Genghis Khan is a "Mongol" with a Slavic appearance. Falsification of history

In popular literature, and after it in public opinion, a rather simple and “logical” historical scheme was firmly established: “First, Genghis Khan conquered China, and then, seeking to conquer the whole world, invaded the Muslim East.” In fact, this scheme is nothing more than another ingrained historical myth that arose due to the fact that for several centuries the Chinese and eastern campaigns of the Mongols were considered to be something completely separate.

In fact, the conquest of the Jing Empire and the defeat of the Khorezmian state are two sides of the same coin, whose name logistics . I will not tire of repeating this word, because it contains the key to understanding many historical events.

However, first things first.

Invasion of the Jin Empire

In 1211, the Mongols invaded Jin territory and captured all the cities in the northwest of the empire. After some time, an anti-Jurgen uprising began in Manchuria. In 1212, the Khitan rebels captured Liaodong and went over to Genghis Khan. After the Mongols took the western capital, Datong, the entire northern part of the empire, lying outside the Great Wall of China, was under the rule of Genghis Khan.

In 1213, having captured a segment of the Great Wall of China and captured one of the border fortresses, the Mongols invaded the southern “sedentary” lands of the empire. Throughout the year, Genghis Khan captures almost the entire territory of the state of the Jurgens.

At the same time, a palace coup took place in the Jing Empire. The new emperor Xuangzong began negotiations with Genghis Khan, negotiated a truce at the cost of huge territorial concessions, married his daughter to him and was ready to make territorial concessions, but Temujin used any excuse to continue the war. By 1215, active hostilities were completed, but peace did not come for Jin - the empire, weakened by peasant uprisings and separatist riots, in addition to the Mongols, was invaded by southwestern neighbors - the Tanguts Xi Xia and the Southern Song.

Since 1215, Genghis Khan has been organizing management in the conquered lands and traditionally “cleansing the rear” and finishing off the unsubdued Mongol tribes, who posed a potential threat to the Mongol empire under construction.

Reasons for the persecution of the Naimans and Merkits

Here we should dwell on why Genghis Khan paid such attention to "finishing off his own." In popular literature, it is customary to portray Temujin as a cruel and vindictive ruler who never forgave anything. Apparently, this was exactly the case, however, in the policy of destroying the Naimans and Merkits who migrated to the northwest, one can see, first of all, a deep understanding of the political mechanisms of their time and a sober calculation.

Unsubdued noyons and khans from “kindred” tribes from the point of view of Mongolian law could, as Temuchin himself did in his time, at any time turn from “deported dissidents” into an active center of resistance. At the same time, the transfer of noyons from under the hands of Genghis Khan to the Naiman Khan Kuchluk was a completely legal matter and was not considered a “betrayal”. Thus, the very fact of the existence of unconquered clans posed a constant threat not only to the integrity but the existence of a new centralized state.

By 1215, the Mongol emperor had no grounds for such considerations.
it was more than enough. Around 1209, the son of the last Naiman Khan, Kuchluk, having secured the favor of the Kara-Khitay gurkhan, gathered around him scattered clans, who, not wanting to submit to Genghis Khan, migrated to East Turkestan and seized power in the country. And after the death of his benefactor in 1211, he began to “officially” rule in these lands.

Military campaign in the lands of the Kara-Kitai

The Kara-Kitai khanate or the state of the Kara-Kitais (Kara-Khitans) was founded in 1124 by nomadic tribes of the Mongol or Tungus group, who in ancient times inhabited the territory of modern Inner Mongolia. The khanate occupied the territory from the Amu Darya and Balkhash to Kunlun and the Beishan highlands, while a significant part of its population professed Islam. The conquest of this vast resource-rich country turned Kuchluk and his Naimans from unfinished refugees into a tangible threat.

In 1218, a 20,000-strong corps was sent against Kuchluk under the command of Jebe-noyon. Entering the boundaries of the new Naiman possessions, the Mongol commander announced that everyone would receive the right to "freely profess the religion of the fathers." This was enough to cause an uprising of Muslims against the new masters. The fact is that Kuchluk, a born Nestorian Christian, under the influence of his wife, converted to shamanism (according to other sources, to Buddhism) and began to brutally persecute new subjects, forbidding them to pray and closing mosques everywhere.

Genghis Khan strictly forbade plundering the Semirechye, and the Khitan met the Mongols as saviors (which historians do not like to recall, painting a picture of the merciless Mongol conquests).

Kuchluk made the only attempt to repulse the Mongols in one of the mountain passes, but was defeated and fled to Kashgaria. In Kashgaria, the Muslims slaughtered the Naimans who were stationed in their homes, while the Khan himself was killed by the Mongols. After the zazgrom of the Naimans, the Khitans were appointed "darugachi" - the imperial governor, and the lands themselves became part of the Mongolian state.

As a result of the “Naiman campaign” of Jebe, the Turkestan lands, that is, possessions that go beyond the “Far Eastern ecumene”, were for the first time annexed to the empire of Genghis Khan. It is important to note that this accession went quite peacefully, and the impetus for the campaign was objective circumstances and considerations of ensuring the security of the empire, and not at all the abstract desire of Genghis Khan to “conquer the whole world.”

Having annexed the Kara-Khitay Khanate, the Mongols reached the borders of the Great Steppe, which was controlled by the Kipchaks, and also became “immediate neighbors” of the Khorezmian state.

Acquaintance of Genghis Khan and Khorezmshah

Khorezm, or rather the state of Khorezmshahs at that time was the most powerful state in Central Asia. His lands stretched from the Caspian to the Indian Ocean and from Mesopotamia to Afghanistan, and by the time the war with the Mongols began, they included Khorezm itself with its capital in the city of Urgench, Maverranakhr (between the Syr Darya and Amu Darya), Iraq, Khorasan (Northern Iran) and Ghazna. The serving nobility of the country was made up of Kipchak clans, and the ruling dynasty of Khorezmshahs also originated from the Kipchaks. In this respect, Khorezm was reminiscent of the Jin, where the Han farmers were ruled by the descendants of the conquering nomads of the Jurjeni. It was a strong, constantly warring power, whose army was estimated at 400,000 people, which is clearly more than the forces that Genghis Khan could put up, especially considering that he was at war with the Jin.
What were the reasons that forced the practical and prudent ruler to change strategy so abruptly and start a risky war with a superior enemy?

This question is fully answered by the chronicle of an-Nasawi, the personal secretary of the son of Khorezmshah Mohammed, Jalal ad-Din Mankburna, who left a detailed description of all the events that took place. The facts set forth below have long been known to both historians and popularizers, but to say thatthe Mongol invasion of Khorezm was caused by the need to break the trade blockade and was a response to the aggression of Mohammed himself,for some reason it is not customary to speak.

Thanks to the interpretive efforts of the Soviet historical school, and to a large extent due to the popularity of V. Yan's pseudo-historical novel "Genghis Khan", it is commonly believed that the Mongol emperor was cruel and treacherous, albeit a genius, but still a barbarian, and Khorezmshah Mohammed became a victim of aggression . At the same time, he is accused of the main guilt that he “placed mediocre relatives in all positions, removing intelligent people”, and also “oppressed the common people”, which allegedly led to such a crushing defeat.

The facts show otherwise. All the years preceding the war with the Mongols, the Khorezmshah pursued an aggressive policy of conquest and actively conquered all adjacent states, but the internal lands of his empire lived in relative peace.

According to al-Nasawi, Mohammed began to voice the idea of conquering Mongolia and China as early as 1214-15, at the height of the war between Genghis Khan and the Jin Empire. At the same time, not a single source even hints that Temujin had aggressive plans for his western neighbor at that time.

To clarify the situation, Mohammed sent an embassy to the Mongols, which arrived in June 1215 at the Chinese headquarters of Genghis Khan. At the talks, Temujin showed friendliness and spoke out in support of good neighborliness. As a confirmation of the sincerity of his words and intentions, he ordered to set up border posts on caravan routes in order to protect the merchants, and also handed incredibly expensive gifts to the Khorezmshah, which required a caravan of five hundred camels. Among the gifts was a gold nugget, "the size of a camel's hump."

In 1218, Mohammed received a response embassy from Genghis Khan, which delivered a personal message from Temujin, in which, among other things, there were the following words: ”Keeping peace with you is one of my duties. You are like my dearest son to me. It is no secret to you that I have taken possession of China and the neighboring countries of the Turks, their tribes have already submitted to me. And you know better than anyone that there are so many riches in my country that it is superfluous to look for them in other countries.". It is generally accepted that this letter is a confirmation of the perfidious and insidious nature of the Mongol emperor. This judgment is more than doubtful. All known facts of the biography of this politician and commander testify that Genghis Khan always kept his word. The initially peaceful intentions of Temujin are also confirmed by the course of subsequent events.

Mohammed, allegedly furious that Genghis Khan called him “son” (which was not a derogatory term in Mongolian rhetoric), spoke with the Muslim merchants who arrived as part of the mission, asking them about the size and power of the Mongol army, after which (supposedly having assured himself of that his army is much more powerful than the Mongol one), probably decided on a trade blockade.

Trade blockade of the Mongol Empire

Chronicles and historical works present the entire escalation of the Mongol-Khorezm conflict primarily as a kind of political confrontation between personalities - Genghis Khan and Mohammed, but you just need to look at the map of caravan routes and carefully read the testimonies of contemporaries to understand that the conflict between Khorezm and Ege Mongol Ulus was a trade war.

