Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; c. 1162 – August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the first ruler of the Mongol Empire, which he created in 1206 in his fatherland (modern Mongolia).

Genghis Khan
A 1278 painting of Genghis Khan
Khan of the Mongol Empire
Reign	1206 – August 1227
Successor	Tolui (regent) Ögedei Khan
Born	Temüjin c. 1162 Khentii Mountains
Died	August 1227 (aged around 65) Xingqing, Western Xia
Burial	Unknown
Spouse	Börte others
Issue	Jochi Chagatai Ögedei Tolui others
Full name Temüjin (ᠲᠡᠮᠦᠵᠢᠨ) Regnal name Chinggis Khaan (ᠴᠢᠩᠭᠢᠰ ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ; 成吉思皇帝)
House	Borjigin
Father	Yesugei
Mother	Hö'elün

After the death of his father when Temüjin was eight, his family was left behind by the Mongols. They became very poor, but did not die. Temüjin was very clever, and people who liked him came to be his soldiers. He made friends with two rulers named Jamukha and Toghrul, and they helped him find his wife Börte, who had been made a prisoner. However, Temüjin and Jamukha started to dislike each other, and they began a war. Temüjin lost at the start and may have had to run away for years. By 1196, he was back in Mongolia, and many soldiers came to fight for him. Soon, Toghrul started to dislike Temüjin and attacked him in 1203. Temüjin won this war and Toghrul and Jamukha died.

Temüjin took the name "Genghis Khan", the meaning of which is unknown, at a large meeting in 1206. He made changes to the society of the Mongols so that it was more stable and killed a powerful shaman who tried to overcome him. His armies then attacked foreign lands: the Western Xia in 1209, the Chinese Jin dynasty in 1211, the Qara Khitai in 1218, and the Khwarazmian Empire in 1219. Many of these countries suffered greatly from these attacks. Genghis Khan died in 1227. His third son Ögedei became the second ruler of the Mongol Empire in 1229.

Many people think very different things about Genghis Khan. For his people, he was intelligent and caring. To his enemies, he was an evil murderer. His soldiers killed millions of people, but also allowed trading and communications to grow across Asia. After his death, Mongolians made him into a god. Today, they remember him as the father of their country.

Name

Because the Mongolian language is written differently, how to spell their words in English is not agreed. "Genghis" comes from the Mongolian ᠴᠢᠩᠭᠢᠰ. Some other well-known spellings are "Chinggis", "Chingis", "Jinghis", and "Jengiz". His birth name "Temüjin" (ᠲᠡᠮᠦᠵᠢᠨ in Mongolian) is also spelled "Temuchin" in English.

Early life

Different historians (people who study history) think Temüjin was born in different years: 1155, 1162 or 1167. 1162 is the date accepted by most historians. Temüjin himself may not have known. Where he was born is also unknown. It was on the Onon River, but it could have been in modern Mongolia or modern Russia.

Statue of Hö'elün in Mongolia

Temüjin was born into the Mongol tribe. His father was a chief named Yesügei. His mother was Yesügei's main wife Hö'elün. Yesügei had taken Hö'elün by force from the husband she had before. Historians do not know what his name means. Some think he was named after an enemy prisoner called Temüchin-uge. Other historians think that "Temüjin" means 'blacksmith'. Many stories were told about Temüjin's birth. One story says he was born holding blood clot in his hand. For the Mongols, this was a sign that Temüjin would be a soldier. Other people claimed that his real father was a ray of light which touched Hö'elün.

Temüjin had three younger brothers and one younger sister. He also had two half-brothers. One of them, named Behter, was older than him. The children grew up at Yesugei's home next to the Onon River, where they learned how to ride a horse and shoot a bow. When Temüjin was eight years old, his father wanted to arrange his future marriage. They went to Hö'elün's original people, who the Mongols had arranged marriages with many times. Yesügei arranged that Temüjin would marry Börte, the daughter of a powerful chief named Dei Sechen. When he was going home, Yesügei was poisoned by the Tatars, his old enemies. He soon died.

Yesügei's death caused the people he ruled to break apart. Both Temüjin and Behter were too young to rule. The other Mongols found new chiefs and left behind Hö'elün and her family, whose lives became much harder. To eat, they were forced to collect roots and nuts, hunt for small animals, and catch fish. Because both Temüjin and Behter could have been Yesügei's heir. Temüjin was the child of Yesügei's main wife, but Behter was older. Temüjin also feared that Behter would marry Hö'elün when he became an adult. One day, Temüjin and his younger brother Qasar murdered Behter. This crime was absent from official histories of Temüjin's life. Around this time, Temüjin became best friends with another boy named Jamukha. They gave each other presents and promised that they would always be friends.

Temüjin became a prisoner many times because his family was no longer protected by the Mongols. One time, he ran away while the people imprisoning him were having a meal. Another time, he was helped by another boy. Named Bo'orchu, he soon became Temüjin's first follower.

Rise to power

Temüjin and Toghrul

Temüjin returned to Dei Sechen to marry Börte when he became fifteen. Dei Sechen was very happy to see Temüjin and organised the marriage. Temüjin wanted to serve Toghrul, khan (chief) of the Kerait tribe, who had been best friends with Yesügei. Toghrul ruled a large country in central Mongolia but disliked many of his followers. He was happy to accept Temüjin as a new follower. The two liked each other, and Temüjin started to attract followers for himself. Temüjin and Börte had their first child, a daughter named Qojin, around this time.

