on
ethnicity, instead he mixed tribesmen from conquered groups, like the
Tatars and Keraits, which fostered a sense of unity and loyalty by
reducing the effects of the old tribal affiliations and preventing any
one unit from developing a separate ethnic or national character.
Discpline was strictly maintained, with severe punishments provided for
even small infractions. The armies were also divided based on the
decimal system in units of 10 (arban), 100 (jaghun), 1,000 (mingghan),
and 10,000 (tumen) men that is command wise similar to squads,
companies, regiments, and divisions of modern military, taking
advantage of the superb mobility of his mounted archers to attack their
enemies on several fronts simultaneously and they were extremely
ruthless when in battle based on others' standards (see below). These
units of 10s were like a family or close-knit group, every unit of 10
had a leader who reported up to the next level, and men were not allowed
to transfer from one unit to another . The leader of the 100,000 (10
leaders of 10,000s or more traditionally 10 leaders of 10 tumen)
soldiers was the Khagan himself. Mongols in general were very used to
living through cold, harsh winters, in fact often preferring to campaign
in winter in order to facilitate river crossings, as well as hot
summers, and they were very used to travelling great distances in very
short time without difficulty, since their nomadic lifestyle already
involved bi-annual migrations from summer to winter pastures.Renactment
of Mongol military movement.Genghis Khan expected unwavering loyalty
from his generals, and granted them a great deal of autonomy in making
command decisions. Muqali, a trusted general, was given command of the
Mongol forces against the Jin Dynasty while Genghis Khan was fighting in
Central Asia, and Subutai and Jebe were allowed to pursue the Great
Raid into the Caucausus and Kievan Rus, an idea they had presented to
the Khagan on their own initiative. The Mongol military also was
successful in siege warfare, cutting off resources for cities and towns
by diverting rivers, taking enemy prisoners and driving them in front of
the army (a form of psychological warfare) , and adopting new ideas,
techniques and tools from the people they conquered, particularly in
employing Muslim and Chinese siege engines and engineers to aid the
Mongol cavalry in capturing cities. They used terror very successfully
and had legendary name with terror in almost all battles that after fear
inducing slaughters of populations they would intentionally spread the
information to others by sending refugees and survivors to other towns
and cities to tell their tale that for example the feared Assassins cult
laid down their arms upon hearing the Mongol armies. Also one of the
standard tactics of Mongol military was the commonly practiced feigned
retreat to break enemy formations and to lure small enemy groups away
from larger group and defended position for ambush and
counterattack.There also were instances of mass slaughter even where
there was no resistance, especially in Northern China where the vast
majority of the population had a long history of accepting nomadic
rulers. Many ancient sources described Genghis Khan's conquests as
wholesale destruction on an unprecedented scale, causing radical changes
in the demographics of Asia. For example, over much of Central Asia
speakers of Iranian languages were replaced by speakers of Turkic
languages. According to the works of Iranian historian Rashid al-Din,
the Mongols killed more than 70,000 people in Merv and more than a
million in Nishapur. China suffered a drastic decline in population
during 13th and 14th centuries. For instance, before the Mongol
invasion, unified China had approximately 120 million inhabitants; after
the conquest was completed in 1279, the 1300 census reported roughly 60
million people. [13] How many of these deaths were attributable
directly to Genghis Khan and his forces is unclear, as are the highly
generalized numbers themselves. In addition, some modern scholars
question the validity of such estimates, since the methodology of the
1300 census likely underestimated the populationGenghis Khan began with
just a handful of fighters. While still in his teens Temüjen made a name
a name for himself with his daring raids on neighboring tribes and
gained the allegiance of disgruntled warlords.. He becomes a blood
brother with a man named Jamuqa (Jamukha) and befriended the leader of
the Kereyit tribe, a man named Toghril. Both young men helped Temüjen
rescue Borte when she was kidnaped. According to one story, Temujin
returned home from hunting one day to find that his wife had been
kidnaped by a rival clan, the Merkit tribe. Calling an old family debt
of honor, he raised a small band of armed men, freed his wife and killed
the kidnappers. Next he paid back his new allies by eliminating some of
their rivals, in the process strengthening his bond with existing
allies and boosting his influence and reputation among other tribes.
Other men, the story goes, tired of endless clan warfare, joined him.
