Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan was born with the name Temujin, and when he was eight years old his father was poisoned by Tatars who recognised an old enemy and slipped poison into the food he had asked of them. The death shattered his family. Their tribe abandoned them, and Temujin's people sank into near-poverty, collecting roots and nuts, hunting small animals, and catching fish to survive. The boy who emerged from that hunger would found the largest contiguous state in world history.
No eyewitness portrait of him survives. We know him only through more than a dozen languages of chronicle, some adoring, some written by men who watched his armies kill. How did an abandoned child become the man whose followers believed the supreme deity Tengri had destined him to rule the world? Why did he kill his own half-brother before he was grown? And why, eight centuries later, do Russia and the Arab world remember a savage tyrant while Mongolia honours a founding father? The answers live in a life that even he, by one historian's reckoning, may not have fully known the truth of.
The Year of the Pig, by some traditions, marked Temujin's birth, which would place it in either 1155 or 1167. Historians cannot agree. The writings of Zhao Hong and Rashid al-Din support 1155, while the History of Yuan and the Shengwu favour 1162, the date most historians now accept. The sinologist Paul Pelliot preferred 1167, drawn from a minor text by the Yuan artist Yang Weizhen. The historian Paul Ratchnevsky noted that Temujin himself may not have known the truth.
Deluun Boldog on the Onon River is where the Secret History places his birth, though even that location is debated between Dadal in Khentii Province and southern Agin-Buryat Okrug in Russia. He came into the Borjigin clan, son of the chieftain Yesugei and his principal wife Ho'elun, whom Yesugei had abducted from her Merkit bridegroom Chiledu.
Legend wrapped the infant from the start. The most prominent story holds that he was born clutching a blood clot in his hand, a motif in Asian folklore marking a future warrior. Others claimed Ho'elun was impregnated by a ray of light that announced the child's destiny. His very name was contested too: one tradition says Yesugei named him after a captured Tatar called Temuchin-uge, while later accounts connect the root temur, meaning iron, to the idea that Temujin means blacksmith.
Behter, Temujin's older half-brother, was killed in an ambush laid by Temujin and his younger brother Qasar, a taboo act the official chronicles omitted but the Secret History preserved, recording that Ho'elun angrily reprimanded her sons. Behter had a claim to be their father's heir, being at least two years the senior, and under levirate law could even have married Ho'elun and become Temujin's stepfather. Behter's full-brother Belgutei sought no vengeance and rose to become one of Temujin's highest-ranking followers.
Captured by the Tayichiud, Temujin escaped during a feast and hid in the Onon River, then in the tent of Sorkan-Shira, who had seen him in the water and not raised the alarm. Sorkan-Shira sheltered him for three days at great personal risk before helping him flee. On another occasion an adolescent named Bo'orchu helped him recover stolen horses and then joined his camp as his first nokor, his personal companion. These incidents show what the Secret History's author wanted understood: the pull of Temujin's personal charisma.
Jamukha, a boy of aristocratic descent, became his close friend, and the two swore the anda pact, the oath of Mongol blood brothers, at the age of eleven, exchanging knucklebones and arrows. That bond would not hold. Years later it would deteriorate into open warfare, and Temujin would one day order Jamukha's execution.
Borte was the wife Temujin returned to claim when he reached the age of majority at fifteen, the daughter of the Onggirat chieftain Dei Sechen. Her family gave Ho'elun an expensive sable cloak, which Temujin shrewdly regifted to Toghrul, khan of the Kerait, who had fought alongside Yesugei. Toghrul, distrustful of his own followers and in need of loyal replacements, welcomed the young man into his protection.
Around 300 Merkits raided the camp seeking revenge for Yesugei's long-ago abduction of Ho'elun. Temujin and his brothers hid on Burkhan Khaldun mountain, but Borte was carried off and given in marriage to a brother of the dead Chiledu. Temujin appealed to Toghrul and Jamukha, who each fielded armies of 20,000 warriors. The campaign was won, and a now-pregnant Borte was recovered. She soon gave birth to a son, Jochi, whose true paternity would be questioned throughout his life.
