Abstract
This paper is written about the artist the legendary leader Genghis Khan. The conquest of Genghis Khan in Asia is discussed in detail in this paper. The world may regard him as to be a cruel conqueror but he is renowned as a beloved personality among the people of Mongolia. This paper also highlights the impact of Genghis Khan on Mongolia and of his son. This paper cites thirteen sources in the Chicago writing style.
An Introduction the legendary leader Genghis Khan:
Genghis Khan is more commonly known as ‘Chingiss Khan’. Although Genghis Khan was regarded as a bloodthirsty, conqueror for the west but his people of Mongolia perceived him as a beloved and charismatic leader. Genghis Khan was the conqueror who was able to conquer a large number of territories than any other conqueror of the world. The successors of Genghis Khan established the biggest contiguous empire in the history. His legacy did not end with his death but continues to date today, as Mongolia would not exist if there were no Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan was born in the noble family of ‘Yesugei and Ho’elun’.
The former name of Genghis Khan was ‘Temuchin’. At a young age of nine, Genghis Khan was engaged with a girl named ‘Borte’ who belonged to another tribe. Temuchin’s father, Yesugei left him with the family of Borte and was leaving for his own camp, where in the way the Tatars poisoned him. This caused Temuchin’s father’s death and he returned to his own family at that small age. Temuchin (latter called Genghis Khan) had to over come much destitution such as the kidnapping of his wife Borte, but gradually he learned to deal with them as employed supporters and assumed a role of a leader of the Mongols (May, Timothy 2001).
After the death of Genghis Khan’s father, due to being poisoned by the Tatar’s, his family had to live the life of poor nomads. The family had mostly wild fruits, marmots to eat for their survival. Among the historical incidents of Genghis Khan’s there is an incident, when he murdered his half-brother Bekhter over a fight about sharing hunting spoils. Although his mother dealt severely with him over this act, but was never ashamed or showed any guilt for having killed his brother. This incident also led to the conformance of his position as the head of the household. Another incident of the live of Genghis Khan was when he was captivated in a raid by his former tribe, the Ta’yichiut. The Ta’yichiut enslaved him but he was able to run away from the captivation with the help of a kind hearted captor, also the father of Chilaun, the future general of Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan was taught many lessons for surviving in the harsh landscapes and through the severe political climate of Mongolia, and most importantly he was taught the tactics for forming coalitions with others, which would structure his understanding better in his later years, by his mother. The two future generals of Genghis Khan, Jelme and Bo’orchu had united with him at this time and they accompanied his brothers in providing him with the manpower needed for early expansion and diplomacy. Genghis Khan, as mentioned earlier was betrothed to Borte, who belonged to another tribe, married her when he was sixteen years old. Although Borte belonged to a different tribe but his betrothing of Genghis Khan and Borte was done as to establish an alliance between two different tribes. After their marriage, Borte was kidnapped in a raid by the Merkit tribe but she was rescued by Genghis and his friend. Borte was acclaimed to be the only empress of Genghis, even though he kept the manpower needed for early expansion and diplomacy several morganatic wives following the old set tradition. The first child born to him was Jochi from Borte, but as he was born almost nine months after she was rescued from the kidnap of the Merkit, there were several questions regarding the paternity of this child.
According to certain traditional historical accounts, the doubt of Jochi’s true father was disputed most harshly by Chagatai, his second son. According to The Secret History of the Mongols, just before the attack of the Khwarezmid Empire by Genghis Khan, his second son Chagatai spoke before his father making it clear to his father and brothers that Jochi would never be accepted as Genghis Khan’s successor by him (Wikipedia: 2006).
The Conquests of Genghis Khan in Asia:
The first chief person to be in favor of Genghis Khan was Toghrul, who belonged to the tribe of the Keraits. Toghrul was the most influential leader among the Mongolian tribes at that time. In the incident of the kidnapping of Genghis Khan’s wife Borte, Toghrul and Jamuka (his blood brother) helped rescue her. In the year 1196, the attack of Genghis on the Tartars succeeded. After that he saved Toghrul from exile, which was given the Chin title ‘Wang Khan’. Jamuka the blood brother of Genghis stood up against him, when he was elected as ‘Gurkhan’ in the year 1201. In the following year 1202, Genghis decimated the Tartars, and that year Wang Khan was in a dispute with Genghis. Hence, due to the envy between Genghis and Keraits, Genghis declared a war with the Keraits. Later in the year 1203, at the death of Wang Khan, Genghis Khan assumed that he would get the title of King of the Keraits. Jamuka was betrayed to Genghis, and died in 1205. In the year 1209, the Uighurs surrendered to Genghis Khan.
In the end as a result of many battles and even a withdrawal to Mongolia, Genghis was able to destroy Zongdu in the year1215. Deceitfully, the soldiers of Sultan Muhammad of Khwarazm killed ambassadors from Genghis, pushing him to declare war on that Islamic empire in 1219. The ruler of Xi-Xia, who had surrendered in 1210, had not provided troops for the campaign. This act was against the rule of Genghis and it inflicted upon him like an insult but at that time the defeat of Muhammad Khwarazmshah was much more important to him. However, Genghis Khan after completing his conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire, returned his armies once again against Xi Xia. Genghis was the winner of this war also in the year 1221. Later, in 1226, his armies occupied Xi-Xia. During the campaign, Genghis Khan fell from his horse while he was hunting. He could not regain from the internal injuries of the fall and died but he did not permit his followers to stop the campaign. They continued the blockade of the capital of Xi-Xia even after his death. After the completion of the conquest, Genghis Khan was buried in a secret location that is still unknown and has not yet been discovered by even the modern expeditions that have tried to find it. (May, Timothy 2001).