Genghis Khan formed an important alliance with Toghril, his father's
sworn brother, and became the leader of his clan (the Borjigin Mongol
clan) when eight prince swore allegiance to him. In a dramatic struggle
described in The Secret History of the Mongols, Temujin, by the age of
twenty, had become the leader of the Kiyat subclan and by 1196, the
unquestioned chief of the Borjigin Mongols.Then through a combinations
of powerful alliances, marriages and a series of battles, he brought
several tribes under his control and defeated the Tatars, a powerful
Turkic tribe that killed his father, and effectively wiped them off the
face of the earth by ordering the execution of any male taller than the
height of a cart axle (everyone except young children) to ensure that
the next generation would be loyal to him. There is still ambiguity as
to who the Tatars actually are. Russians and Europeans later used the
name Tartar to describe the Mongols .It took 16 years of nearly constant
warfare for Temujin to consolidate his power north of the Gobi. Much of
his early success was because of his first alliance, with the
neighboring Kereit clan, and because of subsidies that he and the Kereit
received from the Jin emperor in payment for punitive operations
against Tatars and other tribes that threatened the northern frontiers
of Jin. Jin by this time had become absorbed into the Chinese cultural
system and was politically weak and increasingly subject to harassment
by Western Xia, the Chinese, and finally the Mongols. Later Temujin
broke with the Kereit, and, in a series of major campaigns, he defeated
all the Mongol and Tatar tribes in the region from the Altai Mountains
to Manchuria. In time Temujin emerged as the strongest chieftain among a
number of contending leaders in a confederation of clan lineages. His
principal opponents in this struggle had been the Naiman Mongols, and he
selected Karakorum (west-southwest of modern Ulaanbaatar, near modern
Har Horin), their capital, as the seat of his new empire."Genghis
defeated other powerful Mongol-related tribes such as the Taichutt and
Naiman. As his power grew some of Temüjen's friends turned against him.
Togbril's army was crushed in a fierce three day battle and Jamuqa
allied himself with the Naiman. When the Naiman were defeated, Temügen
granted Jamuqa his last wish, "Let me die quickly." Scholars believe
these events did happen because they are mentioned in old Chinese
records.Genghis Khan unified the people under him by replacing tribal
loyalties with a feudal system and organizing a well-disciplined army, a
task that began in 1185 and took more than 20 years to achieve and
wasn't really completed until the priest class was under his control.
According to one story Khan was able assuage the powerful Mongol priest
class and claim absolute power by executing one priest for allegedly
betraying the Khan's brother.In 1206 at a great assembly of tribal
leaders known as kuriltai, gave 40-year-old Temüjen the title of Genghis
Khan, which means "Strong Ruler," “Rightful Ruler," "Oceanic Ruler,"
"Emperor of all Emperors" or "Perfect Warrior"---depending on which
scholar you ask. Along with the title the charismatic Genghis Khan took
control over all the Turk-Mongol people---a group described as “all the
people who live in felt tents” in an area of desert and steppe in
Mongolia the size of AlaskaGenghis Khan's leadership of all Mongols and
other peoples they had conquered between the Altai Mountains and the Da
Hinggan (Greater Khingan) Range was acknowledged formally by the
kuriltai. Temujin took the honorific Genghis (also romanized as genghis
or jenghiz), creating the title Genghis Khan, in an effort to signify
the unprecedented scope of his power. In latter hagiography, Genghis was
said even to have had divine ancestry.From the tribal groups that
attending his enthronement Genghis Khan forged a strong confederation of
Mongol tribes, and a powerful army composed of units under
fealty-swearing tribal chieftains. The Khans most loyal supporters late
become his greatest generals, the most brilliant of which were Jebe and
Subedal.Genghis Khan conquered more territory than any other single
commander in the history of the world. He was personally responsible of
the conquering of present-day Mongolia, northern China and most of Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the space of less
than 20 years. He is also credited with inventing the blitzkrieg to
achieve this. Both Rommel and Patton were among the admirers of his
tactics.Although his soldiers were paid with the treasures they looted
from conquered cities, Genghis Khan himself seemed less interesting in
loot than conquest itself. The Persian chronicler Rashid Ad-Din, quoted
him as saying: "Man's greatest good fortune is to chase and defeat his
enemy, seize his total possessions, leave his married women weeping and
wailing, ride his gelding, use the bodies of his women as a nightshirt
and support."Historians credit Genghis Khan's military success to his
management and organization skills. He organized his forces into groups
of ten, subjected them to rigorous training, issued standized equipment
and promoted officers on the basis of merit rather than blood or clan
relations.“Many believe that his unification of the Mongols — rather
