For such a great historical figure such as Genghis Khan, information on his life is surprisingly scarce. This is due to the record taking of the time and the loss of many historical documents. Much of what is known comes from “The Secret History of the Mongols” which has one of the most detailed accounts of his life. However, much mystery and controversy still surround his life and death.

Conquest over the Khereid
In 1203, after defeating the Tatars, Temujin sought to reestablish his bond with Ong Khan by requesting a marriage with Temujin’s son and Ong Khan’s daughter. However Ong Khan set up a plot to murder Temujin and his family during the wedding ceremony. Knowledge of this plot sparked Temujin’s desire for revenge. He amassed an army and quickly descended on the camp of Ong Khan. The tribe was defeated after three long days and nights of difficult battle, but Jamuka, Ong Khan and his son escaped. Sengum, Ong Khan’s son, ended up dying in the desert soon after. Jamuka and Ong Khan fled toward the protection of the Naiman clan but Ong Khan was killed on route. Many of Ong Khan’s troops were accepted into Temujin’s army.

War with the Tatar
In 1202, Temujin again engaged in war against the Tatars. He decisively defeated them near the Khalkh River. Too obsessed with old revenge, he slaughtered the Tatars by executing men who were taller than cart wheel. He took two daughters of a nobleman named Grand Cheren as his wives. In addition to Borte, these two women, Yesui and Yesugen, were made his queens. He also took the rest of the tribe members and integrated them into his own. His marriage to the two Tatar women was a symbolic gesture showing his people that the two tribes should be merged.

War with the Naiman
In 1204, Temujin’s forces faced the Naiman clan. This battle was the culmination of all the military strategy and tactics that Temujin had mastered up to this point. His army was outnumbered, but through strategic planning he was able to defeat his enemies. He employed techniques such as the “Tumbleweed formation”, “Lake Formation” and “Chisel Formation” to slowly pick away his opponents. During the battle Jamuka fled into the forest where he lived as an outlaw. A year later he would submit himself to his former ally Temujin, after this meeting the shamed Jamuka was put to death by his own request. Hence, the most powerful and wise opponent of Temujin was vanquished.

The Mongols deployed three general weapons, bows, scimitars and lances. Of these the most important was the dreaded Mongol Bow. Arrows were of different “calibers” for tactical purposes, ranging from warheads capable of penetrating heavy armor, to an assortment of longer range, more specialized heads like “fire” arrows. Lances and scimitars were used for close range encounters within cities or against dispersed enemies in the field. The central weapon however was the bow, with a range of over 200 yards.

Genghis Khan left behind an army of more than 129,000 men. 28,000 were given to his various brothers and his sons, and Tolui, his youngest son, inherited more than 100,000 men. This force contained the bulk of the elite Mongolian cavalry. This was done because by tradition, the youngest son inherits his father’s property. Jochi, Chagatai, Ogedei and Kulan’s son Gelejian received armies of 4000 men each. His mother and the descendants of his three brothers received 3000 men each. (From Wikipedia )

- Advancing tactic. The vanguard traveled in advance and tried to eliminate the ports and strongholds. Zeb, Subedei, the famous generals of Genghis, were very skilled in surrounding enemy forces and eliminating them. If the enemy force was strong enough to resist, the army would pull back for two or three days ride. This made it look like the army was exhausted and fleeing from battle. This would distract and weaken their opponent, and then the Mongol army would attack from unforeseen sides. The maneuver of the advancing army was controlled from the top of the mountain by flags in daytime and fire at night.

The Advancing tactic was widely used when fighting with the Altan State and China. Light cavalrymen of the Mongols attacked persistently; restlessly shooting with arrows from the distance. When the enemy force weakened, the heavy cavalrymen hit to the center or from the side. If enemy force ran away from the battlefield, the Mongols would always chase them until it is exhausted. This was the main principle of Genghis’’ battlefield strategy.