Forty-one leaders gave Temujin their support after he and Jamukha parted ways, including Subutai of the Uriankhai, drawn by his reputation as a fair and generous lord. In around 1187 the two former friends clashed at Dalan Baljut, evenly matched, and Temujin suffered a clear defeat. What followed is one of the strangest gaps in his story. Modern historians think he spent much of the next decade as a servant of the Jurchen Jin dynasty in North China. Zhao Hong recorded that the future conqueror spent several years as a slave of the Jin, a humiliating episode his own people scrubbed from every source.
A kurultai at the source of the Onon River in 1206 made Temujin sole ruler of the steppe and gave him the title Genghis Khan, whose meaning remains debated. One theory links it to the Turkic tangiz, meaning ocean, so that the title would mean master of the ocean, and since the ocean was believed to surround the earth, ultimately Universal Ruler. Another holds it simply connoted strength, firmness, or righteousness.
Mongol society was reorganised into a military decimal system to break tribal loyalty for good. Every man between fifteen and seventy was conscripted into a minqan, a unit of a thousand soldiers, subdivided into hundreds and tens. Warriors of defeated tribes were scattered across different units so they could not rebel as a single body, dissolving old tribal identities into loyalty to the Great Mongol State. The reform worked so completely that even after the empire divided, fragmentation never followed tribal lines.
Meritocracy ran through the new order. Many of Genghis's commanders were born to low status, and the historian Ratchnevsky cited Jelme and Subutai, the sons of blacksmiths, alongside a carpenter, a shepherd, and the two herdsmen who had once warned Temujin of an ambush. The keshig, his bodyguard, swelled from 1,150 to 10,000 men and became at once his household staff, a military academy, and the centre of government. A shaman named Kokechu, who had proclaimed Temujin as Genghis Khan, grew dangerous enough that Borte warned her husband. Genghis allowed his youngest brother Temuge to arrange Kokechu's death, then took the shaman's spiritual authority for himself.
Wulahai, a Western Xia fortress, was sacked in a raid in 1207, and in 1209 Genghis led a full-scale invasion in person. His attempt to redirect the Yellow River into the capital Zhongxing worked at first, until the poorly built earthworks broke in January 1210 and flooded his own camp. The Xia emperor Xiangzong still submitted, handing over tribute that included his daughter Chaka.
Genghis mocked the Jin emperor in 1210, spat, and rode away from the envoy, a gesture that meant war despite the threat of facing 600,000 Jin soldiers. The campaign ground on for years. He was wounded by an arrow during the failed siege of Xijing in 1212, then built a corps of siege engineers that recruited 500 Jin experts. Jebe infiltrated the reinforced Juyong Pass and opened the road to the capital Zhongdu. The inhabitants surrendered on the 31st of May 1215, and the city was sacked.
The execution of Mongol merchants changed everything. A caravan of 450 traders set off for the Khwarazmian Empire in 1218, and Inalchuq, governor of Otrar, massacred them as spies and seized the goods. When Genghis sent an ambassador to avert war, the Khwarazmian ruler Muhammad killed him and humiliated his companions. Genghis invaded with most of his army. Otrar fell after a five-month siege, Bukhara and Samarkand followed, and Muhammad fled until he died of dysentery on a Caspian Sea island. His son Jalal al-Din lost at the Battle of the Indus in November 1221 and escaped across the river into India. Tolui meanwhile annihilated Nishapur, Merv, and Herat, three of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world, in a campaign John Man estimated cost 1.25 million lives.
Achi qari'ulqu, the steppe code of justice, placed vengeance at its very heart, and Genghis thoroughly enjoyed exacting it on his enemies. When Muhammad of Khwarazm executed his envoys, the need for vengeance overrode every other consideration. He came to believe Tengri had ordained a great destiny for him, and that anyone who refused to recognise his right to world power was, by that refusal alone, an enemy.
Genghis eschewed the steppe custom by which a leader claimed a large share of plunder, choosing instead to divide booty equally between himself and all his men. He took responsibility for the families of companions killed in battle, raising a tax to clothe and feed them. He disliked luxury, extolled the simple life of the nomad in a letter to the Taoist patriarch Changchun, and objected to obsequious flattery, encouraging his companions to address him informally and criticise his mistakes.
