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CHINGGIS
KHAAN
"If
you do not pay homage, we will take your properity.
If you do not have properity, we will take your children.
If you do not have children, we will take your wife.
If you do not have wife, we will take your head."
Chinggis
khaan's tax law.
Genghis
Khan (1162-1227), Mongol conqueror and founder
of the Mongol Empire, which spanned the continent of Asia
by the time of his death. Originally named Temujin, he was
born on the banks of the Onon River, near the present-day
border between northern Mongolia and southeastern Russia.
Native folklore is the only source for details about his ancestry,
birth, and early life, and thus the facts are intermingled
with purely legendary material. His line of descent is traced
back, through many generations, to the mythical union of a
gray wolf and a white doe. The newborn infant is said to have
held in his hand a large clot of blood, thus presaging the
future career of the world conqueror.
Genghis
Khan, the thirteen century emperor, was infamous
for his bloodthirsty, ruthless campaigns, but he was also
one of the great commanders of history. Though a master of
terror - his casmpaigns in northern China and Iran were accompanied
by a level of slaughter that was not seen again until the
twentieth century - he was just and generous to his subjects
and often magnanimous in victory. His broad, ambitious strategies
and elusive tactics were so far ahead of their time that they
were acknowledged models for some of the most successful tank
commanders of the Second World War. At the beginning of the
thirteenth century Genghis khan united the nomad tribes of
Mongolia, turned them into a formidable army and led them
to rule over the largest empire ever conquered by a single
commander. By the time he died, in 1227, his dominions streched
eastward from the Caspian Sea to the shores of Pacific Ocean.
/From Ghenghis Khan, by James Chambers/
Genghis
Khan (in Mandarin Che'ng-chi-ssu-han), 1162–1227,
Mongol conqueror, originally named Temu-jin. He succeeded
his father, Yekusai, as chieftain of a Mongol tribe and then
fought to become ruler of a Mongol confederacy. After subjugating
many tribes of Mongolia and establishing his capital at Karakorum,
Temu-jin held (1206) a great meeting, the khuriltai, at which
he accepted leadership of the Mongols and assumed his title.
He promulgated a code of conduct and reorganized his armies.
He attacked (1213) the Jurchen-ruled Chin empire of N China
and by 1215 had occupied most of its territory, including
the capital, Yenching (now Beijing). From 1218 to 1224 he
conquered Turkistan, Transoxania, and Afghanistan and raided
Persia and E Europe to the Dnepr River. Jenghiz Khan ruled
one of the greatest land empires the world has ever known.
He died while campaigning against the Jurchen, and his vast
domains were divided among his sons and grandsons. His wars
were marked by ruthless carnage, but Jenghiz Khan was a brilliant
ruler and military leader. Tamerlane was said to be descended
from him. /Encycleopedia/
The portrait of a grandfatherly
man with a wispy moustache and flowing silver beard seemed
far removed from the merciless warrior who established an
empire more extensive than that of Alexander the Great. Genghis
Khan in his sixties was still a formidable ruler whose accomplishments
included a comprehensive legal system, an efficient horse
and rider communication system similar to the pony express,
and the first written Mongol language. /Empires beyond of
the Great Wall/
The
Mongol Horde ... with their mighty Genghis
Khan leading them they nearly ruled the earth! The incredible
war machine that Genghis Khan built is difficult to imagine
even by modern standards. Cities in his path were obliterated,
rivers diverted, deserts crowded with the fleeing and dying.
In the wake of the ruthless horde birds of prey were often
the sole living creatures to inhabit the bloody, ravaged land.
Such wholesale destruction can only be compared to modern
nuclear warfare. /From Ghenghis
Khan and the Mongol Horde, by Harold Lamb/
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