Soon afterwards, 300 Merkits attacked Temüjin and took Börte prisoner. She was married by force to a Merkit man. Temüjin asked Toghrul and Jamukha, who was now chief of the Jadaran tribe, to help. Both of them took 20,000 soldiers to attack the Merkits and soon won. Börte was found safely but soon gave birth to a son, Jochi. It was never known who Jochi's real father was. Temüjin raised him as his son, but others believed that he was the son of the Merkit man. Over the next fifteen years, Temüjin and Börte had three more sons (Chagatai, Ögedei, and Tolui) and four more daughters (Checheyigen, Alaqa, Tümelün, and Al-Altan).

Although Temüjin and Jamukha stayed friends for a while, they started to like each other less. Hö'elün and Börte told Temüjin he needed to have more followers. He listened to their advice and many of Jamukha's people became his followers. Temüjin was known to be more caring than other rulers, while his shamans (priests) claimed that his destiny was very large. Jamukha disliked Temüjin's rise. They fought a battle around 1187 which Temüjin lost clearly. It is likely that Temüjin spent many years as a servant of the Jurchen Jin dynasty in North China. Becaue Temüjin later attacked that state, this shameful time was not mentioned by official Mongol historians.

Around 1196, Temüjin returned to Mongolia to fight against the Tatars. He also helped Toghrul to become khan of the Kereit again. Jamukha had cruelly killed many prisoners after his 1187 victory. Many of his followers defected to Temüjin when he returned. Temüjin and Toghrul fought many battles together against other tribes, becoming very powerful. Temüjin became the only power in eastern Mongolia by winning battles against the Tatars. He killed the Tatar chiefs and their men became his followers.

Three main peoples were left in Mongolia: the Naimans in the west, the Mongols in the east, and the Kereit in between. Temüjin wanted Jochi to marry one of Toghrul's daughters. Toghrul's son Senggum thought Temüjin was trying to control his Kereit tribe. He made his father believe Temüjin had to die. Toghrul attacked Temüjin in 1203 and won the Battle of Qalaqaljid Sands. Temüjin was left with very few men. He made a promise to them, called the Baljuna Covenant, that he would make them famous if they remained his followers. He gathered all the friends and followers he could and attacked Toghrul, catching him by surprise. The Mongols won this battle. Toghrul was killed while he was running away.

The Naiman tribe, which Jamukha had run to, was the only enemy left. In May 1204, Temüjin won the Battle of Chakirmaut. Jamukha asked his former friend to kill him without cruelty, which he did..

Early reign: reforms and Chinese campaigns (1206–1215)

Kurultai of 1206 and reforms

Temüjin becoming Genghis Khan at the 1206 meeting.

Temüjin held a large meeting called a kurultai beside the Onon River in 1206. Here, he took the official name "Genghis Khan". No one knows what it means. Some historians think it had no meaning and was just a name for the ruler of the new Mongol Empire. Others think "Genghis" means strong and just. A third theory claims that "Genghis" meant "Universal Ruler".

Genghis Khan began to reorganise Mongol society. The existing systems were best for small tribes and peoples, but were not suited to large countries. Genghis wanted his new country to be stable. Because he had killed many chiefs, he could organise everything however he wanted. His family became the most important people in the new empire. Genghis broke down the tribes and sorted the people into groups of tens, hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands. Each new group was made up of men from many tribes, to make sure they were not obedient to their old people any more.

Genghis's early followers also became very important. Bo'orchu and Muqali were each given ten thousand men to lead. Other followers took control of a thousand soldiers each. Many of these men had been very poor—two were sons of blacksmiths, one was a carpenter, and three were shepherds—but Genghis made them important because they were obedient to him.

Consolidation of power (1206–1210)

From 1204 to 1209, Genghis Khan was predominantly focused on consolidating and maintaining his new nation. He faced a challenge from the shaman Kokechu, whose father Münglig had been allowed to marry Hö'elün after he defected to Temüjin. Kokechu, who had proclaimed Temüjin as Genghis Khan and taken the Tengrist title "Teb Tenggeri" (lit. "Wholly Heavenly") on account of his sorcery, was very influential among the Mongol commoners and sought to divide the imperial family. Genghis's brother Qasar was the first of Kokechu's targets—always distrusted by his brother, Qasar was humiliated and almost imprisoned on false charges before Hö'elün intervened by publicly reprimanding Genghis. Nevertheless, Kokechu's power steadily increased, and he publicly shamed Temüge, Genghis's youngest brother, when he attempted to intervene. Börte saw that Kokechu was a threat to Genghis's power and warned her husband, who still superstitiously revered the shaman but now recognised the political threat he posed. Genghis allowed Temüge to arrange Kokechu's death, and then usurped the shaman's position as the Mongols' highest spiritual authority.

