WHO IS CHINGIS KHAN? By Sainbayar Tangad Davaabat The twenty-third generation after blue wolf whose destiny Heaven's will, was Temujin who is born into Borjigin clan to his mother Oulen and his father Yesuhei on the bank of the Onon river, in the heart of Mongol. Genghis khan was born in the early 1960's (it has been argues between 1162-1167, but recently agreement been made for 1167),was named Temujin because in the time of his birth, his father had captured a Tatar chieftain of the same name. Legend says that newborn Temujin had a bloodclot in the palm of his hand, an omen that he was destined to be a hero. In Temujin was a young, his father was poisoned by a grouup of Tatars, and the Kiyat tribe broke up and scattered, abondoning their chief's family and leaving Temujin's mother, Ho'elun, to raise her children alone. Accounts of Temujin golrify him as intelligent, brave, and an adept fighter, even from an early age, and as such potential threat to the leaders of other tribes of the steppe. As a young man, despite extreme hardships, he repeatedly met perils and endured crises through force of character and willpower. One important accomplishment of Genghis Khan is that he was unified the Mongol nation and established the United Empire of Mongols.
click here to read "Temuujin Proclaimed "Genghiz Khan" 1206" THE SECRET HISTORY OF MONGOLS "The Secret History of the Mongols", is the first literary historical work of the Mongols ever written. It is believed to have been written in the year 1240 A.D., however it is not known who the writer was. This work is mainly a history of the establishment of the Mongol Empire from the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th century. It is also a valuable resource of information pertaining to the social customs, laws, mythology, and migratory division of the Mongol People. In whole, "The Secret History of the Mongols" is a reserve of Mongol history, language, literature, and culture in one volume. The version of "The Secret Hisory of the Mongols" which has survived to today was written during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). This manuscript was written in Chinese characters, which were used to transcribe the sounds of the orignal Mongol language version, which was never found. It is from this Chinese character version that scholars were able to rewrite "The History" into the Mongol language. Today, "The Secret History of the Mongols" has been translated into most popular world languages and is being widely studied by scholars and fans worldwide.
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Rise of Chinggis Khan After the migration of the Jurchen, the Borjigin Mongols had emerged in central Mongolia as the leading clan of a loose federation. The principal Borjigin Mongol leader, Kabul Khan, began a series of raids into Jin in 1135. In 1162 (some historians say 1167), Temujin, the first son of Mongol chieftain Yesugei, and grandson of Kabul, was born. Yesugei, who was chief of the Kiyat subclan of the Borjigin Mongols, was killed by neighboring Tatars in 1175, when Temujin was only twelve years old. The Kiyat rejected the boy as their leader and chose one of his kin instead. Temujin and his immediate family were abandoned and apparently left to die in a semidesert, mountainous region. Temujin did not die, however. In a dramatic struggle described in The Secret History of the Mongols, Temujin, by the age of twenty, had become the leader of the Kiyat subclan and by 1196, the unquestioned chief of the Borjigin Mongols. Sixteen years of nearly constant warfare followed as Temujin consolidated his power north of the Gobi. Much of his early success was because of his first alliance, with the neighboring Kereit clan, and because of subsidies that he and the Kereit received from the Jin emperor in payment for punitive operations against Tatars and other tribes that threatened the northern frontiers of Jin. Jin by this time had become absorbed into the Chinese cultural system and was politically weak and increasingly subject to harassment by Western Xia, the Chinese, and finally the Mongols. Later Temujin broke with the Kereit, and, in a series of major campaigns, he defeated all the Mongol and Tatar tribes in the region from the Altai Mountains to Manchuria. In time Temujin emerged as the strongest chieftain among a number of contending leaders in a confederation of clan lineages. His principal opponents in this struggle had been the Naiman Mongols, and he selected Karakorum (west-southwest of modern Ulaanbaatar, near modern Har Horin), their capital, as the seat of his new empire. In 1206 Temujin's leadership of all Mongols and other peoples they had conquered between the Altai Mountains and the Da Hinggan (Greater Khingan) Range was acknowledged formally by a kuriltai (council--see Glossary) of chieftains as their khan. Temujin took the honorific chinggis, meaning supreme or great (also romanized as genghis or jenghiz), creating the title Chinggis