In the 12th century, the tribes that later became known as the Mongols occupied vast steppe territories from the Amur River in the east to the upper reaches of the Irtysh and Yenisei Rivers in the West, from the Great Wall of China in the south to the borders of Southern Siberia in the north. The largest Mongol tribes that played the most important role in the subsequent events were the Tatars, Keraites, Naimans, Merkits, and the Mongols themselves. The struggle for supremacy between the nomads was long and stubborn. At the beginning of the 12th century, under Khabul Khan and Ambagai Khan, the Mongol tribe rose. However, in 1161, the Jurchens and Tatars inflicted a major defeat on the Mongols. Khabul Khan’s grandson, Yesugei, was no longer khan, but bore the title of bagatura. Nevertheless, he remained a major figure. Being successful in campaigns and raids against other tribes, Yesugei-bagatur had many subjects and large herds of cattle. He died suddenly around 1165, poisoned, it is believed, by his enemies, the Tatars. After Yesugei-bagatur’s death, the ulus he had assembled fell apart. The Tatars, who roamed near Lake Buir-Nur, became the most powerful tribe. A new rise of the Mongols occurred under Yesugei’s son, Temujin. But it didn’t happen all at once or all of a sudden.
The first years after Yesugei-bagatura’s death were very difficult for his family. The enemies did not give up trying to get even with the wife and children of the once formidable warrior. One day, the leader of the Taichiut, Targutai-Kiriltuk, sent his men to Temuchin’s camp and they captured him. They put stocks on the young man and took him to the Taichiut camp, where they began to keep him a prisoner, transferring him from one yurt to another every day. After some time, Temuchin managed to escape. And then his ascent to the heights of power and might began. Distinguished by his height and physical strength, as well as his extraordinary intelligence, Yesugei’s son first recruited a band of adventurers from his tribesmen and engaged in robberies and raids on neighboring tribes. Gradually, the number of his followers grew, and in 1189 Temuchin became the head of the revived Mongol ulus. After that, he, in alliance with the Keraites, defeated the Tatars and in 1202 carried out a terrible massacre among them. The surviving Tatars were distributed among the Mongol clans. After that, Temuchin suddenly attacked the Keraites and routed them. The leader of the Wang Khan tribe, the most powerful ruler of Mongolia at that time, was killed. The next opponents of the Mongols were supposed to be the Naimans. But before starting a war with them, Temuchin began organizing the army, which now represented a significant force. According to the old custom, he divided it into thousands, hundreds and dozens, appointing experienced and personally loyal military leaders. He created his own Keshik guard from a select part of the troops. Iron discipline was introduced among the subordinates. This was the beginning of the magnificent Mongol army, which was to conquer half of Asia in the near future.
From the sources that have come down to us, we can get an idea of the complex but exceptionally integral nature of the great conqueror, as well as his character and habits. It is known that Temuchin had four older wives and, according to their number, four main bettors. But besides them, he had many more wives and concubines. While relaxing at home, Khan loved to see beautiful women’s faces, so he always had girls with him for various services and an orchestra of 17 or 18 beauties skilled in playing various instruments. Temuchin’s feasts were always attended by many women of his court. But with all this, women have never occupied too much of a place in his life, and none of them could boast of having an influence on him. Jealous and merciless towards anyone who might be suspected of encroaching on his harem, Temujin was also capable of generosity. It is known, for example, that in 1184 his eldest wife Borte was abducted by the Merkits and given as a wife to the strongman Chilger. Having beaten his wife back, Khan never later recalled the humiliation that had befallen her, and continued to treat her with love and respect. Only the children born of her were granted the rights and titles of princes.
Willpower and self-control were the main traits of Temujin’s character. There are many examples of how he restrained his anger under the influence of rational considerations. Relentless towards his enemies, he was always distinguished by his generosity and hospitality towards his friends and supporters. To his subjects, Temuchin was neither a despot nor a tyrant. On the contrary, for all his harsh demands, he remained a generous and wise ruler for the Mongols. Strict order always reigned in his possessions. Murders, robberies, lies and betrayal among the Mongols were extremely rare in his time. Above all, he valued directness, loyalty, as well as courage and intelligence in people.
Being a brilliant commander, Temuchin did not seem to be particularly brave. At least, there is no information about his personal participation in the battles.