In order to appreciate the strategic importance of trade in relations between the two empires, one should clearly understand what role the Great Silk Road played in the economy of medieval Eurasia. The term was introduced by the German geographer Richthofen in 1877, but the network of caravan routes that transported Chinese-made goods to the Mediterranean Sea, from where they got to Europe and Africa, was laid as early as the 2nd century BC.

The volume of goods produced by the Southern Song Empire in the 12th-13th century was truly impressive. Silk fabrics, ceramics and porcelain, metal products, jewelry made of precious metals were exported in such quantities that they were enough not only to saturate the markets of the entire Eurasian continent. From the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, chains of merchants “shuttled” along separate sections of the route, making huge profits at each stage.

The Chzhurjen Jing, the Tangut Xi Xia and the Uighur Turfan - the countries that became part of the Mongol Empire, lived mainly due to the main caravan routes passing through their territories, and therefore any prolonged interruption of this commodity flow could lead to an economic collapse much faster than destruction, caused by the war, and the Jing-Mongol War practically blocked the North Chinese caravan route.

Merchants preferred to use the difficult, but less dangerous Tibetan-Indian route, bypassing the Mongolian lands, so that by 1215, the economic condition of Genghis Khan's new possessions, which did not receive the usual "investments" from transit trade, became extremely difficult.

“When the Khorezmshah took Maverannahr from the Khitais, he blocked the paths coming from the cities of Turkestan and those further behind them...” (Ibn al-Athir)That is why Genghis Khan needed peace and reliable trade relations with the Khorezmshah.

First battle

Mohammed agreed to an exchange of trade caravans, after which about 450 merchants of the Mongol-Chinese empire went west from Jing and Turfan to establish (and most likely restore) the destroyed trade. At the same time, the first armed conflict took place between the Mongolian and Khorezmian troops.

Shortly before sending merchants to Khorezm, Chigis Khan sent a corps under the command of his eldest son Jochi to the Turgai steppe, which lies north of the Aral Sea. These troops were supposed to destroy the last remaining center of “tribal” resistance after the defeat of the Naimans - the Merkits who did not submit to Temuchin, who, after the defeat in 1204 and 1206. went to the lands of the Kipchaks.

Upon learning that the Mongol army had invaded the border lands, Mohammed, at the head of a 60,000-strong army, went to meet them. However, by the time he arrived, the Merkits had been completely defeated. The Shah ordered the Mongol army to be pursued and soon caught up with it. Seeing that the Khorezmians were lining up in battle formation, Jochi told Mohammed that he was forbidden to attack him and he, Jochi, was ready to leave immediately, leaving all the captured trophies to the shah. However, Mohammed, who probably considered this situation suitable for creating a casus belli, abandoned the spoils and attacked the enemy.

According to chroniclers, in the battle, which lasted three days, about 20,000 Khorezmian soldiers died, while the Mongols lost "significantly less." On the fourth night, having exhausted the enemy, Jochi ordered the fires to be left and led the troops away. Upon learning of the battle, Genghis Khan, known as the ruler who never forgave anything, did not retaliate.

Murder of merchants and envoys

Meanwhile, the merchants sent by Genghis Khan reached the Khorezmian lands and arrived in the city of Otrar, where they were killed on the orders of the local governor. Muslim chroniclers claim that the Khorezmshah, enraged by the defeat, ordered only the arrest of those who arrived, and the governor, his cousin, either misunderstood the order, or exceeded his authority by encroaching on the goods brought. But this is no longer important, since any unfriendly action in this case became the beginning of a trade blockade.

It is usually written that this trade mission primarily pursued reconnaissance goals, which led to the destruction of the established diplomatic relations, but this judgment does not hold water. Without exception, all the merchants and diplomats of medieval states "worked" as scouts, and the Khorezmshah, who set reconnaissance tasks for his people, was no exception.

The ambassador of Genghis Khan, sent to Mohammed with a rather mild “note of protest”, where Temujin demanded only the extradition of those directly responsible and the return of goods, was executed by order of the Khorezmshah, after which the war became inevitable.

The fact that the subsequent invasion was not included in the plans of Genghis Khan is also evidenced by the “Secret Tale”, which says that Temujin “prayed for three days and three nights” before making such a decision. If he were ready, at least morally, for an invasion, he would hardly waste time on prayers and hesitation ...

In the spring of 1219, the harultai was assembled, which became the "extended military council" of the future invasion. Troops were distributed on it and all command appointments were made.

The invasion of Khorezm and the "rear" of the empire

As shown above, the notion that “the Mongols conquered China and then went on to conquer the whole world” is a historical myth.

By the spring of 1219, when the Mongol army invaded the lands of the Khorezmians, two-thirds of the territory was seized from the Jin empire, and these were pastoral and agricultural lands. The southern, “industrial” region remained in the hands of the Jurjens, and their military potential made it possible not only to successfully repel the simultaneous invasion of the Southern Song and the Taguts, but also to invade the lands of the latter. At the same time, all the neighbors considered the Mongols to be enemies, so it was enough for two of the three warring parties (Tanguts, Churdzhens and Sunts) to agree, and the position of the Mongolian occupying contingents would become hopeless. Sources testify that such negotiations were held, so if we assume that Genghis Khan changed his basic rule, threw an unfinished strong enemy in the rear and went west to increase the lands of the empire, this was an unjustified and extremely risky adventure on his part.

The extreme danger of sending the main troops to conquer Khorezm was also demonstrated by the behavior of the Tanguts, who, under the peace treaty of 1218, were obliged to provide military assistance (khalan) to Genghis Khan. However, when Genghis Khan, having decided on a new war, demanded that the ruler Xi Xia fulfill his vassal-allied duties, he received a decisive refusal in response (which, however, did not prevent the Tanguts from continuing military operations against the Jurchens together with the Mongol contingent left in China)

An interesting phrase is present in the chronicles of the Mosul historian Ibn al-Athir, one of the main creators of the legend of the "ruthless barbarian destroyers." Heaping curses on Genghis Khan on almost every page of his chronicles, he nevertheless writes: “The invasion of the Tatars on the countries of Islam is also explained by other circumstances, but they cannot be mentioned on the pages of books”. Thus, the author reluctantly admits that the reasons for the war were not only (but rather not so much) the conquest aspirations of the Mongols.

Al-Asir briefly hints that Genghis Khan was encouraged to attack Khorezm by the Caliph of Baghdad, but this version is very doubtful and is rather a product of local Muslim views on world politics, which completely ignored the internal affairs of the Mongols themselves.

Based on the foregoing, it can be concluded with a reasonable degree of certainty thatGenghis Khan's invasion of Khorezm was provoked and forced.

References:

Z.M. Buniyatov, State of Khorezmshahs - Anushteginids 1097-1231, Science 1986
Shihab ad-din an-Nasawi. Sirat as-sultan Jalal ad-Din Mankburny, Oriental Literature 1996
V. V. Bartold, Essay on the history of Semirechie, Kirgizgosizdat 1943
A.V. Tivanenko, The death of the Merkit tribe, Buryat Scientific Center SB RAS 1998
V.G. Tizenhausen. Collection of materials relating to the history of the Golden Horde. v. I, extract from Arabic sources, St. Petersburg, 1884

The legend of Genghis Khan tells the story of his life in sufficient detail, but not all geographical names in the text can be accurately correlated with modern names on the map. It is difficult to name the exact date of Genghis Khan's birth, most scientists adhere to the date - 1162. According to the history of Rashid ad-Din, the date of birth is 1155. On the one hand, evidence of his history is numerous and varied, on the other, it is surprising that most of these stories were found far from Mongolia . According to the figurative remark of the historian L.N. Gumilyov: "In the history of the rise of Genghis Khan, everything is doubtful, starting from the date of his birth."

According to the historical chronicles that have come down to us, Genghis Khan carried out conquests of almost the entire world that were unimaginable in scale; no one before him and after could compare with him in the grandeur of the conquests. In a short time, a huge Mongol empire was created, stretching from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the Black Sea. Nomads from Central Asia, armed with bows and arrows, were able to conquer three more civilized empires, which also had significantly greater military power. Their conquests were accompanied by inhuman atrocities and mass extermination of civilians. Cities on the path of the Mongol hordes were often leveled to the ground, at the behest of Genghis Khan, rivers changed their course, flowering areas became devastated, agricultural irrigated lands were destroyed so that arable land again became wild pastures for the horses of his troops. For modern historians, the phenomenal success of the wars of Genghis Khan remains an inexplicable fact that can be explained either by hoax or by the supernatural abilities and military genius of Genghis Khan. Contemporaries of that time considered Genghis Khan "sent down by Heaven - the scourge of God." In the same way, at one time the Goths called Attila - "God's scourge."

“The Secret History of the Mongols” (presumably XIII century, according to the text of the XIX century) “Genealogy and childhood of Temujin. The ancestor of Genghis Khan was Borte-Chino, who was born at the behest of the Highest Heaven. His wife was Goa-Maral. They appeared, having crossed Tengis (inland sea). They roamed at the source of the Onon River, on the Burkhan-Khaldun, and Bata-Chigan was their descendant.

"White History" (XVI century). “Appeared at the behest of the highest heaven, born in order to rule the whole world, the divine Suuta-bogdo Genghis Khan, starting from the people of the blue Mongols / peoples speaking / in three hundred and sixty-one languages, seven hundred and twenty-one kinds of zambu-dvipa, five colored and four alien, sixteen great nations united everyone into a single state.

