Genghis Khan

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Genghis Khan

Birth name:	Temüjin (Mongolian: Тэмүүжин)
Family name:	Borjigin (Mongolian: Боржигин)
Title:	Khan of Mongol Empire
Dates of reign:	1206 - August 18, 1227
Succeeded by:	Ogedei Khan
Birth and death:	1155/1162/1167 - August 18, 1227
Marriage:	Borte
Children:	Borjigin Chagatai, son Borjigin Jochi, son Borjigin Ogedei, son Borjigin Tolui, son

Genghis Khan (Mongolian: Чингис Хаан, Jenghis Khan, Jinghis Khan, Chinghiz Khan, Jinghiz Khan, Chinggis Khan, Changaiz Khan, original name Temüjin, Temuchin, Mongolian: Тэмүүжин) (c. 1155/1162/1167 – August 18, 1227) was a remarkable military leader who conquered much of Asia. As the first Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, he is regarded as the founding father of Mongolia. Following the unification of all the Mongol tribes, Genghis created the Mongol Empire by conquering northern China (Jin Empire), Western Xia, Central Asia, Persia, and Mongolia. By the time of his death in 1227, his empire stretched from the Yellow Sea to the Caspian Sea. During his lifetime, and especially after his death, Genghis' exploits earned him a reputation as both a ferocious warrior against his enemies and, due to the introduction of Yasa, his code of law, as an outstanding statesman. His grandson and successor Kublai founded China's Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). He and other successors to Genghis expanded the Mongol lands to create an empire that stretched from Hungary to China. This empire was the largest land empire in human history, four times the area conquered by Alexander the Great.

Early life

Genghis Khan was born by the name of Temüjin sometime between 1162 and 1167, the second son of Yesükhei, a tribal chief of the Kiyad (singular: Kiyan). Yesükhei's clan is called Borjigin (plural: Borjigid). He was named after a defeated rival chief.

Temüjin's early life was a most difficult one. Whilst still a boy, his father was murdered by the neighboring Tartars in 1175, and Temüjin was inducted as the clan's chief. His clan abandoned him and his family, refusing to be led by a mere boy. For the next few years, he and his family lived the way of life of poor nomads, surviving primarily off rodents. In one instance he slew his half-brother in a temper. In another, Temüjin was captured in a raid by a rival tribe and held captive with a wooden collar around his neck. He later escaped with an assistance from a sympathetic captor.

Around the age of 20, Temüjin visited his future wife Börte, and received a black sable coat from her tribe; this was the foundation for his increased wealth from conquest. Temüjin later married Börte, according to legend rescuing her after she was kidnapped along with his friends.

Even from young age, he showed perserverence and dedication that other tribe leaders began to acknowledge his charismatic deeds.

See also: Tartars

Values of Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan's leadership, according to other sources and through his quotations seems to revolve around loyalty and merit by collecting people of talent and dedication to his political and military hierarchy. For example he respected others that were loyal to him, and it was not uncommon for him to befriend enemy fighters that showed loyalty to their leaders. He made it very clear that whoever is talented had equal chance of being promoted. Genghis Khan did not seem to care much about personal wealth as being a nomad; instead he dispersed goods from his conquests to his people and alliances that took part in the campaign. His political ideology was his Mongol written code of law "Yasa."

He was extremely aware of what others valued by constantly learning and by responding to changes effectively.

See also: Mongol Empire, Yasa

Mongols before Genghis

Main article: Mongols before Chinggis Khan

In 12th century there were various ethnic Mongol-Tungestic tribes that inhabited the plains of Central Asia with the Mongols being one of them, numbering around 700,000 at large. In around 1130, Mongols emerged as one of the powerful tribes among other tribes and even successfully forcing northern China's Jin Empire to pay tribute to the Mongols. Around 1160, the unified Mongol tribes were disintegrated by the neighboring Tartars at the southwest, which continued to be one of the major opponents of the Mongol tribes for some time. Among rivalry between tribes, Mongols has not been able to unite under a single political system, which caused them to feud among themselves for various reasons, especially for economic interests. After the disband among Mongol tribes, on the north, China's Jin Empire was well established and there has been constant conflict between the Mongols and Jurchens, especially after 1189. The Chinese employed various raids and divide-and-rule approaches against the Mongols.