Throughout the years, even after most of Asia fell under his rule, Temuchin led a moderate lifestyle. Hunting remained his favorite pastime until his death. He loved horses and wine as much as he loved women.
In 1204, Temuchin moved against the Naimans and inflicted a severe defeat on them. Their leader, Tayan Khan, was killed. In 1206, Temuchin made a campaign to Altai, during which he finally defeated the Naiman Kuchluk and the Merkit Tokto. The latter was killed, and Kuchluk fled to Semirechye. Temuchin became the ruler of Mongolia, uniting all the tribes living there under his rule. In 1206, he convened the great council of nomadic nobility, or kurultai, on the Onona River, which proclaimed him the ruler of the entire Mongolian people. It was then that Temuchin officially assumed the title of Genghis Khan («the greatest ruler»). Since then, all the tribes subordinate to him have been called Mongols.
The time has come for great conquests. Genghis Khan made his first campaign in 1207-1208 against the Tangut kingdom of Xia, which lay to the west of the Chinese Song Empire. In 1211, a war broke out with the Jurchen Jin Empire, which occupied the territory of Northern China. The Mongols swiftly broke through the Great Wall, defeated the hastily assembled Jurchen troops, and then plundered their country with impunity for four months, reaching the very walls of the Jin capital. With the beginning of winter, they went beyond the Great Wall. In 1212, the Mongols reappeared within Jin and inflicted several defeats on the imperial army. But, easily defeating the field armies, the nomads constantly suffered setbacks under the walls of the cities. They did not know how to take fortresses.
In preparation for the 1213 campaign, Genghis Khan tried to attract experienced Chinese engineers to his side, who helped the Mongols manufacture the necessary weapons for the siege. Having launched an offensive, Genghis Khan seized the strategically important Xilin Pass on the move and led his troops beyond the Inner Wall. By that time, about one hundred thousand Chinese had defected to his banner, unwilling to further endure the rule of the Jurchens. Genghis Khan used these experienced soldiers primarily during the siege of cities and fortresses. Soon, Yizhou and Zhozhou, the powerful northern fortress of Gubeikou, and 90 other cities in Northern China were taken. Devastating raids by the Mongol cavalry reached the shores of the Yellow River.
At last peace was concluded, and the Mongols, burdened with plunder, retired to their steppes. But the following year, the war broke out with renewed vigor. In August 1214, the Mongols besieged the old Jurchen capital of Yanjing. While Genghis Khan’s main forces were fighting under his walls, another Mongol detachment under the command of Mukhuli captured the whole of Manchuria. In June 1215, Yanjing fell and was subjected to a terrible defeat. The Khorezmian ambassador, who soon visited the smoking ruins of the famous city, wrote: «The bones of the slain formed mountains, the soil became greasy with human flesh… sixty thousand girls rushed from its walls to escape the hands of the Mongols.» The fall of Yanjing handed over to Genghis Khan the whole of China north of the Yellow River. In the winter of 1215, the Mongols approached the walls of the new Jin capital of Kaifeng for the first time. In 1216, the raid was repeated. The Mongols burned and looted villages around the capital. The Jin court and Emperor Xuanzong were in great awe, but fortunately for them, Genghis Khan’s attention was soon diverted from China in another direction.
In 1218, Genghis Khan sent a large army led by his son Jochi to the west, commanding him to put an end to his old enemy Kuchluk. The latter conquered the Western Liao kingdom of the Kara Khitans in 1211 and took over a vast country from Kashgar to Lake Balkhash. Jochi took Bishbalyk, and then entered Kashgar. Kuchluk, who fled, was soon captured and beheaded. Jochi captured Almalyk without a fight and attacked the Merkits in the vicinity of Karaku (west of the Chu River). (This Mongol tribe had previously been conquered by Genghis Khan, but then migrated to the Kuchluk domain.) The Merkits were defeated and fled west to the shores of the Syr Darya. Pursuing them, Jochi approached the borders of the Khorezmshah empire, which by that time united Central Asia and most of Iran within its borders. Khorezm Shah Muhammad II marched against the Mongols with an army of 60,000 men. Jochi sent an ambassador to him with a proposal to amicably disperse: after all, there is no war between their countries and, therefore, there is no reason to start a battle. But Muhammad refused to listen to his exhortations. A fierce battle took place, during which the left flank of the Khorezm army was defeated by the Mongols. However, on the right flank, commanded by the son of Khorezm Shah Jalal al-din, the nomad attack was repelled. Thus, the outcome of the battle remained unclear. At night, Jochi quietly left for the east. This is how the Khorezmians and Mongols crossed arms for the first time.
