Genghis Khan

Early Life:

     Genghis Khan was born around 1162, holding a blood clot in his hand, an ancient omen showing his future as a great leader. His father, Yesugei, was a chieftain, and he named the young boy “Temujin” to honour a warrior he had recently defeated in battle. Curiously, “Temujin” means “Man of Iron” or “Of Iron,” implying to me that Genghis Khan was the first version of Iron Man. Nonetheless, when Temujin was a boy, he didn’t exhibit any of the properties commonly thought of as leader-like at the time. For example, he was terrified of dogs and was extremely shy, both habits which made his father disappointed.

     But, around 1171, when Temujin reached the ripe age of nine, his father took him in search for a bride. Eventually, they stumbled upon a family with a young daughter named Borte, and Temujin quickly got along with her. Thinking it a good match, Yesugei left his son there to work for the family until he turned 16, a long-held Mongol tradition, at which point he could marry Borte. However, on the trip home, Yesugei stopped to eat with some rival clansman from the Merkit tribe. Now you might think that’s a bad idea, but Mongol tradition held that you can never kill someone who you’re eating wit–oh wait they poisoned Yesugei. To understand why, we need to go back a few years to a young woman spending a presumably romantic afternoon with her fiancé. As they were walking, they heard horses behind them. They turn and see a group of riders galloping at them as fast as possible. Thinking quickly, the woman realizes that these men are trying to kidnap, or “bridenap” her, a common practice at the time for young men who couldn’t afford a dowry. In some versions, she takes off her shirt and gives it to her fiancé because the smell of someone is sacred to the Mongols, though I couldn’t find enough sources to reliably prove that. Anyways, shirtless or not, she told her fiancé to run and prepared herself to be kidnapped. Well, the group of guys that pulled up were led by–you guessed it–Yesugei, and the woman was Hoelun, Temujin’s mother. Flashback to the eating incident, and we can now see that the rivals who poisoned Yesugei did so because they were from the same tribe as the man whose bride was taken by him. Justified or not, the killing really threw a wrench into Temujin’s plans, and he had to return to his tribe, the Taichud, to say goodbye to his father.

     It was at the tribe that they reached their next problem: While Yesugei had many kids, none of them were really of age yet, so instead some other guy claimed power and kicked his family out of the tribe. Now, in ancient Mongolia, your tribe and herd were everything. Mongolia isn’t a very hospitable place and–without the help of a tribe–surviving on the steppe was nearly impossible. It was into this world that Temujin, his mother, his three brothers and Yesugei’s whole second family (cause oh yeah he had one of those) were exiled into.

     Despite the odds, they ended up surviving for a while, barely managing to stave off starvation. However, slowly Temujin started realizing that his half brother, Bekhter, was seemingly gaining weight while the rest of them were starving. Usually, the boys would all go out hunting and bring their spoils back to be shared by everyone, but Bekhter hadn’t brought stuff back in a while. Thus, Temujin, along with his brother Belgutei, followed Bekhter the next day and caught him in the act of eating a bird which he killed without bringing back. Seeing this betrayal, Temujin and Belgutei stood up from their hiding spot and drew their bows, causing Bekhter to turn and point out that family was all they had left in this world and that if they killed him they would have no more allies. Seemingly, Genghis Khan was okay with not having allies, cause him and Belgutei shot Bekhter.

     Now, given that his family was abandoned on the cold Mongolian steppe and he had just killed one of his half brothers, you’d imagine that Temujin didn’t have many friends. However, somehow, he was able to befriend a kid named Jamuka who’s family were horse herders, meaning they had to move constantly with the herd. In the times that they stayed nearby, though, Temujin and Jamuka became fast friends, going hunting, playing, and doing a bunch of manly and totally not gay activities. After a while, they swore to be “Anda” or blood brothers, a friendship I’m sure will last until the end of time.

     Although, due to the aforementioned murder of his half brother, and the fact that murder is a crime, Temujin was forced to flee. He didn’t get far, though, being captured by the Borjigin, the tribe that his father used to be chief of. Despite the deeds of his father, they chained Temujin up and made him their prisoner. One day there must have been a pretty crazy party going on, cause the guy guarding Temujin left to go drink, having a little boy of presumably around 8 take his place. Then, still tied up, Temujin proceeded to beat the snot out of the eight year old guard and then run into the night. Temujin was smart though, and instead of running as far as possible he hid in some reeds by a river, or perhaps a bush by a tree, the sources disagree. The next morning, all men, hungover from the previous night, got on their horses and galloped far and wide, assuming that he had tried to make a break for it while he could. This let Temujin make his real escape, where he found a nice family who he, depending who you believe, either asked or threatened them to release him.