Genghis Khan established The Mongol Empire in 1206. It was bordered on the west by the Western Xia Dynasty. To its east and south was the Jin Dynasty, who at the time ruled northern China as well as being the traditional overlord of the Mongolian tribes. Temujin organized his people and his state to prepare for war. He also knew that the Jin Dynasty had a young ruler who would not come to the aid of Tanguts of Xi Xia. This is what happened when the Tanguts asked the leader of Jin Dynasty for help and was refused.

The Jurchen had also grown uncomfortable with the newly-unified Mongols. It may be that some trade routes ran through Mongol territory, and they might have feared the Mongols eventually would restrict the supply of goods coming from the Silk Road. Genghis Khan also was eager to take revenge against the Jurchen for their long subjugation of the Mongols. The Jurch executed some Mongol Khans and had been enciting conflict between Mongol tribes. Eventually, Genghis Khan led his army against Western Xia and conquered it, despite initial difficulties in capturing its well-defended cities. In 1209, the Tangut emperor acknowledged Genghis as overlord.

In 1211, Genghis set about bringing the Nuzhen (the founders of the Jin Dynasty) completely under his dominion. The Commander of Jin army had made a tactical mistake in not attacking the Mongols initially. Instead, the Jin commander sent a messenger, Ming-Tan, to the Mongol side, who promptly defected and told Mongols that Jin army is waiting on the other side of the pass. In the engagement, which was fought at Badger Pass, Mongols massacred thousands of Jin troops. When the Taoist sage Ch’ang Ch’un was passing through this pass to meet Genghis Khan he was stunned to see the bones of so many people scattered in the pass. On his way back he stayed close to this pass for three days and prayed for the departed souls. The Mongol army crossed the Great Wall of China in 1213, and in 1215 Genghis besieged, captured, and sacked the Jin capital of Yanjing (later known as Beijing). This forced the Jin Emperor Xuan Zong to move his capital south to Kaifeng. (from Wikipedia)

Conquest over the Khwarezm
After the defeat of the Kara-Khitais , the extensive Mongol Empire had a border with the Muslim state of Khwarezmia, governed by Shah Ala ad-Din Muhammad. Genghis The commercial potential of Khwarezmia was apparent to Ghenghis and he sent a 500-man caravan to officially establish trade ties with Khwarezmia. However Inalchuq, the governor of the Khwarezmian city of Otrar, attacked the caravan that came from Mongolia, claiming that the caravan was a conspiracy against Khwarezmia. The governor later refused to make repayments for the looting of the caravan and murder of its members. Genghis Khan then sent a second group of ambassadors to meet the Shah himself. The shah had all the men shaved and some were facially mutilated and all but one beheaded. This was seen as an affront to Khan himself. This led Genghis Khan to attack the Khwarezmian Dynasty.

The Mongols crossed the Tien Shan Mountains, coming into the Shah’s empire. After much research Genghis Khan carefully prepared his army , which was divided into three groups. His son Jochi led the first division into the Northeast of Khwarezmia. The second division under Jebe marched secretly to the Southeast part of Khwarezmia to form, with the first division, a pincer attack on Samarkand. The third division under Genghis Khan and Tolui marched to the northwest and attacked Khwarezmia from that direction. The Shah’s army was split by diverse internal disquisitions, and by the Shah’s decision to divide his army into small groups concentrated in various cities – this fragmentation was decisive in Khwarezmia’s defeats. The Shah’s fearful attitude towards the Mongol army also did not help his army, and Genghis Khan and his generals succeeded in destroying Khwarezm. Tired and exhausted from the journey, the Mongols still won their first victory against the Khwarezmian army. The Mongol army quickly seized the town of Otrar, relying on superior strategy and tactics . Once he had conquered the city, Genghis Khan executed many of the inhabitants and executed Inalchuq by pouring molten silver into his ears and eyes, as retribution for the insult.

