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Genghis Khan …. “The
Punishment of God!”
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MONGOLIA …“ Ringed
by towering mountains and impassable deserts”.. a barren, sparsely populated, wind-swept land of mystery in the heart of Asia.
Land
of Marco Polo and Prester John
and that unrivalled conqueror,
Genghis Khan ! And thereby hangs a tale
….
…………………………………
“Do you have any books concerning Genghis Khan?” I
asked the attendant at the local public library.
He looked at me quizzically and replied, “Did you say
‘general gardening’?” .
I could not help but smile. Anyone who knows my interests would know that I would not be
asking for such a topic.
“No,” I replied, and then enunciating as clearly as I
could, tried again. ”Genghis Khan….he
was the Ruler of the Mongols back in the Thirteenth Century.”
Another odd look.
“How do you
spell it?” he queried.
Which presented something of a problem. For whilst
‘Genghis Khan’ is the spelling used in some volumes, others spell it
‘Ghengis’ or ‘Jenghis’ or ‘Jenghiz’, or more recently, ‘Chinggis
Khan’ . The Internet even reveals a ‘Chingis Khan’ Hotel in Mongolia
if the reader is looking for
something different to visit during his
next holiday. ( But be warned, the temperature sometimes
drops to minus forty – Celsius !! Not
exactly the Bahamas !! )
Having
overcome these initial difficulties I eventually headed homeward with half a
dozen volumes tucked beneath my arm.
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In the Time magazine series, The Most Important
People of the Millennium, Genghis Khan is rated at number 27. And Michael Hart places him twenty-first in
his massive A Ranking of the 100 Most Influential Persons in History.
Under his ruthless leadership the Mongols carved out
the greatest empire the world had ever seen, far in excess of that accomplished
by Alexander the Great one and a half millennia previous. When the grandson of Genghis Khan ascended
the throne, the Mongol army extended
its borders even further.
From “Hungary to the Pacific and the Arctic circle to
the Persian Gulf,“ the Mongol empire held sway for about two centuries. ( Maclean. P. 211)
………………………………….
It was 1165 , or thereabouts … birth records were
rather tenuous, if existent (!) in the twelfth century ! … that the wife of a
Mongol chieftain gave birth to a son.
They called him Temujin.
On these wind-swept steppes young Temujin grew to
manhood with hatred in his heart. “ Bitterness cultivated a heart of iron.” ( Time )
A rival tribe
had poisoned his father in retribution for his robbing them. As a result, the nine-year-old lad had been
forced to provide for his mother and the other family children, living on
berries, birds, fish, wild onions …and
mice ! (The Chinggis Khan Hotel,
I am sure, provides a better menu !!)
In his teen-age years we read of his killing his
half-brother with an arrow for stealing food … an incident later omitted by
Mongolian historians. (
Nat. Geo.)
Also during this period of his life he is taken
prisoner by a neighboring war-lord, escapes, and hides in a river … vowing revenge!
A few more years pass and Borte, the wife of his
arranged marriage, is kidnapped.
Temujin gathers two hundred warriors around him and
storms the enemy tribe.
All these factors are preparatory to his leadership
of the Mongol nation. He becomes well - known as being both courageous and
fierce in battle. Dealt hardly by others in his early life, he now displays
that same ruthlessness to others. “The greatest happiness is to vanquish your
enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those
dear to them bathed in tears, to clasp to your bosom their wives and
daughters.”
Thus spoke Temujin… later known to the world as
Genghis Khan ! ( Footprints )
MOTIVATION !
But perhaps the supreme motivation comes from his
claim to ‘divine right’.
“ Heaven had predestined him to rule the world!” ( Kemp p. 77) At least, so he believed.
“ My strength,” he is reported to have said, “is fortified by Heaven and
Earth!” (Nat. Geo.) Had there not been a strange omen at the
time of his birth … a blood clot the size of a knucklebone clenched in his tiny hand?