     After doing so, Temujin was free to return back to his family. Although, he didn’t return to his family. Instead, being now around 16 or 17 years old, he went to the family of his old fiance, Borte. Given that it had been years since he last saw her, and that she had probably heard nothing about him since then, odds were that she was already betrothed to a different man by now. However, despite the odds, Borte was still single, either because she was waiting for Temujin or because she was really ugly, again it depends on what view you want to take. Either way, Temujin and Borte then got married, with Borte’s family giving Temujin a beautiful coat as a gift. Normally, Temujin would give the coat to his father, but given that that was not an option, he opted instead to give it to his uncle, Ong Khan, who was the chief of another tribe. When he arrived, Ong Khan offered Temujin a millitary position leading a few men, however Temujin turned it down, saying he wanted to live out his life with his new wife instead. That’s right, this man–who would later become Genghis Khan–said he would rather spend his life with his wife than take a millitary position.

     Despite how beautiful and fairy-tale-esc this love story would have been, the universe is cruel, and on the way home Temujin and Borte heard hooves in the distance. If you’re getting deja vu, don’t worry its normal, cause the tribe chasing them was the Merkits, the same tribe who poisoned Yesugei and who Yesugei stole Hoelun from. In an event essentially identical to the earlier one, Borte was kidnapped and Temujin was once again left heartbroken. It was at this point, having been beaten down by life so many times and having everything once again taken away from him, that Genghis Khans life changed.

     He went back to the court of his uncle, Ong Khan, and said that he would, in fact, be taking that millitary position. Seeing how fired up Temujin was, Ong Khan gave him 20,000 warriors to seek revenge. Despite having no experience leading an army, Temujin brought the massive force upon the Merkits while they were sleeping. It wasn’t even really a fight, more so a massacre, as Temujin’s men burned Yurts and slayed whatever resistance the Merkits could give. Through the raging battle, Temujin found Borte, and reunited with her in a loving embrace. But something was off, Borte wasn’t herself. In her captivity, she was raped, and was now showing the early signs of pregnancy. Temujin was enraged, and in some sources, he found the man who raped her and sacrificed him, as well as a bunch of his friends, to the sky god. Normally I would say this claim seems innacurate, given that Temujin was a scared little boy who hadn’t really exhibited signs of ruthlessness, but given the events that he had gone through, it is my opinion that here is where we start to see the Genghis Khan we all know.

     Having established himself as a leader, Temujin now moved his family to live with Jamuka, who had become Khan (chief) of a tribe of his own and had helped in the raid against the Merkits. The two men lived happily at this point, racing, drinking, and wrestling with each other, both growing their respective tribes and finally seeing success for once in their lives. However, Jamuka started seeing himself as the “older brother” in this relationship, as he was older and also a horse herder. In Mongolia, horses were everything; they were used in combat as well as utility in every day life. Thus, horse herders were seen as the upper class, while goat herders, like Temujin, were seen as lower. This division was also seen in their leadership, as Jamuka believed in aristocracy, or “if you’re born high class, you’re high class, if you’re born low class, you’re low class.” Temujin, on the other hand, believed in a meritocracy, a system where you got promoted and rewarded based on skill, not on the status of your birth. If Jamuka’s starting to sound like a douche bag, that’s because, at least in my opinion, he was, though it’s important to note that the sources were written by Genghis Khan, or at least those under his rule, so maybe Jamuka wasn’t as evil as he is being portrayed. By Borte’s suggestion, Temujin fled, bringing many of Jamukas men with him. It was at this point, established as a leader and with people following him, that Temujin became Temujin Khan (not Genghis Khan yet).