The harshness of the steppes

The plains the Mongols inhabited were prone to extreme fluctuating temperatures, being extremely cold in the winter with Siberia on the north and very hot in the summer with the Gobi Desert on the south. Mongols were nomads, moving in portable tents (ger) and relying heavily on their livestock for food. Therefore Mongols can't store large amount of foods and supplies, which would burden their movements. Even still today, some Mongols live under the mercy of their land, for example, moving to shelters and valleys during the winter for protection from extreme cold winds.

Mongols' closeness with nature was the result of harsh climate and therefore sometimes raiding other tribes when times were particularly hard, interested in goods and supplies rather than bloodshed. The Mongols faced survival on a constant basis, plus inter-tribal warfare, which contributed to their social life.

See also: Jin Empire, Nomads, Mongols

Uniting the tribes

Map of the Mongol dominions, 1300-1405
(Shaded area is the dominions of Timur Lenk)

Temüjin began his slow ascent to power by allying himself with his father's friend Toghril, a local chief. He traded his coat for an army and joined the Keriat, a confederacy of Mongols led by Wang Khan. After successful campaigns against the Tartars (1202), Temüjin was adopted as Wang Khan's heir. This led to bitterness on the part of Senggum, Wang's former heir, who planned to assassinate Temüjin. Temüjin learned of Senggum's intentions, however, and a large civil war broke out among the Mongols. Eventually Temüjin defeated Senggum and succeeded to the title of Wang Khan. Temüjin created a written code of laws for the Mongols called Yassa, and he demanded it to be followed very strictly.

Temüjin now attacked the other tribes and increased his power. By combining diplomacy, organization, military ability, and brutality, Temüjin finally managed to unite the tribes into a single nation, a monumental feature for the Mongols, who had a long history of internecine dispute.

The term "Mongol"

Genghis Khan seemed to assign a symbolic meaning to the name "Mongol". For example, it was not uncommon for Genghis Khan to refer to a person as "Mongol" after he had proven himself worthy. The term was not based exclusively on ethnicity. [1]

Lack of racial bias was one of the key factors that allowed tribes to join under Genghis. As an advantage, he provided strong leadership, unity, and morale along with building sophisticated social and economic system that was the foundation for his successors.

Resonance of Genghis Khan to Mongols

As Microsoft Encarta says:

"The greatness of the khan as a military leader was borne out not only by his conquests but by the excellent organization, discipline, and maneuverability of his armies. Moreover, the Mongol ruler was an admirable statesman; his empire was so well organized that, so it was claimed, travelers could go from one end of his domain to the other without fear or danger".

As "...introduction to the Genghis exhibition at the Royal British Columbian Museum" says:

"Genghis Khan pledged to share with his followers both the sweet and the bitter of life. In structuring his army, he integrated soldiers from different tribes, thus inspiring loyalty to the Mongol army as a whole rather than to a specific lineage. He gave his enemies one simple choice: surrender and be enslaved, or die. By consistently enforcing discipline, rewarding skill and allegiance, and punishing those who opposed him, Genghis Khan established a vast empire".

The foundations of an empire

In 1206 Temüjin had successfully united the formerly fragmented tribes of what is now Mongolia, and at a Khurultai/Khuriltai (a council of Mongol chiefs) he was titled "Genghis Khan" (alternate spellings exist; see above) or "Universal Ruler". He could now continue the long Mongol tradition of attacking China with greater success than usual, as he had built up a powerful military machine with unity as support.