The empire of Genghis Khan expanded from the Korean peninsular almost to Kiev, and south to the Indus. It was the largest land empire ever (Yates, Mick, 2006).
The Impact of Genghis Khan and His Son’s Rule on the Mongolian Society
At the time of the advent of Genghis Khan, many disputes existed between the tribes of the Mongols and they were disunited. The Mongols possessed a brutal independent nature, a system of social rules to which they strictly adhered to, and were basically ‘shamanistic’ regarding their religious beliefs. Their nomadic existence was an indication to the fact that they relied on the barter system of exchange of good rather than the use of money as a medium of exchange. As there were a lot of disputes among their tribes hence their economic condition was adverse. There are tales which show that the Mongols would eat ‘anything that moved’ in order to survive when they suffered from hard times. Politically, the Mongols established and were concerned with their own personal tribal connections and blood ties; there did not exist a nation, which could be united to be called as ‘Mongol Nation’. There were some main enemies of the Mongols:
-Naimans (also known as Naiman Mongols)
-Merkits
-Uighurs
-Tatars
-Keraits
The Tartars to their east and the Keraits to their west were the foes of the Mongols. The Uighurs existed to the south-west and due south the Chinese Chin dynasty was well established. To the far west, extending to the Black Sea, the Islamic Sultanate of Muhammad of Khwarazm flourished. The time before the advent of Genghis Khan was harsh when atrocities were inflicted upon people on tribal disputes. Execution was the common punishment for wrongdoings. The wars that were fought did not consider the rules of war, and it was fought mercilessly against the opposing army. The conquered peoples were subjected to slavery. In contrast to this, the Mongols were deeply rooted towards being loyal and disregarded theft strongly. The history stands as a testimony to their acceptance of the beliefs and the way of life of others, and their generosity to people they had faith in (Yates, Mick, 2006). In the year 1206, the Great Huraltai (Great Assembly of Mongolian tribesmen) announced Temujin as to be the supreme ruler of the Unified Mongolian State where he received the title of ‘Genghis Khan, or Universal Ruler’.
The rule of Genghis Khan had a powerful and positive impact on Mongolia. Genghis Khan restructured the Mongolian tribal structure into a military organization. He did this restructuring by dividing the entire population of Mongolia into military units of tens, hundreds, and thousands, with supplementing households and cattle to provide them with the other necessities such as food, rations etc to them. This restructuring of Mongolia reallocated the people from a tribal to military-feudal structure. He introduced the attributes of strong discipline, law, and order, promoting education and knowledge, and encouraging economic prosperity for his citizens, which impacted the overall condition of Mongolia positively. Genghis Khan also initiated radical liberal reforms (University of Pennsylvania museum 2006).
Genghis Khan reformed the Mongolian society in many ways. Genghis Khan introduced tax exemptions for religious figures, teachers and doctors. The teachers and doctors where given a tax exemption to a lesser extent than religious figures. During the rule of Genghis Khan, the Mongol Empire practiced the virtue of religious tolerance to a great extent as it was generally apathetic to belief. However, there was an exception in the case when a religious group challenged the state such as the Ismaili Muslims who were against the Mongols and as a result were massacred. History states that it was during the rule of Genghis Khan that Mongol Empire combined together the formerly split Silk Road states under one system and hence it led to the flourishment of trade and cultural exchange. There are certain drawbacks of the reign of Genghis Khan during this time, the conquered were oppressed to serve as slaves for their whole lives and there were heavy taxes also. According to the claims of ‘Modern Mongolian historians’ it is observed that Genghis Khan had thrived hard to establish a civil state under the Great Yassa code’, that comprised of important elements such as the equal legal status of all individuals, including women. Nonetheless, there is no up to date proof of this fact but women played a significant role in Mongol Empire and in family such as for instance Torogene Khatun was the leader of the Mongol Empire when next male Khagan had to be selected (Wikipedia: 2006). Genghis was a liberal and tolerant leader and was tolerant towards the beliefs of others; he never victimized people on religious grounds. This served as an advantage to him in his military strategy as regarding his war with Sultan Muhammad of Khwarazm, other Islamic Leaders did unite to fight against Genghis, and conversely it was considered as a non-holy war between both of them. Although Genghis Khan was not educated formally himself, he was a believer of the power of distributing concepts and ideas through written words and communication; he utilized this to run his empire. Genghis Khan made efforts to educate the people who his empire and he was the one behind the spread of the Uighurs script to be considered as the common Mongolian alphabet. An impact the Mongol society had from the rule of Genghis Khan was that against his enemies, he never forgot or failed to take revenge, which was a testimony of his Mongol cultural heritage, and he did not hesitate from slaughtering people (Wikipedia: 2006).
Genghis khan died in the year 1227, and his successor was his son ‘Ogodei’ who succeeded him in the year 1229. Ogodei along with other descendants expanded the empire until it extended from the Black Sea to the Korean Peninsula, from the rest of the Russian princedoms to the Bulgar principalities, Central Asian territories, and all of East Asia. The rule of Genghis Khan’s son brought about positive effects to the Mongolian society as the great expanse of the empire facilitated trade and travel to thrive between different countries, which enhanced trade along the famous Silk Road and forming additional trade routes throughout the vast Eurasian continent (University of Pennsylvania museum 2006).
Genghis Khan was a witty leader and he was aware of the fact that in order to govern cities and states conquered by him he needed the help of people. At the same time he also knew that such learnt and skillful administrators did not exist among his Mongolian people because they were nomads and did not have any experience of governing cities. So he offered a Khitan prince, Chu’Tsai, who worked for the Jin and had been captivated by Mongol army after the Jin Dynasty was defeated (Wikipedia: 2006).
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