"Shastra Orunga" (Mongolian composition of the 15th century). “One wonderful boy was born in the happy camp of Burkhan Khaldun. At this time, his father Yesugei Bagatur captured the Tatar Temujin Uge and other people of the Tatars. Because of the coincidence with this event, they called Temujin. When this boy was three years old, he played every day on Mount Burkhan Khaldun. There, on a towering red stone, one lark with a body one span high and wide, with a white head, with a blue back, with a yellow body, with a red tail, with black legs, embodied in his body all five colors, with a voice as melodious as sound flute, sang daily: "Genghis, Genghis."

The ancestor of all Mongols according to the "Secret Tale" is Alan-Goa, in the eighth generation from Genghis Khan, who, according to legend, conceived children from a sunbeam in a yurt. Genghis Khan's grandfather, Khabul Khan, was a wealthy leader of all the Mongol tribes, successfully waged wars with neighboring tribes. Temujin's father was Yesugei Baatur, grandson of Khabul Khan, the leader of most of the Mongol tribes, in which there were 40 thousand yurts . This tribe was the complete owner of the fertile valleys between the rivers Kerulen and Onon. Yesugei-baatur also successfully fought and fought, subjugating the Tatars and many neighboring tribes. From the contents of the "Secret Tale" it is clear that the father of Genghis Khan was the famous Khan of the Mongols.

Temujin was born in 1162 on the banks of the Onon River in the Delyun-buldan tract, which researchers locate 230 versts from Nerchinsk (Chita region) and 8 versts from the Chinese border. At the age of 13, Temujin lost his father, who was poisoned by the Tatars. The elders of the Mongol tribes refused to obey the too young and inexperienced Temujin and left with their tribes for another patron. So young Temujin was surrounded only by his family - his mother, younger brothers and sisters. All their property consisted of eight horses and a tribal "bunchuk" - a white banner with nine yak tails, symbolizing four large and five small yurts of his family, with the image of a bird of prey - a gyrfalcon in the center. Soon he was forced to hide from the persecution of Targutai, who became the successor of his father, to whom the Mongol tribes went into submission. The Secret History tells in detail how Temujin hid alone in a dense forest, then was captured, how he escaped from captivity, found his family and, together with her, several years (4 years) hid from persecution.

Having matured Temujin, at the age of 17 he went with his friend Belgutai to the camp of the father of the beautiful Borte, according to the custom of the Mongols, the marriage contract was concluded by their fathers at the age of nine, the girl, and took her as his wife. Subsequently, in history, she became known as Borte Fujin, Empress, mother of four sons and five daughters of Genghis Khan. And although the chronicles report that Genghis Khan had about five hundred wives and concubines from different tribes during his life, among the five main wives, the first wife, Borte Fujin, remained the most respected and eldest for Genghis Khan all her life.

Information about the initial period of Temujin's life, until the time of his recognition by Genghis Khan, is scarce and contradictory, many details of that time are not known. The story that has come down to us in the "Secret History of the Mongols" in a number of places does not coincide with the description of the same events by Rashid ad-Din.

Both chronicles tell of the capture of Borte, Temujin's wife, by the Merkits, who after 18 years decided to avenge the theft from their family of the beautiful Hoelun, mother of Temujin, by his father Yesugei-baatur. According to the Secret History, the Merkits gave Borte to a relative of the man who lost Hoelun. Having no one in his yurt, except for his brothers, and not having the opportunity to attack the Merkits, Temujin goes to the named brother of his father, the Kerait Khan Togrul (Wan Khan) and asks him for help. He willingly provides, to the lone Temujin, military assistance and marches with several thousands of troops against the Merkits and beats his wife back. Rashid al-Din describes this episode differently: the Merkits sent Borte Togrul Khan, who voluntarily returned it to the future Genghis Khan through one confidant as a sign of memory of twinning relations - “ande” with Temujin's father.

The protection and patronage of Togrul Khan secured him for several years. The chronicles say little about Temujin's youth, but after once at dawn, many tribes joined Temujin’s nomad camp at the same time , the Mongols quickly got stronger and were already 13 thousand people . Since that time, the chronicles have reported that Temujin had under his command combat detachments numbering up to 10 thousand people . The first battle, which Temujin decisively won by Rashid ad-Din, was the battle with the 30,000-strong army of Tayuchites led by Jamukha. Temujin ordered all the captives to be boiled alive in 70 cauldrons. Frightened by this, the Juryat tribe immediately submitted and submitted to the young khan. In the "Secret Tale" this episode is interpreted differently, Jamukha wins, and accordingly he boils the captured soldiers of Temujin in cauldrons, this atrocity repels many people from Chjamukha, and many neighboring tribes go under the banner of the defeated Temujin. According to historians, the version of Rashid al-Din looks more convincing, and Temujin won the victory in that historical battle, to whom, under the protection of a stronger one, many people pass. After some time, under the family banner of Temujin, it was already 100 thousand yurts . Having entered into an alliance with the Keraites, “relationships of unshakable friendship with the leader of the Keraites, Togrul Khan,” the united hordes of Temujin and Togrul Khan defeated the old enemies of the Mongols, the Tatars. Chronicles report a general massacre of the Tatars.

When the aging Toghrul lost power, his sons, at the head of the Keraites, opposed Temujin and won the battle. To strengthen his position, the retreating Temujin united most of the tribes of the northern Gobi around him during the winter and in the spring attacked the Keraites and Merkits and defeated them. The chronicles report that Temujin decided not to leave any of the Merkits alive. The surviving Keraites stood under the banner of Temujin. For three years after the battle that made him the master of the Gobi, Temujin sent his troops to the lands of the western Turkic tribes, the Naimans and Uighurs, and everywhere he won victories. The history of Genghis Khan is described in more detail in the chronicles when he reaches the age of 41 and “until finally, after the mentioned twenty-eight years of a frustrated state, the supreme truth gave him strength and help, and his work turned to exaltation and increase.”

In 1206, the kurultai, a congress of khans of all the Mongol tribes, proclaimed Temujin a great kagan and awarded him the title of Genghis Khan - Genghis Kha-Khan, the Greatest of rulers, the Ruler of all people. Subsequently, historians called him the "Conqueror of the World" and "Conqueror of the Universe." The Persian chronicles describe this event as follows: “He (the shaman Teb-Tengri) gave him the nickname of Genghis Khan, saying at the same time: By the command of the Eternal Blue Sky, your name should be Genghis Khan! In Mongolian, “chin” means “strong”, and Genghis is the plural of it. In Mongolian, the nickname Genghis Khan has the same meaning as Gur Khan, but with a more exaggerated meaning, since it is plural, and this word can be generalized, for example, with the Persian "shahanshah" ("King of Kings")" .

The reign of Genghis Khan strengthened the central government and brought Mongolia into the ranks of the most powerful military countries in Central Asia at that time. He went down in history as a ruthless conqueror: “Genghis Khan proclaimed a special valor: to rob, rob or kill a person of another, non-Tatar tribe, that the tribes subordinate to him constitute the only people in the universe chosen by heaven, that they will henceforth bear the name “Mongols”, which means "victorious". All other peoples on earth must become slaves of the Mongols. Recalcitrant tribes must be cleared from the plains of the earth, like weedy, harmful herbs, and only the Mongols will remain to live.

War was proclaimed the most effective means of acquiring material well-being. Thus began the era of bloody aggressive campaigns of the Mongols. Genghis Khan, his sons and grandsons, having conquered the territories of other states, created the largest empire in the history of mankind. It included Central Asia, Northern and Southern China, Afghanistan, Iran. The Mongols carried out devastating raids on Russia, Hungary, Moravia, Poland, Syria, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan. The chronicles of eyewitnesses are replete with descriptions of barbarous looting and massacre of the civilian population of captured cities. The excessive cruelty of the Mongols is reflected in various chronicles.

Historical chronicles preserved the statements of the great Khan of the Mongols: “Genghis said: Cruelty is the only thing that maintains order - the basis of the prosperity of the state. So, the more cruelty - the more order, and therefore - the good. And he also said: “Tengri himself ordered our state to rise, and his will cannot be understood by reason. Cruelty must go beyond the limits of reason, for only this will help the realization of the higher will.”... For the murder of a noble Mongol warrior, they killed all their subordinates, and for the murder of a leader, the whole people. Once, the Menkhol tribe of Tatars, by whose name the Chins called all Menkhol in memory of their former superiority over them, Chingiz's father was killed; for this, all the Tatars were killed, including women and children. And since then they called Tatars all those non-Menkhols who served them and whom they sent into battle to death ahead of themselves. And these serving Tatars shouted in battle “Tatars! Tatars!”, which meant: “Those who do not submit to Menkhol will be exterminated like Tatars.”

The Laurentian Chronicle: “In 1237, the godless Tatars came from the eastern countries to the Ryazan land, and began to conquer the Ryazan land, and captivated it to Pronsk, and took the entire Ryazan principality, and burned the city, and killed their prince. And some captives were crucified, others were shot with arrows, and others were tied behind their hands. They set fire to many holy churches, burned monasteries, and villages, and took from everywhere a considerable booty. They took Suzdal, plundered the church of the Holy Mother of God, and burned the prince's courtyard with fire, and burned the monastery of St. Dmitry, and plundered others. Old monks, and nuns, and priests, and the blind, and the lame, and the hunchbacked, and the sick, and all the people were killed, and young monks, and nuns, and priests, and hits, and clerks, and their wives, and daughters, and sons - all were taken to their camps.