The Baljuna Covenant captured the man at his lowest point. Defeated at the Battle of Qalaqaljid Sands, he retreated to Baljuna, an unidentified lake or river, and swore an oath of loyalty with a heterogeneous band of men from nine different tribes, Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists, united only by loyalty to one another. The historian John Man called this group a proto-government of a proto-nation. Their reward came at the kurultai of 1206, where the most honoured were those who had stood with him from the beginning and those who had sworn that oath when he had almost nothing.
On either the 18th or the 25th of August 1227, Genghis Khan died while subduing the rebellious Western Xia, his death kept so closely guarded that the besieged capital Zhongxing fell the following month still unaware. He had fallen from his horse while hunting the previous winter and grown steadily ill. Rashid al-Din and the History of Yuan point to disease, possibly malaria, typhus, or plague, while Marco Polo claimed an arrow and Carpini reported lightning. One famous legend recounts how Gurbelchin, formerly the Xia emperor's wife, injured him with a dagger during sex.
Burkhan Khaldun in the Khentii Mountains received his body, on a site he had chosen years before. The mountain was declared ikh khorig, the Great Taboo, a prohibited zone out of bounds to all but its Uriankhai guard, and the details of the burial were never made public. When Ogedei acceded in 1229, the grave was honoured with three days of offerings and the sacrifice of thirty maidens.
Mongolia remembered him for centuries as a religious figure rather than a political one, deifying him after Altan Khan converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the late 1500s. The Soviet-aligned Mongolian People's Republic later repressed his cult, replaced his chosen alphabet with Cyrillic script, and cancelled the celebrations planned for the 800th anniversary of his birth in 1962 after loud Soviet complaints. Then, less than two years after the 1990 revolution, Lenin Avenue in Ulaanbaatar was renamed Chinggis Khan Avenue. Today his face appears on banknotes and postage stamps, on brands of alcohol and even toilet paper, so widely that in 2006 the Mongolian parliament debated the trivialization of his name.
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Common questions
Who was Genghis Khan and what was his birth name?
Genghis Khan was the founder and first khan of the Mongol Empire, born with the name Temujin into the Borjigin clan. He united the Mongol tribes and then conquered large parts of China and Central Asia. He adopted the title Genghis Khan at an assembly in 1206.
When and where was Genghis Khan born?
The year of Genghis Khan's birth is disputed between 1155, 1162, and 1167, with 1162 accepted by most historians. The Secret History records his birthplace as Deluun Boldog on the Onon River, debated between Dadal in Khentii Province and southern Agin-Buryat Okrug in Russia. His father was the chieftain Yesugei and his mother was Ho'elun.
How did Genghis Khan die?
Genghis Khan died on either the 18th or the 25th of August 1227 while subduing the rebellious Western Xia. He had fallen from his horse while hunting the previous winter and become increasingly ill. Sources variously suggest disease, an arrow, or lightning, and his death was kept a closely guarded secret.
What military reforms did Genghis Khan create?
Genghis Khan reorganised Mongol society into a military decimal system, conscripting every man between fifteen and seventy into a minqan, a unit of a thousand soldiers subdivided into hundreds and tens. He dispersed defeated tribes across different units to prevent rebellion and promoted commanders by merit and loyalty rather than birth. He also expanded his bodyguard, the keshig, from 1,150 to 10,000 men.
Why did Genghis Khan invade the Khwarazmian Empire?
Genghis Khan invaded the Khwarazmian Empire in 1219 after its officials executed his merchants and envoys. Inalchuq, governor of Otrar, massacred a caravan of 450 traders as spies, and the ruler Muhammad killed the ambassador Genghis sent to avert war. The campaign toppled the Khwarazmian state and devastated Transoxiana and Khorasan.
How is Genghis Khan remembered today?
Genghis Khan remains a controversial figure, remembered as a savage tyrant in Russia and the Arab world while honoured as the founding father of the nation in Mongolia. After the 1990 revolution, Mongolia renamed Lenin Avenue in Ulaanbaatar to Chinggis Khan Avenue, and his image now appears on banknotes, stamps, and many consumer brands. His conquests killed millions yet also enabled vast commercial and cultural exchange across Eurasia.