IN real In the Great Steppe, such a dizzying career would simply be impossible. It had its own way of life, quite complex, sanctified by centuries-old traditions. The young homeless vagabond had no chance of becoming a great khan...
By the way, they explain to us that the very name “Genghis Khan” means “Ocean Khan”. Where would such words come from? Mongols? But the Turks, who have seen the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, and the Atlantic, could well have given such a name to their ruler...
In general, in my deep conviction, traces of the real biography of Genghis Khan should be sought not in the east, in China and Mongolia, but precisely in the west.
First of all, I turned to Andrei Lyzlov’s “Scythian History”. The motivation is simple: if someone considers Danzan’s work to be a completely reliable historical source, why can’t it be Lyzlov’s book written at about the same time, who, by the way, relied on a lot of historical works - Russian, Polish, Italian? No, elementary logic requires both works to be equal in status...
Lyzlov’s information about Genghis Khan, frankly speaking, is scant - but much more realistic than the Chinese fabulism, written who knows when, who knows in what language...
Lyzlov, of course, doesn’t have any “Mongols” - only Tatars.“The Tatars, also called the Trans-Volga Horde, live along the same Volga River below the Bulgarian borders even to the Caspian Sea.”
The Bulgarians are meant, of course, not the Balkans, but the Volga. Pay attention to the word “even”: the Caspian Sea is the extreme eastern border of the Trans-Volga Horde. What the hell is Mongolia... The Tatars, according to Lyzlov, “came from the deserts located near the Chinese countries.” By “China” we do not mean modern China at all, but some Central Asian regions. Current China Lyzlov, as was customary in his time, would probably call him “China.”
“And they began to live near the great rivers Kama and Yaik.” It is further clarified that the Tatars are “equal” with Volga Bulgarians. Well, of course! Both of them are Turks, which does not require any special proof.
“Foreign historians call that country the Trans-Volga Horde, as Guagnini writes, saying: The Horde of Trans-Volga Tatars is named after the Volga River, they lived beyond it; That country is bordered from the east by the Sea of ​​Chvalis.” Guagnini - Italian historian (1538–1614), author of the “Chronicle of European Sarmatia”, from which Lyzlov learned a lot. Khvalis Sea - Caspian Sea.
And here is Genghis Khan - right here, in the Trans-Volga Horde!
“And those Horde people talk about their beginning like this. Allegedly, in the countries from which they came, there lived a certain widow of a noble family. She once gave birth to a son from adultery named Tsyngis, whom the eldest sons, as an illegitimate child, wanted to kill. The widow, turning her guilt to herself as an excuse, said: “I conceived a son from the rays of the sun.”
Here, Lyzlov clearly heard legends about Alangoa, fertilized by a sunbeam. “Tsyngis” is, of course, Genghis Khan. About which Lyzlov further writes: “And the son of that widow, having entered into adulthood, spread and multiplied the Trans-Volga horde, with a multitude of inhabitants, and courageous deeds, and the abundance of the region itself, surpassing almost all the local hordes. That people, surpassing all the wild fields in courage, multiplied their glory through military deeds.”
As we see, there are no traces of any Mongols. The Turkic Tatars at one time moved to the Volga and Caspian Sea. Initially, they were one of the clans in the kingdom of a certain Unkam, but when this clan grew stronger and stronger, Unkam began to seriously fear it, and therefore, in order to “thin out” the multiplied people a little, he began to send him to all the wars that ever happened, putting him in the first rows. The Tatars quickly realized that this was not a bungling, but a well-thought-out genocide and, in order to avoid further friction, they moved the entire people away from Unkam, founding their own state. And then they elected Tsyngis, Hingis, Genghis Khan as the supreme ruler. The first major action was the campaign against Unkam. At first, Genghis Khan peacefully asked for his daughter as a wife, but Unkam refused, then Genghis Khan went to war against him and captured his entire kingdom (the point, of course, is probably not about the girl, but about those same old scores).
As you can see, information about Genghis Khan is truly scant. But others simply have nowhere to come from, if you do not pay attention to the Mongolian fables. A young man from a noble family, whose birth was overshadowed by some dirty story with accusations of illegal origin. The young man, presumably, was extraordinary, since over time he became the great khan of the Trans-Volga Horde. Essentially this is All, what do we know about real Genghis Khan, alas...
Some equally meager additions can be gleaned from the extensive book of the Khorezmian scribe an-Nasivi. The source is truly priceless, without the slightest irony - since it was a contemporary of Genghis Khan and the only one independent witness. The authors of other works were in the service of Genghis Khan, and therefore it is difficult to expect complete objectivity from them, you see...
An-Nasivi, of course, did not notice any “Mongols”. The people of Genghis Khan - Turks
According to an-Nasivi, at one time there was a state of As-Sin, where six Turkic khans ruled jointly, subordinate to the great khan named Altun. An-Nasiwi also calls this country China, but from his own description it follows that current It has nothing to do with China.
Genghis Khan was the ruler of one of the six khanates, and his neighbors were Kushlu Khan and Dushi Khan, the husband of Genghis Khan's aunt. Dushi Khan died unexpectedly. The widow, who had no sons-heirs, called Genghis's nephew and transferred to him the inheritance of her late husband.
It must be assumed that the young khan managed his domains well - surrounding families began to flock to him, the khanate grew stronger, stronger... Which soon aroused the obvious hostility of the supreme ruler Altun Khan. When he returned from a long trip to his capital, city Tamgadzh, according to custom, six subordinate khans began to send him gifts (more precisely, already five, because Genghis ruled two “provinces” at once). The Supreme accepted the horses donated by the other khans, and ordered the Genghis Khans’ tails to be cut off and driven out of the yard, which was, to put it mildly, an act that was not entirely friendly.
Very quickly, rumors began to spread from the palace of the Great Khan that Genghis and his friends had nothing left to live, and their heads would be turned off very quickly. Naturally, Genghis Khan did not wait until he was slaughtered like a ram - with leaders loyal to him, he, in modern language, proclaimed the final sovereignty of his possessions.
Altun Khan sent an army against the rebels. Genghis Khan instantly crushed this army in its tail and mane, so Altun Khan fled to India with the remnants of the troops close to him, leaving the country to the mercy of fate. Naturally, Genghis Khan and his companions took over the reins of power. For some time, his co-ruler was the aforementioned Kushlu Khan, but after his death, Genghis Khan quarreled with his heir and headed for sole rule, subjugated the surrounding lands, and also occupied the very city of Khara-Balasagun in the valley of the Kyrgyz River Chu, which would later become one of the candidates for the role of the mythical Karakorum. Altun Khan from his emigration negotiated, eventually negotiated some lands for himself, but then died, which finally freed Genghis Khan’s hands, and he began to actively strengthen his state.
This - again, so is reality, since an-Nasivi lived at that time and did not compose fairy tales, but conscientiously wrote down everything that happened around him.
As a matter of fact, we have no other information about Genghis Khan other than what can be gleaned from the books of Lyzlov and an-Nasivi (everything else does not inspire confidence). But still, I repeat, this is enough to have some idea about it - there is that notorious stove from which one should dance. Turkic Khan, who carved out a state for himself with his own hands, which for that turbulent era was, in general, an everyday matter. One must assume that he is smart and brave. A good commander and a smart manager. In some cases, he is insidious and cruel, but this, my gentlemen, is not some kind of perversion on his part, but simply following the traditions of the era. Kings, sultans and khans, unfortunately, were not particularly virtuous in state affairs. The position is...
Eastern The campaigns of Genghis Khan, in my deep conviction, were simply invented by the same Chinese scribes. There is no doubt that some wars took place on the territory of China with the participation of steppe inhabitants (either Mongols or Turks), but the information about them is for the most part frankly fabulous: terrible Chinese combat missiles, burning out all living things for almost a hundred meters around, nine hundred thousand coffins, which the Chinese prepared in a couple of days for those killed during the siege and took them out of the city, and other horror films. For some reason, we believe that military science fiction is an invention of the nineteenth century, but it existed much earlier. When gentlemen historians understand this fact, it will become much easier for them to live and work, and more logic and common sense will appear in what they write.
Of course, there were some clashes between the Tatars and the Chinese - but nothing more. Quite recently, an interesting article appeared about the “Secret Legend”, where the author, a graduate student at the European Institute in St. Petersburg (certainly not known to sympathize with the “new chronology”), reports the most interesting things: “Chinese scientists who were engaged in the analysis of palace archives after the fall in 1368 of the “Mongol” Yuan dynasty, discovered this work in a section of the archive closed to outside access and therefore called it “Yuan bishi” (“The Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty”). After 15–20 years, they decided to use it as a kind of textbook for training translators from the Mongolian language and retranscribed the Mongolian text into Chinese characters. It was then that the newly assigned Chinese title was translated into Mongolian as “The Secret History of the MONGOLS.” What scholars of the early Ming years perceived as the history of China's legitimate Yuan dynasty Chinese translators and was reinterpreted by transcribers as the story of the “Mongols” - dangerous “northern barbarians”, whose presence on the borders threatened the emerging “properly Chinese” identity.”
In other words, as in the case of “Altan Tobchi”, it was necessary to add a fair amount to suit the needs of the specific political situation, depicting the former thoroughly Chinese emperors as terrible northern savages, who continually harassed China with raids. It seems that even in the camp of “classical” historians, a “critical” trend is beginning to gradually take shape. God forbid...
So, Genghis Khan dealt with his neighbors and became the sole ruler, receiving the imperial title. What is he doing, is he really leading the life of a “classical” nomad?
The most interesting thing is that there is nothing like that. It doesn’t look like a primitive nomadic way of life...

Chapter seven. Peace and war

Genghis Khan begins to build at an accelerated pace state, carrying out a variety of reforms in all areas of life. He does everything to turn a crowd of nomadic tribes into real ale. Arises power- undoubtedly, following the example of the previous kaganates.