Ibn al-Athir, in his Perfect History, describes the invasion of the Mongol armies into Muslim lands in these words: “The events I am about to relate are so terrible that for many years I avoided all mention of them. It is not easy to write that death has befallen Islam and Muslims. I would like my mother not to give birth to me, or that I die before I become a witness to all these misfortunes. If you are told that the Earth has never known such a calamity since God created Adam, believe it, for it is the true truth...”

The Persian historian Juvaini, who took part in the war against the Mongols, testifies in his essay as an eyewitness: “Thirteen days and thirteen nights, people were counted killed by the Mongols in the city of Merv. Taking into account only those whose bodies were actually found, and not counting those who were killed in grottoes and caves, in villages and in desert places, they counted more than 1.3 million killed. After Merv, the Mongol army received an order from Genghis Khan to take Nishapur: “destroying the city in such a way that it was possible to walk on it with a plow, and for the purpose of revenge, not even cats and dogs should be left alive.” “They exterminated all the citizens of Nishapur in the number of 6 thousand souls, their beating lasted four days. Even dogs and cats were exterminated.”

“The Mongols were enemies of settled life, agriculture and cities. During the conquest of northern China, the Mongolian nobility sought from Genghis Khan an order to kill the entire settled population to a single person, and turn the lands into pastures for nomads. The Mongols followed the tactic of completely devastating the occupied lands, so that the arable land would again become a grass-rich steppe and pasture for livestock. Cities were destroyed to the ground, irrigation canals were covered with sand, the entire local population was exterminated, prisoners were mercilessly destroyed in order not to be fed. And only at the end of his life, in the last campaign against the Tangut state, Genghis Khan began to understand that it was more profitable to keep the cities in order to take taxes from them.

In addition to Russia, Eastern and Southern Europe, the Mongols conquered Tibet, invaded Japan, Korea, Burma and the island of Java. Their troops were not only land forces: in 1279, in the Canton Bay, Mongol ships defeated the fleet of the Chinese Song Empire. During the reign of Kublai Khan, the Chinese navy achieved brilliant victories at sea. The first attempt to invade Japan was made by Kublai Khan in 1274; for this, a flotilla of 900 ships was assembled with 40 thousand Mongolian, Chinese and Korean soldiers. The amphibious assault fleet left the Korean port of Masan. The Mongols capture the islands of Tsushima and Iki, but a typhoon destroys the squadron. The Korean chronicles report that the casualties on this naval expedition were 13,000 and that many of them drowned. Thus ended the first invasion.

In 1281, a second attempt was made to land in Japan. It is believed that this was the largest naval invasion in the history of mankind on 3400 ships with 142 thousand Mongol-Chinese warriors. The typhoon, as in the first attempt to invade the Japanese islands, again destroys the naval squadron. A similar scenario of an unsuccessful invasion was in Russian history in 866. 200 Russian boats went to Constantinople, but were scattered by a typhoon, in 906, 2000 Russian boats of 40 soldiers each (80 thousand soldiers) under the leadership of Prince Oleg landed in Constantinople (Constantinople).

The Japanese called the Mongol invasion Genko (Yuan invasion). In Japan, the picturesque ancient scrolls "The Legend of the Invasion from the Sea" (1293) have been preserved. The drawings on the scroll depict scenes from a sea battle, archers on the decks of small ships. Japanese ships are marked with the Japanese national flag, it is not determined who owns the enemy ships from the drawings. The Mongol-Korean invasion from the sea is the only time in the history of the samurai that Japan was invaded from outside.

After the first attempted landing from the sea, six years passed, during which time the Japanese prepared for defense. A stone wall about 25 miles long and about 5 meters high was erected along the coast in Hakata Bay to protect against attackers from the sea, which has survived to this day. On the inside, the wall was sloping, so that it could be ridden on horseback, and the other side was cut off to the sea by a sheer wall. Hojo Tokimuke the Japanese shogun (1268–1284) led the defense against the Mongol invasion, but the Japanese were unable to resist the armada of the invaders. In prayers, the entire Japanese people asked for divine help. On August 15, 1281, in the evening immediately after the prayer was raised, the heavens responded with a typhoon strike, later called by the Japanese "kamikaze" - the sacred wind that scattered the attacking squadron and saved Japan from conquest. The Chinese fleet was destroyed, and over 100,000 attackers died at sea.

In the early 80s of the 20th century, the Japanese archaeologist Torao Masai at the bottom of Takashima Island, using modern technology, discovered many items (weapons, iron bars and ingots, stone anchors and cannonballs, the seal of the millennium), which confirmed the fact of the death of Kublai's fleet.

In 1470, a huge three-meter-long map of the world was drawn in the Khonko-yi monastery, where all of Eurasia and even North Africa, including the adjacent seas, were considered Mongol possessions. For the first time in history, this unique monastery map and the Invasion from the Sea scroll were presented for display abroad at the exhibition “The Legacy of Genghis Khan: The World Empire of the Mongols” in Bonn in 2005.

The estimate of the number of Genghis Khan's troops varies widely, but it is difficult to give an exact figure. From the annals of Rashid ad-Din: “In total, Genghis formed 95 detachments of a thousand people. Tului, the youngest son of Genghis Khan, after his death, inherited almost all of his troops - 101 thousand out of 129 thousand. According to historians, the hordes of Genghis Khan were not, like the Huns, a migrating mass, but a disciplined invading army. Each warrior had two or three horses and was wrapped in fur clothes, which allowed him to sleep right on the snow. According to the English historian G. Howorth, the army of Genghis Khan during his campaign against the Khorezmshah was 230 thousand soldiers and moved separately along two routes. It was the largest army of all that Genghis Khan gathered. It is known from historical chronicles that by the time of his death, the army of Genghis Khan consisted of four corps, together with the imperial guard, and numbered 129 thousand soldiers. According to authoritative historians, the population of the Mongolian people under Genghis Khan was no more than 1 million people. The speed of movement of the Mongolian troops is amazing, coming out of the steppes of Mongolia, a year later they victoriously reach the lands of Armenia. For comparison, the campaign of the Scythians in 630 BC. from the banks of the Don through the Caucasian mountains to Persia and Asia Minor lasted 28 years, the campaign of Alexander the Great to conquer Persia (330) lasted 8 years, Timur's campaign (1398) from Central Asia to Asia Minor - 7 years.

Genghis Khan is credited with uniting the nomads and creating a strong Mongolian state. He unified Mongolia and expanded its borders, creating the largest empire in the history of mankind. His collection of laws "Yasy" for a long time remained the legal basis of the nomadic peoples of Asia.

"Immediately kill anyone who steps on the threshold of the governor's headquarters."

"He who urinates in water or on ashes is put to death."

"Forbidden to wash the dress while wearing it, until it is completely worn out."

“No one leaves his thousand, hundreds or ten. Otherwise, let him and the head of the unit that received him be executed.”

"Respect all confessions without giving preference to any."

Genghis Khan declared shamanism, Christianity and Islam the official religions of his empire.

"Great Jasak" - the legislation of Genghis Khan is most fully preserved in the annals of Rashid ad-Din. In the same place, Bilik, a collection of parables and sayings of Genghis Khan, says: “The greatest pleasure and pleasure for a husband is to suppress the indignant and defeat the enemy, uproot him and seize everything that he has; to make his married women weep and shed tears, to sit on his good strides with smooth geldings, to turn the bellies of his beautiful-faced spouses into a night dress for sleeping and bedding, to look at their rosy cheeks and kiss them, and to suck on their sweet breast-berry lips! » .

In the “History of the Conqueror of the World”, Juvaini notes: “The Almighty singled out Genghis Khan with his mind and reason among equals, and by wisdom and power exalted him above all the kings of the world, therefore, everything that is already known about the orders of the powerful Khosroes and recorded about the customs of the pharaohs and Caesars, Genghis Khan , without tedious study of chronicles and conformity with antiquities, he invented only from the pages of his own mind; and everything that was connected with the methods of conquering countries and related to crushing the power of enemies and exalting friends, was the offspring of his own wisdom and the result of his reflections.

Several novels about Genghis Khan have been published in Russian, among them the most famous are the novels by V. Yan "Genghis Khan", I. Kalashnikov "Cruel Age", Ch. Aitmatov "White Cloud of Genghis Khan". Two films are available on videocassettes: the Korean-Mongolian film Khan of the Great Steppe. Genghis Khan” and the film “Genghis Khan”, starring O. Sharif. In Russian only in 1996–2006. eight books on the life of Genghis Khan have been published: René Grousset (2000), S. Walker (1998), Michel Hoang (1997), E. Khara-Davan (2002), E.D. Phillips (2003), Juvaini (2004), Jean-Paul Roux (2005), John Man (2006), from which many historical facts of his deeds can be gleaned.

