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EI3 2017-4 I-Iv.Indd 24 chinggis khn Chinggis Khn first companions (nökörs, people who chose to join a leader in return for his protec- Chinggis (Genghis) Khn (c. 557– tion). These nökörs later became the elite of 624/1162–1227) was the founder of the the new empire. Temüjin also forged an Mongol empire, whose career and legacy alliance with Jamuqa, his sworn brother reshaped the mediaeval Muslim world. (anda) and later arch-enemy, and subse- Most of our information about his life quently with his father’s anda, To’oril, later derives from the anonymous and partly known as Ong Khn, head of the influen- mythical Mongolian source known as The tial Kerayit tribe. Both were called to help secret history of the Mongols, compiled prob- him after the Merkit tribe kidnapped his ably soon after Chinggis Khn’s death. beloved Börte in about 1183–4. Temüjin This is supplemented by nonextant Mon- got back his (pregnant) wife and began to gol sources that were partially preserved in assert his authority over his clan and the Persian or Chinese works, mainly Rashd neighbouring Turco-Mongolian tribes, by al-Dn’s Jmi al-tawrkh (“Collection of forging alliances and discarding them after chronicles”) and the anonymous Shengwu they had served his purpose. He gradually qingshenglu (“Records of the holy warrior”). made a name for himself as a successful, Born as Temüjin (lit., blacksmith) to ruthless, and generous leader. a minor chieftain in northeastern Mon- In the middle to late 1180s, Temüjin golia around 1162 (thus in the Chinese was enthroned as the khn of his tribe, sources and currently accepted; 1167 is and, during the succeeding decades, part also mentioned; Muslim sources usually of which he perhaps spent in Jin captiv- give the less plausible 549/1154; Rashd, ity, he gradually won over rival tribes, 1:231, trans. Thackston, 1:152), the future notably the Tatars in 1202, his former Chinggis Khn suffered hard times as a allies the Kerayits in 1203, the Naiman of youth. Growing up in times of politi- western Mongolia in 1204, and his erst- cal crisis and tribal rivalries encouraged while rival Jamuqa in 1205. In 1206, an by the Jurchen Jin dynasty (1115–1234), assembly (quriltay) of all the tribes of Mon- the superpower of twelfth-century Mon- golia proclaimed him Chinggis Khn, a golia that ruled northern China, he had new title meaning either the fierce ruler to fight his way to power. When Temüjin or the universal khn (de Rachewiltz, The turned nine, his father, Yesügei, arranged title inggis Qan/Qayan reconsidered). It his marriage to the daughter of the ruler took Chinggis Khn more time and effort of the Qonggirat tribe and delivered him to unite the tribes of the eastern steppe to his in-laws. On his way back, Yesügei than it took him to conquer half the known was poisoned by the Tatars, an enemy world. Soon after the quriltay, Chinggis tribe. Temüjin was called back to suc- Khn began to expand his rule. His first ceed his father, but Yesügei’s supporters, campaigns were motivated by revenge, mainly the Tayichi’ut clan, abandoned the elimination of potential rivals, and the him, leaving his family to its fate. By the acquisition of riches—far more than by time the teenaged Temüjin set out to any grand design for world conquest. His reclaim his Qonggirat bride, Börte, he first goal was China, then divided among had killed his elder half-brother, escaped three dynasties, the Tangut Xi Xia in from Tayichi’ut captivity, and secured his the northwest (centred in today’s Gansu chinggis khn 25 Map 1. The Campaigns of Chinggis Khn. province), the Jurchen Jin in Manchuria acteristically benign conquest, incorporat- and northern China, and the native Chi- ing most of their troops into the Mongol nese Song dynasty in the south. Chinggis ranks. This conquest brought Chinggis Khn first raided the weaker Xi Xia in Khn face to face with the empire of 1205 and 1207, reducing it to a tribu- the Khwrazm Shh, then the strongest tary state in 1209. In 1211, he turned ruler in the eastern Islamic world. Ching- against the Jin, conquering its capital, in gis Khn first suggested peaceful coexis- present-day Beijing, in 1215; this time, tence to Muammad Khwrazm Shh (r. moving from raids to conquest, he left 596–617/1200–20), but, when the latter’s troops to handle the territory. Challenges representative murdered Chinggis Khn’s to his leadership of the Mongol world ambassador and plundered his caravan then made Chinggis turn west. The forest in 616/1218, at Utrr (on the Jaxartes, tribes of northwestern Mongolia rebelled in present-day Kazakhstan), and the and were subdued in 1216. In the same Khwrazm Shh refused to punish him, year, generals were sent against a Naiman