It all starts with the army. Before that, the army was damn archaic, built on the principle of a tribal militia. Tens, hundreds and thousands were formed from relatives, unique “stanitsa residents”.
Genghis Khan first of all organizes the guard (“keshig”) and uses it, here’s a paradox, exactly as Peter I did five hundred years later: the guard turns not only into a military unit, but also into a kind of administrative apparatus. Genghis Khan's guards perform the functions of police and guard caravan routes, manage palace property, store military standards and drums, take on judicial functions and even oversee how the economy is run in the uluses. They have to do all this because there is simply no administration as such yet.
Another principle is introduced in the army, which can be characterized in current terms as “general mobilization.”
Military units are now formed not from relatives, but by distributing the “conscript contingent” at the discretion of the command.
At the same time, legislation is changing. Before Genghis Khan, there was an archaic system when “ wise people", relying on precedents (just like in England), they analyzed certain particular cases and made a decision as life experience dictates.
Genghis Khan replaced this relic with a system of written laws called "Yasa" - criminal, civil and administrative codes, taken together. Judges were now required to judge by written laws, and not according to precedents and “ancestral law”. To lead them, Genghis Khan appointed the Supreme Judge of the state.
Exactly the same reforms began in the economy. Instead of the old "customs" economic activity Now special officials began to lead, who were also involved in taxation. The amounts and timing of taxes, the distribution of pastures and other economic matters were now all carefully recorded in special laced books, which were in charge of special officials. It was then that the famous “Tatar tithe” appeared - as a minimum tax rate, a tenth of livestock, grain, and then money that had to be given to the treasury. By the way, when the Tatars who came to Rus' demanded this tithe from the population, they were not at all engaged in any lawlessness, but intended to take exactly as much tax as they took from theirs.
Officials also began to form, where at first a large role was played by various “foreigners”: Chinese, Muslims, Uyghurs - as long as they were literate and knew the business...
In general, such reforms would hardly be able to be consistently and purposefully carried out by a “wild nomad”, even if encouraged to do so by the “Chinese sages” playing the role of such good geniuses under the “Mongols”. Behind the transformations of Genghis Khan, the entire previous many-hundred-year experience of the Turkic Khaganates clearly appears, the experience of a man who relied on the rich heritage of his statist ancestors.
Some of Yasa's articles are quite interesting. Thus, the death penalty was imposed on authors of false denunciations, as well as subjects of both sexes caught in adultery (with the second, in my opinion, the overlap is completely unnecessary). And the section on drunkenness, composed by Genghis Khan himself, is imbued with a completely sad philosophical spirit: “If there is no remedy for drinking, then a person needs to get drunk three times a month. As soon as he goes over three times, he will commit a punishable act. If within a month he gets drunk only twice, that’s better; if it’s just once, it’s even more commendable, but if he doesn’t drink at all, what could be better than that?! But where can you find such a person who would not drink at all, and if such a person is found, then he should be appreciated!
Naturally, the construction of a normal state was not to everyone’s taste—conservatives are the same everywhere. And therefore, soon a classic conflict between secular and spiritual power occurred, which happened on all continents...
Apparently, the “center of the opposition” was none other than Genghis Khan’s supreme shaman Kokochu, aka Teb-Tengri, “The Most Heavenly One.” It was he who, on behalf of Tengri, consecrated the election of Genghis Khan as Great Khan. As far as can be judged from the meager information that has reached us, the man was strong, strong-willed, on his own, and instilled superstitious fear in many. They remember that in the middle of winter he loved to strip naked and sit on the ice, which “melted from the warmth of his body,” so that clouds of steam enveloped Kokocha, and the superstitious common people believed that the shaman briefly ascended to heaven on a white horse (one cannot exclude that there was some other trick with pyrotechnics in accordance with the technical level of that time).
It is difficult now to understand what was going on there, but even before the formation of the state, many neighbors of the Tatars for some reason stubbornly considered Kokocha to be a hidden enemy of Genghis Khan. It seems that even Genghis’s enemies from among the neighboring khans tried to attract the shaman to their side, but he refused.
Be that as it may, from a certain moment Ten Tengri began to behave extremely brazenly, interfering in everything that concerned him and did not concern him. Steel surrounded him cluster noble Tatars, simple warriors, all kinds of adventurers, offended, dissatisfied and other lovers of fishing in troubled waters. It was Kokochu who, with his intrigues, provoked enmity between Genghis and his brother Khasar, because of which the latter fell into terrible disgrace. Little by little, the shaman’s headquarters turned out to have “as many people as Genghis himself.” The people of Genghis’s younger brother Otchigin even began to run over to him, and in the end “many were thinking of leaving Genghis Khan’s hitching post for Teb-Tengri.”
Natural chaos began. Otchigin sent his messenger to Kokoch, demanding the return of the fugitives, but the envoy was thoroughly beaten, the horse was taken away, the saddle was thrown on his back and he was driven away, cheerfully shouting something like: “Like an ambassador, like a master!”
Otchigin, enraged, galloped up to Tentengri, but he, presumably, already felt so confident that his seven brothers forced Otchigin to his knees and forced him to ask for forgiveness for disturbing him.
Translated into European standards, it would look as if the brothers of the Archbishop of Paris slapped the brother of the French king who had come to reprimand them. The situation, clearly, has escalated to the limit...
The next day, Kokochu, as if nothing had happened, appeared in Genghis Khan’s tent with his father and the aforementioned ugly brothers and calmly sat down in the place of honor. Then Otchigin jumped up to him, grabbed him by the collar and declared that, according to the ancient custom, he was challenging him to a single combat. Genghis Khan, with a calm expression, muttered something like: “On the street, sort it out on the street!”
The single combat did not work out. As soon as the supreme shaman stepped out of the threshold, three strong men jumped up to him, instantly broke his backbone and threw him under the cart. Returning Otchigin explained (presumably, not without gloating):
- Teb-Tengri doesn’t want to measure his strength with me, he pretends to be lying down...
Genghis Khan didn’t even raise an eyebrow - most likely, he knew perfectly well what the trick was. The Kokochu brothers tried to “pump up their rights” by threatening Genghis, but the guards burst in and they had to quiet down.
The shaman’s body, as contemporaries recalled, mysteriously disappeared. Genghis Khan, not particularly surprised, calmly explained this by Heaven’s retribution: “Teb-Tengri beat my brothers and unfairly slandered them, for which Heaven disliked him and took away both his life and his body.”
It is possible that many believed him - with such a number of personal guards, how could one not believe it... And yet, the full impression was that the opposition, thus defeated, although it no longer tried to do anything against Genghis Khan, remained a real force for some time: after After some hesitation, Genghis did not dare to execute either Father Kokochu or his violent brothers, although the accusation of rebellion and attempt on the life of the Great Khan naturally came up...
With the death of Teb-Tengri, the last major figure who would have dared to stand on par with Genghis Khan and show disobedience disappeared from the then political arena. Genghis Khan becomes hereby autocrat...
To the west, Khorezm, a fairly strong and extensive power, adjoined the borders of his state. On the throne there sat the Khorezmshah Ala-ad-Din Muhammad, a unique personality and, as far as one can judge, not burdened with moral principles at all. At one time, he humbly paid tribute to the ruler of the Kara-Kitai, but as soon as the balance of forces changed in his favor, without hesitation he killed the ambassador with his retinue who had arrived for the next payment and, without hesitation, set out on a campaign against the capital of the Kara-Kitai, Khara-Balasagun, which took it by storm and destroyed it. For this, the courtiers officially awarded the Shah the title of “Second Alexander the Great.” A little later, Muhammad, on his own initiative, ordered that “Sanjar” be added to his names (that was the name of the famous Seljuk sultan of the 11th century), and on his large seal he ordered the inscription “The Shadow of Allah on Earth” to be depicted. He was a man of great modesty...
Quite often one can come across the assertion that the evil Genghis Khan hordes, in the most insidious and aggressive way, “invaded” the territory of peaceful, white and fluffy Khorezm for no reason at all. In fact, everything was a little different...
Genghis Khan's son Jochi with twenty thousand horsemen set off on a campaign to the territory of what is now Kazakhstan, pursuing his father's enemy Kushlu Khan Jr., the son of Genghis's former associate. I caught up, crashed and turned home. Then an army with Muhammad at its head appeared, immediately preparing for battle.
Jochi sent envoys to Muhammad, who politely explained that the Tatars had come to fight not with the Sultan, but with their old enemies and were now returning home... Jochi expressed his readiness to give the Sultan all the booty he had received. As an-Nasiri writes, “he mentioned that his father ordered him to behave decently if he met any part of the Sultan’s troops in this direction, and warned him against displaying anything that would tear off the veil of decency and would contradict principle of respect."
Muhammad, estimating that he had more troops, replied: “If Genghis Khan ordered you not to enter into battle with me, then Allah Almighty orders me to fight with you and promises me good for this battle. And for me there is no difference between you and Gur Khan (king of the Kara-Kitaev. -A. B.), and Kushlu Khan, for you are all partners in idolatry.”
And the battle began. The Arab historian Ibn al-Athir claims that it lasted “three days and three nights” - but this is most likely a common flowery oriental exaggeration. An-Nasiri’s report that the battle continued “until twilight” is more likely to be true. At night, the Tatars lit many fires, as if they had set up a camp, and they quietly retreated.
Since then, Sultan Muhammad, as his courtiers note, has formally moved on the conquest of the powers of Genghis Khan and China, counting on good booty: “We, his servants and courtiers, tried to dissuade the Khorezmshah from this obsession, motivating our considerations with the range of distances, the difficulties of the path and other obstacles, but the Khorezmshah stood his ground.”
He, however, did not dare to fight - he sent an embassy to Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan, judging by his behavior, did not run into confrontation at all. He told the ambassador this:
– Tell the Khorezmshah: “I am the ruler of the East, and you are the ruler of the West. Let there be a firm agreement between us of friendship and peace, and let merchants and caravans of both sides depart and return, and let the expensive products and ordinary goods that are in my land be transported by them to you, and let yours be transported in the same manner to you. to me".
Genghis Khan sent gifts to Muhammad - not only jade and fabrics, but also an ingot of gold "the size of a camel's head." He clearly had no intention of fighting. Soon a Tatar caravan arrived in Khorezm and stopped in the border town of Otrar. The caravan was substantial: 500 camels loaded with gold, silver, Chinese silks, sable skins and other furs. With him came 450 Muslim merchants and Tatars, as well as Genghis Khan’s ambassador Ukhun, who carried a message from Genghis to the Khorezmshah, which said: “Merchants are the support of the country. It is they who bring curiosities and jewelry to the rulers, and there is no need to prevent them from doing this. I, for my part, do not intend to interfere with our merchants trading with you. We both need to act together for the prosperity of our regions. Therefore, we ordered that from now on peace should be established between all countries on earth, so that merchants would fearlessly go to all lands. Rich and poor will live in peace and bless Allah."
Unlike Muhammad, who burned with the passion of a “fighter for the faith,” Genghis Khan was guided by Tengrian religious tolerance. In the “Yasa” it was prescribed: “Respect all confessions, without giving preference to any one, the house of God and its servants, no matter who they are - to spare, leave them free from taxes and honor them.”
Of all those who came with the caravan, only one person escaped alive and reached the Tatar border... All the rest, including the ambassador, were killed and the caravan was plundered.
An-Nasiri believes that the governor of Otrar, Inal Khan, the son of Muhammad’s maternal uncle, is solely to blame for this crime: “His low soul became greedy for the property of these merchants.” Inal allegedly wrote a letter to the Khorezmshah, claiming that all these merchants and ambassadors were spies in disguise, every single one of them. Khorezmshah allegedly ordered to take the “infiltrators” under arrest, but Inala had already suffered he ordered everyone to be killed, and took possession of their wealth personally.
The Arab Ibn al-Asr describes the events differently: “The Khorezmshah sent him (the governor. -A. B.) an order to kill them, take away the property that was with them, and send it to him. He killed them and sent away what they had with them, and there was a lot of things. When the messenger arrived to the Khorezmshah, he divided it between the merchants of Bukhara and Samarkand and took its value from them.”
The second version is more like the truth - considering what happened next...
It is easy to imagine that Genghis Khan flew into a wild rage. According to ancient Turkic customs, a merchant is an inviolable person, and even more so the gravest crime is the murder of the ambassador (“the one who trusted,” as any diplomat was called). There was even a formula: “The ambassador is not strangled, the mediator (i.e., the parliamentarian) is not killed.”