In historical sources about Siberia there is no mention of the name Tengis in connection with Baikal. In the Turkic and Mongolian languages, "tengis" means the sea, but the local Baikal population always called the lake differently - Lamu or Baigaal. The translator of the "Secret Tale" S.A. Kozin expressed two versions of the possible identification of the name Tengis, according to the first version with the Caspian Sea, according to the second - with Baikal. In favor of the fact that the name Tengis means the Caspian, and not Baikal, is evidenced by the naming of the Caspian Sea in all medieval sources as an inland sea. In the Nart epic and in Persian geographical texts, the Caspian Sea was called Khazar-Tengiz, the Black Sea - Kara-Tengiz. The proper name Tengiz is also widespread among the peoples of the Caucasus. In the distant past, the peoples inhabiting the shores of Lake Baikal each called the lake in their own way. Chinese in ancient chronicles 110 BC it was called "Beihai" - the North Sea, the Buryat-Mongols - "Baigaal-dalai" - "big reservoir", the ancient peoples of Siberia, the Evenks - "Lamu" - the sea. Under the name "Lamu", the lake is often mentioned in Evenk legends, and under this name it first became known to the Russian Cossacks. The Evenki name of the lake - Lamu at first was more common among the Russian explorers of Siberia. After Kurbat Ivanov's detachment reached the lakeshore, the Russians switched to the Buryat-Mongolian name "Baigaal" or "Baigaal-dalai. At the same time, they linguistically adapted it to their language, replacing the “g” characteristic of the Buryats with the more familiar “k” for the Russian language - Baikal. The origin of the name "Baikal" is not precisely established. The name Baigal is first encountered in the Mongolian chronicle of the first half of the 17th century. "Shara Tuji" ("Yellow Chronicle").

A clear religious doctrine, which the Mongols adhered to in the XII - XIII centuries. It has not come down to us for a very simple reason - it was not recorded anywhere. This gives some historians the right to say that Genghis Khan himself professed shamanism.

This means faith in the spirits that live around and build various intrigues for a person. And all his religiosity consisted in sometimes inviting shamans to his tent - to swear. So thought, for example, the Russian linguist Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Trubetskoy, who wrote that only "formless shamanism" could justify the power of Genghis Khan as a protege of the sky deity Tengri.

Some modern researchers believe that Genghis Khan adhered to monotheistic "Tengrism". Others suggest that he was a supporter of an even more ancient Bon cult, which emerged from the terrible Iranian cult of Mithra, famous for its human sacrifices.

As for shamanism, the efforts of the supreme shaman of the Mongols, Tab-Tengri, to strengthen his power, unite the priests and put Genghis Khan under control ended in failure - he was killed.

Is Temujin an adherent of monotheism?

Who the founder of the Mongol Empire really worshiped can be judged from the memoirs of rare European travelers and from the letters of his immediate descendants and entourage.

For example, the Persian scholar Rashid ad-Din ad-Tabib describes the behavior of the khan after receiving the news of the death of the Mongol ambassadors: “The angry Temujin climbed to the top of the hill, untied his belt and threw it around his neck, took off his hat and fell prostrate on the ground. For three days he did not move from his place and prayed, asking some great god - the creator of the Mongolian people, to grant him strength for revenge.

Based on this passage from the chronicle, scholars conclude that Temujin adhered to some kind of “monotheistic tengrism”, honoring only one god out of many.

Power - from the sky?

This is allegedly confirmed by the letters of the great khans, which are cited by the Franciscan monk Guillaume de Rubruk, who visited the Mongols in the middle of the 13th century. The Great Khan Munke (grandson of Genghis Khan) in his letter to the King of France Louis IX writes in 1254 that "there is only one god in heaven, and on earth there is one master - Genghis Khan."

The khan himself made the following statement to Rubruk: "The Mongols believe that there is only one god, he gave man many fingers and gave him many ways ...", which clearly indicates the Mongols' attempt to justify earthly power by divine will.

A few years before Mongke, Khan Guyuk (another grandson of Genghis Khan), who was the Great Khan from 1246 to 1248, in his letter to the Pope, indicated that the power of the Mongols is from God and called on the pope to come to bow together “with all the kings”: “will God, all the lands from east to west are under our rule. If it were not for the will of God, how could this happen?

Does everything depend “on the god Tengri”?

The Soviet historian Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov also believed that the "Shaker of the Universe" professed a monotheistic religion, which was based on the worship of the Eternal Sky - the god Tengri. He believed that this religion was very ancient and was supported by all the steppe tribes of Eurasia and the Kipchaks for thousands of years.

The common thing that existed in monotheistic tengrism was singled out by a researcher from Kazakhstan N. G. Ayupov - this is the presence of a certain impersonal god Tengri, the spiritualization of nature, faith in vitality and the sacralization of power, as well as the cult of ancestors. Simply put, Genghis Khan believed that the sky itself gave him power, and it also gave him the power to hold this power. Tengri Khan - in Tengrism he was the supreme deity and performed earthly affairs sometimes together with the Earth (Yer), sometimes together with other deities-spirits. The deity Umai ruled people's destinies and determined the life span, and the god Erlik was in charge of the kingdom of the dead.

As for monotheism, the Mongol tengrism of the era of the empire, most likely, is closer to Slavic polytheism, in which warriors and princes worshiped Svarog, often depriving other deities of attention as less significant. The very name of the khan speaks in favor of this - Genghis Khan, the name of one of the heavenly deities, which Temujin adopted after defeating China and proclaiming himself the Great Khan.

"Shaker of the Universe" was a Bon follower?

Historian Konstantin Alexandrovich Penzev believes that Genghis Khan could be a follower of the ancient Aryan Bon religion, which came to Tibet from Iran and was borrowed from there by the Mongol tribes. According to Bon philosophy, the world consists of three spheres - the sphere of the gods, the sphere of people and the sphere of water spirits, in the world of people there is a white deity "one who loves all that exists" and there is a black deity - the creator of grief and war.

In favor of the theory, Penzev cites the same arguments that other scientists cite as evidence of the Khan’s belief in Tengri - the evidence of Rashid ad-Din ad Tabib, for example, before going against Altan Khan, Genghis Khan climbs a hill, kneels, and throwing a caftan belt on neck, obviously, as a sign of obedience to the creator, prays for the gift of strength to tame the turmoil.

Was he even an atheist?

The Persian historian of the 13th century, Ala Juvaini, whose family occupied leading positions under the Mongols, testified that the Great Khan was generally an atheist, did not adhere to any faith. That is why he avoided fanaticism and was loyal to all the religions of the conquered peoples, maintaining the prestige of the elders and sages, and that is why in his Great Yasa he indicated that his descendants respect all religions equally and show no preference for any of them.

Some believe in Mohammed, others in Buda

One way or another, it is already impossible to find out for sure, but it is known for certain that the khan, fierce towards enemies, was an excellent organizer, encouraged such character traits as loyalty, courage and courage, executed the traitors of his enemies and exalted people who remained loyal to their princes or khans . Temujin always kept his word and hated cowards, traitors and liars.

After his death, his sons and grandsons became supporters of different religions - some returned to shamanism, others married Nestorian Christians from the Kerait tribe and became Christians themselves, and others converted to Buddhism. And the Golden Horde khans, a hundred years later, under Khan Uzbek, converted to Islam, and very quickly the Great Empire of the Mongols ceased to exist.

The main reasons for the Mongol campaigns

* The need to expand the boundaries of the state;
* The need to expand rangelands;
* For the Mongol nobility, new conquered peoples are new payers given and
* Military reserve for warfare.
* To meet the requirements of the nomadic nobility, stop internal strife and civil strife.

In 1211-1215. Genghis Khan conquered Northern China and the Mongols armed themselves with Chinese military equipment.

In 1218-1219. Genghis Khan conquered the peoples of Siberia (Yakuts, Buryats), the Yenisei Kyrgyz. The Uighur and Turfan principalities in East Turkestan surrendered without a fight.

The next task is the conquest of Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Iran, the Middle East, Transcaucasia and Eastern Europe.

Mongol invasion on the territory of Kazakhstan

Semirechye was occupied by the Mongols without resistance: In 1218, the Mongol army led by Zhebe-noyon defeated the Naiman Khanate in Semirechye. The population of Semirechie accepted the Mongols as deliverers from the persecution of the Naiman Khan Kuchluk against Muslims. Kuchluk himself, without resisting the Mongols, fled to Central Asia, was overtaken by the Mongols in Badakhshan and killed.

* In 1210-1211. Arslan Khan, the ruler of the Karluks in Koyalyk, passed under the rule of Genghis Khan.
* In 1217, the ruler of the Karluk region, Almalyk Buzar, also became a vassal of the Mongol Khan.
* In 1218, the city of Balasagun surrendered to the Mongols without a fight. Wishing to attract the people of Semirechye to his side, Genghis Khan banned robberies and massacres in this region. The capture of East Turkestan and Semirechie opened the way for the Mongols to Central Asia through South Kazakhstan. In Central Asia at that time there was a strong state of Khorezm.

In 1218, a trade agreement was concluded between Genghis Khan and Khorezm Shah Mohammed.

The reason for the invasion is the "Otrar catastrophe".

In the summer of 1218, Genghis Khan sent a trade caravan of 450 people to Otrar. and 500 camels carrying huge valuables and gifts. The ruler of Otrar, Kair-khan Inalchyk, suspecting the merchants of espionage, ordered them to be killed and plundered the caravan. In response to Genghis Khan's demand to extradite Kair Khan, Khorezmshah Muhammad killed the Mongol ambassadors. This event in history was called the "Otrar catastrophe" and served as a pretext for the invasion of Genghis Khan into the territory of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

THE LEGENDARY PEOPLE OF MONGOLIA

Genghis Khan
(1162-1227)

Genghis Khan (Mong. Genghis Khan own name - Temujin, Temuchin, Mong. Temujin). May 3, 1162 - August 18, 1227) - Mongol Khan, founder of the Mongolian state (since 1206), organizer of aggressive campaigns in Asia and Eastern Europe, great reformer and unifier of Mongolia. The direct descendants of Genghis Khan in the male line are Genghisides.

