Genghis Khan – The Greatest Mongolian Leader

When we talk about inspirational stories and people, we think of modern-day society and the epic characters who motivated and cultured the world into what it is today. But Genghis Khan is a character that was quite different from this perspective. In fact, his greatness lay in his ability to unite the uneducated nomads of his country in a rather violent manner.

Although most of his life was not recorded much during his sojourn in the world, yet history narrates that Genghis Khan (his birth name was Temujin) was born in the year 1162 somewhere between the borders of Mongolia and Siberia.

Temujin opened his eyes in an environment that was always distraught by social and political turmoil and upheaval. From a very young age, he had seen the sort of violence that people in the modern world usually never get to see in their lifetimes. He understood at an early age that to become powerful in nomadic and uneducated tribes, like the one that he was born in, one needed to become powerful.

At the tender of age 10, Khan’s father was poisoned by a rival tribe. History bears witness that in all backward and uneducated societies, whenever a father leaves the family, it is only followed by their social destruction. The nomadic tribes in which Temujin was born belonged to one of the most uncivil societies known to man, so surviving without a father was an extremely tough ask for the family.

Seeing them as a weight which needed to be cut loose, Temujin’s tribe left his family which comprised of his mother and 6 siblings. At such a young age, he and his brothers had to find a way to manage life on their own. Such tough life conditions were the factors that led to Temujin’s becoming the ruthless Genghis Khan that the world has come to know him as.

Temujin had seen first-hand that in the real world, it was all about power, so he was always in search of opportunities to grow himself and his character in strength. Deeming this as the right step forward, he killed his elder brother to attain the figurehead position of the family. He had finally had the first taste of real power in life, but only after he had spilled his own brother’s blood.

This fearlessness turned Temujin into a ferocious fighter. He became someone who was used to the extremely violent nomadic life and his vigor attracted the young men of the nomadic tribes. These fighters joined forces with him and hailed him as their leader. Using his hard past, Temujin had leveraged himself into a position of power now.

As was the nature of the Mongolian nomadic tribes, many enemies tried abducting Temujin as well as his wife. Temujin was able to set himself and his wife free on all accounts. Slowly, all Mongolian tribes began uniting under the flag of Temujin. These ferocious warriors who previously fought against each other, now fought on the same side; bigger and stronger than ever before. One by one, this united Mongolian force conquered all the steppe tribes and established their government over 1 million people! They created their own nation in modern-day Mongolia with Temujin as the head of state. He was given the title of “Chinggis Khan” or “The Universal Ruler.”

But what sets Genghis Khan apart from other Mongolian leaders is his ability to keep his people under control. Once he attained power, he brought in a lot of reforms that reduced the violence-levels in the state. These included some rights for women and imposing strong laws for theft. He abolished all sorts of titles and gave religious freedom to his people.

This brought in a lot of harmony into people that wanted nothing more than to slit each other’s throats just a few years ago. Despite being outnumbered greatly, the army of Genghis Khan conquered the forces of Xi Xia, the Jin Dynasty, and the Khwarezm Empire. Soon, his army had acquired more than twice the land than any other group had in the history of mankind; stretching from the Sea of Japan to the Caspian Sea.

In the year 1227, Khan fell from his horse and died soon after. But he had already united his people and created one of the strongest empires in human history.