LEGENDARY PEOPLE OF MONGOLIA

GENGISH KHAN
(1162-1227)

Genghis Khan (Mong. Chinggis Khaan proper name - Temujin, Temujin, Mong. Temuuzhin). May 3, 1162 - August 18, 1227) - Mongol khan, founder of the Mongolian state (from 1206), organizer of conquests in Asia and Eastern Europe, great reformer and unifier of Mongolia. The direct descendants of Genghis Khan in the male line are the Genghisids.

The only historical portrait of Genghis Khan from a series of official portraits of rulers was painted under Kublai Khan in the 13th century. (beginning of reign in 1260), several decades after his death (Genghis Khan died in 1227). A portrait of Genghis Khan is kept in the Beijing Historical Museum. The portrait shows a face with Asian features, blue eyes and a gray beard.

Early years

The ancestor of all Mongols, according to the “Secret Legend,” is Alan-Goa, in the eighth generation from Genghis Khan, who, according to legend, conceived children from a sunbeam in a yurt. Genghis Khan's grandfather, Khabul Khan, was a wealthy leader of all the Mongol tribes and successfully waged wars with neighboring tribes. Temujin's father was Yesugei-baatur, the grandson of Khabul Khan, the leader of most of the Mongol tribes, in which there were 40 thousand yurts. This tribe was the complete owner of the fertile valleys between the Kerulen and Onon rivers. Yesugei-baatur also successfully fought and fought, subjugating the Tatars and many neighboring tribes. From the contents of the “Secret Legend” it is clear that Genghis Khan’s father was the famous khan of the Mongols.

It is difficult to name the exact date of birth of Genghis Khan. According to the Persian historian Rashid ad-din, his date of birth was 1155, modern Mongolian historians adhere to the date - 1162. He was born in the Delyun-Boldok tract on the banks of the Onon River (in the area of ​​Lake Baikal) in the family of one of the Mongolian leaders of the Taichiut tribe Yesugei-bagatura (“bagatur” - hero) from the Borjigin clan, and his wife Hoelun from the Onhirat tribe. It was named in honor of the Tatar leader Temujin, whom Yesugei defeated on the eve of the birth of his son. At the age of 9, Yesugei-Bagatur betrothed his son to a 10-year-old girl from the Khungirat family. Leaving his son with the bride's family until he came of age, so that they could get to know each other better, he went home. On the way back, Yesugei stopped at a Tatar camp, where he was poisoned. When he returned to his native ulus, he became ill and died a few days later.

The elders of the Mongol tribes refused to obey the too young and inexperienced Temujin and left along with their tribes to another patron. So young Temujin remained surrounded by only a few representatives of his family: his mother, younger brothers and sisters. All their remaining property included only eight horses and the family “bunchuk” - a white banner with the image bird of prey- a gyrfalcon and a yak with nine tails, symbolizing four large and five small yurts of his family. For several years, widows and children lived in complete poverty, wandering in the steppes, eating roots, game and fish. Even in the summer, the family lived from hand to mouth, making provisions for the winter.

The leader of the Taichiuts, Targultai (a distant relative of Temujin), who declared himself the ruler of the lands once occupied by Yesugei, fearing the revenge of his growing rival, began to pursue Temujin. One day, an armed detachment attacked the camp of the Yesugei family. Temujin managed to escape, but was overtaken and captured. They put a block on it - two wooden boards with a hole for the neck, which were pulled together. The block was a painful punishment: a person did not have the opportunity to eat, drink, or even drive away a fly that had landed on his face. He finally found a way to escape and hide in a small lake, plunging into the water with the block and sticking only his nostrils out of the water. The Taichiuts searched for him in this place, but could not find him; but one Selduz, who was among them, noticed him and decided to save him. He pulled young Temujin out of the water, freed him from the block and took him to his home, where he hid him in a cart with wool. After the Taichiuts left, the Selduz put Temujin on a mare, provided him with weapons and sent him home.

After some time, Temujin found his family. The Borjigins immediately migrated to another place, and the Taichiuts could no longer detect them. Then Temujin married his betrothed Borte. Borte's dowry was a luxurious sable fur coat. Temujin soon went to the most powerful of the then steppe leaders - Togoril, the khan of the Keraits. Togoril was once a friend of Temujin's father, and he managed to enlist the support of the Kerait leader by recalling this friendship and presenting a luxurious gift - Borte's sable fur coat.

Beginning of conquest

With the help of Khan Togoril, Temujin's forces began to gradually grow. Nukers began to flock to him; he raided his neighbors, increasing his possessions and herds.

Temujin's first serious opponents were the Merkits, who acted in alliance with the Taichiuts. In Temujin's absence, they attacked the Borjigin camp and took Borte and Yesugei's second wife, Sochikhel, into captivity. Temujin, with the help of Khan Togoril and the Keraits, as well as his anda (sworn brother) Jamukha from the Jajirat clan, defeated the Merkits. At the same time, while trying to drive away the herd from Temujin’s possessions, Jamukha’s brother was killed. Under the pretext of revenge, Jamukha and his army moved towards Temujin. But without achieving success in defeating the enemy, the leader of the Jajirat retreated.

Temujin's first major military enterprise was the war against the Tatars, launched jointly with Togoril around 1200. The Tatars at that time had difficulty repelling the attacks of the Jin troops that entered their possessions. Taking advantage of the favorable situation, Temujin and Togoril inflicted a number of strong blows on the Tatars and captured rich booty. The Jin government awarded high titles to the steppe leaders as a reward for the defeat of the Tatars. Temujin received the title "jauthuri" (military commissar), and Togoril - "van" (prince), from that time he became known as Van Khan. In 1202, Temujin independently opposed the Tatars. Before this campaign, he made an attempt to reorganize and discipline the army - he issued an order according to which it was strictly forbidden to capture booty during the battle and pursuit of the enemy: the commanders had to divide the captured property between the soldiers only after the end of the battle.

Temujin's victories caused the consolidation of the forces of his opponents. A whole coalition took shape, including Tatars, Taichiuts, Merkits, Oirats and other tribes, which elected Jamukha as their khan. In the spring of 1203, a battle took place that ended in the complete defeat of the forces of Jamukha. This victory further strengthened the Temujin ulus. In 1202-1203, the Keraits were led by Van Khan's son Nilha, who hated Temujin because Van Khan gave him preference over his son and thought to transfer the Kerait throne to him, bypassing Nilha. In the fall of 1203, Wang Khan's troops were defeated. His ulus ceased to exist. Van Khan himself died while trying to escape to the Naiman.

In 1204, Temujin defeated the Naimans. Their ruler Tayan Khan died, and his son Kuchuluk fled to the territory of Semirechye in the country of the Karakitai (southwest of Lake Balkhash). His ally, the Merkit khan Tokhto-beki, fled with him. There Kuchuluk managed to gather scattered detachments of Naimans and Keraits, gain favor with the Gurkhan and become quite a significant political figure.

Reforms of the Great Khan

At the kurultai in 1206, Temujin was proclaimed the great khan over all tribes - Genghis Khan. Mongolia has been transformed: the disparate and warring Mongolian nomadic tribes have united into single state.

It was published then new law: Yasa. In it, the main place was occupied by articles about mutual assistance in the campaign and the prohibition of deception of those who trusted. Anyone who violated these regulations was executed, and the enemy of the Mongols, who remained loyal to his khan, was spared and accepted into his army. “Good” was considered loyalty and courage, and “evil” was cowardice and betrayal.

After Temujin became the all-Mongolian ruler, his policies began to reflect the interests of the Noyon movement even more clearly. The Noyons needed internal and external activities that would help consolidate their dominance and increase their income. New wars of conquest and the robbery of rich countries were supposed to ensure the expansion of the sphere of feudal exploitation and the strengthening of the class positions of the noyons.