The only historical portrait of Genghis Khan from the series of official portraits of rulers was drawn during the reign of Kublai Khan in the 13th century. (beginning of reign from 1260), a few decades after his death (Genghis Khan died in 1227). The portrait of Genghis Khan is kept in the Beijing History Museum. The portrait depicts a face with Asian features, with blue eyes and a gray beard.

early years

The ancestor of all the Mongols according to the "Secret Tale" is Alan-Goa, in the eighth generation from Genghis Khan, who, according to legend, conceived children from a sunbeam in a yurt. Genghis Khan's grandfather, Khabul Khan, was a wealthy leader of all the Mongol tribes, successfully waged wars with neighboring tribes. Temuchin's father was Yesugei Baatur, the grandson of Khabul Khan, the leader of most of the Mongol tribes, in which there were 40 thousand yurts. This tribe was the complete owner of the fertile valleys between the rivers Kerulen and Onon. Yesugei-baatur also successfully fought and fought, subjugating the Tatars and many neighboring tribes. From the contents of the "Secret Tale" it is clear that the father of Genghis Khan was the famous Khan of the Mongols.

It is difficult to name the exact date of birth of Genghis Khan. According to the Persian historian Rashid-ad-din, the date of birth is 1155, modern Mongolian historians adhere to the date - 1162. He was born in the Delyun-Boldok tract on the banks of the Onon River (near Lake Baikal) in the family of one of the Mongol leaders of the Taichiut tribe Yesugei-bagatura ("bagatur" - hero) from the Borjigin clan, and his wife Hoelun from the Onhirat tribe. It was named after the Tatar leader Temuchin, whom Yesugei defeated on the eve of the birth of his son. At the age of 9, Yesugei-bagatur betrothed a son to a 10-year-old girl from the Khungirat family. Leaving his son in the bride's family until the age of majority, in order to get to know each other better, he went home. On the way back, Yesugei lingered at the Tatars' parking lot, where he was poisoned. When he returned to his native ulus, he became ill, and a few days later he died.

The elders of the Mongol tribes refused to obey the too young and inexperienced Temuchin and left with their tribes for another patron. So young Temujin was surrounded by only a few representatives of his kind: his mother, younger brothers and sisters. All their remaining property included only eight horses and a tribal "bunchuk" - a white banner depicting a bird of prey - a gyrfalcon and with nine yak tails, symbolizing four large and five small yurts of his family. For several years, widows with children lived in complete poverty, wandering in the steppes, eating roots, game and fish. Even in summer, the family lived from hand to mouth, making provisions for the winter.

The leader of the Taichiuts, Targultai (a distant relative of Temujin), who declared himself the ruler of the lands once occupied by Yesugei, fearing the revenge of a growing rival, began to pursue Temujin. One day an armed detachment attacked the camp of Yesugei's family. Temujin managed to escape, but he was overtaken and taken prisoner. They put a block on him - two wooden boards with a hole for the neck, which were pulled together. The block was a painful punishment: the person himself did not have the opportunity to eat, drink, or even drive away the fly that sat on his face. Nevertheless, he found a way to slip away and hide in a small lake, plunging into the water with the block and sticking out of the water only his nostrils. The Taichiuts looked for him in this place, but could not find him; but he was noticed by one Selduz, who was among them, and decided to save him. He pulled young Temujin out of the water, freed him from the block and led him to his dwelling, where he hid him in a cart with wool. After the departure of the Taichiuts, the Selduz put Temuchin on a mare, provided him with weapons and sent him home.

After some time, Temujin found his family. The Borjigins immediately migrated to another place, and the Taichiuts could no longer find them. Then Temujin married his betrothed Borte. Borte's dowry was a luxurious sable coat. Temujin soon went to the most powerful of the then steppe leaders - Togoril, Khan of the Keraites. Togoril was once a friend of Temuchin's father, and he managed to enlist the support of the leader of the Keraites, recalling this friendship and bringing a luxurious gift - a sable coat Borte.

The beginning of the conquests

With the help of Khan Togoril, Temujin's forces began to gradually grow. Nukers began to flock to him; he raided his neighbors, multiplying his possessions and herds.

The first serious opponents of Temujin were the Merkits, who acted in alliance with the Taichiuts. In the absence of Temujin, they attacked the camp of the Borjigins and captured Borte and Yesugei's second wife, Sochikhel. Temujin, with the help of Khan Togoril and the Keraites, as well as his anda (named brother) Jamukha from the Jajirat clan, defeated the Merkits. At the same time, while trying to drive away the herd from the possessions of Temujin, Jamukha's brother was killed. Under the pretext of revenge, Jamukha with his army moved to Temujin. But not having achieved success in defeating the enemy, the leader of the Jajirats retreated.

Temujin's first major military undertaking was the war against the Tatars, launched jointly with Togoril around 1200. The Tatars at that time hardly repulsed the attacks of the Jin troops who entered their possession. Using the favorable situation, Temuchin and Togoril inflicted a series of strong blows on the Tatars and captured rich booty. The Jin government, as a reward for the defeat of the Tatars, awarded high titles to the steppe leaders. Temujin received the title of "jautkhuri" (military commissar), and Togoril - "van" (prince), from that time he became known as Van-khan. In 1202, Temujin independently opposed the Tatars. Before this campaign, he made an attempt to reorganize and discipline the army - he issued an order according to which it was strictly forbidden to capture booty during the battle and the pursuit of the enemy: the commanders had to divide the captured property between the soldiers only at the end of the battle.

Temujin's victories caused the rallying of the forces of his opponents. A whole coalition was formed, including Tatars, Taichiuts, Merkits, Oirats and other tribes, who elected Jamukha as their khan. In the spring of 1203, a battle took place, ending in the complete defeat of the Jamukha forces. This victory further strengthened Temujin's ulus. In 1202-1203, the Keraites were headed by Van Khan's son Nilkha, who hated Temujin because Van Khan gave preference to him over his son and thought to transfer the Keraite throne to him bypassing the Nilkha. In the autumn of 1203, Wang Khan's troops were defeated. His ulus ceased to exist. Wang Khan himself died while trying to escape to the Naimans.

In 1204 Temujin defeated the Naimans. Their ruler Tayan Khan died, and his son Kuchuluk fled to the territory of the Semirechie in the country of the Karakitays (southwest of Lake Balkhash). His ally, the Merkit khan Tokhto-beki, fled with him. There Kuchuluk managed to gather disparate detachments of Naimans and Keraites, enter the location of the gurkhan and become a rather significant political figure.

Reforms of the Great Khan

At kurultai in 1206, Temujin was proclaimed a great khan over all tribes - Genghis Khan. Mongolia has changed: scattered and warring Mongolian nomadic tribes united into a single state.

At the same time, a new law was issued: Yasa. The main place in it was occupied by articles on mutual assistance in the campaign and the prohibition of deceiving a trusted person. Those who violated these regulations were executed, and the enemy of the Mongols, who remained faithful to his khan, was spared and accepted into his army. "Good" was considered loyalty and courage, and "evil" - cowardice and betrayal.

After Temujin became the all-Mongol ruler, his policy began to reflect the interests of the noyonism even more clearly. The noyons needed such internal and external measures that would help consolidate their dominance and increase their income. New wars of conquest, robbery of rich countries were supposed to ensure the expansion of the sphere of feudal exploitation and the strengthening of the class positions of the noyons.

The administrative system created under Genghis Khan was adapted to the implementation of these goals. He divided the entire population into tens, hundreds, thousands and tumens (ten thousand), thereby mixing tribes and clans and appointing specially selected people from his entourage and nukers as commanders over them. All adult and healthy men were considered warriors who ran their household in peacetime and took up arms in wartime. Such an organization provided Genghis Khan with the opportunity to increase his armed forces to about 95 thousand soldiers.

Separate hundreds, thousands and tumens, together with the territory for nomadism, were given into the possession of one or another noyon. The Great Khan, considering himself the owner of all the land in the state, distributed the land and arats into the possession of the noyons, on the condition that they would regularly perform certain duties for this. Military service was the most important duty. Each noyon was obliged, at the first request of the overlord, to put the prescribed number of soldiers in the field. Noyon in his inheritance could exploit the labor of arats, distributing his cattle to them for grazing or involving them directly in work on his farm. Small noyons served as large ones.

Under Genghis Khan, the enslavement of arats was legalized, unauthorized transition from one dozen, hundreds, thousands or tumens to others was prohibited. This prohibition already meant the formal attachment of the arats to the land of the noyons - for migration from the possessions, the arat was threatened with the death penalty.

A specially formed armed detachment of personal bodyguards, the so-called keshik, enjoyed exclusive privileges and was intended mainly to fight against the internal enemies of the khan. Keshiktens were selected from the Noyon youth and were under the personal command of the khan himself, being essentially the khan's guard. At first, there were 150 keshiktens in the detachment. In addition, a special detachment was created, which was supposed to always be in the forefront and be the first to engage in battle with the enemy. He was called a detachment of heroes.

Genghis Khan elevated the written law to a cult, was supporters of a firm rule of law. He created a network of communication lines in his empire, courier communications on a large scale for military and administrative purposes, organized intelligence, including economic intelligence.

