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of Genghis Khan
(1165B.C.-1227B.C.) Clutching a
clot of blood—omen of courage and victory, at least according to
legend—a boy is born to a Mongol family living near the Onon River. He is
named Temujin, which means “blacksmith.”
| Temujin’s father, a minor
chieftain named Yisugei, once robbed a group of Tatars, members of a rival
tribe. Neither forgiving nor forgetting this affront, the Tatars poison
Yisugei years later. Temujin is nine when his father dies. Dejected,
Yisugei’s followers defect to other chiefs—leaving Temujin and his
family as outcasts. The widow and her children endure by fishing, foraging
for berries and wild onions, and snaring rodents. |
Bekhter, an older half
brother, torments Temujin and a younger brother by stealing the prize each
time the younger boys fish or hunt. Enraged, Temujin and his brother stalk
Bekhter and slay him with an arrow, the Mongol weapon of choice.
Temujin’s own mother decries the killing, and court historians, years
later, will delicately omit this chapter from biographies of Genghis
Khan.
| When the Merkit, another tribe of
the steppe, hear the news that Temujin has married, they see a
long-awaited opportunity for revenge against his father, who stole a
Merkit bride. Three hundred warriors swarm Temujin’s camp. He
rides off over the daunting terrain, leaving his wife, Borte, and
several other women. Borte is captured. Temujin and his allies
gather several hundred soldiers and rescue her. |
Temujin has become a
“player” in the rough-and-tumble world of the steppe; indeed,
the Mongols and several neighboring tribes have hailed him as their
khan, or leader. His daring and charisma draw followers from
throughout the region, and he masters rival tribe after rival
tribe—and all but exterminates the Tatars, who killed his father.
Shamans in Temujin’s camp spread the word of a heavenly mandate
for his power. Temujin himself reportedly declares, “My strength
was fortified by Heaven and Earth.”
| At a kuriltai
(great assembly) Temujin is lauded as Genghis Khan, the
“strong ruler” or perhaps the “oceanic ruler.”
(Scholars wrangle over the exact translation.) At about the
age of 40, Genghis is master of all the tribes in what is now
Mongolia, an expanse about the size of Alaska. He sets to work
fusing them into a single people—building an army, imposing
uniform laws, establishing a written language. |
For his
initial foray beyond Mongolia, Genghis presses south some 600
miles (965 kilometers) into China. As he and his hardened
troops cross the Gobi desert, they survive by drinking milk
and blood from their horses. They attack Xi Xia, a kingdom of
some five million subjects, and handily defeat its
disorganized army. Xi Xia becomes a Mongol vassal.
Several years of sparring with the Jin dynasty in northern
China yield an outright attack in 1214. Genghis surrounds
their capital, Zhongdu (located where Beijing now stands). The
Jin emperor, Xuanzong, beseeches Genghis to withdraw, a plea
sweetened with gold, silver, horses, slaves, and a princess
(who became one of Genghis’s many wives). Genghis agrees,
and the Mongols depart; the Jin court promptly flees southward
to Kaifeng. The retreat enrages Genghis, who sees it as a ploy
for regrouping before a counterattack. He storms back to
Zhongdu in 1215, starving the city into submission and looting
without pity.
“I am
master of the lands of the rising sun while you rule
those of the setting sun. Let us conclude a firm treaty
of friendship and peace.” With those words, perhaps
embellished by zealous scribes, Genghis Khan seeks amity
with Shah Muhammad of the Khwarizm Empire, an expanse to
the south and east of the Caspian Sea. Powerful and
arrogant, Muhammad keenly distrusts Genghis. He accepts
the olive branch but later kills a Mongol envoy, sending
the unfortunate man’s head back to Genghis. Seething,
the Mongol leader roars at the heavens: “I was not the
instigator of these tribulations. Grant me the strength
to exact vengeance!”Slashing his way across Central
Asia, Genghis crushes the great cities that gleamed in
Shah Muhammad’s crown. Samarkand, Muhammad’s own
capital, surrenders to the Mongols. So does Bukhara, a
metropolis in what is now Uzbekistan. Genghis is
unrepentant . “I am the punishment of God,” a Muslim
historian later quoted him as saying, “If you had not
committed great sins, God would not have sent a
punishment like me upon you.” A witness took a dimmer
view: “They came, they sapped, they burnt, they slew,
they plundered, and they departed.”He can forge a
nation, wage war against mighty foes, and crush whole
cities beneath his leather boots. But even Genghis Khan
is powerless to stem the decay of his own body. About 55
years old, he sends for Changchun, a Taoist sage
believed to know the secret of long life. The old monk
can only disappoint the eager conqueror: “If neither
heaven nor earth can achieve permanence, how much less
can man do so?” Still, Genghis hails the sage as a
holy man, and the two become friends and
correspondents.The “oceanic ruler” leads his army
south for the last time, to quash disobedience in the
Chinese kingdom of Xi Xia. Unable to penetrate the walls
of Ningxia, the capital, the Mongol soldiers divert
water from a nearby canal to create a roaring flood that
impels the city to surrender. Genghis, now on his
deathbed, orders that Xi Xia be wiped from the face of
the earth. Obedient, the Mongols level whole towns,
killing or enslaving the inhabitants. To this day, the
kingdom remains, as journalist Mike Edwards put it, “a
historical blur.”
| Eternity claims
Genghis Khan in August 1227. He has lived about 60
years. The cause of death is a mystery, perhaps
because of Genghis’s order to shroud his passing
with secrecy. So seriously do the heirs take this
command that they kill almost anyone who sees the
funeral procession. The great conqueror’s grave
is not marked—to discourage grave robbers—and
no one has found it yet. |
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