The administrative system created under Genghis Khan was adapted to achieve these goals. He divided the entire population into tens, hundreds, thousands and tumens (ten thousand), thereby mixing tribes and clans and appointing specially selected people from his confidants and nukers as commanders over them. All adults and healthy men They were considered warriors who ran their own households in peacetime and took up arms in wartime. Such an organization provided Genghis Khan with the opportunity to increase his armed forces up to approximately 95 thousand soldiers.

Individual hundreds, thousands and tumens, together with the territory for nomadism, were given into the possession of one or another noyon. The Great Khan, considering himself the owner of all the land in the state, distributed land and arats into the possession of noyons, on the condition that they would regularly perform certain duties in return. The most important duty was military service. Each noyon was obliged, at the first request of the overlord, to field the required number of warriors in the field. Noyon, in his inheritance, could exploit the labor of the arats, distributing his cattle to them for grazing or involving them directly in work on his farm. Small noyons served large ones.

Under Genghis Khan, the enslavement of arats was legalized, and unauthorized movement from one dozen, hundreds, thousands or tumen to others was prohibited. This ban meant the formal attachment of the arats to the land of the noyons - for migrating from their possessions, the arats faced the death penalty.

A specially formed armed detachment of personal bodyguards, the so-called keshik, enjoyed exceptional privileges and was intended mainly to fight against the internal enemies of the khan. The Keshikten were selected from the Noyon youth and were under the personal command of the khan himself, being essentially the khan’s guard. At first, there were 150 Keshikten in the detachment. In addition, it was created special squad, who was always supposed to be in the vanguard and be the first to engage the enemy. It was called a detachment of heroes.

Genghis Khan elevated the written law to a cult and was a supporter of strong law and order. He created a network of communication lines in his empire, courier communications on a large scale for military and administrative purposes, and organized intelligence, including economic intelligence.

Genghis Khan divided the country into two “wings”. He placed Boorcha at the head of the right wing, and Mukhali, his two most faithful and experienced associates, at the head of the left. He made the positions and ranks of senior and highest military leaders - centurions, thousanders and temniks - hereditary in the family of those who, with their faithful service, helped him seize the khan's throne.

Conquest of Northern China

In 1207-1211, the Mongols conquered the land of the Yakuts [source?], Kyrgyz and Uighurs, that is, they subjugated almost all the main tribes and peoples of Siberia, imposing tribute on them. In 1209, Genghis Khan conquered Central Asia and turned his attention to the south.

Before the conquest of China, Genghis Khan decided to secure the eastern border by capturing in 1207 the Tangut state of Xi-Xia, who had previously conquered Northern China from the dynasty of the Chinese Song emperors and created their own state, which was located between his possessions and the Jin state. Having captured several fortified cities, in the summer of 1208 the “True Ruler” retreated to Longjin, waiting out the unbearable heat that fell that year. Meanwhile, news reaches him that his old enemies Tokhta-beki and Kuchluk are preparing for a new war with him. Anticipating their invasion and having carefully prepared, Genghis Khan defeated them completely in a battle on the banks of the Irtysh. Tokhta-beki was among the dead, and Kuchluk escaped and found shelter with the Karakitai.

Satisfied with the victory, Temujin again sends his troops against Xi-Xia. After defeating an army of Chinese Tatars, he captured the fortress and passage in the Great Wall of China and in 1213 invaded the Chinese Empire itself, the state of Jin and advanced as far as Nianxi in Hanshu Province. With increasing persistence, Genghis Khan led his troops, strewing the road with corpses, deep into the continent and established his power even over the province of Liaodong, central to the empire. Several Chinese commanders, seeing that the Mongol conqueror was gaining constant victories, ran over to his side. The garrisons surrendered without a fight.

Having established his position along the entire Great Wall of China, in the fall of 1213 Temujin sent three armies to different parts of the Chinese Empire. One of them, under the command of the three sons of Genghis Khan - Jochi, Chagatai and Ogedei, headed south. Another, led by Temujin's brothers and generals, moved east to the sea. Genghis Khan himself and his youngest son Tolui, at the head of the main forces, set out in a southeastern direction. The First Army advanced as far as Honan and, after capturing twenty-eight cities, joined Genghis Khan on the Great Western Road. The army under the command of Temujin's brothers and generals captured the province of Liao-hsi, and Genghis Khan himself ended his triumphant campaign only after he reached the sea rocky cape in Shandong province. But either fearing civil strife, or due to other reasons, he decides in the spring of 1214 to return to Mongolia and makes peace with the Chinese emperor, leaving Beijing to him. However, before the leader of the Mongols had time to leave the Great Wall of China, chinese emperor moved his court further away, to Kaifeng. This step was perceived by Temujin as a manifestation of hostility, and he again sent troops into the empire, now doomed to destruction. The war continued.

The Jurchen troops in China, replenished by the aborigines, fought the Mongols until 1235 on their own initiative, but were defeated and exterminated by Genghis Khan's successor Ogedei.

Fight against the Kara-Khitan Khanate

Following China, Genghis Khan was preparing for a campaign in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. He was especially attracted to the flourishing cities of Southern Kazakhstan and Zhetysu. He decided to implement his plan through the valley of the Ili River, where rich cities were located and ruled by Genghis Khan’s longtime enemy, the Naiman Khan Kuchluk.

While Genghis Khan was conquering more and more cities and provinces of China, the fugitive Naiman Khan Kuchluk asked the gurkhan who had given him refuge to help gather the remnants of the army defeated at the Irtysh. Having gained a fairly strong army under his hand, Kuchluk entered into an alliance against his overlord with the Shah of Khorezm Muhammad, who had previously paid tribute to the Karakitays. After a short but decisive military campaign, the allies were left with a big gain, and the gurkhan was forced to relinquish power in favor of the uninvited guest. In 1213, Gurkhan Zhilugu died, and the Naiman Khan became the sovereign ruler of Semirechye. Sairam, Tashkent, and the northern part of Fergana came under his power. Having become an irreconcilable opponent of Khorezm, Kuchluk began persecution of Muslims in his domains, which aroused the hatred of the settled population of Zhetysu. The ruler of Koylyk (in the valley of the Ili River) Arslan Khan, and then the ruler of Almalyk (northwest of modern Gulja) Bu-zar moved away from the Naimans and declared themselves subjects of Genghis Khan.

In 1218, Jebe's troops, together with the troops of the rulers of Koylyk and Almalyk, invaded the lands of the Karakitai. The Mongols conquered Semirechye and Eastern Turkestan, which were owned by Kuchluk. In the first battle, Jebe defeated the Naiman. The Mongols allowed Muslims to perform public worship, which had previously been prohibited by the Naiman, which contributed to the transition of the entire settled population to the side of the Mongols. Kuchluk, unable to organize resistance, fled to Afghanistan, where he was caught and killed. The residents of Balasagun opened the gates to the Mongols, for which the city received the name Gobalyk - “ nice city" The road to Khorezm opened before Genghis Khan.

Conquest Central Asia

After the conquest of China and Khorezm, the supreme ruler of the Mongol clan leaders, Genghis Khan, sent a strong cavalry corps under the command of Jebe and Subedei to explore the “western lands”. They walked along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, then, after the devastation of Northern Iran, they penetrated Transcaucasia, defeated the Georgian army (1222) and, moving north along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, met a united army of Polovtsians, Lezgins, Circassians and Alans in the North Caucasus. There was a battle that did not have decisive consequences. Then the conquerors split the ranks of the enemy. They gave gifts to the Polovtsians and promised not to touch them. The latter began to disperse to their nomadic camps. Taking advantage of this, the Mongols easily defeated the Alans, Lezgins and Circassians, and then defeated the Polovtsians piecemeal. At the beginning of 1223, the Mongols invaded Crimea, took the city of Surozh (Sudak) and again moved into the Polovtsian steppes.

The Polovtsians fled to Rus'. Leaving the Mongol army, Khan Kotyan, through his ambassadors, asked not to refuse him the help of his son-in-law Mstislav the Udal, as well as Mstislav III Romanovich, the ruling Grand Duke of Kyiv. At the beginning of 1223, a large princely congress was convened in Kyiv, where it was agreed that the armed forces of the princes of Kyiv, Galicia, Chernigov, Seversk, Smolensk and Volyn principalities, united, should support the Polovtsians. The Dnieper, near the island of Khortitsa, was appointed as the gathering place for the Russian united army. Here envoys from the Mongol camp were met, inviting the Russian military leaders to break the alliance with the Polovtsians and return to Rus'. Taking into account the experience of the Cumans (who in 1222 persuaded the Mongols to break their alliance with the Alans, after which Jebe defeated the Alans and attacked the Cumans), Mstislav executed the envoys. In the battle on the Kalka River, the troops of Daniil of Galitsky, Mstislav the Udal and Khan Kotyan, without informing the other princes, decided to “deal with” the Mongols on their own and crossed to the eastern bank, where on May 31, 1223 they were completely defeated while passively contemplating this bloody battle on the part of the main Russian forces led by Mstislav III, located on the elevated opposite bank of the Kalka.

Mstislav III, having fenced himself off with a tyn, held the defense for three days after the battle, and then came to an agreement with Jebe and Subedai to lay down arms and freely retreat to Rus', as he had not participated in the battle. However, he, his army and the princes who trusted him were treacherously captured by the Mongols and cruelly tortured as “traitors to their own army.”

After the victory, the Mongols organized the pursuit of the remnants of the Russian army (only every tenth soldier returned from the Azov region), destroying cities and villages in the Dnieper direction, capturing civilians. However, the disciplined Mongol military leaders had no orders to linger in Rus'. They were soon recalled by Genghis Khan, who considered that the main task of the reconnaissance campaign to the west had been successfully completed. On the way back at the mouth of the Kama, the troops of Jebe and Subedei suffered a serious defeat from the Volga Bulgars, who refused to recognize the power of Genghis Khan over themselves. After this failure, the Mongols went down to Saksin and along the Caspian steppes returned to Asia, where in 1225 they united with the main forces of the Mongol army.

