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Who was Genghis Khan? -

Temujin, who would later in life and throughout history be known as Genghis Khan (pictured), was born to Yesugei, a chief of one of the myriad of nomadic Mongolian tribes that inhabited the Mongolian steppes before Genghis Khan united them under one flag.

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When was Genghis Khan alive? -

Genghis Khan was born in 1162 CE and lived for 65 years, until 1227 CE. He was born on the nomadic village site of Delüün Boldog, and according to legend was born clenching a blood clot in his fist, foretelling his future as a powerful ruler.

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The Mongol Empire -

Over time, Genghis Khan would unite these disjointed tribes one by one, either through conquest or alliances, to create what would come to be known as the Mongol Empire.

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When was it founded? -

The Mongol Empire was officially founded once Genghis Khan had united nearly all of the Mongolian tribes. A council of tribal leaders officially declared him their "universal leader" in 1206. After this date, Genghis Khan's empirical ambitions began to reach outside of the Mongolian steppes.

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Temujin earns his name -

Temujin was also officially granted the honorary name of Genghis Khan following the 1206 event. Every successor to his throne would also be known as a Khan.

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How far did the Mongol Empire stretch? -

At the time of Genghis Khan's death, the Mongol Empire stretched from the Sea of Japan in the east all the way to the Caspian Sea in the west, bordering most of modern-day Russia to the north, with Persia and India to the south. At the height of the Empire, it extended farther eastward past the Black Sea, and south into Persia and Southern China.

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The meaning behind the name -

As previous mentioned, Genghis Khan was known as Temujin until he was an adult and bona fide leader of the Mongol Empire. Khan easily translates to "ruler," but Genghis can be interpreted in a number of ways. The most popular translation is "oceanic," making the full title "oceanic ruler," sometimes adapted to the aforementioned "universal ruler."

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A ruthless killer -

Genghis Khan was not in the business of diplomacy or negotiation, and routinely sacked villages with little regard for the casualties. It is thought that during his lifetime Genghis Khan caused the deaths of as many as 40 million people.

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He started young -

Genghis Khan seems to have been born with a bloodlust. At the age of 10, he took the life of his brother during a petty feud over the spoils of a hunting trip, and apparently showed little remorse.

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The Empress of the Mongols -

While it's a well-known fact that Genghis Khan took hundreds, possibly even thousands of wives, only one was ever declared Grand Empress. That distinction went to his first wife, Börte. The pair were married when Börte was 17 years old, and young Temujin was 16.

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Genghis Khan's first son -

Genghis Khan's first son, Jochi, was born to Börte while she was in captivity, eight months after being kidnapped by a rival tribe before Genghis Khan had officially united the steppes. This tenuous timeline caused much controversy regarding Jochi's legitimacy as a son of Genghis Khan during his lifetime, although historians today agree he was a legitimate son of the Khan.

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Genghis Khan's heir -

While this controversy surely would have caused a power struggle after Genghis Khan's death, Jochi nevertheless died before his father. Genghis Khan named Ögedei (pictured), his third son to Börte, his official heir to the throne.

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Genghis Khan's first target -

Genghis Khan suspected that a principal reason for the tribes of Mongolia never uniting until he brought them together was interference from the Chinese Jin dynasty to the east, who had historically allied intermittently with different tribes to ensure no single group became too powerful. This made the Jin a primary target for Genghis Khan, and he began a 23 year-long war against the Jin in 1211, a war in which the Mongols were eventually victorious.

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The Mongol Empire was a meritocracy -

There are countless things about Genghis Khan that made him such a successful ruler. One aspect that surely helped him succeed was his complete rejection of nepotism or personal favors, and instead granting high-ranking positions to those who had shown they truly deserved it. This meant there were no soft sons of noblemen posing as generals; only great war-hardened warriors received those distinctions.

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Genghis Khan was a cunning strategist -

Another quality of the Khan's was that he was an excellent military strategist, and made the best use of his armies as he could. Harnessing the fast and flexible power of his massive cavalries, the most formidable horseback army in Eurasia at the time, Genghis Khan's skill for military maneuvers, surprise attacks, and pincer movements were unmatched and nearly impossible for enemy armies to endure.

