Gengis Khan was born to a Mongolian warrior and a female slave called Hoelun. Hoelun narrates how Genghis Khan came out of her womb clutching a clot of blood(Weatherford, 2004, pg 13), which according to the Mongol tradition was a sign that he would either be a destroyer or a great warrior. At the age of nine, Temujin is already betrothed and married and shortly after his father is poisoned in a retaliatory attack by the Tatars tribe for killing one of its kinsmen. A Subsequent sibling rivalry leads Temujin into killing his step- brother, Begter. Temujin becomes ostracized from his own community. His next of kin, the Tayichiud tribe, captures Temujin and keeps him enslaved for over ten years (Weatherford, 2004, pg XVI). He is helped to escape from slavery by an elderly servant slave family who was hosting him. Temujins runs to the leader of Kereyid tribe whose leader was Ong Khan. Temujin acting as the old man’s right hand man, developing his military prowess and fictitious kinship to unite and create peace within his warring community of clans. Gengis Khan and his grandsons used innovative ware fare tactics to conquer the most technological, fortified and culturally advanced societies like china to India. Gengis Khan died mysteriously on his camp bed during a campaign against the Tangut nation in the year 1227. He was seventy years old. (Weatherford, 2004, pg XX).
Hoelun and Yesugei who were Gengis Khans parents had four children. (Gengis Khans) Temüjin being their first born son (Weatherford, 2004, pg 11). followed by Khasar, with Temulun being the youngest sibling and a sister called Temujin. The patriarchal family hierarchy among the Mongols created a system where the eldest son Begter took over and controlled his father’s empire in his absence. Yesugei had two sons with Sochigel his first wife namely Belgutei, Begter. This meant that Begter who was slightly older than Temujin had had sexual rights over his father’s widows, which included Temujin’s own mother(Weatherford, 2004, pg 23-24). The bullying nature of Begter and the possibility of having to endure Begter as a father, created a sibling rivalry between the two. A confrontation that put Temujin’s mother in a position of having to choose between her own son and reclaiming her position within the family. Hoelun reminds her sons of Alan the Beautiful, which is a story of a Mongols kingdom an ancestor who bore several sons after her husband death through an adopted son, a story that leads to Temujin killing his step brother Begter. Temujin ended up getting married to Borte, with their eldest son being called Jochi, second was Chaghatai, the third Ogodei with Youngest son being Tolui. After Genghis Khan death his sons and daughter inherited different parts of the kingdom. The Khanates then emerged from the appanages created by Khan during his reign. The Khanates were Khamag Mongol Khanate, Naiman Khanate, Keraite Khanate, Qara Khitai, Kara Del Khanate, Tatar Khanate and Mergid Khanate.
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Genghis Khans war tactics was considered one of the most sophisticated and organized in the Mongol dynasty. The warriors were divided into groups of tens or a thousand. Unlike the Chinese diet that were filled with grains that caused the teeth to rot, the Mongolian warrior diet was composed of steady supply of dried meat and other dairy products carried in pouches for nibbling (Weatherford, 2004, pg 87). The dried meat diet also ensured the warriors survival during battle without cooking, hunting or looking for water (Weatherford, 2004, pg 87). Genghis Khans incorporated orphan boys from war into his community as sons. Changing the tradition of using war captives as slaves, he thus kept next generation of loyal warriors. Another warfare strategy was to confound and confuse the opponents using spiritual leaders called Shamans and spirit banners during war. Most warring opponents avoided attacking these spirit banners belonging to their ancestors or grandfathers. Most of them fled due to propaganda or prophecy from a great spiritual leader. Genghis Khans taught his soldiers how to fight from long distances without being splattered with blood or smelling the enemy’s odor. Blood and odor were a religious taboo that they believed contaminated a person’s soul (Weatherford, 2004, pg 12). The Mongolian warriors fought from horsebacks or behind the protection of rocks, firing arrows and using long poles to dismount their opponents. Showing how the element of surprise is a great strategy to winning wars
Women had a big impact in the Mongolian society socially, politically and economically. The Mongolian women holding high positions of power like Indira the daughter of advocate Jawaharlal Nehru who became the Prime minister of India. The widow of Genghis Khan’s youngest son, Tolui, was left to rule Northern China and Eastern Mongolia. During her tenure She decreed the death of everyone in that city including cats and dogs, whose heads were piled in three pyramids, of men women and children in Tokuchar city for killing her husband (Weatherford, 2004, pg 117). We see Botohuitarhun a woman chief who denied giving thirty of her maidens away as wives to the Mongol warriors. Ogodei who was a drunk left most administration of his vast empire to one of his wives Toregene. The book begins by painting a picture of a feuding society, where women were viewed as commodities and a means to an end. They were men stolen together with animals and given away as gifts. When the male lineages of the ruling class were killed, their women were married off to the winning tribe and their sons. They celebrated their conquests by raping Christian virgins until they died cutting off and keeping the breasts of the women they raped. Women like Fatima were publicly paraded naked, and finally tied in felt and drowned. Gengis Khans tries to stop most of these injustices by outlawing adultery, forbidding the kidnapping and selling of women into marriage after his wife Borte was abducted (Weatherford, 2004, pg 68).
Gengis Khans managed unite his warring community who were fighting over water and grasslands by opening up his country for trade with the outside world. He also changed the tradition of caste system which gave privileges to the ruling class, while oppressing the poor. He encouraged reward by merit and not through blood relation. We see this at the later end of his life where he exempts professionals such as teachers, doctors and teachers from paying taxes (Weatherford, 2004, pg 69). In the twenty first century we are able to go to school, print books as well as read newspapers and purchase commodities using money just like Gengis Khan in 1227. (Weatherford, 2004, pg 236). Ogedei who is Gengis Khans third born son creates paper money to substitute the heavy bullion coins they carried around during trade (Weatherford, 2004, pg 136).
References:
Weatherford, J. M. (2004). Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world . Broadway Books.