The Mongol forces remaining in China enjoyed the same success as the armies in Western Asia. The Mongol Empire was expanded with several new conquered provinces lying north of the Yellow River, with the exception of one or two cities. After the death of Emperor Xuyin Zong in 1223, the Northern Chinese Empire virtually ceased to exist, and the borders of the Mongol Empire almost coincided with the borders of Central and Southern China, ruled by the imperial Song dynasty.

Death of Genghis Khan

Upon return from Central Asia Genghis Khan once again led his army through Western China. In 1225 or early 1226, Genghis launched a campaign against the country of the Tanguts. During this campaign, astrologers informed the Mongol leader that five planets were in unfavorable alignment. The superstitious Mongol believed that he was in danger. Under the power of foreboding, the formidable conqueror went home, but on the way he fell ill and died on August 25, 1227.

Before his death, he wished that the Tangut king would be executed immediately after the capture of the city, and that the city itself would be destroyed to the ground. IN different sources Various versions of his death are given: from an arrow wound in battle; from a long illness, after falling from a horse; from a lightning strike; at the hands of a captive princess on her wedding night.

According to Genghis Khan's dying wish, his body was taken to his homeland and interred in the Burkan-Kaldun area. According to the official version of the “Secret Legend,” on the way to the Tangut state, he fell from his horse and was badly injured while hunting wild kulan horses and fell ill: “Having decided to go to the Tanguts at the end of the winter period of the same year, Genghis Khan carried out a new re-registration of troops and in the fall Year of the Dog (1226) went on a campaign against the Tanguts. From the Khansha, Yesui-Khatun followed the sovereign. On the way, during a raid on the Arbukhai wild kulan horses, which were found there in abundance, Genghis Khan sat astride a brown-gray horse. In the attack of the kulans, his brown-gray climbed up, and the sovereign fell and was badly injured. Therefore, they made a stop at the Tsoorkhat tract. The night passed, and the next morning Yesui-Khatun said to the princes and noyons: “The sovereign had a strong fever at night. We need to discuss the situation." The "Secret Legend" says that "Genghis Khan, after the final defeat of the Tanguts, returned and ascended to heaven in the year of the Pig" (1227). From the Tangut booty, he especially generously rewarded Yesui-Khatun at his very departure." .

According to the will, Genghis Khan was succeeded by his third son Ogedei. Until the capital of Xi-Xia Zhongxing was taken, the death of the great ruler was to be kept secret. The funeral procession moved from the Great Horde camp to the north, to the Onon River. The “Secret Legend” and the “Golden Chronicle” report that on the route of the caravan with the body of Genghis Khan to the burial place, all living things were killed: people, animals, birds. The chronicles record: “They killed every living creature they saw so that the news of his death would not spread throughout the surrounding areas. His four main hordes mourned and he was buried in the area that he had once deigned to designate as a great reserve.” . His wives carried his body through his native camp, and in the end he was buried in a rich tomb in the Onon Valley. During the burial, mystical rites were performed, which were designed to protect the place where Genghis Khan was buried. His burial place has not yet been found. After the death of Genghis Khan, mourning continued for two years.

According to legend, Genghis Khan was buried in a deep tomb, sitting on a golden throne, in the family cemetery "Ikh Khorig" near Mount Burkhan Khaldun, at the source of the Urgun River. He sat on the golden throne of Muhammad, which he brought from captured Samarkand. To prevent the grave from being found and desecrated in subsequent times, after the burial of the Great Khan, a herd of thousands of horses was driven across the steppe several times, destroying all traces of the grave. According to another version, the tomb was built in a riverbed, for which the river was temporarily blocked and the water was directed along a different channel. After the burial, the dam was destroyed and the water returned to its natural course, forever hiding the burial site. Everyone who participated in the burial and could remember this place was subsequently killed, and those who carried out this order were subsequently killed too. Thus, the mystery of Genghis Khan’s burial remains unsolved to this day.

So far, attempts to find the tomb of Genghis Khan have not been successful. The geographical names of the times of the Mongol Empire have completely changed over many centuries, and no one today can say with accuracy where Mount Burkhan-Khaldun is located. According to the version of academician G. Miller, based on the stories of the Siberian “Mongols”, Mount Burkhan-Khaldun in translation can mean “God’s mountain”, “Mountain where deities are placed”, “Mountain - God scorches or God penetrates everywhere” - “sacred mountain Chinggis and his ancestors, the deliverer mountain, which Chinggis, in memory of his salvation in the forests of this mountain from fierce enemies bequeathed to make sacrifices forever and ever, was located in the places of the original nomads of Genghis and his ancestors along the Onon River."

RESULTS OF GENGIGI KHAN'S REIGN

During the conquest of the Naimans, Genghis Khan became acquainted with the beginnings of written records; some of the Naimans entered the service of Genghis Khan and were the first officials in the Mongolian state and the first teachers of the Mongols. Apparently, Genghis Khan hoped to subsequently replace the Naimans with ethnic Mongols, since he ordered noble Mongolian youths, including his sons, to learn the Naiman language and writing. After the spread of Mongol rule, during the lifetime of Genghis Khan, the Mongols also used the services of Chinese and Persian officials.

In the field of foreign policy, Genghis Khan sought to maximize the expansion of the territory under his control. Genghis Khan's strategy and tactics were characterized by careful reconnaissance, surprise attacks, the desire to dismember enemy forces, setting up ambushes using special units to lure the enemy, maneuvering large masses of cavalry, etc.

The ruler of the Mongols created the greatest empire in history, which in the 13th century subjugated vast expanses of Eurasia from Sea of ​​Japan to Black. He and his descendants swept away great and ancient states from the face of the earth: the state of the Khorezmshahs, the Chinese Empire, the Baghdad Caliphate, and conquered most of the Russian principalities. Vast territories were placed under the control of the Yasa steppe law.

The old Mongolian code of laws “Jasak”, introduced by Genghis Khan, reads: “Genghis Khan’s Yasa prohibits lying, theft, adultery, prescribes to love one’s neighbor as oneself, not to cause offenses, and to forget them completely, to spare countries and cities that have submitted voluntarily, to free from all tax and respect the temples dedicated to God, as well as his servants." The significance of "Jasak" for the formation of statehood in the empire of Genghis Khan is noted by all historians. The introduction of a set of military and civil laws made it possible to establish a firm rule of law on the vast territory of the Mongol Empire; non-compliance with its laws was punishable by death. Yasa prescribed tolerance in matters of religion, respect for temples and clergy, prohibited quarrels among the Mongols, disobedience of children to their parents, the theft of horses, regulated military service, rules of conduct in battle, distribution of military spoils, etc.
“Immediately kill whoever steps on the threshold of the governor’s headquarters.”
“Whoever urinates in water or on ashes is put to death.”
“It is prohibited to wash the dress while wearing it until it is completely worn out.”
“Let no one leave his thousand, hundred or ten. Otherwise, let him and the commander of the unit who received him be executed.”
"Respect all faiths, without giving preference to any one."
Genghis Khan declared shamanism, Christianity and Islam the official religions of his empire.

Unlike other conquerors who dominated Eurasia for hundreds of years before the Mongols, only Genghis Khan was able to organize a stable state system and make sure that Asia appears to Europe not just as an unexplored steppe and mountain space, but as a consolidated civilization. It was within its borders that the Turkic revival of the Islamic world then began, which with its second onslaught (after the Arabs) almost finished off Europe.

In 1220, Genghis Khan founded Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire.

The Mongols revere Genghis Khan as greatest hero and a reformer, almost like an incarnation of a deity. In European (including Russian) memory, he remained something like a pre-storm crimson cloud that appears before a terrible, all-purifying storm.

DESCENDANTS OF GENGISH KHAN

Temujin and his beloved wife Borte had four sons:

• son Jochi
• son Çağatay
• son Ogedei
• son Tolu y.

Only they and their descendants could claim supreme power in the state. Temujin and Borte also had daughters:

• daughter Hodgin bags, wife of Butu-gurgen from the Ikires clan;
• daughter Tsetseihen (Chichigan), wife of Inalchi, the youngest son of the head of the Oirats, Khudukha-beki;
• daughter Alangaa (Alagai, Alakha), who married the Ongut noyon Buyanbald (in 1219, when Genghis Khan went to war with Khorezm, he entrusted her with state affairs in his absence, therefore she is also called Tor zasagch gunj (ruler-princess);
• daughter Temulen, wife of Shiku-gurgen, son of Alchi-noyon from the Khongirads, the tribe of her mother Borte;
• daughter Alduun (Altalun), who married Zavtar-setsen, noyon of the Khongirads.

Temujin and his second wife, Merkit Khulan-Khatun, daughter of Dair-usun, had sons

• son Kulhan (Hulugen, Kulkan)
• son Kharachar;

From the Tatar Yesugen (Esukat), daughter of Charu-noyon

• son Chakhur (Jaur)
• son Harkhad.

The sons of Genghis Khan continued the work of the Golden Dynasty and ruled the Mongols, as well as the conquered lands, based on the Great Yasa of Genghis Khan until the 20s of the 20th century. Even the Manchu emperors, who ruled Mongolia and China from the 16th to the 19th centuries, were descendants of Genghis Khan, as for their legitimacy they married Mongol princesses from Genghis Khan's golden family dynasty. The first prime minister of Mongolia of the 20th century, Chin Van Handdorj (1911-1919), as well as the rulers of Inner Mongolia (until 1954) were direct descendants of Genghis Khan.

The family record of Genghis Khan dates back to the 20th century; in 1918, the religious head of Mongolia, Bogdo Gegen, issued an order to preserve the Urgiin bichig (family list) of Mongol princes, called shastir. This shastir is kept in the museum and is called “Shastir of the State of Mongolia” (Mongol Ulsyn shastir). Many direct descendants of Genghis Khan from his golden family still live in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia.