During these years, the Mongols imposed their control on surrounding areas. Genghis dispatched Jochi northwards in 1207 to subjugate the Hoi-yin Irgen, a collection of tribes on the edge of the Siberian taiga. Having secured a marriage alliance with the Oirats and defeated the Yenisei Kyrgyz, he took control of the region's trade in grain and furs, as well as its gold mines. Mongol armies also rode westwards, defeating the Naiman-Merkit alliance on the River Irtysh in late 1208. Their khan was killed and Kuchlug fled into Central Asia. Led by Barchuk, the Uyghurs freed themselves from the suzerainty of the Qara Khitai and pledged themselves to Genghis in 1211 as the first sedentary society to submit to the Mongols.

The states of East and Central Asia in the early 13th century

The Mongols had started raiding the border settlements of the Tangut-led Western Xia kingdom in 1205, ostensibly in retaliation for allowing Senggum, Toghrul's son, refuge. More prosaic explanations include rejuvenating the depleted Mongol economy with an influx of fresh goods and livestock, or simply subjugating a semi-hostile state to protect the nascent Mongol nation. Most Xia troops were stationed along the southern and eastern borders of the kingdom to guard against attacks from the Song and Jin dynasties respectively, while its northern border relied only on the Gobi desert for protection. After a raid in 1207 sacked the Xia fortress of Wulahai, Genghis decided to personally lead a full-scale invasion in 1209.

Wulahai was captured again in May and the Mongols advanced on the capital Zhongxing (modern-day Yinchuan) but suffered a reverse against a Xia army. After a two-month stalemate, Genghis broke the deadlock with a feigned retreat; the Xia forces were deceived out of their defensive positions and overpowered. Although Zhongxing was now mostly undefended, the Mongols lacked any siege equipment better than crude battering rams and were unable to progress the siege. The Xia requested aid from the Jin, but Emperor Zhangzong rejected the plea. Genghis's attempt to redirect the Yellow River into the city with a dam initially worked, but the poorly-constructed earthworks broke—possibly breached by the Xia—in January 1210 and the Mongol camp was flooded, forcing them to retreat. A peace treaty was soon formalised: the Xia emperor Xiangzong submitted and handed over tribute, including his daughter Chaka, in exchange for the Mongol withdrawal.

Campaign against the Jin (1211–1215)

Depictions of Mongol-Jin conflict from 14th-century Persian manuscripts. From top: the Battle of Yehuling (1211); a skirmish between Mongol and Jin cavalry; Genghis entering Zhongdu after capturing it in 1215.

Wanyan Yongji usurped the Jin throne in 1209. He had previously served on the steppe frontier and Genghis greatly disliked him. When asked to submit and pay the annual tribute to Yongji in 1210, Genghis instead mocked the emperor, spat, and rode away from the Jin envoy—a challenge that meant war. Despite the possibility of being outnumbered eight-to-one by 600,000 Jin soldiers, Genghis had prepared to invade the Jin since learning in 1206 that the state was wracked by internal instabilities. Genghis had two aims: to take vengeance for past wrongs committed by the Jin, foremost among which was the death of Ambaghai Khan in the mid-12th century, and to win the vast amounts of plunder his troops and vassals expected.

After calling for a kurultai in March 1211, Genghis launched his invasion of Jin China in May, reaching the outer ring of Jin defences the following month. These border fortifications were guarded by Alaqush's Ongud, who allowed the Mongols to pass without difficulty. The three-pronged chevauchée aimed both to plunder and burn a vast area of Jin territory to deprive them of supplies and popular legitimacy, and to secure the mountain passes which allowed access to the North China Plain. The Jin lost numerous towns and were hindered by a series of defections, the most prominent of which led directly to Muqali's victory at the Battle of Huan'erzhui in autumn 1211. The campaign was halted in 1212 when Genghis was wounded by an arrow during the unsuccessful siege of Xijing (modern Datong). Following this failure, Genghis set up a corps of siege engineers, which recruited 500 Jin experts over the next two years.

The defences of Juyong Pass had been strongly reinforced by the time the conflict resumed in 1213, but a Mongol detachment led by Jebe managed to infiltrate the pass and surprise the elite Jin defenders, opening the road to the Jin capital Zhongdu (modern-day Beijing). The Jin administration began to disintegrate: after the Khitans, a tribe subject to the Jin, entered open rebellion, Hushahu, the commander of the forces at Xijing, abandoned his post and staged a coup in Zhongdu, killing Yongji and installing his own puppet ruler, Xuanzong. This governmental breakdown was fortunate for Genghis's forces; emboldened by their victories, they had seriously overreached and lost the initiative. Unable to do more than camp before Zhongdu's fortifications while his army suffered from an epidemic and famine—they resorted to cannibalism according to Carpini, who may have been exaggerating—Genghis opened peace negotiations despite his commanders' militance. He secured tribute, including 3,000 horses, 500 slaves, a Jin princess, and massive amounts of gold and silk, before lifting the siege and setting off homewards in May 1214.

As the northern Jin lands had been ravaged by plague and war, Xuanzong moved the capital and imperial court 600 kilometres (370 mi) southwards to Kaifeng. Interpreting this as an attempt to regroup in the south and then restart the war, Genghis concluded the terms of the peace treaty had been broken. He immediately prepared to return and capture Zhongdu. According to Christopher Atwood, it was only at this juncture that Genghis decided to fully conquer northern China. Muqali captured numerous towns in Liaodong during winter 1214–15, and although the inhabitants of Zhongdu surrendered to Genghis on 31 May 1215, the city was sacked. When Genghis returned to Mongolia in early 1216, Muqali was left in command in China. He waged a brutal but effective campaign against the unstable Jin regime until his death in 1223.