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Genghis Khan took no prisoners -

As mentioned before, Genghis Khan wasn't too concerned with mercy, and much preferred to decimate the populations of his conquered cities, both military and civilian. Decades of invasion into Middle Eastern territory all but wiped out the Persian population, to such an extreme degree that the region didn't fully regain its population size until 1900, 700 years after the death of Genghis Khan.

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The great progenitor -

One of the most well-known facts about Genghis Khan is that he was prolific in the field of fatherhood. Estimates put the number of his children, both legitimate and otherwise, easily in the hundreds. Today, around 8% of men in Asia are from Genghis Khan's lineage.

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Genghis Khan's right-hand man -

Perhaps Genghis Khan's most celebrated general was an archer by the name of Jebe. Jebe and the Khan frequently fought together side by side, and the master archer led the first massively successful conquest into Chinese Jin territory in 1211.

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The Khan's capital -

While there were many important cities across the Mongol Empire, some as trade cities or strategic military checkpoints, only one city was known as the true capital of the empire: Karakorum. This is where the imperial palace lay, as well as a number of significant places of worship.

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Genghis Khan's true face -

One might notice when going through paintings and depictions of Genghis Khan that some look strikingly different from others. This is because no one truly knows what the Great Khan looked like, as he never allowed portraits to be made during his lifetime. Even the earliest depictions of Genghis Khan were drawn from memory, and different artists have taken various liberties for various reasons over the years.

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Early postal service -

One of Genghis Khan's many innovations was his introduction of an empire-wide postal service, one of the first of its kind in the world. While the service wasn't available to the lower classes of society, it did open up long-distance trade and communication for many noblemen and people outside of the palace who previously hadn't had personal couriers or messengers.

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Religious acceptance -

Despite his bloodlust, Genghis Khan was surprisingly ahead of his time in a number of ways. One of these was that he didn't seem to be very concerned with a religious conquest, and allowed his subjects to worship as they pleased. Even in the capital of Karakorum, mosques, Buddhist temples, and churches were all built within the same vicinity.

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A progressive ruler -

Genghis Khan was also one of the first rulers to only collect taxes from those who had the means to pay. The Great Khan didn't collect taxes from peasants, and also granted exemptions for religious institutions.

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Genghis Khan's final battle -

Whether he knew it or not, Genghis Khan would fight his last battle in 1226. In the midst of the Mongol-Jin War, the Chinese Jin and Xia dynasties had banded together in an attempt to weaken the persistently pressing Mongol hordes. While there is some confusion regarding whether the Khan personally survived this battle, the Mongol army as a whole easily defeated the Chinese forces.

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The death of Genghis Khan -

No one knows exactly how Genghis Khan died, but there are a number of theories. The old Mongol legends say that he was castrated by a Chinese princess who had surprised him with a hidden dagger, and bled out afterwards. Other theories claim he never survived his final battle, or that he simply died of pneumonia.

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Where is Genghis Khan buried? -

Perhaps more mysterious than the cause of Genghis Khan's demise is the location of his final resting place. Mongol legend tells us that the great Khan wished to be buried in an unmarked grave in the region he was born, Burkhan Khaldun. After his burial, it is said that everyone who attended his funeral was killed by the soldiers present, and then those soldiers were slain by yet another group of troops, and so on until the memory of his burial place was expunged from history forever.

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The empire after Genghis Khan - Genghis Khan's sons, for whom he had split his empire into four khanates with his third-eldest son Ögedei ruling as supreme Khan, continued to expand their father's empire with little resistance, and this went on for a number of generations.

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Kublai Khan - The empire reached its peak under the rule of Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan. It was Kublai Khan who finally defeated the Jin and Xia dynasties in China once and for all in 1279, which incorporated all of modern-day China into the Mongol Empire.

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The end of the empire -

Kublai Khan turned out to be the last great ruler of the Mongol Empire. After his death in 1294, no clear successor was decided on, and infighting between the lesser rulers of the massive empire caused it to splinter and fall apart into many smaller factions.

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Genghis Khan's legacy -

Apart from being an ancestor of around 16 million people today, Genghis Khan will also be remembered forever as the father of Mongolia and one of the greatest military leaders of all time. Whether history looks upon his life with admiration or scorn, his impact on the modern world will never allow him to be forgotten.

Sources: (Owlcation) (Factinate) (Britannica)

See also: History's most celebrated military commanders

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