Genghis Khan divided the country into two "wings". At the head of the right wing he placed Boorcha, at the head of the left - Mukhali, two of his most faithful and experienced companions. The position and titles of senior and senior military leaders - centurions, thousands and temniks - he made hereditary in the family of those who, with their faithful service, helped him seize the khan's throne.

Conquest of Northern China

In 1207-1211, the Mongols conquered the land of the Yakuts [source?], Kirghiz and Uighurs, that is, they subjugated almost all the main tribes and peoples of Siberia, imposing tribute on them. In 1209, Genghis Khan conquered Central Asia and turned his gaze to the south.

Before the conquest of China, Genghis Khan decided to secure the eastern border, capturing in 1207 the state of the Xi-Xia Tanguts, who had previously conquered Northern China from the dynasty of the Chinese emperors Song and created their own state, which was located between his possessions and the state of Jin. Having captured several fortified cities, in the summer of 1208 the "True Sovereign" withdrew to Longjin, waiting out the unbearable heat that fell that year. Meanwhile, news reaches him that his old enemies Tokhta-beki and Kuchluk are preparing for a new war with him. Preventing their invasion and carefully preparing, Genghis Khan defeated them utterly in a battle on the banks of the Irtysh. Tokhta-beki was among the dead, and Kuchluk fled and found shelter with the Karakitays.

Satisfied with the victory, Temujin again sends his troops against Xi-Xia. After defeating an army of Chinese Tatars, he captured a fortress and a passage in the Great Wall of China and in 1213 invaded the Chinese Empire itself, the State of Jin, and marched as far as Nianxi in the province of Hanshu. With increasing persistence, Genghis Khan led his troops, covering the road with corpses, deep into the continent and established his power even over the province of Liaodong, the central province of the empire. Several Chinese commanders, seeing that the Mongol conqueror was gaining invariable victories, ran over to his side. The garrisons surrendered without a fight.

Having established his position along the entire Great Wall of China, in the autumn of 1213 Temujin sent three armies to different parts of the Chinese Empire. One of them, under the command of the three sons of Genghis Khan - Jochi, Chagatai and Ogedei, headed south. The other, led by the brothers and commanders of Temujin, moved east to the sea. Genghis Khan himself and his youngest son Tolui at the head of the main forces set out in a southeasterly direction. The first army advanced all the way to Honan and, after capturing twenty-eight cities, joined Genghis Khan on the Great Western Road. The army under the command of the brothers and commanders of Temujin captured the province of Liao-si, and Genghis Khan himself ended his triumphal campaign only after he reached the sea rocky cape in the province of Shandong. But either fearing civil strife, or due to other reasons, he decides to return to Mongolia in the spring of 1214 and concludes peace with the Chinese emperor, leaving Beijing to him. However, the leader of the Mongols did not have time to leave the Great Wall of China, as the Chinese emperor moved his court further away, to Kaifeng. This move was perceived by Temujin as a manifestation of hostility, and he again brought troops into the empire, now doomed to death. The war continued.

The Jurchen troops in China, having replenished at the expense of the natives, fought the Mongols until 1235 on their own initiative, but were defeated and exterminated by Genghis Khan's successor Ogedei.

Fight against the Kara-Khitan Khanate

Following China, Genghis Khan was preparing for a campaign in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. He was especially attracted by the flourishing cities of South Kazakhstan and Zhetysu. He decided to carry out his plan through the valley of the Ili River, where rich cities were located and they were ruled by an old enemy of Genghis Khan - Khan of the Naimans Kuchluk.

While Genghis Khan was conquering more and more cities and provinces of China, the fugitive Naiman Khan Kuchluk asked the gurkhan who had given him shelter to help gather the remnants of the army defeated at the Irtysh. Having got a rather strong army under his hand, Kuchluk entered into an alliance against his overlord with the Shah of Khorezm Muhammad, who had previously paid tribute to the Kara-Kitays. After a short but decisive military campaign, the allies were left with a big win, and the gurkhan was forced to give up power in favor of an uninvited guest. In 1213, the gurkhan Zhilugu died, and the Naiman khan became the sovereign ruler of Semirechye. Sairam, Tashkent, the northern part of Ferghana passed under his authority. Having become an implacable opponent of Khorezm, Kuchluk began to persecute Muslims in his possessions, which aroused the hatred of the settled population of Zhetysu. The ruler of Koilyk (in the valley of the Ili River) Arslan Khan, and then the ruler of Almalyk (to the north-west of modern Kulja) Buzar moved away from the Naimans and declared themselves subjects of Genghis Khan.

In 1218, Jebe detachments, together with the troops of the rulers of Koilyk and Almalyk, invaded the lands of the Karakitays. The Mongols conquered Semirechye and East Turkestan, which were owned by Kuchluk. In the very first battle, Jebe defeated the Naimans. The Mongols allowed Muslims to public worship, which was previously prohibited by the Naimans, which contributed to the transition of the entire settled population to the side of the Mongols. Kuchluk, unable to organize resistance, fled to Afghanistan, where he was caught and killed. The inhabitants of Balasagun opened the gates to the Mongols, for which the city received the name Gobalyk - "good city". The road to Khorezm was opened before Genghis Khan.

Conquest of Central Asia

After the conquest of China and Khorezm, the supreme ruler of the Mongol clan leaders, Genghis Khan, sent a strong cavalry corps under the command of Jebe and Subedei to reconnoiter the "western lands". They marched along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, then, after the devastation of Northern Iran, penetrated into Transcaucasia, defeated the Georgian army (1222) and, moving north along the western coast of the Caspian Sea, met in the North Caucasus a united army of Polovtsians, Lezgins, Circassians and Alans. There was a fight that did not have decisive consequences. Then the conquerors made a split in the ranks of the enemy. They gave the Polovtsy gifts and promised not to touch them. The latter began to disperse to their nomad camps. Taking advantage of this, the Mongols easily defeated the Alans, Lezgins and Circassians, and then defeated the Polovtsy in parts. At the beginning of 1223, the Mongols invaded the Crimea, took the city of Surozh (Sudak) and again moved to the Polovtsian steppes.

The Polovtsy fled to Russia. Departing from the Mongol army, Khan Kotyan, through his ambassadors, asked not to refuse him the help of his son-in-law Mstislav the Udaly, as well as Mstislav III Romanovich, the ruling Grand Duke of Kiev. At the beginning of 1223, a large princely congress was convened in Kyiv, where an agreement was reached that the armed forces of the princes of Kiev, Galicia, Chernigov, Seversk, Smolensk and Volyn principalities, united, should support the Polovtsians. The Dnieper, near the island of Khortitsa, was appointed as a gathering place for the Russian united rati. Here the envoys from the Mongol camp were met, offering the Russian military leaders to break the alliance with the Polovtsians and return to Russia. Taking into account the experience of the Polovtsy (who in 1222 went to persuade the Mongols to break their alliance with the Alans, after which Jebe defeated the Alans and attacked the Polovtsy), Mstislav executed the envoys. In the battle on the Kalka River, the troops of Daniil of Galicia, Mstislav the Udaly and Khan Kotyan, without notifying the rest of the princes, decided to "crack down" on the Mongols on their own, crossed to the eastern bank, where on May 31, 1223 they were completely defeated while passively contemplating this bloody battle from the side of the main Russian forces led by Mstislav III, located on the elevated opposite bank of the Kalka.

Mstislav III, having fenced himself with a tyn, held the defense for three days after the battle, and then went to an agreement with Jebe and Subedai on laying down arms and free withdrawal to Russia, as if he had not participated in the battle. However, he, his army and the princes who trusted him were treacherously captured by the Mongols and brutally tortured as "traitors to their own army."

After the victory, the Mongols organized the pursuit of the remnants of the Russian army (only every tenth warrior returned from the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov), destroying cities and villages in the Dnieper direction, capturing civilians. However, the disciplined Mongol commanders had no orders to linger in Russia. Soon they were recalled by Genghis Khan, who considered that the main task of the reconnaissance campaign to the west had been successfully completed. On the way back at the mouth of the Kama, the troops of Dzhebe and Subedei suffered a serious defeat from the Volga Bulgars, who refused to recognize the power of Genghis Khan over them. After this failure, the Mongols went down to Saksin and returned to Asia along the Caspian steppes, where in 1225 they joined the main forces of the Mongol army.

The Mongol troops that remained in China met with the same success as the armies in Western Asia. The Mongol Empire was expanded with a few new conquered provinces north of the Yellow River, with the exception of one or two cities. After the death of Emperor Xuin Zong in 1223, the Northern Chinese Empire practically ceased to exist, and the borders of the Mongol Empire almost coincided with the borders of Central and Southern China, ruled by the Song dynasty.

Death of Genghis Khan

Upon his return from Central Asia, Genghis Khan again led his army through Western China. In 1225 or at the beginning of 1226, Genghis undertook a campaign against the country of the Tanguts. During this campaign, the astrologers informed the Mongol leader that the five planets were in unfavorable alignment. The superstitious Mongol considered that he was in danger. Under the power of a bad feeling, the formidable conqueror went home, but on the way he fell ill and died on August 25, 1227.

Before his death, he wished that the king of the Tanguts would be executed immediately after the capture of the city, and the city itself would be destroyed to the ground. Various sources give different versions of his death: from an arrow wound in battle; from a long illness, after a fall from a horse; from a lightning strike; from the hand of a captive princess on their wedding night.