Later reign: western expansion and return to China (1216–1227)

Defeating rebellions and Qara Khitai (1216–1218)

In 1207, Genghis had appointed a man named Qorchi as governor of the subdued Hoi-yin Irgen tribes in Siberia. Appointed not for his talents but for prior services rendered, Qorchi's tendency to abduct women as concubines for his harem caused the tribes to rebel and take him prisoner in early 1216. The following year, they ambushed and killed Boroqul, one of Genghis's highest-ranking nökod. The khan was livid at the loss of his close friend and prepared to lead a retaliatory campaign; eventually dissuaded from this course, he dispatched his eldest son Jochi and a Dörbet commander. They managed to surprise and defeat the rebels, securing control over this economically important region.

Kuchlug, the Naiman prince who had been defeated in 1204, had usurped the throne of the Central Asian Qara Khitai dynasty between 1211 and 1213. He was a greedy and arbitrary ruler who probably earned the enmity of the native Islamic populace whom he attempted to forcibly convert to Buddhism. Genghis reckoned that Kuchlug could be a threat to his empire, and Jebe was sent with an army of 20,000 cavalry to the city of Kashgar; he undermined Kuchlug's rule by emphasising the Mongol policies of religious tolerance and gained the loyalty of the local elite. Kuchlug was forced to flee southwards to the Pamir Mountains, but was captured by local hunters. Jebe had him beheaded and paraded his corpse through Qara Khitai, proclaiming the end of religious persecution in the region.

Invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire (1219–1221)

Campaigns of Genghis Khan between 1207 and 1225

Genghis had now attained complete control of the eastern portion of the Silk Road, and his territory bordered that of the Khwarazmian Empire, which ruled over much of Central Asia, Persia and Afghanistan. Merchants from both sides were eager to restart trading, which had halted during Kuchlug's rule; the Khwarazmian ruler Muhammad II dispatched an envoy shortly after the Mongol capture of Zhongdu, while Genghis instructed his merchants to obtain the high-quality textiles and steel of Central and Western Asia. Many members of the altan uruq invested in one particular caravan of 450 merchants which set off to Khwarazmia in 1218 with a large quantity of wares. Inalchuq, the governor of the Khwarazmian border town of Otrar, decided to massacre the merchants on grounds of espionage and seize the goods; Muhammad had grown suspicious of Genghis's intentions and either supported Inalchuq or turned a blind eye. A Mongol ambassador was sent with two companions to avert war, but Muhammad killed him and humiliated his companions. The killing of an envoy infuriated Genghis, who resolved to leave Muqali with a small force in North China and invade Khwarazmia with most of his army.

Muhammad's empire was large but disunited: he ruled alongside his mother Terken Khatun in what the historian Peter Golden terms "an uneasy diarchy", while the Khwarazmian nobility and populace were discontented with his warring and the centralisation of government. For these reasons and others he declined to meet the Mongols in the field, instead garrisoning his unruly troops in his major cities. This allowed the lightly armoured, highly mobile Mongol armies uncontested superiority outside city walls. Otrar was besieged in autumn 1219—the siege dragged on for five months, but in February 1220 the city fell and Inalchuq was executed. Genghis had meanwhile divided his forces. Leaving his sons Chagatai and Ögedei to besiege the city, he had sent Jochi northwards down the Syr Darya river and another force southwards into central Transoxiana, while he and Tolui took the main Mongol army across the Kyzylkum Desert, surprising the garrison of Bukhara in a pincer movement.

Depiction of Jalal al-Din crossing the Indus River, from a late 17th-century Jami al-tawarikh manuscript

Bukhara's citadel was captured in February 1220 and Genghis moved against Muhammad's residence Samarkand, which fell the following month. Bewildered by the speed of the Mongol conquests, Muhammad fled from Balkh, closely followed by Jebe and Subutai; the two generals pursued the Khwarazmshah until he died from dysentry on a Caspian Sea island in winter 1220–21, having nominated his eldest son Jalal al-Din as his successor. Jebe and Subutai then set out on a 7,500-kilometre (4,700 mi)-expedition around the Caspian Sea. Later called the Great Raid, this lasted four years and saw the Mongols come into contact with Europe for the first time. Meanwhile, the Khwarazmian capital of Gurganj was being besieged by Genghis's three eldest sons. The long siege ended in spring 1221 amid brutal urban conflict. Jalal al-Din moved southwards to Afghanistan, gathering forces on the way and defeating a Mongol unit under the command of Shigi Qutuqu, Genghis's adopted son, in the Battle of Parwan. Jalal was weakened by arguments among his commanders, and after losing decisively at the Battle of the Indus in November 1221, he was compelled to escape across the Indus river into India.

Genghis's youngest son Tolui was concurrently conducting a brutal campaign in the regions of Khorasan. Every city that resisted was destroyed—Nishapur, Merv and Herat, three of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world, were all annihilated. This campaign established Genghis's lasting image as a ruthless, inhumane conqueror. Contemporary Persian historians placed the death toll from the three sieges alone at over 5.7 million—a number regarded as grossly exaggerated by modern scholars. Nevertheless, even a total death toll of 1.25 million for the entire campaign, as estimated by John Man, would have been a demographic catastrophe.