Khan, in an effort to signify the unprecedented scope of his power. In latter hagiography, Chinggis was said even to have had divine ancestry. The contributions of Chinggis to Mongol organizational development had lasting impact. He took personal control of the old clan lineages, ending the tradition of noninterference by the khan. He unified the Mongol tribes through a logistical nexus involving food supplies, sheep and horse herds, intelligence and security, and transportation. A census system was developed to organize the decimal-based political jurisdictions and to recruit soldiers more easily. As the great khan, Chinggis was able to consolidate his organization and to institutionalize his leadership over a Eurasian empire. Critical ingredients were his new and unprecedented military system and politico-military organization. His exceptionally flexible mounted army and the cadre of Chinese and Muslim siege-warfare experts who facilitated his conquest of cities comprised one of the most formidable instruments of warfare that the world had ever seen. At the time of his first kuriltai at Karakorum, Chinggis already was engaged in a dispute with Western Xia, the first of his wars of conquest. In 1205 the Mongol military organization, based on the tumen, had defeated the much larger Tangut forces easily. Despite problems in conquering the well-fortified Western Xia cities, the results were the same in the campaigns of 1207 and 1209. When peace was concluded in 1209, the Western Xia emperor, with substantially reduced dominion, acknowledged Chinggis as overlord. Conquest of Khwarizm and Reconnaissance into Europe In 1218 the governor of an eastern province of Khwarizm mistreated several Mongol emissaries. Chinggis retaliated with a force of more than 200,000 troops, and Khwarizm was eradicated by 1220. A detachment of about 25,000 Mongol cavalry, as part of the Khwarizmian campaign, had crossed the Caucasus Mountains, had skirted the Caspian Sea, and had briefly invaded Europe. After defeating the Georgians and the Cumans of the Caucasus, the small Mongol expedition advanced in 1222 into the steppes of the Kuban. Combining rapid movement with guile, the Mongols again defeated the Cumans, captured Astrakhan, then crossed the Don River into Russia. Penetrating the Crimea, they stormed the Genoese fortress of Sudak on the southeastern coast, then turned north into what later became known as the Ukraine. The Mongol leaders now thought they had accomplished their mission. Before returning to Mongolia, however, they decided to rest their troops and to gain more information about the lands to the north and the west. They camped near the mouth of the Dnieper River, and their spies soon were scattered throughout eastern and central Europe. Meanwhile, a mixed Russian-Cuman army of 80,000 under the leadership of Mstislav, prince of Kiev, marched against the Mongol encampment. Jebe and Subetei, another great Mongol general, sought peace; however, when their envoys were murdered, they attacked and routed Mstislav's force on the banks of the Halha River. Historian Charles Halperin estimated that by this time the "destructive power of the Mongol war machine eclipsed anything the Russians had seen before," and the Kievan Russians found themeselves faced no longer with a renewal of the sporadic raids of the past but with the threat of subjugation and foreign domination. In compliance with a courier message from Chinggis, the expedition then marched eastward. As the Mongols were marching north of the Caspian Sea, Jebe died of illness. In 1224 Subetei led the expedition back, after a trek of more than 6,400 kilometers, to a rendezvous with the main Mongol armies, that were returning from their victories over the Khwarizm
"National Geographis" Magazine's --Online Interview with writer --Mike Edwards |
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TIME LINE 1160-1200 Temujin is born in the 1160s. While still child, his father is killed. By the teens, his daring raids against neighbouting tribes have already impressed the Mongols 1206 Temujin is proclaimed Genghis Khan, ruler of all the Turko-Mongol peoples. Surrounded by his supporters, Khan forges an army. divides his force into units under like minded tribel chieftains, setting in motion an army capable of conquering the sounding world. 1209-1221 Genghis and his army defeated the Tangut kingdom of Xia Xia; the capital of the jin empire. in 1221, a caravan of Khan's traders is exucuted. When a Mongol ambassador seeking justice is killed, a bloodywae ensues with Khan's army slaughtering entire population. 1226-1227 Western Turkistan now belongs to Genghis Khan. He devastates the Xia Xia state. Near the end of the assault on its capital city, Ningxia, an ailing Genghis Khan dies-August 18, 1227. Soldiers transport their dead leader back to Mongolia, killing all those who cross their path. His reamains have still not been found.
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