As the great Khan, he used the military system of the Huns based on the decimal system, with armies being split into groups of 10, 100, 1000 and finally a tumen (10,000). The army took their families and horses with them, with each rider having 3 or 4 horses, so they always had fresh means of transport. At the beginning of his military campaign, he had no more than 25,000 soldiers.

China

At the time of the Khuriltai, Genghis was involved in a dispute with Western Xia, the first of his wars of conquest, and despite problems in taking well defended Western Xia cities, by 1209 when peace with Western Xia was made, he had substantially reduced the Western Xia dominion, and was acknowledged by their emperor as overlord.

A major goal of Genghis was the conquest of Jin, both to avenge earlier defeats and to gain the riches of northern China. He declared war in 1211, and at first the pattern of operations against the Jurchen Jin Dynasty was the same as it had been against Western Xia. Genghis Khan had only 150,000 men with the total population of 700,000 while the Chinese army had well over 2,000,000 men (possibly 3-5 million) and their population was well over 80,000,000. The Mongols were victorious in the field, but they were frustrated in their efforts to take major cities. In his typically logical and determined fashion, Genghis and his highly developed staff studied the problems of the assault of fortifications. With the help of Chinese engineers (who were captured by Genghis), they gradually developed the techniques that eventually would make them the most accomplished and most successful besiegers in the history of warfare.

As a result of a number of overwhelming victories in the field and a few successes in the capture of fortifications deep within China, Genghis had conquered and had consolidated Jin territory as far south as the Great Wall of China by 1213. He then advanced with three armies into the heart of Jin territory, between the Great Wall and the Huang He. Even though Genghis controlled an army about 75,000 ,he defeated the Jin forces of about 600,000. He devastated northern China, captured numerous cities, and in 1215 besieged, captured, and sacked the Jin capital of Yanjing (later known as Beijing). The Jin emperor, Xuan Zong, however, did not surrender, but removed his capital to Kaifeng. There his successors finally were defeated, but not until 1234.

Central Asia

Meanwhile, Kuchlug, the deposed khan of the Naiman Mongols, had fled west and had usurped the state of Kara-Khitan Khanate, the western allies that had decided to side with Genghis. By this time, the Mongol army was exhausted by ten years of continuous campaigning against Western Xia and Jin. Therefore, Genghis sent only two tumen under a brilliant young general, Jebe, against Kuchlug. An internal revolt was incited by Mongol agents; then Jebe overran the country. Kuchlug's forces were defeated west of Kashgar; he was captured and executed, and Kara-Khitan was annexed. By 1218 the Mongol state extended as far west as Lake Balkhash and adjoined Khwarizm, a Muslim state that reached to the Caspian Sea in the west and to the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea in the south.

In 1218 Genghis sent emissaries to an eastern province of Khwarizm to discuss trading issues with the governor. The governor of the province had them killed, and Genghis retaliated with a force of 200,000 troops. The Mongols quickly took the town and executed the governor by pouring molten silver into his ears.

At this point (1219) Genghis decided to extend Mongol dominions into the Muslim world. The Mongol horde methodically marched through Khwarizm's main cities (Bukhara, Samarkand, and Balkh), and the shah, Muhammad, prepared to battle them. However, he was outmaneuvered by the much swifter Mongols and driven into extended retreat. In the end, the shah killed himself when he was cornered and by 1220 the Khwarizmian Empire was eradicated.

Now the Mongol armies split. Genghis led a division on a raid through Afghanistan and northern India, while another contingent led by his general Subotai marched through the Caucasus and Russia. Neither campaign added territory to the empire, but they pillaged settlements and defeated any armies they met in their wake that did not surrender. In 1225 both divisions returned to Mongolia.

These invasions added Transoxiana and Persia to an already formidable empire and established Genghis Khan's reputation as a bloodthirsty warrior. His armies killed, destroyed, and looted seemingly without mercy if there was resistance. They used civilians as human shields and often systematically butchered any survivors after their raids if they did not surrender (except for artisans, writers and language specialists).

