GENGHIS KHAN

When you look at the map of the ancient world, the first thing to catch the eye is the huge strip of land between the two poles of civilization - China and India in the East and Greece and Rome in the West - which was inhabited by Turkic-Mongol peoples. In the 12th century, as now, the Mongol tribes were livestock breeders and hunters. They lived in felt tents and followed nomadic lives in their constant search for new pastures. The Mongols were divided into tribes, clans and settlements; there were classes of steppe aristocracy, their subjects and slaves in the Mongol society. But these slaves were different from slaves in other parts of the world: they could not be sold.

The Mongols had a much-respected chief, Yesugei Baghatur. He once waged a war against a Tartar tribe, whose chieftain was called Temujin. On his way home after winning the war and taking Temujin prisoner, Yesugei was told, on the bank of the Onon River, that his senior wife, Hoelun, had given birth to their son. The happy father took his son in his hands and saw an already coagulated clot of blood on his palm. Having interpreted the birth of his son as an auspicious sign of victory over the Tartar, the superstitious father named his son Temujin in honour of the captive warlord.

Temujin was born in February 1155 at a place called Delyun-Bolkokh on the bank of the Onon River. When he turned 9, his father took him to a remote settlement in search of a bride for him; the main reason being a desire to avert the health defects possible in the offspring of close relatives.

On his way, Yesugei met another tribal chieftain whom he knew well and who told Yesugei, upon learning the reason for the journey: "I have a daughter called Borte. Come with me, I will show her to you and, if you like her, we will be relatives. What is more, I saw your tribe's banner in a dream last night.  I think that this is a good sign."

The fathers decided that their children were a good match, so they announced their engagement and said they should wait until they were 14 years old. However, on his way back, Yesugei ran into Tartars who harboured ill will and invited him to visit their camp. During a feast in his honour, Yesugei was poisoned with a slow-acting poison. A few days after his return home, Yesugei died, and Temujin and his two brothers were orphaned.

Taking advantage of Temujin's youth, the men under Yesugei's command refused to obey their master's heir. Worse still, these men left Temujin's mother alone with her children and even took their livestock. The family were left to wander on the steppe for several years.

Temujin's mother, Huelun, was a wise woman. She told her eldest son Temujin continuously that all their problems were temporary, that he would grow up and win his family's glory and take revenge upon both the Tartars who had killed his father and the relatives who had abandoned his family following Yesugei's death. His mother's words inspired Temujin to think about the glorious future that he would have.

When he grew up, just the sight of him - a tall, strongly built man with piercing eyes - spread fear among his enemies who made many vain attempts to kill him. He could already fight with his own hands and hold off his enemies. And although he was poor he had several influential friends.

Temujin's mother Huelun did her best to return Temujin to power. She sent loyal men from the once considerable army of Yesugei to the chieftains who did not want to see Temujin as their leader. As a result, although half of the vassals were still unsure, they did swear allegiance to Temujin and, with their assistance, Temujin managed to build strong detachments. Now morally and materially strong, Temujin decided to get married and, together with his brothers, he set out to visit Borte to whom he had been engaged in childhood. They were wed and Borte presented to her not-too-wealthy bridegroom a black sable fur coat as her dowry.

After his marriage, Temujin decided to establish friendly relations with Toghrul khan, who had been Yesugei's friend. At that time, the tribes under Toghrul's command controlled a large area. Temujin, accompanied by his brothers, went to the residence of the powerful chieftain, reminded Toghrul of his friendship with Yesugei and asked him to become his sworn father. Then he presented to the khan his wife's dowry, the black sable coat. Toghrul said that he was very flattered by the decision of the young man and agreed to call him his son. He added that he would give Temujin any support within his powers if necessary.

Soon after Temujin's marriage, his settlement came under attack from the Merkits, who lived in the North. The attackers were Yesugei's enemies because 18 years before, Yesugei had abducted Hoelun, then wife of the Merkit chieftain, and made her his senior wife. As noted above, she had give Yesugei her first son, Temujin, soon after. The Merkit attack was sudden and although Temujin himself managed to evade captivity, the Merkits captured his wife Borte. Temujin soon freed his wife with help from his ally Toghrul. And although he loved his wife very much, he could not help being suspicious of the parentage of his son Jochi, who was born soon after Borte's rescue and he disliked him.

The Mongol people, eternally proud of their glorious past, had always been confident that a man would be born among them who would win back their old glory, unite all the Mongol tribes and take revenge upon their enemies. Tribal chieftains and aristocrats, with their vassals, began to flock to Temujin's camp. The majority saw him as the ideal warlord of the steppe. It was increasingly clear that Temujin would soon concentrate all power into his own hands, so other chieftains who also wanted to rule the Mongols began to form an alliance against him. The most dangerous opponents of the young chieftain were the Merkits, who had formed an alliance with the Taichud. Temujin crushed their army with the support of his protector Toghrul (Wang khan).

