Genghis Khan

"Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard"

Background of the Mongols and Genghis' family

The finding of Genghis Khans tribe, the Borjigid, was believed to be by a man named Bodonchar. He had four older brothers who also found their own tribes which ignited the origins of the Mongol tribal system. According to Mongol legend, 3 out of the 5 brothers were born from a god-like source and their ancestor was created by a blue-grey wolf and fallow deer. Throughout the 12th century the Mongolian nomadic people fought against the Jin empire, as well as other ethnic groups on the Steppe. It took a man named Temujin, later known as Genghis Khan, to unite these people and defeat the powerful Jin dynasty in Northern China. Temujin’s great-grandfather, Qabul, was a Khan who had fought hard against the Jin during the years 1135-1147, claiming many victories over the Chinese dynasty. Qabul had seven sons to choose from as his heir and Temujin’s grandfather, Bartan baghatur, was 3rd in line. Despite being spoilt for choice, Qabul strangely chose a man who was not of the same clan and of no relation to him. This man was called Ambaghai from the Tayichiud clan. He too found success in the fighting against the Jin where he took many heavily defended forts along the Great wall. He also managed to force the Jin into surrender who then accepted embarrassing terms of peace that favoured the mongols. Despite Ambaghais success, in 1156 he made a fatal mistake politically that cost him his life. To strengthen the mongols power over the Jin, he tried to make an alliance with another ethnic group on the Steppe called the Tartars. This ruthless group of people betrayed him by handing him over to the Jin, who then nailed the khan to a wooden donkey and hacked him to death. After the death of Ambaghai, power over the mongol confederation was handed to Qutula of the Borjigid clan. Many battles against the Tartars followed under his command, however, the Chinese warriors soon grew impatient and wanted a piece of the action themselves. They combined armies with the Tartars and fought the Mongols at the battle of Lake Buir in 1161. This day saw a humiliating defeat for the Mongols as well as the downfall of Qutula who either was killed in battle or shortly after. The next khan was Yesugei from the same clan who happened to be Temujin’s father. Unlike his predecessors, he did not have complete power over the mongol confederation, so he tactically allied himself to a young warlord named Toghril and the pair defeated Toghrils uncle who was leader of the Kereit. Yesugei soon lost his life during an attack by the Tartars when Temujin was just 12 years old.

The rise of Temujin

Temujin was born in 1162 and was named, ironically, after a strong ruthless Tartar chieftain by his father. Just like any other Mongolian child, Temujin was taught how to ride horses and master archery. His ability to learn new skills quickly combined with an abundance of practise, enabled him to become a famous archer within the Borijigid tribe. On the other hand, despite mastering physical skills, he never learnt how to read or write and it remained that way throughout his whole life. Times were tough for Temujin and his family when his father died. His uncle Daritai took advantage of this when he asked Temujins newly widowed mother to be his wife, but when he was rejected, he took the news bitterly. Daritai left to seek help from the Tayichiud tribe who promised to assist him in attacking the Borijigid. This caused unrest amongst the tribes leaders who decided to banish Temujins family. Temujin was then singled out and enslaved by the Tayichiud leader Targutai. After a couple of gruelling years suffering, Temujin managed to escape and find his wandering family, who too had their share of suffering. It was around this time when he was a young teenager, he crossed paths with a boy of a similar age named Bo’orchu. Bo’orchu took an immediate liking to Temujin and was fascinated with his personality. He joined Temujin and his brothers little sally who fought back against their enemies. On one particular day, Bo’orchu aided the brothers with food, water and horses as they tracked down Tayichiud raiders. They did eventually manage to find the raiders and kill the leading man. From then on Temujin slowly built up a small force of his own and eventually became a young warlord. He went onto leading raids of his own against other tribes and after building up his riches, he bought himself a bride named Borte from the Olkhonoud tribe that lived across the Gobi desert. Once he had brought back his new wife to his lands, Temujins camp of a few hundred was raided by warriors of the Merkit tribe. Fortunately for him, Temujin, alongside his brothers all escaped with their lives, but this was not the same case for his wife who was left behind. Temujin then pieced together a plan to bring back his wife and claim revenge on his attackers. He knew the Merkit force was too vast and powerful to deal with alone, so he made an alliance with the same man his father had done years before- Toghril. Both of their forces fought ferociously against the Merkit and eventually defeated them. Temujin found his wife alive and well, but to his surprise she was pregnant. He knew what had happened to Borte and accepted the innocent child as his own. It is estimated that this child was born in 1182 and he was named Jochi. However, life at the time was full of surprises for Temujin and around this period his childhood friend Jamuga, now chieftain of the Jadarad clan, came into touch with him and the two men rekindled their friendship that became stronger than ever. It’s believed that the two men spent the following year or so in each others company, rarely going long periods of time without seeing each other, but after a while, their joyous friendship came to an abrupt end. A heated argument over horses broke out between them both and soon angry groups of supporters from both sides begun to form. This marked the beginning of the bitter feud between the two young up and coming leaders.