According to the dying wish of Genghis Khan, his body was taken to his homeland and interred in the area of Burkan-Kaldun. According to the official version of the Secret History, on the way to the Tangut state, he fell off his horse and badly hurt himself while hunting wild horses-kulans and fell ill: Year of the Dog (1226) went on a campaign against the Tanguts. Of the khans, Yesui-Khatun followed the sovereign. On the way, during the round-up of the Arbukhay wild horses-kulans, which are found there in abundance, Genghis Khan sat astride a brown-gray horse. in the raid of kulans, his brown-gray rose to the dab, and the sovereign fell and badly hurt himself. Therefore, we made a stop in the tract Tsoorkhat. The night passed, and the next morning Yesui-Khatun said to the princes and noyons: "The sovereign had a strong fever at night. It is necessary to discuss the situation ". The "Secret Tale" says that "Genghis Khan, after the final defeat of the Tanguts, returned and ascended to heaven in the year of the Pig" (1227). .

According to the will, Genghis Khan was succeeded by his third son Ogedei. Until the Xi-Xia Zhongxing capital was taken, the death of the great ruler was to be kept secret. The funeral procession moved from the camp of the Great Horde to the north, to the Onon River. The Secret History and the Golden Chronicle report that on the way of the caravan with the body of Genghis Khan to the burial place, all living things were killed: people, animals, birds. The annals record: "They killed every living creature that they saw, so that the news of his death would not spread to the surrounding places. In his four main hordes, they mourned and buried him in the area, which he had once deigned to designate as a great reserve" . His wives carried his body through his native camp, and in the end he was buried in a rich tomb in the Onon Valley. During the burial, mystical rites were carried out, which were designed to protect the place where Genghis Khan was buried. The place of his burial has not yet been found. After the death of Genghis Khan, mourning continued for two years.

According to legend, Genghis Khan was buried in a deep tomb, sitting on a golden throne, at the family cemetery "Ikh Khorig" near Mount Burkhan Khaldun, at the headwaters of the Urgun River. He sat on the golden throne of Muhammad, brought by him from the captured Samarkand. So that the grave would not be found and desecrated in subsequent times, after the burial of the Great Khan, a herd of thousands of horses was driven across the steppe several times, destroying all traces of the grave. According to another version, the tomb was arranged in the riverbed, for which the river was blocked for a while, and the water was directed along a different channel. After the burial, the dam was destroyed, and the water returned to its natural course, forever hiding the burial place. Everyone who participated in the burial and could remember this place was subsequently killed, those who carried out this order were subsequently killed too. Thus, the secret of Genghis Khan's burial remains unsolved until now.

Until now, attempts to find the grave of Genghis Khan have not been successful. The geographical names of the times of the Mongol Empire have completely changed over many centuries, and today no one can say exactly where Burkhan-Khaldun Mountain is located. According to the version of Academician G. Miller, based on the stories of the Siberian "Mongol", Mount Burkhan-Khaldun in translation can mean "Mountain of God", "Mountain where deities are placed", "Mountain - God scorches or God penetrates everywhere" - "sacred mountain Genghis and his ancestors, the redeeming mountain, which Genghis, in memory of his salvation in the forests of this mountain from fierce enemies, bequeathed to sacrifice forever and ever, was located in the places of the original nomads of Genghis and his ancestors along the Onon River.

RESULTS OF THE BOARD OF GENGHIS KHAN

During the conquest of the Naimans, Genghis Khan got acquainted with the beginnings of written office work, some of the Naimans entered the service of Genghis Khan and were the first officials in the Mongolian state and the first teachers of the Mongols. Apparently, Genghis Khan hoped to later replace the Naimans with ethnic Mongols, as he ordered noble Mongolian youths, including his sons, to learn the language and writing of the Naimans. After the spread of Mongol rule, even during the life of Genghis Khan, the Mongols also used the services of Chinese and Persian officials.

In the field of foreign policy, Genghis Khan sought to maximize the expansion of the territory subject to him. The strategy and tactics of Genghis Khan were characterized by thorough reconnaissance, surprise attacks, the desire to dismember the enemy forces, setting up ambushes using special detachments to lure the enemy, maneuvering large masses of cavalry, etc.

The ruler of the Mongols created the greatest empire in history, subjugating vast expanses of Eurasia from the Sea of Japan to the Black in the 13th century. He and his descendants swept away the great and ancient states from the face of the earth: the state of Khorezmshahs, the Chinese Empire, the Baghdad Caliphate, most of the Russian principalities were conquered. Huge territories were placed under the control of the Yasa steppe law.

The old Mongolian code of laws "Jasak", introduced by Genghis Khan, reads: "Genghis Khan's Yasa prohibits lies, theft, adultery, orders to love your neighbor as yourself, not to cause offense, and forget them completely, to spare countries and cities that have submitted voluntarily, to free from any tax and respect the temples dedicated to God, as well as his servants. The significance of "Jasak" for the formation of statehood in the empire of Genghis Khan is noted by all historians. The introduction of a code of military and civil laws made it possible to establish a firm legal order on the vast territory of the Mongol Empire, and failure to comply with its laws was punishable by death. Yasa prescribed tolerance in matters of religion, respect for temples and clerics, forbade quarrels among the Mongols, disobedience of children to parents, theft of horses, regulated military duty, rules of conduct in battle, distribution of military booty, etc.
"Immediately kill anyone who steps on the threshold of the governor's headquarters."
"He who urinates in water or on ashes is put to death."
"Forbidden to wash the dress while wearing it, until it is completely worn out."
"Let no one leave his thousand, hundreds or ten. Otherwise, let him and the head of the unit that received him be executed."
"Respect all confessions without giving preference to any."
Genghis Khan declared shamanism, Christianity and Islam as the official religions of his empire.

Unlike other conquerors for hundreds of years before the Mongols who dominated Eurasia, only Genghis Khan managed to organize a stable state system and make Asia appear before Europe not just as an unexplored steppe and mountainous expanse, but as a consolidated civilization. It was within its borders that the Turkic revival of the Islamic world then began, with its second onslaught (after the Arabs) almost finished off Europe.

In 1220, Genghis Khan founded Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire.

The Mongols revere Genghis Khan as the greatest hero and reformer, almost like the incarnation of a deity. In European (including Russian) memory, he remained something like a pre-storm crimson cloud that appears before a terrible, all-cleansing storm.

DESCENDANTS OF GENGHIS KHAN

Temujin and his beloved wife Borte had four sons:

son Jochi
son Chagatai
son Ogedei
son Tolu th.

Only they and their descendants could claim the highest power in the state. Temujin and Borte also had daughters:

daughter Hodgin bags, wife of Butu-gurgen from the Ikires clan;
daughter Tsetseihen (Chichigan), wife of Inalchi, the youngest son of the head of the Oirats Khudukh-beki;
daughter Alangaa (Alagay, Alakha), who married the Ongut noyon Buyanbald (in 1219, when Genghis Khan went to war with Khorezm, he entrusted state affairs to her in his absence, therefore she is also called Tor zasagch gunzh (ruler-princess);
daughter Temulen, wife of Shiku-gurgen, son of Alchi-noyon from the Khongirads, the tribe of her mother Borte;
daughter Alduun (Altalun), who married Zavtar-setsen, noyon of the Khongirads.

Temujin and his second wife Khulan-Khatun, daughter of Dair-usun, had sons

son Kulkhan (Khulugen, Kulkan)
son Harachar;

From Tatar Yesugen (Yesukat), daughter of Charu-noyon

son Chakhur (Jaur)
son Harhad.

The sons of Genghis Khan continued the work of the Golden Dynasty and ruled the Mongols, as well as the conquered lands, based on the Great Yasa of Genghis Khan until the 20s of the 20th century. Even the Manchurian emperors who ruled Mongolia and China from the 16th to the 19th centuries were descendants of Genghis Khan, as for their legitimacy they married Mongol princesses from the golden family dynasty of Genghis Khan. The first prime minister of Mongolia in the 20th century, Chin Van Khanddorj (1911-1919), as well as the rulers of Inner Mongolia (until 1954), were direct descendants of Genghis Khan.

The family vault of Genghis Khan is maintained until the 20th century; in 1918, the religious head of Mongolia, Bogdo-gegen, issued an order to preserve the Urgiin bichig (family list) of Mongolian princes, called shastir. This shastir is kept in the museum and is called "Shastir of the state of Mongolia" (Mongol Ulsyn shastir). Many direct descendants of Genghis Khan from his golden family still live in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia.

ADDITIONAL LITERATURE

Vladimirtsov B.Ya. Genghis Khan. Publishing house Z.I. Grzhebin. Berlin. Petersburg. Moscow. 1922 Cultural and historical sketch of the Mongol Empire of the XII-XIV centuries. In two parts with appendices and illustrations. 180 pages. Russian language.

The Mongol Empire and the nomadic world. Bazarov B.V., Kradin N.N. Skrynnikova T.D. Book 1. Ulan-Ude. 2004. Institute of Mongolian Studies, Buddhology and Tebetology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The Mongol Empire and the nomadic world. Bazarov B.V., Kradin N.N. Skrynnikova T.D. Book 3. Ulan-Ude. 2008. Institute of Mongolian Studies, Buddhology and Tebetology SB RAS.

On the art of war and the conquests of the Mongols. The composition of Lieutenant Colonel of the General Staff M. Ivanin. St. Petersburg, Publisher: printed in a military printing house. Year of publication: 1846. Pages: 66. Language: Russian.

Secret History of the Mongols. Translation from Mongolian. 1941.

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