In 1202, Temujin won battles with the Tartars and his military successes only added to his reputation as the ideal overlord of the steppe. The Keraits' khan Toghrul (Wang Khan), who had supported Temujin in the past, did not like this and enmity broke out. In the war of 1203 between the former allies, Temujin's detachments defeated Toghrul Khan's army.

Following that victory, the borders of Temujin's domain expanded and reached that of his enemy, Kuchlug khan of the Naiman tribe, who had a very strong army. Despite this, Temujin defeated the Naimans and their allies in 1204 and Kuchug khan and his ally, Tokhta khan of the Merkits, fled towards the Irtysh River. This victory saw Temujin become ruler of all the Mongols. An assembly of chieftains decided that the time was right to declare Temujin supreme ruler, the Kaghan. Respectful of all the laws, Temujin felt it necessary to summon a council of all chieftains, the kurultai, with the participation of all the Mongol aristocracy, to legitimize his new title. At a gala assembly on the right bank of the Onon River, Temujin was declared Kaghan, supreme ruler (the word "Genghis" means great kaghan of all the peoples) and he became head of the Mongol state.

During the time of Genghis Khan and his immediate successors, the Mongols were still pagans. Much later, they adopted Lamaism in the East and Islam in the East. Although religion was one of the cornerstones of Genghis Khan's state, no religion was given the status of state religion. Even in the civil service there were representatives of different religions - Shamans, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and others. Genghis Khan wanted his subjects to sense deeply that they were subordinate to a supreme being and to be religious regardless of their faith. The first article of the Yassa (the constitution of the period) read: "It is ordered to believe that there is only one God, creator of heaven and earth, who alone gives life and death, riches and poverty as pleases Him - and who has absolute power over everything." This was decreed because the great khan wanted to be impartial toward his subjects of different faiths and to prevent religious hatred.

After uniting all the Mongol tribes into a single people, his main goal was to create an army able to defend the integrity of the empire. In addition, he wanted to create a civil system of governance in the country, which was extremely difficult to do because Mongol society had only developed to the level of a primitive communal system. Genghis Khan himself did not speak any other language but Mongol and his empire did not even have a system of writing. Although he could borrow from the peoples he conquered, the Chinese, for example, Genghis Khan chose to learn from the Uyghurs, who were a more advanced people and had their own alphabet. Another reason why Genghis Khan opted for the Uyghur culture was their closeness to the nomadic Mongols.

When the Mongols had learned to read and write, entirely thanks to Genghis Khan's acumen, a legal code, called the "Great Yassa" was written; it had two parts: "Bilik" (knowledge) and Yassa (order). Bilik included Genghis Khan's own utterances and his opinions on different specific situations. Yassa was a code of both military and civil laws and specified punishments for violations. Yassa remained the inviolable law for Genghis Khan's descendants, too. Relations between the Mongol tribes were friendly and internecine discord, theft and raids ended. Thieves were punished strictly; this put an end even to such customary activities as horse stealing. Genghis Khan familiarized many peoples of the world with the fundamentals of statehood, the principles of democracy, pluralism, freedom of religion, obedience to law, the supremacy of law, military theory, advanced taxation systems and intercontinental mail services. Genghis Khan also founded a self-regulating and self-evolving state system. The system did not require permanently tight control or use of punitive measures. The completely illiterate Great Kaghan, who did not speak any other language but Mongol, invited Uyghur teachers to educate his children and he tried his best to educate the Mongol nobility.

Thanks to the talent and belligerent spirit of Genghis Khan and his successors, a Mongol Empire was created which stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Danube and from the Arctic Ocean to the Southern Caucasus. In the words of Italian traveller Marco Polo, it was the wealthiest empire, with a developed economy, arts and crafts, well-equipped workshops, coal and iron mines and vast arable lands.

Under Khubilai Khan, paper money and stocks were issued and the foundations of a banking and credit system were laid. Together with the technology for silk and noodle manufacture, Marco Polo brought back to Venice the idea of the issuance of promissory notes, which then spread throughout the world. A man who had spent his youth doing little but hunting and herding vanquished dozens of armies and subdued numerous states. This illiterate nomad, who had never seen a city until he was a grown man, wrote the laws for more than 50 peoples.

Genghis Khan's contemporary, the French historian Joinville, said that "Genghis Khan was a peacemaker." Other scholars support this opinion. Indeed, after Genghis had spent 20 years in constant warfare, peace reigned in the world for almost two centuries.

Genghis Khan fought all his life. In 1227, he began his second campaign against the Tangut state and its ruler, Tangut khan; he defeated him and died aged 72. His grave is thought to be situated in barely accessible mountains in China.

The Mongols believe that Genghis Khan did not die, but simply fell asleep and will awaken in the late 22nd century.