Becoming Genghis Khan

Temujin was elected to be Khan of the Borijigid in 1186. His power had been elevated, which enabled him to expand his fighting force and challenge his opposition Jamuga. He took a different approach to the traditional way of how Mongol chieftains structured their armies. Temujin would award the higher ranked positions for warriors who deserved it, rather than other warlords like Jamuga who chose depending on the mans social class. Despite this, Temujin lost at the battle of Dalan Baljut, 1187, against Jamuga. His first major battle with his childhood friend he lost and at a great cost to his army. Very little historical evidence of Temujin has been found during the next 8 years, suggesting he had gone into hiding after his defeat. Some historians argue Temujin fled to the Jin alongside Toghril, whose power had too significantly declined in these years. It is clear the battle of Dalan Balijut was a crucial blow to Temujins ambitions, however it did not completely end them thanks to Jamuga not capitalising on his rivals weak position. Temujin was brought back out the shadows in 1195 when the Jin launched a campaign against the Mongol Ongirrad tribe with the help of the Tartars. After a range of victories, the Tartars and the Jin fell into heavy disputes over the dividing of plunder, which inevitably lead to battle. The Jin won at a great cost to their army. The Ongirrad seized this opportunity and successfully took revenge on the weakened Jin force. This is when Temujin made an offer to the Jin. He offered his warriors help to pacify the Ongirrad as well as finishing off the Tartars, which he would have great pleasure in as his fathers death was at the hands of the Tartars. The Jin accepted and Temujin delivered what he promised. He was awarded with Chinese titles and recognition for his efforts; Temujin was once again a powerful man on the Steppe. For the next few years Temujin and his army saw heavy combat against other threatening tribes such as the Merkit and Naiman. He teamed up with Toghril on these campaigns and surprisingly Jamuga also joined the alliance. The alliance rocky and also short lived due to fear of Temujins growing power and radical ideas that threatened the tribal tradition on the Steppe. The aristocratic men of the tribes throughout Mongolia came together to give the title of gur-khan (universal ruler) to Jamuga and take an oath of loyalty to him.

This sparked the beginning of a civil war between the mongolian tribes. In a race between Jamuga and Temujin to reach Toghril first for help, both mens forces met on the battlefield where Temujin came out victorious and also he won the support of Toghril. In another battle that followed against the Tayichuid, unfortunately for Temujin he took a poisonous arrow to the neck. A warrior named Jelme stepped up and sucked the venom out of his neck saving his general. Jamugas force soon begun to dissolve, with more and more clans leaving him out of fear of an unavoidable defeat by Temujin. Jamuga was left with no choice but to join with Temujins last major threat, the Naiman tribe, who had a large army behind them. To make matters worse for Temujin, Toghril had been persuaded to join this coalition and these two warlords met in battle at Qalqaljid Sands. Despite not being with the Naiman force in this battle, Toghril’s army still roughly outnumbered Temujins by 3 to 1. However, Toghril was unable to secure himself a clear defeat, mainly due to an incident during the fight where his son Ilkha was struck by an arrow to the face. Temujin was able to sneak off under the cover of darkness once the fighting had calmed down. His force had been severely weakened due to losing over half his men against his former ally. The second battle between Temujin and Toghril soon came by and was fought at Jer Gorge. It was a fierce, bloody and brutal fight. Temujin came out victorious and Toghril was killed as he took flight to safety. Now he had taken the Kereit throne, Temujin next and final step was to defeat the Naiman along with Jamuga who was fighting under Tayang. Temujin’s army butchered them, Tayang died from his wounds and Jamuga was executed. Temujin had now accomplished his dream and started the mongol empire.

Genghis khans conquest of Northern China

"If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you"

Now Genghis was sole ruler over the unified Mongol tribes, he turned his attention towards conquering the Jin’s territory of Northern China. At the time the Jin were heavily weakened due to a number of things, such as a continuous war with their neighbouring dynasty- the Song, famine caused by the Yellow River flooding the surrounding fertile lands and lastly internal problems created by ambitious men fighting for power. These key factors made Genghis’ timing of the invasion close to perfect. He took with him a force of around 100,000, lead by military genius’ such as, Qasar, Jebe, Muqali and Subutai. On the other hand, the Jin had a much larger army of just over half a million plus a further six million potential recruits ready to step up and defend their homelands. Genghis decided to divide his army into two, he personally lead the larger half and the smaller half was lead by his three sons Chagatai, Jochi and Ogodei. Both armies ravaged through Northern China, storming forts and enticing the Jin into battle on unfavourable terrain. The first major battle was against general Chih-Chung and his younger brother, whose army had been split into two between them; both forces were annihilated by the mongols. Towards the end of 1211 Genghis sent Jebe ahead with a force to attack the city of Peking, but the Jin’s soldiers were able to hold off Jebe's attacks for some time before forcing the Mongols to fall back. Despite this minor failure, by December 1211 Genghis and his army returned home for winter, with Jebe following closely behind after he had, this time, successfully infiltrated a different city called Liaoyang.