A minaret in Samarkand.According to stories, Khan diverted a river of Ala ad-Din Muhammad II of Khwarezm’s birthplace, erasing it from the map. The Mongols’ conquest of the capital was nothing short of brutal: the bodies of citizens and soldiers filled the trenches surrounding the city, allowing the Mongols to enter raping, pillaging and plundering homes and temples. In the end, the Shah fled rather than surrender. Genghis Khan charged Subutai and Jebe with hunting him down, giving them two years and 20,000 men. The Shah died under mysterious circumstances on a small island within his empire. By 1220 the Khwarezmid Empire was eradicated. After Samarkand fell, Bujara became the capital of Jorezm, while two Mongol generals advanced on other cities to the north and the south. Jorezm, the heir of Shah Jalal Al-Din and a brilliant strategist, who was supported enough by the town, battled the Mongols several times with his father’s armies. However, internal disputes once again split his forces apart, and Jorezm was forced to flee Bujara after a devastating defeat.
Genghis Khan selected his third son Ugodei as his successor before his army set out, and specified that subsequent Khans should be his direct descendants. Genghis Khan also left Muqulai, one of his most trusted generals, as the supreme commander of all Mongol forces in Jin China. (From Wikipedia)

War on Georgia and Volga Bulgaria
These campaigns were the start of Mongol invasion of Rus and Mongol invasion of Europe by almost two decades until 1240s. The Mongol armies after conquering Khwarezmid Empire split into two component forces. Genghis Khan led a division on a raid through Afghanistan and northern India, while another contingent, led by his generals Jebe and Subutai, marched through the Caucasus and Russia. Neither campaign added territory to the empire, but they pillaged settlements and defeated any armies they met that did not acknowledge Genghis Khan as the rightful leader of the world. In 1225 both divisions returned to Mongolia. These invasions ultimately added Transoxiana and Persia to an already formidable empire. While Genghis Khan gathered his forces in Persia and Armenia, a detached force of 20,000 troops, commanded by Jebe and Subutai, pushed deep into Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The Mongols destroyed Georgians, sacked the Genoese trade-fortress of Caffa in Crimea, and sta
yed over winter near the Black Sea. Heading home, Mongols assaulted the Kipchaks and were intercepted by the allied troops of Mstislav the Bold of Halych and Mstislav III of Kiev, along with about 80,000 Kievan Rus’. Subutai sent emissaries to the Slavic princes calling for separate peace, but the emissaries were executed. At the Battle of Kalka River in 1223, the Mongols defeated the larger Kievan force. The Russian princes then sued for peace. Subedei agreed but was in no mood to pardon the princes. As was customary in Mongol society for nobility the Russian princes were given a blood less death. Subedei had a large wooden platform constructed on which he ate his meals along with his other generals. Six Russian princes, including Mstislav of Kiev were put under this platform and they suffocated to death.

Genghis Khan’s army did lose to Volga Bulgars in the first attempt [citation needed], though they did come back to avenge their defeat by subjugating all Volga Bulgaria under the Khanate Golden Horde. Mongols also learned from captives of the abundant green pastures beyond the Bulgar territory, allowing for the planning for conquest of Hungary and Europe. Genghis Khan recalled the forces back to the Mongolia soon afterwards, and Jebe died on the road back to Samarkand. This famous cavalry expedition of Subutai and Jebe, in which they encircled the entire Caspian Sea defeating every single army in their path, remains unparalleled to this day.

Second, the childhood and teenage years of Temujin made him a man of endurance and patience. In the “Secret History of Mongolia” it clearly described that after killing his brother, the Tayichiud tribe took him prisoner. The tribe fitted him with a yoke that prevented him from moving his hands, thus limiting his ability to feed himself. He was humiliated for many days. With the help of a kind family in the tribe, Temujin was able to hide in a pile of wool and eventually flee from the camp.

Third, the hostility and vengefulness that existed between the Mongol tribes was the stimulus for his desire to conquer and unite them. For example, Ambagai Khan said that “I was captured by Tatars. Try to take my revenge from the Tatars until your nails and fingers break.” Also Hoelun, Temuujin’s mother, told her children “Why are you arguing with each other, when you are the children of one father. You already know that now, you have no friends except your shadow and no whip except your horse’s tail. How can we take the revenge from Taichuud, if we stay like this?” With the assistance of his friends Temujin invigorated his strength and began to conquer and unite all the Mongol tribes and aimags one after another.