Genghis
Khan: A Little PR Problem? (Part II)
By Dr. Rizwana Rahim
Chicago, IL
The portrait of Genghis Khan
that Jack Weatherford presents in his 2004 book
is not any less barbaric than what history gives
us. Just that he tells us that ‘the universal
ruler’ was also capable of doing other things,
not as barbaric.
He tries to resurrect the man, rather enthusiastically,
with the help of ‘The Secret History of
the Mongols’ which has been translated,
after several centuries of mystery and secrecy.
It was not Genghis but Ogodei, his third son and
his immediate successor, who had decreed that
his father’s and his own conquests be documented
in the ‘Secret History’ -- not for
public perusal but only for the ruling house’s
use. Weatherford combines this with his own research
explorations, following the Soviet rule in Mongolia,
in and around ‘Ikh-Khorig’ (the ‘Great
Taboo’, ‘Highly Restricted Area’)
an area of several hundred square miles surrounding
the burial place of Genghis Khan and his several
descendents, which was sealed off for nearly eight
centuries. The Soviets not only guarded it but
had also cordoned off about 4,000 square miles
of the surrounding area for storing nuclear materials
and a highly secret MIG airbase. Satellite photos
of the Gobi desert show roads and path toward
that area but none inside it.
Temujin (Genghis Khan’s given name at birth;
Borjigin, family name) had an early start, and
he grew up fast. Born with a blood-clot in his
palm, he, the Mongols believe, was pre-destined
by Tengri, the Supreme Deity of the shamans, to
be a ‘master of the world’. When he
was nine, his father, Yesugei, the chief of Kiyat
clan, was poisoned by his Tartar enemies, and
from then on he, his siblings and his mother,
Ho’elun, went through a period of extreme
deprivation and humiliation. From his mother,
whom he respected and feared the most, he got
the sixth sense: self-reliance and self-preservation.
His mother told him: "Remember, you have
no companions but your shadow."
As a boy, Temujin killed his older half-brother,
Bekhter, for bullying him and stealing from his
catch (fish and game). Temujin himself was kidnapped
by enemies and enslaved, but after some time he
managed to escape. The man who was afraid of no
man and no army was afraid of dogs. When his father
left the young Temuchin in company of his future
in-laws, he told them that “his son was
frightened by dogs. Don't let the dogs frighten
him." At about 16 or so, he married Börtegeljin
Khatun, but soon thereafter she was kidnapped
by his enemies, Merkits. His friend and mentor,
Ong Khan of the powerful Kereyid tribe helped
him retrieve his wife. She gave birth to her first
son, Juchi -- so soon after her freedom that his
paternity remained in question. But Genghis always
considered Juchi and treated him as his own and
even declared that no child should ever be considered
illegitimate.
His expansionist campaigns later brought under
his control a huge land mass, from the Pacific
to the Caspian and down south to Indus region.
The tales of his conquests are as bloodcurdling
and horrible as they are an unbelievable credit
to his military abilities and strategies. “By
the arms of Zingis [Genghis] and his descendents,”
rightly noted Edward Gibbon, the famous historian,
“the globe was shaken: the sultans were
overthrown: the caliphs fell, and the Caesars
trembled on their throne.” Before an attack,
Genghis sent his envoys with "orders of submission"
or else prepare for an attack: if they obeyed
they were spared and protected, so long as they
continued to abide by his rules (paying taxes,
performing military service and other required
labor); his attack almost always meant their total
destruction. “Victory is not enough,”
he said, “all others must fail.”
He destroyed cities and civilizations, and killed
15 million people in five years of invasions in
Central Asia, according to some estimates. Genghis
Khan was a shaman, not Muslim -- origin of the
title ‘Khan’ remains obscure (Turkic-Tatar
?), but ‘Khan’ or ‘han’
or ’xan’ was a familiar term in Manchuria
by the Tang dynasty from 7th to 10th century.