ADDITIONAL READING

Vladimirtsov B.Ya. Genghis Khan. Publishing house Z.I. Grzhebina. Berlin. Petersburg. Moscow. 1922. Cultural and historical sketch of the Mongol Empire of the XII-XIV centuries. In two parts with applications and illustrations. 180 pages. Language: Russian.

The Mongol Empire and the nomadic world. Bazarov B.V., Kradin N.N. Skrynnikova T.D. Book 1. Ulan-Ude. 2004. Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tebetology SB RAS.

The Mongol Empire and the nomadic world. Bazarov B.V., Kradin N.N. Skrynnikova T.D. Book 3. Ulan-Ude. 2008. Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tebetology SB RAS.

On the art of war and the conquests of the Mongols. Essay by Lieutenant Colonel General Staff M. Ivanina. St. Petersburg, Publishing house: printed in a military printing house. Year of publication: 1846. Pages: 66. Language: Russian.

The hidden legend of the Mongols. Translation from Mongolian. 1941.

The legend of Genghis Khan tells the story of his life in sufficient detail, but not all geographical names in the text can be accurately correlated with modern names on the map. It is difficult to name the exact date of birth of Genghis Khan; most scientists adhere to the date - 1162. According to the history of Rashid ad-Din, the birth date is 1155. On the one hand, the evidence of his history is numerous and varied, on the other hand, it is surprising that most of these stories were discovered far from Mongolia . According to the figurative remark of historian L.N. Gumilyov: “In the history of the rise of Genghis Khan, everything is doubtful, starting with the date of his birth.”

According to the historical chronicles that have reached us, Genghis Khan carried out conquests of almost the entire world on an unimaginable scale; no one before or after him managed to compare with him in the grandeur of his conquests. For short time a huge Mongol Empire was created, stretching from the coast Pacific Ocean to the Black Sea. Nomads from Central Asia, armed with bows and arrows, were able to conquer three more civilized empires, which also had much more military power. Their conquests were accompanied by inhuman atrocities and mass extermination of civilians. Cities along the path of the Mongol hordes were often razed to the ground; by the will of Genghis Khan, rivers changed their course, prosperous areas became devastated, agricultural irrigated lands were destroyed so that arable land again became wild pastures for the horses of his army. For modern historians, the phenomenal success of Genghis Khan's wars remains an inexplicable fact, which can be explained either by a hoax or by the supernatural abilities and military genius of Genghis Khan. Contemporaries of that time considered Genghis Khan “sent from Heaven - the scourge of God.” In the same way, at one time the Goths nicknamed Attila - “God’s scourge.”

“The Secret Legend of the Mongols” (presumably the 13th century, according to the version of the 19th century text) “Genealogy and childhood of Temujin. The ancestor of Genghis Khan was Borte-Chino, born by the will of the Higher Heaven. His wife was Goa-Maral. They appeared after swimming across the Tengis (inland sea). They roamed at the sources of the Onon River, on Burkhan-khaldun, and their descendant was Bata-Chigan.”

“White History” (XVI century). “Appearing at the behest of the highest heaven, born in order to rule the whole world, the divine Suuta-bogdo Genghis Khan, starting with the people of the blue Mongols / peoples speaking / in three hundred and sixty-one languages ​​of seven hundred and twenty-one clans of Dzambu-dwipas, five colored and four foreign, sixteen great nations united everyone into a single state."

“Shastra Orunga” (Mongolian composition of the 15th century). “In the happy nomad of Burkhan Khaldun, one wonderful boy was born. At this time, his father Yesugei Bagatur captured the Tatar Temujin Uge and other Tatar people. Due to the coincidence with this event, he was named Temujin. When this boy was three years old, he played every day on Mount Burkhan Khaldun. There, on a towering red stone, one lark with a body one span high and wide, with a white head, with a blue back, with a yellow body, with a red tail, with black legs, embodying all five colors in its body, with a voice as melodious as sound flutes, sang every day: “Chinggis, Chinggis.”

According to the “Secret Legend,” the ancestor of all Mongols is Alan-Goa, in the eighth generation from Genghis Khan, who, according to legend, conceived children from a sunbeam in a yurt. Genghis Khan's grandfather, Khabul Khan, was a wealthy leader of all the Mongol tribes and successfully waged wars with neighboring tribes. Temujin's father was Yesugei-baatur, the grandson of Khabul Khan, leader of the majority of the Mongol tribes, in which there were 40 thousand yurts . This tribe was the complete owner of the fertile valleys between the Kerulen and Onon rivers. Yesugei-baatur also successfully fought and fought, subjugating the Tatars and many neighboring tribes. From the contents of the “Secret Legend” it is clear that Genghis Khan’s father was the famous khan of the Mongols.

Temujin was born in 1162 on the banks of the Onon River in the Delyun-buldan tract, which researchers localize 230 versts from Nerchinsk (Chita region) and 8 versts from the Chinese border. At the age of 13, Temujin lost his father, who was poisoned by the Tatars. The elders of the Mongol tribes refused to obey the too young and inexperienced Temujin and left along with their tribes to another patron. So young Temujin was left surrounded only by his family - his mother and younger brothers and sisters. Their entire property consisted of eight horses and the family “bunchuk” - a white banner with nine yak tails, symbolizing the four large and five small yurts of his family, with the image of a bird of prey - a gyrfalcon in the center. Soon he was forced to hide from the persecution of Targutai, who became the successor of his father, to whom the Mongol tribes went into submission. The “Secret Legend” tells in detail how Temujin hid alone in a dense forest, then was captured, how he escaped from captivity, found his family and, together with her, several years (4 years) was hiding from persecution.

Having matured, Temujin, at the age of 17, went with his friend Belgutai to the camp of the father of the beautiful Borte; according to the custom of the Mongols, the marriage contract was concluded by their fathers when the girl was nine years old, and took her as his wife. She subsequently became known in history as Borte Fujin, the empress and mother of Genghis Khan's four sons and five daughters. And although the chronicles report that Genghis Khan had about five hundred wives and concubines from different tribes during his life, among the five main wives, the first wife, Borte Fujin, remained the most respectable and eldest for Genghis Khan all his life.

Information about initial period Temujin's life, until the time of his recognition by Genghis Khan, is stingy and contradictory; many details of that time are not known. The story that has come down to us in the “Secret History of the Mongols” in a number of places does not coincide with the description of the same events by Rashid ad-Din.

Both chronicles tell of the capture of Borte, Temujin's wife, by the Merkits, who after 18 years decided to take revenge for the theft from their family of the beautiful Hoelun, Temujin’s mother, by his father Yesugei-baatur. According to the “Secret Legend,” the Merkits handed over Borte to a relative of the man who lost Hoelun. Having no one in his yurt except his brothers, and not having the opportunity to attack the Merkits, Temujin goes to his father’s named brother, the Kerait Khan Togrul (Wan Khan) and asks him for help. He willingly provides military assistance to the lonely Temujin and marches with several thousands of troops against the Merkits and beats his wife back. Rashid ad-Din describes this episode differently: the Merkits sent Borte Toghrul Khan, who voluntarily, as a sign of memory of the sister-city relationship - “ande”, with Temujin’s father, returned it to the future Genghis Khan through one confidant.

The protection and patronage of Toghrul Khan secured him for several years. The chronicles say little about Temujin's early life, but after One day at dawn, many tribes joined Temujin’s nomadic camp at the same time , the Mongols quickly gained strength and already accounted for 13 thousand people . From that time on, the chronicles report that Temujin had military detachments numbering up to 10 thousand people . The first battle that Temujin decisively won according to Rashid ad-Din was the battle with the 30 thousand Tayuchite army led by Zhamukha. Temujin ordered all prisoners to be boiled alive in 70 cauldrons. Frightened by this, the Juryat tribe immediately submitted and submitted to the young khan. In the “Secret Legend” this episode is interpreted differently, Zhamukha wins, and accordingly he boils Temujin’s captured warriors in cauldrons, this atrocity pushes many people away from Zhamukha, and many neighboring tribes go under the banners of the defeated Temujin. According to historians, Rashid ad-Din’s version looks more convincing, and the victory in that historical battle was won by Temujin, to whom, under the protection of the stronger, many people go over. After some time, under the family banner of Temujin there was already 100 thousand yurts . Having concluded an alliance with the Keraits, "a relationship of unshakable friendship with the Kerait leader Toghrul Khan", the united hordes of Temujin and Toghrul Khan defeated the Mongols' old enemies the Tatars. Chronicles report a general massacre of the Tatars.

When the aging Toghrul lost power, his sons, at the head of the Keraits, opposed Temujin and won the battle. To strengthen his position, the retreating Temujin united most of the tribes of the northern Gobi around him over the winter and in the spring attacked the Keraits and Merkits and defeated them. The chronicles report that Temujin decreed that none of the Merkits should be left alive. The surviving Keraits stood under the banner of Temujin. For three years after the battle that made him master of the Gobi, Temujin sent his troops to the lands of the Western Turkic tribes, Naiman and Uighurs and won victories everywhere. The history of Genghis Khan is described in more detail in the chronicles when he reaches 41 years of age and “until finally, after the mentioned twenty-eight years of disorder, the Almighty Truth granted him strength and help and his work turned to exaltation and increase.”

In 1206, the kurultai - a congress of khans of all Mongol tribes - proclaimed Temujin the great kagan and awarded him the title of Genghis Khan - Genghis Kha-Khan, the Greatest of rulers, Lord of all people. Subsequently, historians called him “Conqueror of the World” and “Conqueror of the Universe.” The Persian chronicles describe this event as follows: “He (shaman Teb-Tengri) gave him the nickname of Genghis Khan, saying: By the command of the Eternal Blue Sky your name must be Genghis Khan! In Mongolian, “chin” means “strong,” and Chingiz is the plural of it. In the Mongolian language, the nickname Genghis Khan has the same meaning as Gur Khan, but with a more exaggerated meaning, since it is plural, and this word can be generalized, for example, with the Persian “shahanshah” (“King of Kings”).” .