Return to China and final campaign (1222–1227)

Genghis abruptly halted his Central Asian campaigns in 1221. Initially aiming to return via India, Genghis realised that the heat and humidity of the South Asian climate impeded his army's skills, while the omens were additionally unfavourable. Although the Mongols spent much of 1222 repeatedly overcoming rebellions in Khorasan, they withdrew completely from the region to avoid overextending themselves, setting their new frontier on the Amu Darya river. During his lengthy return journey, Genghis prepared a new administrative division which would govern the conquered territories, appointing darughachi (commissioners, lit. "those who press the seal") and basqaq (local officials) to manage the region back to normalcy. He also summoned and spoke with the Taoist patriarch Changchun in the Hindu Kush. The khan listened attentively to Changchun's teachings and granted his followers numerous privileges, including tax exemptions and authority over all monks throughout the empire—a grant which the Taoists later used to try to gain superiority over Buddhism.

The usual reason given for the halting of the campaign is that the Western Xia, having declined to provide auxiliaries for the 1219 invasion, had additionally disobeyed Muqali in his campaign against the remaining Jin in Shaanxi. May has disputed this, arguing that the Xia fought in concert with Muqali until his death in 1223, when, frustrated by Mongol control and sensing an opportunity with Genghis campaigning in Central Asia, they ceased fighting. In either case, Genghis initially attempted to resolve the situation diplomatically, but when the Xia elite failed to come to an agreement on the hostages they were to send to the Mongols, he lost patience.

Returning to Mongolia in early 1225, Genghis spent the year in preparation for a campaign against them. This began in the first months of 1226 with the capture of Khara-Khoto on the Xia's western border. The invasion proceeded apace. Genghis ordered that the cities of the Gansu Corridor be sacked one by one, granting clemency only to a few. Having crossed the Yellow River in autumn, the Mongols besieged present-day Lingwu, located just 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of the Xia capital Zhongxing, in November. On 4 December, Genghis decisively defeated a Xia relief army; the khan left the siege of the capital to his generals and moved southwards with Subutai to plunder and secure Jin territories.

Death and aftermath

Early 15th-century miniature of Genghis Khan advising his sons on his deathbed, taken from Marco Polo's section of the Livre des merveilles manuscript.

Genghis fell from his horse while hunting in the winter of 1226–27 and became increasingly ill during the following months. This slowed the siege of Zhongxing's progress, as his sons and commanders urged him to end the campaign and return to Mongolia to recover, arguing that the Xia would still be there another year. Incensed by insults from Xia's leading commander, Genghis insisted that the siege be continued. He died on either 18 or 25 August 1227, but his death was kept a closely guarded secret and Zhongxing, unaware, fell the following month. The city was put to the sword and its population was treated with extreme savagery—the Xia civilization was essentially extinguished in what Man described as a "very successful ethnocide". The exact nature of the khan's death has been the subject of intense speculation. Rashid al-Din and the History of Yuan mention he suffered from an illness—possibly malaria, typhus, or bubonic plague. Marco Polo claimed that he was shot by an arrow during a siege, while Carpini reported that Genghis was struck by lightning. Legends sprang up around the event—the most famous recounts how the beautiful Gurbelchin, formerly the Xia emperor's wife, injured Genghis's genitals with a dagger during sex.

After his death, Genghis was transported back to Mongolia and buried on or near the sacred Burkhan Khaldun peak in the Khentii Mountains, on a site he had chosen years before. Specific details of the funeral procession and burial were not made public knowledge; the mountain, declared ikh khorig (lit. "Great Taboo"; i.e. prohibited zone), was out of bounds to all but its Uriankhai guard. When Ögedei acceded to the throne in 1229, the grave was honoured with three days of offerings and the sacrifice of thirty maidens. Ratchnevsky theorised that the Mongols, who had no knowledge of embalming techniques, may have buried the khan in the Ordos to avoid his body decomposing in the summer heat while en route to Mongolia; Atwood rejects this hypothesis.

Succession

The tribes of the Mongol steppe had no fixed succession system, but often defaulted to some form of ultimogeniture—succession of the youngest son—because he would have had the least time to gain a following for himself and needed the help of his father's inheritance. However, this type of inheritance applied only to property, not to titles.

The Secret History records that Genghis chose his successor while preparing for the Khwarazmian campaigns in 1219; Rashid al-Din, on the other hand, states that the decision came before Genghis's final campaign against the Xia. Regardless of the date, there were five possible candidates: Genghis's four sons and his youngest brother Temüge, who had the weakest claim and who was never seriously considered. Even though there was a strong possibility Jochi was illegitimate, Genghis was not particularly concerned by this; nevertheless, he and Jochi became increasingly estranged over time, due to Jochi's preoccupation with his own appanage. After the siege of Gurganj, where he only reluctantly participated in besieging the wealthy city that would become part of his territory, he failed to give Genghis the normal share of the booty, which exacerbated the tensions. Genghis was angered by Jochi's refusal to return to him in 1223, and was considering sending Ögedei and Chagatai to bring him to heel when news came that Jochi had died from an illness.