Jamuka boiling people alive

Map of Mongolian tribes showing how close the Tartars are to the wealthy Jin

Mongolians using the backwards shot

Jamuka getting rolled in a carpet and stepped on by a horse

Global Conquest

     After succesfully unifying the Mongol tribes and becoming the first ruler of a unified Mongolia in generations, Genghis Khan set about making his nation fit for the challenges ahead. Firstly, he realized that the millitary kinda sucked. Not because they were bad at fighting, as each Mongol warrior was a veteran of the many tribal wars and deadly as a horse archer. Rather, they were extremely unorganized.

     To fix this, Genghis Khan organized his men into units of 10 men, called an Arban. These dudes ate together, slept together (not like that), and fought together. He made sure that these ten men were all from different tribes and social classes, ensuring unity among his people. Furthermore, each Arban could elect their own leader, and could act independently if they got lost from the main army. 10 of these Arbans formed a Jagun, which was a group of 100 men. They could also elect their leaders, and acted very similarly to the Roman century. 10 of these Jagun formed a Minghan, which was a unit of 1000 men that could elect their own leader. Seeing a pattern here? Essentially Genghis Khan realized that 10 is an easy number and subdivided every unit by 10, making it so that each one could act independently. If an Arban or a Jagun got separated from the main force, that was okay because they were self sufficient and had their own elected leaders based on ability–not birth. This was one of the things that made the Mongols so effective on the battlefield. Finally, ten Minghan formed a Tumen, a unit of 10,000 men who’s leader was chosen by Genghis Khan himself.

     Armed with this new millitary structure, Genghis Khan, now about 45, led his men into the kingdom of Western Xia. Here is where the Mongols faced their first real challenge to global conquest. The Mongols themselves never built fortified cities, instead living in villages of Yurts that could be easily moved to follow flocks of animals. The Western Xia, on the other hand, sustained themselves off of rice, and thus were able to build large, permanent cities with high walls. An army of horsemen does really well in open battle, but unfortunately horses aren’t that great at climbing walls.

     Seeing this, the Western Xia hid all their troops behind their large walls and resolved to wait the Mongols out. The Xia Emperor thought that he could just wait until winter when the Mongols would be forced to go retreat for food. This was a very traditional strategy, as armies were very hard to sustain in the winter, due to the lack of food, and cause it just sucks to be outside in the freezing cold.

     What they did not anticipate, however, was that the Mongols were nomads. This meant that their flocks and families moved with them. When a Mongol army invaded, it wasn’t just soldiers who came. They would literally pick up their Yurts, grab their families and flocks of animals, and move their entire civilization into enemy territory. The Xia Emperor didn’t seem to realize this, and was probably very surprised when he looked out from his walls to see about 100,000 uninvited Mongolians chilling in the fields around his city. The people locked in the cities quickly started to starve, and within a year the Xia emperor was forced to surrender.

     Genghis Khan did not have time to celebrate this victory, however, because a Jin emissary soon arrived in his camp. At this time, China as we know it was split into two main sections: the Jin in the North, and the Song in the South. Both were very powerful and rich kingdoms, and both saw all outsiders as barbarians. Thus, the Jin emissary arrived in Genghis Khans camp and congratulated him on his conquest, then immediately called him a barbarian and asked him to submit to the Jin. The Jin were essentially trying to act like big brothers to the Mongols, and we all know how much Genghis Khan hates big brothers. According to some sources, Genghis Khan, after hearing what the emissary had to say, got off his horse, looked in the direction of the Jin Empire, shouted a bunch of curses, and then spat in their direction.

     Seeing this as a declaration of war, the emissary went back to the Jin, who mobilized an army of around 950,000 men to defend their territory. In comparison, Genghis Khan’s army was around 90,000 men. Now, I’m not very good at math, but it’s looking like Genghis Khan is missing an extra 0 here. Luckily for him, the Jin army was mostly made of poor people that they forced into the millitary with no training or equipment. The Mongols, on the other hand, were battle hardened veterans and expert horse archers. Even with this training though, it would be nearly impossible for the Mongols to win.

     Luckily, the Jin didn’t send their whole force at the Mongols at once, instead sending them to garrison the massive Great Wall. This might seem like game over for the Mongols, since we all know that they hate walls, but Genghis Khan had a better strategy. You see, contrary to popular belief, the Great Wall does not surround all of China, and is instead just at the Northern border, extending from near the border of modern day North Korea to the border of Central Mongolia. Using his mobile horse army, Genghis Khan simply decided to go around the wall and send his son Ogedei to attack a city called Datong with a few thousand men.