Chinggis Khn advanced into the Muslim prince who had usurped the Qara Khiy world. After careful planning, the Mongol throne in Central Asia in 1211 and was troops crossed the Jaxartes in 617/1219 gradually imposing his authority over in three coordinated columns, attacking eastern Central Asia. By that time, sev- Utrr, Khwrazm, and Bukhara and eral eastern vassals of the Qara Khiy, continuing to the Khwrazmian capital, notably the Uighurs of Gaochang (east Samarqand. Preferring not to confront Xinjiang), who later played a major role Chinggis on the battlefield, the Khwrazm as cultural brokers for the Mongols, and Shh divided his troops into garrisons and the Muslim Qarluqs of Qayaliq (in south- he himself escaped northward. With the ern Kazakhstan) and Almaliq (in northern conquest of Samarqand, in Rab I 617/ Xinjiang) were already among Chinggis May–June 1220, nearly all of Transoxania Khn’s allies. In 615/1218, his generals was in Mongol hands less than a year after overran the Qara Khiy in an unchar- Chinggis’s forces crossed the Jaxartes. The 26 chinggis khn harsh and rapid “infidel” conquest was ever conquered by one person. In his accompanied by massacres and devasta- transformation from successful chieftain tion on an unprecedented scale and came to world conqueror, the invasion of the as a shock to the Muslim population of Muslim world was a turning point, not Central Asia and the Middle East (e.g., only because it greatly enlarged his terri- Ibn al-Athr, 12:358 ff.). Khursn was tory, troops, and riches, but also because next in line. As the Mongols met strong it exposed him to administrative traditions resistance and did not originally intend different from China’s and convinced to settle there, it was even more brutally him, and everyone else around him, that ravaged by Chinggis Khn’s son, Tolui (d. he was destined by Heaven to rule the 629/1232), and myriads of people were earth. In addition to his spectacular mili- massacred. While the restoration of Tran- tary success, Chinggis Khn also laid the soxania had already begun in Chinggis institutional foundations for an empire Khn’s day, Khursn remained in ruins that continued to expand for several gen- for decades. erations, up to the 670s/1270s. One of his Chinggis Khn’s commanders Jebe and main achievements was the reorganisation S_ ubetei_ continued to pursue the Khwrazm of the army: he retained the traditional Shh, who died, in late 617/1220, on a Inner Asian decimal units (of ten, one small island in the Caspian Sea, bereft hundred, one thousand, and ten thousand of his troops, his wealth, and his glory; men) but eliminated its connection to the the troops took the long way back to tribal system. Tribes, or their remnants, Mongolia, wreaking havoc in Russia in were divided among the different units, 620/1223. In 618/1221, Chinggis’ troops which were headed by Chinggis Khn’s defeated Jall al-Dn Khwrazm Shh (r. nökors, elected for their loyalty and skills. 617–28/1220–31), Muammad’s son and They replaced the former tribal elite and the only Muslim leader who actually chal- became a focus of loyalty and identifica- lenged the Mongols (on the Indus River), tion for their troops. This disciplined, pro- although Jall al-Dn himself did not die fessionally led, and mobile army was also until 628/1231. Chinggis Khn spent the armed with an ideology, according to which next years in Transoxania, where he met Heaven entrusted Chinggis Khn with the Daoist patriarch Changchun (d. 1227), the mission of world conquest, its blessing whom he had summoned from China to attested by his spectacular success. teach him the secret of longevity. In 1225 Chinggis Khn also created for his peo- Chinggis Khn returned to Mongolia and ple a legal system (called yasa in Turkic and attacked the Xi Xia, who had refused to jasaq in Mongolian), the exact form and send troops for the western campaign. contents of which are still debated. He also Chinggis Khn did not see the final sub- established a juridical system, which ben- jugation—and massacre—of the Tanguts, efitted from his earlier decision to adopt because he died in 624/1227, during the literacy (he chose the Uighur script for battle. He was buried with great pomp, writing the Mongolian language). Other but the location of his tomb has been a institutions that he initiated, which were mystery ever since. later systematised by his heirs, such as the Chinggis Khn died ruling over the ter- postal system (Mongolian jam), affected ritory that extended from northern China future Muslim institutions. Chinggis Khn to the Caspian Sea, the largest territory borrowed administrators and administra- chinggis khn 27 Map 2. The Asia of Chinggis Khn and His Successors.
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