Chagatai's attitude towards Jochi's possible succession—he had termed his elder brother "a Merkit bastard" and had brawled with him in front of their father—led Genghis to view him as uncompromising, arrogant, and narrow-minded, despite his great knowledge of Mongol legal customs. His elimination left Ögedei and Tolui as the two primary candidates. Tolui was unquestionably superior in military terms—his campaign in Khorasan had broken the Khwarazmian Empire, while his elder brother was far less able as a commander. Ögedei was also known to drink excessively even by Mongol standards—it eventually caused his death in 1241. However, he possessed talents all his brothers lacked—he was generous and generally well-liked. Aware of his own lack of military skill, he was able to trust his capable subordinates, and unlike his elder brothers, compromise on issues; he was also more likely to preserve Mongol traditions than Tolui, whose wife Sorghaghtani, herself a Nestorian Christian, was a patron of many religions including Islam. Ögedei was thus recognised as the heir to the Mongol throne.

A Yuan dynasty portrait of Ögedei, Genghis's third son and eventual successor.

Serving as regent after Genghis's death, Tolui established a precedent for the customary traditions after a khan's death. These included the halting of all military offensives involving Mongol troops, the establishment of a lengthy mourning period overseen by the regent, and the holding of a kurultai which would nominate successors and select them. For Tolui, this presented an opportunity. He was still a viable candidate for succession and had the support of the family of Jochi. Any general kurultai, attended by the commanders Genghis had promoted and honoured, would however observe their former ruler's desires without question and appoint Ögedei as ruler. It has been suggested that Tolui's reluctance to hold the kurultai was driven by the knowledge of the threat it posed to his ambitions. In the end, Tolui had to be persuaded by the advisor Yelü Chucai to hold the kurultai; in 1229, it crowned Ögedei as khan, with Tolui in attendance.

Family

Börte, whom Temüjin married c. 1178, remained his senior wife. She gave birth to four sons and five daughters, who all became influential figures in the empire. Genghis granted Börte's sons lands and property through the Mongol appanage system, while he secured marriage alliances by marrying her daughters to important families. Her children were:

1. Qojin, a daughter born c. 1179, who later married Butu of the Ikires, one of Temüjin's earliest and closest supporters and the widower of Temülün.
2. Jochi, a son born c. 1182 after Börte's kidnapping, whose paternity was thus suspect even though Temüjin accepted his legitimacy. Jochi predeceased Genghis; his appanage, along the Irtysh river and extending into Siberia, evolved into the Golden Horde.
3. Chagatai, a son born c. 1184; his appanage was the former Qara Khitai territories surrounding Almaligh in Turkestan, which became the Chagatai Khanate.
4. Ögedei, a son born c. 1186, who received lands in Dzungaria and who succeeded his father as ruler of the empire.
5. Checheyigen, a daughter born c. 1188, whose marriage to Törelchi secured the loyalty of the Oirats to the north.
6. Alaqa, a daughter born c. 1190, who married several members of the Ongud tribe between 1207 and 1225.
7. Tümelün, a daughter born c. 1192, who married Chigu of the Onggirat tribe.
8. Tolui, a son born c. 1193, who received lands near the Altai Mountains as an appanage; two of his sons, Möngke and Kublai, later ruled the empire, while another, Hulagu, founded the Ilkhanate.
9. Al-Altan, a daughter born c. 1196, married the powerful Uighur ruler Barchuk. Shortly after the accession of Güyük Khan in the 1240s, she was tried and executed on charges that were later suppressed.

After Börte's final childbirth, Temüjin began to acquire a number of junior wives through conquest. These wives had all previously been princesses or queens, and Temüjin married them to demonstrate his political ascendancy. They included the Kereit princess Ibaqa; the Tatar sisters Yesugen and Yesui; Qulan, a Merkit; Gürbesu, the queen of the Naiman Tayang Khan; and two Chinese princesses, Chaqa and Qiguo, of the Western Xia and Jin dynasties respectively. The children of these junior wives were always subservient to those of Börte, with daughters married off to seal lesser alliances and sons, such as Qulan's child Kölgen, never a candidate for succession.

Character and achievements

No eyewitness description or contemporaneous depiction of Genghis Khan survives. The Persian chronicler Juzjani and the Song diplomat Zhao Hong provide the two earliest descriptions. Both recorded that he was tall and strong with a powerful stature. Zhao wrote that Genghis had a broad brow and long beard while Juzjani commented on his cat's eyes and lack of grey hair. The Secret History records that Börte's father remarked on his "flashing eyes and lively face" when meeting him.

Atwood has suggested that many of Genghis Khan's values, especially the emphasis he placed on an orderly society, derive from his turbulent youth. He valued loyalty above all and mutual fidelity became a cornerstone of his new nation. Genghis did not find it difficult to gain the allegiance of others: he was superbly charismatic even as a youth, as shown by the number of people who left existing social roles behind to join him. Although his trust was hard to earn, if he felt loyalty was assured, he granted his total confidence in return. Recognised for his generosity towards his followers, Genghis unhesitatingly rewarded previous assistance. The nökod most honoured at the 1206 kurultai were those who had accompanied him since the beginning, and those who had sworn the Baljuna Covenant with him at his lowest point. He took responsibility for the families of nökod killed in battle or who otherwise fell on hard times by raising a tax to provide them with clothing and sustenance.