By 1187 he is leading a disciplined army. “ When food
was scarce his soldiers would open up a vein in their horses to drink its blood
!” ( Footprints ) Rival tribes are successively conquered.
Nineteen years later, in 1206, Temujin is ‘ordained’ by a shaman as ‘Genghis
Khan’ ; a title meaning ‘oceanic ruler’ or
‘emperor of emperors’ or ‘ precious warrior’, depending upon which book one reads.
Now his world crusade was about to commence, and
before his death twenty years hence, the Mongol hordes would launch an
apocalyptic plague across much of the world. And a literal plague also,
according to Time magazine. For the bubonic plague which had its birth in southern China would
travel west with the Mongol armies “until it reached the Crimea in 1347.”
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CONQUEST !
The first major attack launched by the ‘galloping Mongol horsemen’ of Genghis Khan was directed against China in 1207. Whilst most of Northern China fell to their rule, complete domination of the whole land awaited the rise of Kublai Khan, his grandson.
One careful historian states that between 1211 and 1223 “ it is estimated that over 18 million people died in Northern China at the hands of the Mongols.” (Kemp. P.73)
Then it was the Great Khan, with his myriad cavalry, turned his attention to the west.
When Mohammed II massacred a group of Mongol travelers and sent the head of a Mongol envoy back to Genghis . The latter amassed a mighty fighting force and led them to Central Asia.
“ I am the punishment of God,” a Moslem historian records the Mongol ruler as saying, “ If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.” Eight hundred thousand Moslems were slain in Baghdad alone! Another contemporary historian wrote, “They came, they sapped, they burnt, they slew, they plundered, and they departed.” ( Nat. Geo.)
……………………..
Christendom likewise was threatened by this scourge from the East. To this very day, in Cracow, Poland, a
trumpeter “presents himself at the balcony of the city’s main tower and blows
an alarm. This ceremony has taken place each day, almost continually since the
middle of the thirteenth century.” And
then … dramatically … the trumpeter “comes to an abrupt halt midway through the
call.” For a watchman once sounded an alarm that the Mongol horde was
approaching the city. And an arrow silenced him ….as he played that
very note.
( Marshall
p.9)
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THE CODE OF LAWS
The followers
of Genghis Khan were loyal, even to death. Strict laws were drawn up, death for
disobedience, looting as reward.
This code of law is known as The Great Book of
Yasa ( or Yassa) and whilst no copy
is now extant, the teachings therein can be gleaned from other writings.
The Mongols had previously been without a written
language, but a captive from another tribe had taught the sons of Genghis to read and write. ( Nicholson p.10)
In the Yasa
are to be found laws concerning crimes punishable by death, adultery, lying, sorcery, failure to return
a runaway slave to his rightful owner, slaughtering an animal for food “in the
Mohammedan fashion”, …to mention but a few. There are laws concerning hygiene,
the respect of another’s religion, taxation, the dangers of alcoholism, delegation of army officers,
postal communications.
He decreed
that his followers were “ forbidden to wash their clothes until they were
completely worn out. He forbade them to dip their hands in water and ordered
them to use some vessel for the drawing of water. He ordered them to present their daughters to the Khan at the
beginning of each year that he might choose some for himself …” And so it goes.
Concerning
the importance placed upon this document, the Mongol ruler wrote;- “ if the
great, the military leaders and the leaders of the many descendants of the
ruler who shall be born in the future should not strictly adhere to the Yasa,
then the power of the state shall be shattered and come to an end, no matter
how they seek Genghis Khan, they shall not find him.” ( The Yasa of Chingis Khan …Internet . )
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DEATH !
He was about 55 years of age when he sent for
Changchun, a wise man reputed to know the secret of immortality. But this sage brings no comfort. “ If neither Heaven nor Earth can achieve
permanence,” he tells the Great Khan, “ how much less can man do so?” (Nat. Geo.)
…………………..