Europe

While Genghis was gathering his forces in Persia and Armenia, 40,000 of his troops pushed deep into Armenia and Azerbaijan. There Genghis destroyed Georgian crusaders, took Geneose trade-fortress in Crimea and stayed the winter near Black Sea. While Genghis was heading home, he met Prince Mstitslav of Kiev and his 80,000 troops, which was the Battle of Kalka River in 1223. He destroyed Prince Mstitslav's army.

Clarification

It was during Ogedei Khan's period that armies of the Golden Horde led by Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis, and the most talented general of Genghis, Subedei destroyed Kiev and Russian principilaties and led reconaissance mission deep into eastern and central Europe by defeating major defenses in Poland and Hungary, which is dubbed Battle of Legnica with no more than 20,000 flanking forces led by Subedei in 1241. Therefore, it was Genghis' descendants and their generals that pushed deep into Europe, not Genghis Khan himself.

Military tactics

Planning

Before invasion of an opposition, Genghis and his generals made extensive preparation in Kurultai to decide how the upcoming war will be conducted and as well as which generals will participate in the campaign; meanwhile they would thoroughly accumulate intelligence from their opponents, which after then hostilities would be calculated. Also they decided how many units would be called up. On the other hand, Mongol generals were armed with high-degree of independent decision making privileges as long as they abide by Genghis' timetable, which minimized the unexpected aspects of the campaign.

Engagement

Even though Mongol strategy seemed to vary slightly in response to their enemies, their technique was the same.

Mongols would engage in columns, which was usually three separate divisions, so that the two side divisions can diverge from the center column when need arises. For example, the flanking forces "went into neighboring territories," which they would eventually meet with the center column. The idea and the advantage of flanking forces was to spread terror, gather intelligence from their opponents and eliminate smaller opponent divisions from giving and receiving support. These flanking columns had messengers that timely relayed intelligence to the mother column constantly. Also Mongol armies were willing to engage in field armies before invading the main opposition, which gave them advantage in terms of eliminating the possible communication from the opponent's city to another that they might be expecting aid. Obviously when there were small towns and villages, they were taken to spread terror and to give sudden economic stress on the main city with influx of refugees. Sometimes these people were absorbed into the army as soldiers and also would serve as human shields.

Aftermath

Once the main battle and siege is over, Mongol armies would follow the enemy leader until he was dropped in order to make him unable to be a rallying point for his army after the defeat. Most times the enemy leaders would escape realizing that they would likely lose the war, but the Mongol forces followed until they made sure they died.

See also: Mongols

The final campaign

The vassal emperor of Western Xia had refused to take part in the war against the Khwarizm, and Genghis had vowed punishment. While he was in Iran, Western Xia and Jin had formed an alliance against the Mongols. After rest and a reorganization of his armies, Genghis prepared for war against his foes.

By this time, advancing years had led Genghis to prepare for the future and to assure an orderly succession among his descendants. He selected his third son Ögedei as his successor and established the method of selection of subsequent khans, specifying that they should come from his direct descendants. Meanwhile, he studied intelligence reports from Western Xia and Jin and readied a force of 180,000 troops for a new campaign. These troops included 150,000 horse archers, 20,000 light cavalrymen, 8,000 infantrymen and 2,000 shangi-lahian centurions.

In AD 1226, Genghis Khan attacked the Tanguts (Western Xia) on the pretext that the Tanguts received the Mongols' enemies. In February, Genghis Khan took Heisui City, Gan-zhou and Su-zhou and in autumn, he took Xiliang-fu. A Western Xia general challenged the Mongols for a battle near Helanshan Mountain. (Helan means "great horse" in northern dialect.) The Western Xia armies were defeated. In November, he laid siege to the Tangut city of Ling-zhou and then crossed the Yellow River and defeated the Tangut relief army. Genghis reportedly saw five stars arranged in a line in the sky, which he took to be an omen.