Heaven grew weary of the excessive pride and luxury in China ... I am from the barbaric North ... I wear the same clothing and eat the same food as the cowherds and horse-herders. We make the same sacrifices and we share our riches. I look upon the nation as a new-born child and I care for my soldiers as if they were my brothers.

Genghis Khan's letter to Changchun

The principal source of steppe wealth was post-battle plunder, of which a leader would normally claim a large share; Genghis eschewed this custom, choosing instead to divide booty equally between himself and all his men. Disliking any form of luxury, he extolled the simple life of the nomad in a letter to Changchun, and objected to being addressed with obsequious flattery. He encouraged his companions to address him informally, give him advice, and criticise his mistakes. Genghis's openness to criticism and willingness to learn saw him seeking the knowledge of family members, companions, neighbouring states, and enemies. He sought and gained knowledge of sophisticated weaponry from China and the Muslim world, appropriated the Uyghur alphabet with the help of the captured scribe Tata-tonga, and employed numerous specialists across legal, commercial, and administrative fields. He also understood the need for a smooth succession and modern historians agree he showed good judgement in choosing his heir.

Although he is today renowned for his military conquests, very little is known about Genghis's personal generalship. His skills were more suited to identifying potential commanders. His institution of a meritocratic command structure gave the Mongol army military superiority, even though it was not technologically or tactically innovative. The army that Genghis created was characterised by its draconian discipline, its ability to gather and use military intelligence efficiently, a mastery of psychological warfare, and a willingness to be utterly ruthless. Genghis thoroughly enjoyed exacting vengeance on his enemies—the concept lay at the heart of achi qari'ulqu (lit. '"good for good, evil for evil"'), the steppe code of justice. In exceptional circumstances, such as when Muhammad of Khwarazm executed his envoys, the need for vengeance overrode all other considerations.

Genghis came to believe the supreme deity Tengri had ordained a great destiny for him. Initially, the bounds of this ambition were limited only to Mongolia, but as success followed success and the reach of the Mongol nation expanded, he and his followers came to believe he was embodied with suu (lit. ''divine grace''). Believing that he had an intimate connection with Heaven, anyone who did not recognise his right to world power was treated as an enemy. This viewpoint allowed Genghis to rationalise any hypocritical or duplicitous moments on his own part, such as killing his anda Jamukha or killing nökod who wavered in their loyalties.

Legacy and historical assessment

Genghis Khan and seven of his successors from Bust Portraits of Yuan Dynasty Emperors, by Anonymous, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)

Genghis Khan left a vast and controversial legacy. His unification of the Mongol tribes and his foundation of the largest contiguous state in world history "permanently alter[ed] the worldview of European, Islamic, [and] East Asian civilizations", according to Atwood. His conquests enabled the creation of Eurasian trading systems unprecedented in their scale, which brought wealth and security to the tribes. Although he very likely did not codify the written body of laws known as the Great Yasa, he did reorganise the legal system and establish a powerful judicial authority under Shigi Qutuqu.

On the other hand, his conquests were ruthless and brutal. The prosperous civilizations of China, Central Asia, and Persia were devastated by the Mongol assaults, and underwent multi-generational trauma and suffering as a result. Perhaps Genghis's greatest failing was his inability to create a working succession system—his division of his empire into appanages, meant to ensure stability, actually did the reverse, as local and state-wide interests diverged and the empire began splitting into the Golden Horde, the Chagatai Khanate, the Ilkhanate, and the Yuan dynasty in the late 1200s. In the mid-1990s, the Washington Post acclaimed Genghis Khan as the "man of the millennium" who "embodied the half-civilized, half-savage duality of the human race". This complex image has remained prevalent in modern scholarship, with historians emphasising both Genghis Khan's positive and negative contributions.

Mongolia

For many centuries, Genghis was remembered in Mongolia as a religious figure, not a political one. After Altan Khan converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the late 1500s, Genghis was deified and given a central role in the Mongolian religious tradition. As a deity, Genghis drew upon Buddhist, shamanistic, and folk traditions: for example, he was defined as a new incarnation of a chakravartin (idealised ruler) like Ashoka, or of Vajrapani, the martial bodhisattva; he was connected genealogically to the Buddha and to ancient Buddhist kings; he was invoked during weddings and festivals; and he took a large role in ancestor veneration rituals. He also became the focus point of a sleeping hero legend, which says he will return to help the Mongol people in a time of great need. His cult was centred at the naiman chagan ordon (lit. '"Eight White Yurts"'), today a mausoleum in Inner Mongolia, China.

In the 19th and early 20th century, Genghis began to be viewed as the national hero of the Mongolian people. Foreign powers recognised this: during its occupation of Inner Mongolia, Imperial Japan funded the construction of a temple to Genghis, while both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party used the memory of Genghis to woo potential allies in the Chinese Civil War. This attitude was maintained during World War II, when the Soviet-aligned Mongolian People's Republic promoted Genghis to build patriotic zeal against invaders; however, as he was a non-Russian hero who could serve as an anticommunist figurehead, this attitude swiftly changed after the war's end. According to May, Genghis "was condemned as a feudal and reactionary lord [who] exploited the people." His cult was repressed, the alphabet he chose was replaced with the Cyrillic script, and celebrations planned for the 800th anniversary of his birth in 1962 were cancelled and denigrated after loud Soviet complaints. Because Chinese historians were largely more favourable towards him than their Soviet circumstances, Genghis played a minor role in the Sino-Soviet split.