     While this attack was happening, Genghis Khan himself took the majority of his forces to attack Beijing. However, at the Yehuling Pass, a large Jin army was waiting to stop him. See, while Ogedei’s attack on Datong drew away most of the men defending the Great Wall, the Jin had still left a majority of their forces to defend Beijing. Genghis Khan decided to not make the first move, and waited for the Jin to attack. Then he continued to wait, and wait, and wait, until months had gone by. Even though the Jin had significantly more troops, they still preffered to just sit in their defensible positions and wait the Mongols out. Finally getting frustrated with this, Genghis sent Subotai, one of the greatest generals of all time in my opinion, and a few thousand men to cross the mountains surrounding the pass. The locals warned against this, saying that the mountains were impassible, but Subotai did it any way, using climbing equipment and tying his men to their horses to make sure none of them fell. After crossing the uncrossable mountains, Subotai and his men rammed into the Jin forces from the rear, completely surprising them.

     Realizing this, Genghis sent his forces into the pass to attack them from the front, and the Jin were slowly squished from both sides like a sandwhich in a panini press. However, the battle was still taking a long time, as the Jin still had much more men than the Mongols. To solve this, Jebe, another great Mongol general, feigned a retreat, having his men turn and run like they were scared. Seeing this, the Jin forces, who were again made up of mostly poor people that didn’t wanna do this, ran out to chase them, thinking the battle won. That’s when Jebe and his men turned and slammed into the now unorganized Jin force, turning the battle into a massacre. The Mongols would remember this feigned retreat tactic, and use it over and over again in their conquests.

     Even though the path to Beijing was now open, Genghis Khan still hadn’t found a solution to his walls problem, so he was forced to retreat. The next year, however, in 1213, he came back, once again going around the Great Wall and burning the countryside. Honestly being a soldier on the Great Wall during this time period must have been the easiest job ever, cause no matter how many times the Mongols attacked they never went for the wall. After burning the countryside, the Mongols beseiged a few minor cities. However, this was a trap, and when the Jin sent forces to break the siege, the Mongols would send in their main force to crush them. No matter how many times Genghis Khan defeated the Jin and slaughtered their armies, the Jin always came back, because they had basically an infinite supply of poor people to shove into the front lines.

     Seeing this, Genghis Khan devised a new strategy based completely around the use of psychological warfare. When the minor cities he was beseiging fell, Genghis Khan ordered all of the inhabitants killed. The only people he spared were artisans (people who made armor and stuff), doctors, teachers, priests and siege engineers. Seeing this brutality, the Jin’s morale was shattered. Furthermore, the captured siege engineers proved to be the solution Genghis Khan was looking for, and the Mongols quickly beseiged Beijing. After making numerous trebuchets (fancy catapults) and trying to starve the city into submission, Genghis Khan agreed to make peace with the emperor. The emperor agreed to pay the Mongols tribute and gave his daughter as a wife to Genghis Khan, agreeing to become his vassal.

     However, as the Mongols were going back around the Great Wall, the Jin emperor moved his court south to Kaifeng, near the border with the Song. This was a massive hint that the Jin would counterattack the Mongols the next year, with help from the Song. Recognizing this betrayal, Genghis Khan turned his massive army around and beseiged Beijing once more, burning it to the ground and pillaging it for weeks. With this, the new Mongol nation of just a few million had managed to conquer the Jin empire of about 20 million.

     Next, Genghis Khan had beef with the ruler of the Western Liao Kingdom. Back during the tribal wars, Genghis had defeated a rival chief named Kuchlug. By some crazy twist of events, Kuchlug was now the ruler of the Kingdom of Western Liao, which was around where modern day Kazakhstan is today. After Kuchlug attacked a city under Mongol protection, Genghis Khan decided it was revenge time, and sent his forces under Jebe and Subotai to crush him. By now we all know how good Jebe and Subotai are, and once again they did not dissapoint. Within a few years, the entire kingdom was conquered.

     The Mongol empire now stretched from Korea to near the Black sea, and controlled much of the trade routes on the Silk Road. In an effort to utilize these trade routes, Genghis Khan sent a caravan of goods to the Khwarezmian empire, which was in modern day Afganistan. What happened next is very disputed, but essentially the Mongol caravan arrived in the city of Otrar, on the border of the Khwarezmian Empire, and was probably/most definitely slaughtered. The governor of the city then maybe/definitely stole the goods that the caravan was carrying.