The following year in 1212 things spiralled from bad to worse for the Jin. The force lead by Genghis' sons had been left behind causing havoc in their lands, the Tangut people launched fresh raids on their territory as well as the Khitan people who ignited a rebellion in Manchuria. To make matters worse, by september Genghis and the main mongol force had returned. A month later Genghis linked up with his three sons and moved to take the city of Datong. It was at this siege where Genghis was hit by an arrow once again, but fortunately for him it was not fatal and he survived the shot. He did however order a halt in the siege and retreated his army for a winter rest at the Dolon Nor oasis close by the Jin border. Although Genghis had not returned for long and had not done as much damage as he would have hoped, his sons made up for it with their campaigning during the year. Genghis then returned in 1213, launching relentless attacks for the next few years taking many forts, towns and cities from one side of the Jin empire to the other. Generals such as Muqali had made a name for themselves during the years 1213-1215, when he was given senior command as well as independent campaigning tasks where he was victorious every time. It is worth mentioning that Genghis’ brother Qasar, who had been one of his senior generals at the time, died from an unknown cause in 1214. By 1215 the Jin’s emperor, Hsuan Tsung, had been forced into agreeing unfavourable peace terms, which included his daughters hand in marriage to Genghis and the obligation of large amounts of gold, goods and supplies to the Mongols.

Unsurprisingly it did not take very long for the peace terms to be broken and the mongol campaign in northern china was resumed. The main reason for this was emperor Hsuan Tsung’s decision to move his location from Peking to a more defensive city called Kaifeng in June 1214. This enraged Genghis who believed it to be a breach of their negotiations and he ordered Samuqa, a talented young commander who was making his way up through the ranks, to lead a siege on the Jin’s main city of Peking whilst their emperor was not present, along with 50,000 warriors. As we know from previously when Jebe failed to infiltrate the city, Peking had strong defensive mechanisms in place such as high walls, moats, battle towers, forts and even underground tunnels. It proved to be a struggle once again for the mongols to infiltrate this cities defences which inevitably caused many casualties and injuries. Over time food supplies ran extremely low on both sides and as a result it lead to cannibalism. Eventually word reached Hsuan Tsung with news of the siege and he sent two separate armies in their aid. Unfortunately for the Jin, both armies were attacked and decimated by other Mongol forces before they could reach anywhere near Peking. Soon afterwards the defenders gave in to the brutality of the aggressors, mass slaughter and destruction of the city followed. It is estimated that the total number of deaths on the Jin’s side was more than a million. Soon after this defeat the Jin paid Genghis a vast amount of riches that he shared with his most trusted and proven generals.

A new round of peace talks were held after the siege of Pecking, but they were swiftly shut down when Hsuan Tsung refused to demote his title from emperor to king of Henan. The following year of 1216 saw numerous battles lead by Samuqa and Muqali. Both men lead separate forces, Samuqa took his on a campaign to the south where he marched for hundreds and hundreds of miles for long periods of time, taking many strongholds. On the other hand, Muqali had the challenge of putting down a vast rebellion in Manchuria. Both men found success but strangely there are no other historical records where historians find Samuqas’ name again, however, for Muqali, it was just the beginning. By 1218 he possessed a force of around 100,000 warriors, 23,000 of them being mongol and the rest either Jin deserters or other tribesman such as Khitans. By 1220 the provinces of Hebei and Shandong had submitted to Muqali, as well as other key areas. He set up his own administration and was left to govern the conquered lands in northern China for Genghis, whilst he finished up on his own seperate campaign against shah Muhammad of the Khwarazmian empire. For the next 3 years Muqali won battle after battle taking many more forts, towns, cities and provinces, but he was unable to complete his mission because in 1223 he died from an unknown illness at the age of 53. Maluqi’s son Bol stepped up to finish his fathers work and for the next 6 years he made significant progress, but in 1229 aged 32, he followed his fathers fate and died before he could find a complete defeat over the Jin. It took up until 1234 for the mongols to finally conquer the Jin, which was 23 years after the campaign had begun. It was not concluded by Genghis, but by his son Ogedei.

Death

Genghis was 65 years old when he died in 1227. The causes of his death are still debated to this day. The most popular beliefs is he either sustained an injury from falling off a horse, stabbed by a Chinese princess after forcing himself on her, an arrow wound or the plague. Although there is no certain answer, dying at the hands of the bubonic plague is a high likelihood out of all the possible causes. He had suffered from a fever whilst in camp during the conquest of the Xi Xia kingdom and 8 days later he died. As well as this, just over a hundred years later the plague had made its way from Asia into Europe suggesting that it is a possibility that the disease may have been around at the time of his death. Ultimately no one knows for sure and the likelihood of finding out is almost impossible due to the fact nobody knows where he was buried. One of his orders on his death bed was to keep his burial site hidden and his men made sure of this. It is believed that everyone who attended his funeral was either killed or committed suicide. Genghis Khan died as the most ruthless conquerer to ever set foot on earth, with an estimated figure of 40 million people killed at the hands of the mongol leader.