Depictions of Genghis Khan in modern Mongolia. Clockwise from top left: a statue outside the Government Palace; the equestrian statue at Tsonjin Boldog; an Order of Genghis Khan medal, the highest decoration of Mongolia; and a ₮20,000 banknote.

The arrival of the policies of glasnost and perestroika in the 1980s paved the way for official rehabilitation. Less than two years after the 1990 revolution, Lenin Avenue in the capital Ulaanbaatar was renamed Chinggis Khan Avenue. Since then, Mongolia has named Chinggis Khaan International Airport and erected a large statue in Sükhbaatar Square (which was itself renamed after Genghis between 2013 and 2016). His visage appears on items ranging from postage stamps and high-value banknotes to brands of alcohol and toilet paper. In 2006, the Mongolian parliament officially discussed the trivialization of his name through excessive advertising.

Modern Mongolians tend to downplay Genghis's military conquests in favour of his political and civil legacy—they view the destructive campaigns as "a product of their time", in the words of the historian Michal Biran, and secondary to his other contributions to Mongolian and world history. His policies—such his use of the kurultai, his establishment of the rule of law through an independent judiciary, and human rights—are seen as the foundations that allowed the creation of the modern, democratic Mongolian state. Viewed as someone who brought peace and knowledge rather than war and destruction, Genghis Khan is idealised for making Mongolia the centre of international culture for a period. He is generally recognised as the founding father of Mongolia.

Elsewhere

The historical and modern Muslim world has associated Genghis Khan with a myriad of ideologies and beliefs. Its first instinct, as Islamic thought had never previously envisioned being ruled by a non-Muslim power, was to view Genghis as the herald of the approaching Judgement Day. Over time, as the world failed to end and as his descendants began converting to Islam, Muslims began to see Genghis as an instrument of God's will who was destined to strengthen the Muslim world by cleansing its innate corruption.

In post-Mongol Asia, Genghis was also a source of political legitimacy, because his descendants had been recognised as the only ones entitled to reign. As a result, aspiring potentates not descended from him had to justify their rule, either by nominating puppet rulers of Genghis's dynasty, or by stressing their own connections to him. Most notably, the great conqueror Timur, who established his own empire in Central Asia, did both: he was obliged to pay homage to Genghis's descendants Soyurgatmish and Sultan Mahmud, and his propaganda campaigns vastly exaggerated the prominence of his ancestor Qarachar Noyan, one of Genghis's lesser commanders, depicting him as Genghis's blood relative and second-in-command. He also married at least two of Genghis's descendants. Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire in India, in turn derived his authority through his descent from both Timur and Genghis. Until the eighteenth century in Central Asia, Genghis was considered the progenitor of the social order, and was second only to the prophet Muhammad in legal authority.

Depiction of the 1258 Siege of Baghdad, conducted by Genghis's grandson Hulegu Khan and seen in the modern Arab world as the culmination of Genghis's destructive conquests.

With the rise of Arab nationalism in the nineteenth century, the Arab world began to view Genghis increasingly negatively. Today, he is perceived as the ultimate "accursed enemy", a "barbarian savage who began the demolition of civilization which culminated in [the Siege of Baghdad in 1258]" by his grandson Hulegu. Similarly, Genghis is viewed extremely negatively in Russia, where historians have consistently portrayed the rule of the Golden Horde—the "Tatar Yoke"—as backwards, destructive, inimical to all progress, and the reason for all of Russia's flaws. His treatment in modern Central Asia and Turkey is more ambivalent: his position as a non-Muslim means other national traditions and heroes, such as Timur and the Seljuks, are viewed more highly.

Under the Yuan dynasty in China, Genghis was revered as the nation's creator, and he remained in this position even after the foundation of the Ming dynasty in 1368. Although the late Ming somewhat disavowed his memory, the positive viewpoint was restored under the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644–1911), who positioned themselves as his heirs. The rise of 20th-century Chinese nationalism initially caused the denigration of Genghis as a traumatic occupier, but he was later resurrected as a useful political symbol on a variety of issues. Modern Chinese historiography has generally viewed Genghis positively and he has been portrayed as a Chinese hero. In contemporary Japan, he is most known for the legend that he was originally Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a samurai and tragic hero who was forced to commit seppuku in 1189.

The Western world, never directly affected by Genghis, has viewed him in shifting and contrasting ways. During the 14th century, as shown by the works of Marco Polo and Geoffrey Chaucer, he was seen as a just and wise ruler, but during the eighteenth century he came to embody the Enlightenment stereotype of a tyrannical Oriental despot, and by the twentieth century he represented a prototypical barbarian warlord. In recent decades, Western scholarship has become increasingly nuanced, viewing Genghis as a more complex individual.

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Genghis Khan House of Borjigin Born: c. 1162 Died: 1227
Regnal titles
New title Mongol Empire established	Khan of the Mongol Empire 1206–1227	Succeeded by Tolui As regent