     Genghis Khan simply thought this was a misunderstanding, and so he sent three ambassadors to the shah of Khwarezm asking what was up. The shah responded by killing two of the ambassadors and shaving the third ones head, a sign of major disrespect. If you remember way back to the killing of Yesugei, then you’ll know that Genghis Khan saw the laws of hospitality as sacred. It was scumbags like this shah, who’s name was Muhammad II by the way, foresaking the laws of hospitality that caused the death of his father.

     Unfortunately for him, Muhammad II clearly did not know the story of Yesugei, and probably thought that the Mongols were just some lucky upstarts who would never dare attack the mighty Khwarezmian Empire. Well, Genghis Khan dared, and in 1219 he sent a small detachment of men to attack the fortress of Ercghana. Ercghana was located between two large mountains, and was extremely well defended. The Khwarezmians thought that Genghis had sent his whole force here, so they sent all their men to defend it, thinking it was an easy victory. They didn’t send any forces to defend the cities on their northern border, however, believing that the Mongols could never cross the impassible desert to the north with a large force.

     Well, Genghis Khan, with the help of best boys Subotai and Jebe, yet again crossed the seemingly uncrossable terrain, hopping from oasis to oasis and bringing a ton of horses to store water for the men. Using the small force at Ercghana as a distraction, the Mongols beseiged the city of Otrar. Genghis Khan probably wasn’t a pleasant guy to deal with on a normal basis, but after what the governor did, he was pissed. Some sources claimed that he put up a white tent on the first day, declaring that if the city surrendered, they would be spared. Then, the second day, he put up a red tent, saying that if they surrendered, he would only kill all men taller than the yolk on a Mongol wagon (so all men above 13 basically). Finally, on the last day, he put up a black tent, declaring that no matter what every living thing in the city would die. While this may or may not be true, Genghis Khan did use this system of psychological warfare throughout his conquests.

     Nonetheles, the governor of Otrar must have wanted to get the worlds first Darwin Award, because he didn’t surrender. After a few months of siege, a traitor in the city opened the gates for the Mongols, and everyone in the city was slaughtered. The governor of Otrar, for his crimes, had molten silver poured down his mouth and nose, at the orders of Genghis Khan. We can now see how changed Genghis Khan and the Mongols are, because years earlier in the first battle with Jamuka, everyone was disgusted by Jamuka for boiling those men alive. Now though, Genghis was executing people like this and it was seen as justified.

     With the city of Otrar now annihilated from the face of the Earth, Muhammad II moved his forces to defend the capital, Samarkand. He placed him by the Syr Darya river, hoping to obstruct the Mongols path to the capital. He thought that the Mongols would be forced to come that way, since to the west there was an impassible desert. Some people never learn, cause Genghis Khan once again crossed an impassible desert and beseiged the city of Bukhara.

     Once again, Genghis asked them to surrender or die. The city refused to surrender, and actually sent their men out to fight an open battle. This must have been a birthday present or something, because the Mongols quickly overwhelmed them in open battle and took the city.

     Next on the list was Samarkand, the capital of the Khwarezmian Empire. The Shah was still out defending the river crossing, unaware that Genghis had bamboozled him. The city was massive, however, with tens of thousands of people and large walls. After surrounding the city, the Mongols attacked the walls, hoping to overwhelm them. Hours of fighting ensued, when suddenly the Mongols started to retreat quickly. The city garrison, thinking they had won a miraculous victory, ran out of the walls to chase them. That’s when, you guessed it, the Mongols turned and slaughtered all of them. By this point Shah Muhammad II was aware of what was happening, and tried to come and relieve the city. The Mongols defeated him in open battle outside the walls, however, and the defeat shattered the morale of the remaining soldiers inside the walls, who now new that they would not be saved. After just five days of siege, the city surrendered. For failing to surrender earlier, every living thing, including women, children, and pets, were slaughtered. Once again the only ones spared were people the Mongols found useful, like artisans or doctors.