It was August
1227 . His horse stumbles and Genghis Khan is severely injured. It results in his death shortly afterwards. History records that as his body was carried back to
his birthplace, any who met the funeral procession were put to death. His
actual burial place is still an archaeologist’s dream. “A herd of horses was
said to have been driven back and forth over his grave to obscure it and
soldiers were posted until trees grew over the area.” (
Footprints.)
It was interesting to read that since the overthrow
of Communism in 1990, many Mongols are now sporting Genghis Khan lapel badges! ( Kemp p. 47) This
missionary author tells how pictures of Lenin have come down, and those of
Genghis taken their place. Text - books have been rewritten; Genghis is “no longer depicted as a marauding
barbarian, but as a skilful military strategist, the world conqueror, the
astute governor, and founder of the Mongol nation.”
Among the people of Mongolia there persists a curious
legend, a belief the day is yet to come
when Genghis Khan will return “ and lead the Mongols again to greatness” !
( Nat. Geo.)
……………………….
Under Kublai Khan, some fifty years later, The
Mongolian empire reached its greatest extent. But then came the “ economic,
military and administrative problems.” The vastness of the conquered
territories and difficulty in communication had made effective control
impossible. Many of those appointed as military leaders had never even been to
war ! ( Marshall .p.232) A Buddhist monk, Chu Yuan-chang, united
rebel forces. Karakorum, capital of the
Mongols, was attacked and destroyed.
There were natural disasters against which the might of Mongolia was
helpless to stand. Earthquakes and
floods (as when the Yellow River burst her banks in 1352 ) and a devastating plague the following
year. All these spelt a death - blow
to the greatest empire the world has ever seen…. ( Kublin . P. 80)
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LESSONS TO LEARN.
Various factors had contributed to the success of the
Great Khan’s conquests.
His rugged upbringing, his leadership qualities in
battle, his irrevocable commands and a ruthless demand for absolute allegiance.
His Yasa made it abundantly clear as to what was expected of his
people.
After all,
did he not believe that he had been chosen by his god to become ruler of the
world?
But like all
other earthly kingdoms there came the inevitable collapse. Death, that last
enemy which no man may conquer, intervened.
And, although a few of his descendants continued that which he had
commenced, events conspired to bring it all crashing down.
What was it the sage had warned him? …” If neither
Heaven nor Earth can achieve permanence, how can mere man do so?”
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Much of the story of Genghis Khan is gleaned
from The Secret History of the
Mongols by an unknown
author …but regarded as “ one of the
most remarkable documents in Central Asian literature.” ( Severin p.34 )
Most books on the history of the Mongols draw largely upon it.
Hugh Kemp , who lived in Mongolia as a missionary for
many years and who speaks their language, also quotes from Juvaini’s History of the World Conqueror and
The Chronography written by Bar Hebraeus …both rare volumes dating from the
13th. Century. And a copy of both are in his possession !
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Steppe by Step … by Hugh Kemp Monarch Books. 2000. 543pp. ( By far the most readable, yet scholarly, book I encountered in my research of this subject. )
( Available from ECM P.O. Box 265 Reservoir 3073 .. Tel (03) 9460 6826. )
In Search of Genghis Khan … by Tim Severin. Hutchinson . 1991. 276pp.
Storm from the East.
… by R. Marshall. BBC Books
1993. 256pp.
The Story of Genghis Khan … by C. King. J.M.Dent
& Sons. 1971. 131 pp.
Genghis Khan and the Mongols … by A Langley. Wayland Pub. 1987. 47pp.
The Mongols … by
R. Nicholson. Two-Can
Pub. 1992. 32pp.
The 100 Most
Influential Persons in History … by M. Hart. Vantage House. 1978 572pp.
Book of World
Travel … by. F.Maclean. ( Readers Digest Pub.
) 1968. 366pp.
China … by M. & H. Kublin. Houghton Mifflin Pub. 1991. 292pp.
Poland … by James
A.. Michener. Mandarin. 1983
843pp.
Also Encyclopedias and Biographical
Dictionaries; and Internet articles from National Geographic ; Time ;
Footprints and an article by Per Inge
Oestmoen.
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