Because of Muslim resistance to his overtures,
he invaded many Muslim cities and butchered millions
(estimates vary) beginning in 1219 with Utrar
and Bukhara, Samarkhand, Herat, Merv, etc : About
4.35 million in three cities, according to Edward
Gibbon: Maru/Merv (1.3 million killed), Heart
(in Afghanistan, 1.6 million, with only 9 survivors),
Nishapur (Iran), where Omar Khayyam was born nearly
two centuries earlier (1.75 million, cats and
dogs also killed).
In Nishapur, during the April, 1221 battle, an
arrow killed Genghis’ son-in-law, Tokuchar.
Genghis had his daughter (pregnant at that time)
decide the punishment: She ordered death for everyone,
with the bodies of men, women and children put
in separate piles; she also wanted all animals
killed. All this was done. In another battle,
in Bamiyan Valley (Afghanistan) -- where, incidentally,
the largest statues of Buddha carved on the mountain-side
were blown up by the Talibans – his favorite
grandson, Mutugen, was killed by an arrow. Genghis
knew about it before the boy’s father, Chaghtai,
did. Genghis, known to cry publicly in fear, anger
or in sadness – and at the slightest provocation
-- broke the news to his son after telling him
not to show emotion but to funnel it into the
battle. The result: No one survived in Bamiyan.
Genghis ordered one of his regiments (about 1,000
soldiers) settle in this Valley. Their descendents
called the Hazaras (or those from ‘one-thousand’
settlers) still live around this area and in Pakistan.
Their physiognomy has Mongolian features. In a
recent genealogical study, this group also provided
a crucial genetic link to Genghis. In 2002, Talibans
reportedly killed ‘thousands’ of them,
in a bizarre reaction to America’s post-9/11
attack on them and Afghanistan for refusing to
turn over the 9/11 mastermind, Osama.
His two-pronged attack on Bukhara (the “Noble
Bukhara,” "the ornament and delight
to all Islam," then in Kwarizem empire, now
in Uzbekistan) occupies a special place in the
military history of the world. One part of his
cavalry approached directly, while the other took
a 2,000-mile detour through the most unforgiving
desert and mountain area (Kyzyl Kum) that no one
had ever dared cross before, to surprise the army,
now under a surprise-siege. He then used unusual
psychological warfare tactics to terrorize them,
which eventually led to their surrender and massacre.
Weatherford gives the details, and says Hitler’s
High Command had based its blitzkrieg doctrine
on a study of Mongol strategies in Baghdad.
Bukhara was probably the only conquered city Genghis
Khan entered. (Normally, as soon as he knew that
victory was in his hands, he would let his army
do its work and retreat, after each victory, to
rest and relax in his favorite mountain ‘Burkhan
Khaldun’, “the most sacred mountain”
to the Mongols). Genghis Khan went into the great
mosque -- the only such building he is known to
have ever entered in his life and summoned the
280 richest men of the city. Through interpreters,
he blamed them: "It is the great ones among
you who have committed these sins. If you had
not committed great sins, God would not have sent
a punishment like me upon you." Then he attacked
the citadel where the loyal soldiers had sought
refuge with his “newly constructed siege
engines -- catapults, trebuchets, and mangonels
that hurled not only stones and fire … but
also pots of burning liquids, exploding devices,
and incendiary materials.” Eventually, all
were brutally killed.
And, from that day till 1920, when Soviet armies
marched in Bukhara and ousted the emir, Alim Khan,
the last ruling descendant of Genghis Khan, his
was one of the history’s longest family
dynasties (for seven centuries). Genghis respected
none of his opponents, most of whom he defeated,
humiliated and killed – except Jalal-al-Din,
son of Shah Muhammad of Khwarizem. Shah fled upon
Mongol attacks, but his son fought a running battle.
He moved south into Afghanistan, regrouping his
forces, ambushing and defeating, and eluding the
Mongol forces. Genghis took personal charge of
the chase, and had Jalal cornered on the banks
of the Indus (in Pakistan). Unable to shake off
the Genghis siege, he jumped into the Indus and
swam away. Genghis stopped his archers from shooting
him, with a comment (according to National Geographic,
December, 1996: “Such a son must a father
have!” [To be continued]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