The rule of Genghis Khan strengthened central power and brought Mongolia to the ranks of the most powerful military countries in Central Asia at that time. He went down in history as a ruthless conqueror: “Genghis Khan proclaimed with special valor: to rob, steal or kill a person of another, non-Tatar tribe, that the tribes subordinate to him constitute the only people in the universe chosen by heaven, that they will henceforth bear the name “Mongols”, which means "overcoming" All other peoples on earth must become slaves of the Mongols. Rebellious tribes must be cleared from the plains of the earth, like weeds, harmful grasses, and only the Mongols will remain to live.”

War was proclaimed the most effective means of acquiring material well-being. Thus began the era of the bloody aggressive campaigns of the Mongols. Genghis Khan, his sons and grandsons, having conquered the territories of other states, created the largest empire in terms of size in human history. It included Central Asia, Northern and Southern China, Afghanistan, Iran. The Mongols carried out devastating raids on Rus', Hungary, Moravia, Poland, Syria, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The chronicles of eyewitnesses are replete with descriptions of barbaric plunder and massacres of the civilian population of captured cities. The excessive cruelty of the Mongols was reflected in various chronicles.

Historical chronicles have preserved the statements of the great khan of the Mongols: “Genghis said: Cruelty is the only thing that maintains order - the basis for the prosperity of a power. This means that the more cruelty, the more order, and therefore the more good.” And he also said: “Tengri himself commanded our power to rise, and his will cannot be understood by reason. Cruelty must go beyond the limits of reason, for only this will help the fulfillment of the highest will. One day, the Menkhol tribe of Tatars, by whose name the Chins called all Menkhols in memory of their former primacy over them, killed Chingiz's father; for this all the Tatars were killed, including women and children. And from then on, they called Tatars all those non-menkhols who served them and whom they sent into battle to die in front of them. And these serving Tatars shouted in battle “Tatars! Tatars!”, which meant: “Those who do not obey Menkhol will be exterminated like the Tatars.”

Laurentian Chronicle: “In 1237, the godless Tatars came from the eastern countries to the Ryazan land, and began to conquer the Ryazan land, and captured it as far as Pronsk, and took the entire Ryazan principality, and burned the city, and killed their prince. And some of the captives were crucified, others were shot with arrows, and others had their hands tied behind their backs. They set many holy churches on fire, burned monasteries and villages, and took considerable booty from everywhere. They took Suzdal, plundered the Church of the Holy Mother of God, and burned the princely courtyard with fire, and burned the monastery of St. Dmitry, and plundered others. Old monks, and nuns, and priests, and the blind, and the lame, and the hunchbacked, and the sick, and all the people were killed, and the young monks, and nuns, and priests, and priests, and clerks, and their wives, and daughters, and sons - they all took them to their camps.”

Ibn al-Athir, in his Perfect History, describes the invasion of Muslim lands by Mongol armies in these words: “The events I am about to relate are so terrible that for many years I avoided any mention of them. It is not easy to write about the death that has befallen Islam and Muslims. I wish my mother had not given birth to me, or that I had died before witnessing all these misfortunes. If they tell you that the earth has never known such a calamity since God created Adam, believe it, for it is the absolute truth...”

The Persian historian Juvaini, who took part in the war against the Mongols, in his work, as an eyewitness, testifies: “Thirteen days and thirteen nights they counted the people killed by the Mongols in the city of Merv. Counting only those whose bodies were actually found, and not counting those who were killed in grottoes and caves, in villages and desert places, they counted more than 1.3 million killed.” After Merv, the Mongol army received orders from Genghis Khan to take Nishapur: “destroying the city in such a way that you could walk over it with a plow, and for the purpose of revenge not even leaving cats and dogs alive.” “They exterminated all the townspeople of Nishapur, numbering 6 thousand souls, their beating lasted four days. Even dogs and cats were exterminated.”

“The Mongols were enemies of settled life, agriculture and cities. During the conquest of northern China, the Mongol nobility sought from Genghis Khan an order to kill the entire settled population to a single person, and turn the lands into pastures for nomads.” The Mongols adhered to the tactic of completely devastating the captured lands, so that the arable land would once again become a steppe rich in grass and pastures for livestock. Cities were destroyed to the ground, irrigation canals were filled with sand, the entire local population was exterminated, and prisoners were mercilessly destroyed so as not to be fed. And only at the end of his life, in the last campaign against the Tangut state, Genghis Khan began to understand that it was more profitable to preserve the cities in order to take taxes from them.

In addition to Rus', Eastern and Southern Europe, the Mongols conquered Tibet, invaded Japan, Korea, Burma and the island of Java. Their troops were not only land forces: in 1279, in the Gulf of Canton, Mongol ships defeated the fleet of the Chinese Song Empire. During the reign of Kublai Khan, the Chinese fleet achieved brilliant victories at sea. The first attempt to invade Japan was made by Kublai Khan in 1274, for which a flotilla of 900 ships with 40 thousand Mongol, Chinese and Korean soldiers was assembled. The fleet with a military landing left the Korean port of Masan. The Mongols capture the islands of Tsushima and Iki, but a typhoon destroys the squadron. Korean chronicles report that the losses in this naval expedition amounted to 13,000 people and that many of them drowned. Thus ended the first invasion.

In 1281, a second attempt was made to land in Japan. It is believed that this was the largest naval invasion in human history, with 3,400 ships and 142,000 Mongol-Chinese warriors. Typhoon, as with the first attempt to invade japanese islands, again destroys the naval squadron. A similar scenario of an unsuccessful invasion occurred in Russian history in 866. 200 Russian longships went to Constantinople, but were scattered by a typhoon; in 906, 2000 Russian longships of 40 soldiers each (80 thousand soldiers) under the leadership of Prince Oleg landed in Constantinople (Constantinople).

The Japanese called the Mongol invasion Genko (Yuan invasion). In Japan, picturesque ancient scrolls “The Tale of the Invasion from the Sea” (1293) have been preserved. The scroll's drawings depict scenes of a naval battle, archers on the decks of small ships. Japanese ships are marked with the Japanese national flag; it is not determined who the enemy ships belong to based on the drawings. The Mongol-Korean invasion by sea is the only time in samurai history that Japan was invaded from outside.

Six years passed after the first attempt at landing from the sea, during which time the Japanese prepared for defense. Along the coast in Hakata Bay, a stone wall about 25 miles long and about 5 meters high was erected to protect against attackers from the sea, which has survived to this day. On the inside, the wall was inclined, so that it was possible to ride on horseback, and the other side ended with a sheer wall towards the sea. Hojo Tokimuke, the Japanese shogun (1268–1284), led the defense against the Mongol invasion, but the Japanese were unable to resist the armada of invaders. In prayers, the entire Japanese people asked for divine help. On August 15, 1281, in the evening immediately after offering prayers, the heavens responded with a typhoon, later called by the Japanese “kamikaze” - a sacred wind that scattered the squadron of attackers and saved Japan from conquest. The Chinese fleet was destroyed and over 100,000 attackers died at sea.

In the early 80s of the twentieth century, the Japanese archaeologist Torao Masai, at the bottom of the island of Takashima, using modern technology, discovered many objects (weapons, iron rods and ingots, stone anchors and cannonballs, the seal of a thousand-man), which confirmed the fact of the death of Kublai Kublai’s fleet.

In 1470, in the Honko-yi monastery, a huge, three-meter-long map of the world was drawn, where all of Eurasia and even North Africa, including the adjacent seas, were considered Mongolian possessions. For the first time in history, this unique monastic map and Invasion by Sea scroll was exhibited abroad at the exhibition "The Legacy of Genghis Khan: The Worldwide Empire of the Mongols" in Bonn in 2005.

Estimates of the number of Genghis Khan's troops vary widely, but it is difficult to give an exact figure. From the chronicles of Rashid ad-Din: “In total, Genghis formed 95 detachments of a thousand people. Tului, the youngest son of Genghis Khan, after his death inherited almost all of his troops - 101 thousand out of 129 thousand.” According to historians, Genghis Khan's hordes were not, like the Huns, a migrating mass, but a disciplined invading army. Each warrior had two or three horses and was wrapped in fur clothes, which allowed him to sleep right in the snow. According to the estimate of the English historian G. Howorth, the army of Genghis Khan during his campaign against the Khorezmshah amounted to 230 thousand soldiers and moved separately along two routes. It was the most large army of all that Genghis Khan collected. From historical chronicles it is known that Genghis Khan’s army at the time of his death consisted of four corps along with the imperial guard and numbered 129 thousand soldiers. According to authoritative historians, the population of the Mongol people under Genghis Khan was no more than 1 million people. The speed of movement of the Mongolian troops is amazing, having emerged from the steppes of Mongolia, a year later they victoriously reach the lands of Armenia. For comparison, the Scythian campaign in 630 BC. from the banks of the Don through the Caucasus mountains to Persia and Asia Minor lasted 28 years, Alexander the Great's campaign to conquer Persia (330) lasted 8 years, Timur's campaign (1398) from Central Asia to Asia Minor lasted 7 years.

Genghis Khan is credited with uniting the nomads and creating a strong Mongol state. He united Mongolia and expanded its borders, creating the largest empire in human history. His collection of laws "Yasy" remained for a long time legal basis nomadic peoples of Asia.

The old Mongolian code of laws “Jasak”, introduced by Genghis Khan, reads: “Genghis Khan’s Yasa prohibits lying, theft, adultery, prescribes to love one’s neighbor as oneself, not to cause offenses, and to forget them completely, to spare countries and cities that have submitted voluntarily, to free from all tax and respect the temples dedicated to God, as well as his servants.” The significance of “Jasak” for the formation of statehood in the empire of Genghis Khan is noted by all historians. The introduction of a set of military and civil laws made it possible to establish a firm rule of law on the vast territory of the Mongol Empire; non-compliance with its laws was punishable by death. Yasa prescribed tolerance in matters of religion, respect for temples and clergy, prohibited quarrels among the Mongols, disobedience of children to their parents, the theft of horses, regulated military service, rules of conduct in battle, distribution of military spoils, etc.

“Immediately kill whoever sets foot on the threshold of the governor’s headquarters.”