than the conquests that he initiated once he had unified the Mongols —
was Genghis Khan's biggest accomplishment. Unifying the Mongols was no
small achievement — it meant bringing together a whole series of
disparate tribes. Economically the tribal unit was optimal for a
pastoral-nomadic group, but Genghis brought all the tribes together into
one confederation, with all its loyalty placed in himself. This was
indeed a grand achievement in a country as vast as Mongolia, an area
approximately four times the size of France.Once Genghis had succeeded
in bringing the Mongols together, in 1206, a meeting of the so-called
Khuriltai (an assemblage of the Mongol nobility) gave their new leader
the title of "Genghis Khan": Khan of All Between the Oceans. Genghis's
personal/birth name was Temujin; giving him the title "Genghis Khan" was
an acknowledgment by the Mongol nobles of Genghis's leadership and
their loyalty. From that point on Temujin would be the Khan of all
within Mongolia and of the Mongols.Genghis Khan was also "a supreme
military strategist and talented politician, as adept at forging
alliances and gathering intelligence as he was at wreaking terror and
havoc."Genghis Khan was crafty as well as cruel. Kessler told Time that
he "was a very intelligent man and not at all compulsive. He avoided war
if he could subjugate another tribe with diplomacy. “If he had to fight
he would use spies to gather all the available information and then
send in agents to unsettle the situation before attacking."Genghis Khan
developed complicated battle strategies and carefully chose his routes
of attack. Before engaging in battle, he calculated the benefits and
costs and withdrew if the costs were too high. He avoided combat himself
and often hid once the battle began. After every military campaign,
Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia.Yassa was a secret written code of law
created by Genghis Khan. The word Yassa translates into "order" or
"decree". It was the de facto law of the Mongol Empire even though the
"law" was kept secret and never made public. The Yassa seems to have its
origin as decrees issued in wartime. Later, these decrees were codified
and expanded to include cultural and life-style conventions. By keeping
the Yassa secret, the decrees could be modified and used selectively.
It is believed that the Yassa was supervised by Genghis Khan himself and
his stepbrother Shihihutag who was then high judge of the Mongol
Empire. Genghis Khan appointed his second son Chagatai.The famous
historian Harold Lamb wrote: “With the selection of Genghis Khan as
master of the Turko-Mongol people, these people were united for the
first time in centuries. They were enthusiastic, believing that Genghis
Khan was sent from the gods and endowed with the power of Heaven. They
had long been governed only by tribal custom, and, to hold them in
check, Genghis Khan drew from his Mongol military organization and also
created a code of laws, the Yassa, which was a combination of his will
and tribal customs.The Yassa aimed at three things: obedience to Genghis
Khan, a binding together of the nomad clans, and the merciless
punishment of wrong-doing. It concerned itself with people, not
property. Unless a man actually confessed, he was not judged guilty
unless he was caught in the act of crime. Little is known of Genghis
Khan's life. He is said to have been afraid of dogs and his passion
seemed to be falconry. He kept 800 sake falcons and 800 attendants to
take care of them and demanded that 50 camel-loads of swans, a favored
prey, be delivered every week. His favorite wine was shiraz. Genghis
Khan is thought to have been very superstitious and a believer in
spirits. He consulted shaman and astrologers. One of the most important
persons in his empire was a shaman, known as Tov Tengri, who ultimately
betrayed Genghis by trying to install a rival khan and was killed by
having his back broken in a staged wrestling match. When Genghis Khan
was an old man he ordered a 71-year-old Chinese-Taoist alchemist to mix
up an elixir of immortality at his camp in the Hindu Kush.It is said
Genghis Khan died on August 18, 1227 at the age of 60 somewhere south of
the Xi Xia capital of Ningxia, near present-day Yinchian in Gansu
Province, during the military campaign there. According to the Secret
History he died hunting wild ass when his mount shied and he fell, "his
body being in great pain." According to another account he ailing,
perhaps with typhus or malaria. From his deathbed Genghis Khan ordered
the extermination of the Xi Xia people. No one knew about Genghis Khan's
death until weeks later when the XI Xia were defeated. According to the
Chinese government: “There are many stories and records about his
death, the place he was buried, his coffin and so on. As is told, when
Genghis Khan fought against Western Xia dynasty, he had passed
Yijinhuoluo. He stopped his horse, looked around, and was reluctant to
leave this beautiful grassland with lush grass, flowers and flocks. Just
at that time, the horsewhip dropped from his hand, and he seemed to
realize something, and chanted: "a place where flowers and deer
inhabits, a home where hoopoes give birth to their babies, a terra where
the declined dynasty revives, and a garden where gray-haired man enjoys
his life.