In AD 1227, Genghis Khan attacked the Tanguts' capital, and in February, he took Lintiao-fu. In March, he took Xining prefecture and Xindu-fu. In April, he took Deshun prefecture. At Deshun, the Western Xia General Ma Jianlong resisted the Mongols for days and personally led charges against them outside of the city gate. Ma Jianlong later died of arrow shots. Genghis, after conquering Deshun, went to Liupanshan Mountain (Qingshui County, Gansu Province) for shelter from the severe summer. On the mountain, he stated that he had said one year ago that when five stars converged into one line, the Mongols should not kill people at random and made this a decree.

The new Western Xia emperor, being attacked by the Mongols, surrendered to them. The Tanguts officially surrendered in AD 1227, after being in existence for 190 years, from AD 1038 to AD 1227. The Mongols killed the Tangut emperor and his royal family members.

See also: Western Xia, Tangut

Preparation for succession

Khanates of Mongol Empire. Ilkhanate, Chagatai Khanate, Empire of the Great Khan (Yuan Dynasty), Golden Horde

On his deathbed in 1227, Genghis Khan outlined to his youngest son, Tolui, the plans that later would be used by his successors to complete the destruction of the Jin Empire.

In the beginning of end of his life, Genghis' descendants began to argue over who was to be his successor as Great Khan. To end the dispute, Genghis chose his third son Ogedei as the next Great Khan. In 1229 Mongol kurultai formally selected Ogedei as the next Great Khan of Mongol Empire.

At his death, Genghis Khan divided his empire amongst his four sons. Jochi was the eldest, but he was already dead and his paternity was in doubt, so the most distant lands trodden by the Mongol Empire, then southern Ruthenia, were divided among his sons, Batu leader of the Blue Horde, and Orda, leader of the White Horde. Chagatai was next eldest son of Genghis, but he was considered a hothead, and so was given Central Asia and northern Iran. Ogedei, third oldest was made Great Khan and given China. Tolui, the youngest, was given the Mongol homeland as Mongol custom.

Death

Mongol Empire in 1227 at Genghis Khan's death.

In his last campaign against Western Xia Genghis died in August 18, 1227. The cause of his death is not certain with various speculations ranging from falling off his horse, due to an old age, or prophecies from his opponents. The Galician-Volhynian Chronicle alleges he was killed by Tanguts.

After he died, his body was returned to Mongolia, the escort killing anyone and anything that strayed across their path on the return trip, so as not to reveal where he was finally laid to rest. At his funeral, as secrecy, it is said that 40 baby camels were buried in Genghis Khan's grave, so that their mothers could not even locate the location where the baby camels were buried. The Genghis Khan Mausoleum is his memorial, but not his burial site. As of October 6, 2004, there has been an alleged discovery of "Genghis Khan's palace" that makes a discovery of his burial site likely. See: [2]

Political achievements

Because of the extent of his empire, Genghis Khan deeply affected the cultures of many Asian countries, most notably China and Russia. He destroyed the existing aristocracy of every region he controlled, creating a rough meritocracy. He created a wide postal system and spread the use of a universal alphabet, though he for many years was believed to be illiterate due to the estimated recentness of the language, and his age at its implementation. Recently, however, findings by Chinese and Mongolian academics have shown that Genghis Khan was a highly literate man. A handwritten note was proven to be his, and the contents of the note indicated that he was able to read Taoist sermons [3]. Trade and travel between China, Middle East and Europe flourished by mostly the political stability that Mongol Empire provided to re-establishing the Silk Road. He outlawed torture in his provinces, exempted teachers and doctors from taxes, and established freedom of religion. The Mongols introduced most of Asia to the abacus and the compass. Asia is certainly quite different today than it would have been without the brief Mongol Empire.

Genghis Khan also united all the Mongol tribes, which some people argue that it was his most significant achievement. Also it's claimed that Genghis Khan also stopped the division between southern and northern China that tend to began from the time of Song Dynasty .