     Seeing this brutality, almost every single city in Khwarezm surrendered immediately. The largest one that didn’t, however, was called Urgench, and Genghis beseiged it along with his sons Jochi and Ogedei. Genghis gave command of the siege to Jochi, the oldest of his sons, in the hopes that it would be good training. Instead of attacking and razing the city, however, Jochi tried to negotiate with the people inside, in an attempt to avoid burning and looting. This upset Chagatai, Genghis’s second son, who declared that Jochi wasn’t a good leader.

     For context, Jochi was debatably not Genghis Khans son. If you remember way back to when Borte was captured, Genghis rescued her but she was pregnant when she was rescued. Mongol custom said that Genghis should kill the baby, since it was pretty clearly not his. Genghis refused though, and instead tried to claim the baby as his own. While very merciful of him, this did drive a rift between Genghis and Jochi, and left room for Genghis’s other sons to be jerks to Jochi and question who would succeed Genghis when he died.

     Going back to the siege, Genghis instead transferred command to his third son, Ogedei, who was overall just a chill guy who wasn’t nearly as hotheaded or controversial as Chagatai or Jochi. With Ogedei as commander, the city was quickly taken and sacked, at which point any remaining resistance in Khwarezm evaporated immediately. Through the use of psychological warfare, Genghis Khan was able to conquer the entire empire by just taking three cities. Granted, those cities had their entire populations slaughtered, but that’s besides the point.

     However, Shah Muhammad II, who was still alive by the way, fled with his son and a bunch of troops out towards Anatolia. Genghis sent Subotai to go and chase him, and this chase would result in an awesome series of adventures that I unfortunately can’t really cover here since they aren’t about Genghis Khan. To summarize briefly, Subotai ends up defeating the Shahs men, crossing the frigid mountains in Armenia and anhilating the knights of Europe with ease, setting the stage for a later European invasion.

     Genghis Khan had sent Jochi along with Subotai on this expedition, hoping that the time away would let things cool down. On the expedition, Jochi proved himself to be an extremely capable commander, and was also very charismatic, like Genghis himself. In fact, in my opinion, out of all of Genghis’s sons, Jochi was the most like him. He seemed to have a knack for millitary leadership, learning quickly under Subotai, as well as natural leadership qualities that drew men to him.

     Although, after years of abuse due to his questionable birth, Jochi had enough. When the expedition reached the lands around Russia, he took a few thousand men and abandoned the expedition, establishing his own camp independent of the Mongols his father ruled. When Genghis heard this, he was heartbroken, but betrayal could never be tolerated in the Mongol empire, even if it was his own son. Thus, he sent word to Subotai to crush the boy. Subotai was the one who trained Jochi, so if anyone could defeat him, it would be Subotai. Still, I imagine that Subotai was crushed to have to fight the man he fought beside and trained during the entire expedition. Nonetheless, the order was given, and Subotai defeated Jochi in battle, sending his head back to Genghis. It is said that Genghis wept at the sight of his sons head. Jochi’s son Batu would continue on his legacy, establishing what we remember as the Golden Horde. In a sad twist of events, modern scientists have, through DNA testing of his theorized descendents, concluded that Jochi was most likely Genghis’s biological son, and that Borte was impregnated before her kidnapping.

     Quickly after the battle with his son, Genghis got word that the kingdom of Western Xia was up in revolt. Genghis marshalled his forces and marched down to lead his army personally, despite being around 60 at the time. In a cruel twist of fate, the Western Xia, the first kingdom Genghis had conquered all those years ago, would also be the last. During a march, it is said that Genghis was kicked off of his horse, and later died of his wounds. However, this is disputed, and the theory that I personally believe is that one of his many wives from political marriages, probably one from Western Xia, assassinated him. This makes sense to me because the Secret History of the Mongols, the direct source from which we get most of our information on Genghis’s life, glosses over his death. How, in my mind, could a Mongol warrior and general, who was basically born on horseback and rode horses his entire life, be thrown off of his extremely well trained war horse. Furthermore, the people writing the history might not have wanted Genghis Khan, the most powerful man of his time, killed by a woman, so instead they came up with some excuse. Either way, Genghis’s body was taken to the sacred mountain of his birth, where he had struggled as a boy all the years ago, and laid to rest. The sources claim that after he was buried, all those that knew the true location of the tomb were killed, in order to keep it a secret. To this day, the Mongolian millitary protects the mountain, and forbids anyone from going to search for the tomb, believing it would disrespect his memory.