“Whoever urinates in water or on ashes is put to death.”

“It is prohibited to wash a dress while wearing it until it is completely worn out.”

“No one leaves his thousand, hundred or ten. Otherwise, he himself and the commander of the unit who received him will be executed.”

“Respect all faiths, without giving preference to any one.”

Genghis Khan declared shamanism, Christianity and Islam the official religions of his empire.

“Great Jasak” - the legislation of Genghis Khan is most fully preserved in the chronicles of Rashid ad-Din. There in “Bilik” - a collection of parables and sayings of Genghis Khan it is said: “The greatest pleasure and pleasure for a husband is to suppress the indignant and defeat the enemy, uproot him and seize everything that he has; make his married women weep and shed tears, sit on his good ride with the smooth rumps of geldings, turn the bellies of his beautiful-faced spouses into a night dress for sleeping and a bedding, look at their rose-colored cheeks and kiss them, and suck their sweet lips the color of breast berries! » .

In “The History of the Conqueror of the World,” Juvaini notes: “The Almighty singled out Genghis Khan for his intelligence and reason among equals, and in wisdom and power he elevated him above all the kings of the world, therefore everything that is already known about the orders of the powerful Khosroes and recorded about the customs of the pharaohs and Caesars is Genghis Khan , without the tedious study of chronicles and conformity with antiquities, he invented only from the pages of his own mind; and everything that was connected with the methods of conquering countries and related to the crushing of the power of enemies and the elevation of friends was the product of his own wisdom and the consequence of his reflections.

Several novels about Genghis Khan have been published in Russian, among them the most famous are the novels by V. Yang “Genghis Khan”, I. Kalashnikov “The Cruel Age”, Ch. Aitmatov “The White Cloud of Genghis Khan”. Two films are available on video cassettes: the Korean-Mongolian film “Khan of the Great Steppe. Genghis Khan" and the film "Genghis Khan", starring O. Sharif. In Russian only in 1996–2006. eight books have been published about the life of Genghis Khan: Rene Grousset (2000), S. Walker (1998), Michel Hoang (1997), E. Hara-Davan (2002), E.D. Phillips (2003), Juvaini (2004), Jean-Paul Roux (2005), John Maine (2006), from which many historical facts of his deeds can be gleaned.

In historical sources about Siberia there is no mention of the name Tengis in connection with Baikal. In the Turkic and Mongolian languages, “tengis” means sea, but the local Baikal population always called the lake differently - Lamu or Baigaal. Translator of “The Secret Legend” S.A. Kozin expressed two versions of the possible identification of the name Tengis, according to the first version with the Caspian Sea, and according to the second - with Baikal. The fact that the name Tengis means the Caspian Sea, and not Baikal, is supported by the naming of the Caspian Sea in all medieval sources as an inland sea. In the Nart epic and in Persian geographical texts, the Caspian Sea was called Khazar-Tengiz, the Black Sea - Kara-Tengiz. The proper name Tengiz is also widespread among the peoples of the Caucasus. In the distant past, the peoples inhabiting the shores of Baikal each called the lake in their own way. Chinese in ancient chronicles 110 BC it was called “Beihai” - the North Sea, the Buryat-Mongols - “Baigaal-dalai” - “big body of water”, the ancient peoples of Siberia, the Evenks - “Lamu” - the sea. Under the name "Lamu", the lake is often mentioned in Evenki legends, and under this name it first became known to the Russian Cossacks. The Evenk name of the lake, Lamu, was at first more common among Russian explorers of Siberia. After Kurbat Ivanov’s detachment reached the shore of the lake, the Russians switched to the Buryat-Mongolian name “Baygaal” or “Baigaal-dalai. At the same time, they linguistically adapted it to their language, replacing the “g” characteristic of the Buryats with the more familiar “k” for the Russian language - Baikal. The origin of the name “Baikal” is not precisely established. The name Baigal first appears in the Mongolian chronicles of the first half of the 17th century. “Shara Tuji” (“Yellow Chronicle”).

The name of Genghis Khan has long become a household name. It is a symbol of devastation and colossal wars. The Mongol ruler created an empire whose size amazed the imagination of his contemporaries.

Childhood

The future Genghis Khan, whose biography has many blank spots, was born somewhere on the border of modern Russia and Mongolia. They named him Temujin. He adopted the name Genghis Khan as a designation of the title of ruler of the vast Mongol empire.

Historians have never been able to accurately calculate the date of birth famous commander. Various estimates place it between 1155 and 1162. This inaccuracy is due to the lack of reliable sources relating to that era.

Genghis Khan was born into the family of one of the Mongol leaders. His father was poisoned by the Tatars, after which the child began to be persecuted by other contenders for power in his native uluses. In the end, Temujin was captured and forced to live with stocks placed around his neck. This symbolized the slave position of the young man. Temujin managed to escape from captivity by hiding in the lake. He was underwater until his pursuers began looking for him elsewhere.

Unification of Mongolia

Many Mongols sympathized with the escaped prisoner who was Genghis Khan. The biography of this man is a vivid example of how a commander created a huge army from scratch. Once free, he was able to enlist the support of one of the khans named Tooril. This elderly ruler gave his daughter to Temuchin as his wife, thereby cementing an alliance with the talented young military leader.

Very soon the young man was able to meet the expectations of his patron. Together with his army, ulus after ulus. He was distinguished by his uncompromisingness and cruelty towards his enemies, which terrified his enemies. His main enemies were the Tatars, who dealt with his father. Genghis Khan ordered his subjects to destroy all these people, except for children, whose height did not exceed the height of a cart wheel. The final victory over the Tatars occurred in 1202, when they became harmless to the Mongols, united under the rule of Temujin.

Temujin's new name

In order to officially consolidate his leading position among his fellow tribesmen, the leader of the Mongols convened a kurultai in 1206. This council proclaimed him Genghis Khan (or Great Khan). It was under this name that the commander went down in history. He managed to unite the warring and scattered uluses of the Mongols. The new ruler gave them the only goal - to extend their power to neighboring peoples. Thus began the aggressive campaigns of the Mongols, which continued after Temujin’s death.

Genghis Khan's reforms

Soon reforms began, initiated by Genghis Khan. The biography of this leader is very informative. Temujin divided the Mongols into thousands and tumens. These administrative units together made up the Horde.

The main problem that could hinder Genghis Khan was internal hostility among the Mongols. Therefore, the ruler mixed numerous clans among themselves, depriving them of the previous organization that had existed for dozens of generations. It bore fruit. The horde became manageable and obedient. At the head of the tumens (one tumen included ten thousand warriors) were people loyal to the khan, who unquestioningly obeyed his orders. The Mongols were also attached to their new units. For moving to another tumen, those who disobeyed faced the death penalty. Thus, Genghis Khan, whose biography shows him as a far-sighted reformer, was able to overcome the destructive tendencies within Mongolian society. Now he could engage in external conquests.

Chinese campaign

By 1211, the Mongols managed to subjugate all the neighboring Siberian tribes. They were characterized by poor self-organization and could not repel the invaders. The first real test for Genghis Khan on distant frontiers was the war with China. This civilization had been at war with the northern nomads for many centuries and had enormous military experience. One day, the guards on the Great Wall of China saw foreign troops led by Genghis Khan (a short biography of the leader cannot do without this episode). This fortification system was impregnable to previous intruders. However, it was Temujin who was the first to take possession of the wall.

It was divided into three parts. Each of them set out to conquer hostile cities in their own direction (in the south, southeast and east). Genghis Khan himself reached with his army all the way to the sea. He made peace. The losing ruler agreed to recognize himself as a tributary of the Mongols. For this he received Beijing. However, as soon as the Mongols retreated back to the steppes, the Chinese emperor moved his capital to another city. This was regarded as treason. The nomads returned to China and again filled it with blood. In the end, this country was subjugated.

Conquest of Central Asia

The next region that came under Temujin's attack was the local Muslim rulers who did not resist the Mongol hordes for long. Because of this, the biography of Genghis Khan is studied in detail in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan today. A summary of his biography is taught in any school.

In 1220, the khan captured Samarkand - the oldest and richest city region.

The next victims of the nomadic aggression were the Polovtsians. These steppe inhabitants asked some Slavic princes for help. So in 1223, Russian warriors first met the Mongols at the Battle of Kalka. The battle between the Polovtsy and the Slavs was lost. Temujin himself was in his homeland at that time, but closely monitored the success of his subordinates' weapons. Genghis Khan, whose interesting biographical facts are collected in various monographs, received the remnants of this army, which returned to Mongolia in 1224.

Death of Genghis Khan

In 1227, during the siege of the Tangut capital, he died. A brief biography of the leader, set out in any textbook, will certainly tell about this episode.

The Tanguts lived in northern China and, despite the fact that the Mongols had long since subjugated them, rebelled. Then Genghis Khan himself led the army, which was supposed to punish the disobedient.

According to the chronicles of that time, the leader of the Mongols hosted a delegation of Tanguts who wanted to discuss the terms of the surrender of their capital. However, Genghis Khan felt ill and refused the ambassadors an audience. He died soon after. It is not known exactly what caused the leader’s death. Perhaps it was a matter of age, since the khan was already seventy years old, and he could hardly endure long campaigns. There is also a version that he was stabbed to death by one of his wives. The mysterious circumstances of the death are also complemented by the fact that researchers still cannot find Temujin’s grave.

Heritage

There is little reliable evidence left about the empire that Genghis Khan founded. The biography, campaigns and victories of the leader - all this is known only from fragmentary sources. But the significance of the Khan’s actions is difficult to overestimate. He created largest state in the history of mankind, spread over the vast expanse of Eurasia.

Temujin's descendants developed his success. Thus, his grandson Batu led an unprecedented campaign against the Russian principalities. He became the ruler of the Golden Horde and imposed tribute on the Slavs. But the empire founded by Genghis Khan was short-lived. At first it split into several uluses. These states were eventually captured by their neighbors. Therefore, it was Genghis Khan Khan, whose biography is known to any educated person, who became a symbol of Mongol power.