See also: Mongol Empire, Silk Road

Perceptions of Genghis Khan

Perception of Genghis Khan has varied dramatically since he became the first Khan of Mongol Empire and continues to be somewhat polarizing figure in history. According to views in the West, Genghis is widely regarded as both a barbarian and with fascination in terms of what he and his descendants accomplished. In the East, his popularity is relatively positive and he is looked as a unifier and one of the greatest of all military leaders. Obviously he wasn't directly the person to blame for much of his negative perceptions that persist today, because it was his descendants and their generals that expanded the Mongol Empire deep into China, Middle East, and eastern and central Europe that gave the Mongols more exposure to outsiders. In other words, he laid the groundwork for much of what had happened since his death in terms of victories and conquests.

Genghis as a hero

Genghis was and currently regarded extremely respectful by the Mongols as the founding father of unified Mongol nation, which has been plaqued by internecine conflicts that persisted among them for centuries. As nomads, Mongols were not well equipped with storing large food and supplies. Therefore Genghis is looked by Mongols as the leader who eliminated inter-tribal warfare, gave shared purpose, and introduced a political system that benefited the Mongols socially and economically through conquests.

Genghis as a villain

Perception of Genghis as a villain revolves around by mostly the human casualties and destruction of various cultural treasures in his conquests. On the other hand, in the Middle East, people have mixed views about Genghis and his descendants because their armies conquered and sacked Baghdad, but some Mongol armies eventually converted to Muslims. Genghis' methodical march with his unstoppable and advanced warfare techniques were enough for other people to portray him and his philosophy as not being good.

Genghis as neither

Views toward Genghis Khan in the modern day People's Republic of China are ambivalent with current Chinese historians seeing him as neither strongly positive or negative. While acknowledging the vast amount of damage the Genghis Khan created, his reputation is somewhat redeemed by the fact that he would set into motion events which would later end the north-south division of China that had begun during the Song Dynasty. In addition, to vilify Genghis would greatly offend Chinese citizens of Mongol descent, who like their relations in Mongolia regard Genghis Khan as an ethnic folk hero, and so the tendency in modern Chinese histories has been to avoid doing so.

See also: Song Dynasty

Legacy

Genghis Khan established the Mongol Empire, and his successors were to expand it even further, into south China, Russia, Iraq, Korea, and Tibet. The Mongols also attacked, with varying degrees of success, Poland, Hungary, Syria, Japan, and Vietnam. The empire reached its height under Genghis's grandson Kublai Khan, but broke apart into separate and less powerful khanates shortly afterward. Nevertheless, Genghis's influence would reverberate with the later conquests of Tamerlane and the Mughal empire.

Also, Genghis Khan's waging of war was characterized by wholesale destruction on unprecedented scale and radically changed the demographic situation in Asia. According to the works of Iranian historian Rashid-ad-Din Fadl Allah, Mongols massacred over 70,000 people in Merv and more than a million in Nishapur. China suffered a drastic decline in population. Before the Mongol invasion, China had about 100 million inhabitants; after the complete conquest in 1279, the census in 1300 showed it to have roughly 60 million people. This does not, of course, mean that Genghis Khan's men were directly responsible for the deaths of 40 million people but it does give a sense of the ferocity of the onslaught.

In recent times, Genghis Khan has become a symbol for Mongolia's attempts to regain its identity after many long years of Communism. Genghis Khan's face appears on Mongolian bank notes and vodka labels. He is often associated in the Western world with bloodthirstiness and barbarism. In the East, he is considered one of the greatest of all military leaders. Later Mongol Khans encouraged the people to even worship Genghis Khan as a religious entity throughout the empire. Without Genghis Khan, there would seem to be no Mongolia. Mongolians continue to believe in his reincarnation to this current day, and they are very proud of being his descendants.

He is considered as an extremely intelligent man and by some as a political and military genius.

External links

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References

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Genghis Khan.

Preceded by:
none

Khan of Mongol Empire
1206–1227

Succeeded by:
Ogedei Khan