In the same year, 1218, another event occurred that made the war between Genghis Khan and Muhammad inevitable. In Otrar, Khorezmshah’s officials robbed a large Mongol caravan and killed all the merchants, as well as the Mongol ambassadors who were carrying a friendly message from Genghis Khan to Khorezmshah. After receiving news of all these incidents, Genghis Khan decided to start a war against Khorezm. According to the Mongolian historical chronicle, he gathered his entourage and announced: «I will go to war against the Sartauli people and take legal revenge for hundreds of my embassy people.… Is it possible to allow the Sartauli people to tear off the ornaments of my royal reins with impunity?» The sons and dignitaries offered to start military operations immediately, but Genghis Khan made one last attempt to resolve the conflict peacefully. He sent an order to Muhammad to hand over to him the people responsible for the murder of his ambassadors. Khorezmshah not only failed to comply with this requirement, but added a new one to his previous crimes — he ordered the assassination of Genghis Khan’s ambassador Ibn Kafraj Bogr and the murder of all his companions.
The war began in 1219. In September, the Mongols approached Otrar. Genghis Khan entrusted his siege to his sons Chagatai and Ogedei. The city, which had a 50,000-strong garrison, defended itself for six months and was stormed in February 1220. Meanwhile, an army under the command of Genghis Khan’s other son, Jochi, captured Sygnak, conquered Ferghana, and after a stubborn siege took Khojent. Genghis Khan himself crossed the Syr Darya, quickly marched through the Kyzylkum desert and unexpectedly attacked Bukhara in February 1220. The city surrendered after a four-day siege and was razed to the ground. After that, the Mongols approached Samarkand, which had a garrison of 110,000 soldiers. Genghis Khan managed to lure most of them out of the city by a false retreat, ambushed, surrounded and destroyed. Drained of blood by this defeat, Samarkand surrendered (March 17, 1220) and was subjected to a ruthless defeat. Most of its inhabitants were killed or captured. Pursued by the Mongol cavalry, Khorezm Shah Muhammad abandoned Nishapur, Bistam and several other well-fortified fortresses without a fight and retreated to the shores of the Caspian Sea. When the Mongols appeared, he boarded a ship and sailed to the island of Ashur-Ada. Soon he fell ill from grief and deprivation and died in December 1220.
Abandoned by its rulers, Gurganj, the ancient capital of the Khorezmshahs, nevertheless stubbornly defended itself for more than seven months. In the end, it was stormed and razed to the ground. Most of its inhabitants died. According to Khorezm dignitary Juveini, the former capital of a huge empire «has turned into a place of jackals, a refuge for owls and ravens.» During the summer and autumn of 1221, the Mongols captured Balkh, Termez, Andhud, Merv, Tus, Herat and other cities and fortresses of Khorasan. The entire population of these major cities of the Muslim East was slaughtered or sold into slavery (with about 500,000 people killed in Merv alone). An eyewitness to the collapse of the Khorezmshahs’ power, historian an-Nasawi, wrote: «People witnessed disasters that had not been heard of in the past centuries, during the time of the vanished states… Bloodshed, looting and destruction were such that villages were abandoned, and farmers left naked. The open and the closed were extracted, the explicit and the hidden were squeezed out, and it became so that neither bleating nor roaring could be heard: only owls screamed and echoed.»
In November 1221, Genghis Khan moved to Afghanistan, took Bamyan, and defeated the army of the new Khorezm Shah Jalal al-din in an extremely bloody battle on the banks of the Indus. Most of the Khorezmians were killed. However, the Khorezm Shah himself, with a small number of companions, managed to swim across the Indus and fled from pursuit. Having devastated the whole of Afghanistan and Northern Punjab, Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia in February 1225.
After giving his troops a year’s rest, the formidable conqueror again attacked the Tangut Empire of Xia in February 1226. The Mongols took Ganzhou and Lianzhou, crossed the Alashan desert, reached the Yellow River and captured many cities on its shores. In early 1227, Genghis Khan began the siege of the Tangut capital of Ningxia. However, he did not live to see the end of the war and died in August 1227. A few days later, Ningxia surrendered to the mercy of the victors. Emperor Xia was exiled to Mongolia, and his state ceased to exist.