If you want to discover the captivating life of Genghis Khan, then keep reading... Around the year 1162, near the modern capital of Mongolia, a baby boy was born into a fractious and violent world. The birth of this child must have caused quite a stir among the members of the nomadic tribe that he had been born into; word soon traveled that the son of Yesügei, the Borjigin tribal leader, had been born clutching a blood clot in his tiny hand.
Mongol folklore hailed this as a sign that the child would grow up to be a great leader of men, but perhaps history would interpret the baby’s gruesome prize as a foreshadowing of the bloodshed that would accompany his life and his legacy.
The story of Temüjin, and Genghis Khan as he would later be known, is a story about stories. We have few original sources to tell us about his life, and the sources we do have are often contradictory or untrustworthy, so historians have had to piece together the story of Genghis Khan and fill in the blanks.
What you will discover in this book is a combination of historical fact, expert conjecture, and myths and legends, filtered through the changing eyes of history and retold through many generations. There are many things we simply do not know about the enigmatic figure of Genghis Khan. There are many things that we think we know that may ultimately prove to be untrue. What is important is the story. Just as the young Temüjin must have sat around a campfire to be regaled by stories of his ancestral wolf heritage, we now sit around this virtual campfire to share the story of Genghis Khan.
In Genghis Khan: A Captivating Guide to the Founder of the Mongol Empire and His Conquests Which Resulted in the Largest Contiguous Empire in History, you will discover topics such as
The Mongolian Steppe
Temüjin
Becoming Genghis Khan
Building the Mongol Empire
Life in Genghis Khan’s Empire
Military Genius
Innovation
Death and Succession
The Mongol Empire After Genghis Khan
Pax Mongolica
The End of an Empire
And much, much more!
So if you want to learn more about Genghis Khan, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!
From what is admitted to be 'patchy' historical evidence, at some points, in the life of Genghis Khan, in this we are offered a differing view of what drove a man to become the ruler of a feared, military machine and the ruler of the largest empire in history.
Temüjin (Genghis Khan's given name) died in 1227, at around 65 years old; and was born to a tribal leader, but through misfortune he became a slave. Escaping he returned home to find his fatherless family (mother and children) had been thrown out of their tribe to live a destitute life, surviving from gathering meagre plant-based foodstuffs. Yet, from these humble beginnings Temüjin rose to become Genghis Khan (Universal Leader) of the Mongol people: and proved himself to be visionary; technically, strategically, socially and politically far more advanced that his enemies and for his time. He was indeed a merciless killer, when he deemed it necessary, but Temüjin was anything but a rampaging tyrant, wanting nothing more than to murder, rape and pillage. He was nothing less that a genius of his time and brought monumental change to a centuries old societal system:
- brought an end to the aristocratic system that governed military and tribal leadership ushering in meritocracy - the tribal armies (gangs) were broken up: in each of the smallest military sub-units (10 men) - all were equal, and all from different tribes and of different class, no man had authority over the other and promotion was based upon your military expertise and your loyalty to the Mongol cause, not your family ties. - the spoils of any conquest were spread amongst the ranks and not hoarded by the leadership - members of defeated armies were offered a position in the ranks of the Mongol army rather than slavery or execution. - engineers and craftsman from conquered forces were spared and given positions with the Mongol forces to become builders of siege weaponry and it is said some of the earliest evidence of using gunpowder in cannon and explosive devices. - tolerant of religious differences and with few racial prejudices, while promoting the role of women in both society and politics, he strove to build a more equal and just empire. - the people of nomadic tribes of the Mongolia became an efficient agricultural and trading empire, unifying the Silk Roads thus improving communication and trade across entire continents, employing a universal currency (paper money, even), a postal service and the introduction of a writing system.
There is more here ... much of which underlines the positive impacts Genghis Khan's rule had upon a rapidly changing and developing land mass. For anyone wishing a broader understanding of the Mongol Empire, free from caricatures and fiction, I would suggest this is a worthwhile read.
I liked it, it did include a map! But also, I liked that is more of a history of the Empire with a good side of Khan. This way you have a view of the person, as well as the whole Empire, even after his death
This is a very good book on Genghis Khan's history that is well written and states a lot of interesting and intriguing facts that drew me in and had me interested. I learned a few things I didn't know from his information and it is a great book to have on hand about a great conquer.
This is the most interesting eBook I've read this year. The most important the author told me was that Genghis Khan was responsible for more deaths than World War I and II combined. That information flavored my perception of this over-the-top leader of the Mongols. Khan's story is fascinating and frightening at the same time. I can certainly understand that he had 10,000 bodyguards at all times.
As with most charismatic leaders, once he was dead, his bloodline did not continue to provide the kind of leaders needed to maintain his vast empire. Perhaps the empire was just too vast to keep stable, no matter who led. I liked the fact that the text explained why Genghis Khan was successful and as the empire faded, what were the pressures that brought about its demise.
I appreciated the map of the vast empire. It is hard to visualize without some visual cues.
As a school child in the southern US, all I ever learned about Genghis Khan was that he was a brutal invader. He, in fact, was that, but so much more. He instituted a united army; he would take in people from other tribes and make them his own. He also was very religiously tolerant, allowing people to keep people who did not have a written language. Parts of the book were very hard to read, as the brutality of this people was noted. I am sure they only responded to the environment in which they lived.
Very informative read.
Well, I was not able to backtrack in my reporting; please forgive any typos!
interesting take on the legendary but not really understood and lacking in verifiabe information on the leader of the Mongolian Hordes, and arguably the architect of the largest contiguous empire the world has ever known. Rad, bad, and totally jazzed check this out for some insight into how europe and asia became what we know today.