History Reckons

Genghis Khan (popularly known as ) / Chinggis Khaan (Mongolian) / Temujin (meaning Iron-Worker) the undisputed leader of Mongol Empire - touted as the largest ever contiguous empire in the history. His name ignited fear in the heart of each and every enemy here conquered. The very presence of his name was enough to demoralize the spirit of his enemies. So immense was his authority that his son Ogedei Khan fought the germans under his name for almost an year without revealing the news of his father's death to the enemies.

On the earth between : 1162-1227 (approx).

During his tenure the Mongol Empire extended from Atlantic ocean in the west to Pacific ocean in the east.

Like other notable conquerors, Genghis Khan is portrayed differently by those he conquered and those who conquered with him. Many cultural books and authors portray him as a cruel, destructive and blood-thirsty ruler. But a handful of them dealt on his positive side. The

• strategies he adopted,
• his outstanding foreign policy,
• equally outstanding civilian and military code called the Yassa (the first written Mongolian law)
• responsible for the emergence of the Mongols as a political and ethnic identity.

In this post we will deal with his positive perceptions and his grueling policies that made him one of World's Greatest and most legendary leaders.

Perceptions and Legacy

Internal

• Genghis Khan had a Mongol code of law called the Yassa written down, which was intended to be the legal code throughout his empire. It covered in detail many aspects of nomadic life and the concerns of nomadic people (stealing livestock was harshly punished, as was urinating or otherwise spoiling a source of fresh water.) Religious freedom was allowed, as long as one complied with the Yassa
• Genghis Khan created a wide-ranging postal system for the sending of government orders and reports.
• Obedience was expected from everyone from the lowest to the highest classes. Any disobedience by a subordinate officer to any order from a superior officer was reason for death.
• In the face of the ethnic, religious and tribal diversity of the civilians and soldiers of the Mongol Empire, which eventually included modern day Persians, Chinese and many Turkic peoples, Genghis Khan insisted on focusing all loyalty on himself as Great Khan and no others.
• Positions of honour were given on the basis of bravery in battle or outstanding loyalty, as opposed to the old system of inheritance through families.
• Freedom of Religion was given first and foremost importance though he is a cruel ruler in the eyes of many.

External

• Genghis Khan is credited with bringing the Silk Road under one cohesive political environment. This allowed increased communication and trade between the West, Middle East and Asia, thus expanding the horizons of all three cultural areas.
• Genghis Khan realised that he needed people who could govern cities and states conquered by him. He also realised that such administrators could not be found among his Mongol people because they were nomads and thus had no experience governing cities. For this purpose Genghis Khan invited a Khitan prince, Chu'Tsai, who worked for the Jin and had been captured by the Mongol army after the Jin Dynasty were defeated.
• One of the standard tactics of the Mongol military was the commonly practiced feigned retreat to break enemy formations and to lure small enemy groups away from the larger group and defended position for ambush and counterattack.
• Another important aspect of the military organization of Genghis Khan was the communications and supply route or Yam, adapted from previous Chinese models.

In Mongolia and Turkey

• In much of modern-day Turkey, Genghis Khan is looked on as a great military leader, and it is popular for male children to carry his title as name.
• Genghis Khan became the central figure of the national identity in Mongolia.
• It is not uncommon for Mongolians to refer to Mongolia as "Genghis Khan's Mongolia," to themselves as "Genghis Khan's children," and to Genghis Khan as the "father of the Mongols" especially among the younger generation.
• His face can be found on everyday commodities, from liquors to the largest denominations of 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 Mongolian tögrög .
• Mongolia's main international airport has been renamed Chinggis Khaan International Airport, and major Genghis Khan statues have been erected before the parliament and near Ulaanbaatar.

Mongolians maintain that the historical records written by non-Mongolians are unfairly biased against Genghis Khan; and that his butchery is exaggerated, while his positive role is underrated.




In China

• The People's Republic of China (PRC) considers Genghis Khan to be an ethnic minority hero. The rationale for this claim is the fact that there are more ethnic Mongols living inside the PRC than outside, including Mongolia.
• While Genghis Khan never conquered all of China, his grandson Kublai Khan completed that conquest, and established the Yuan Dynasty that is often credited with re-uniting China.
• There has also been much artwork and literature praising Genghis as a great military leader and political genius.
• The years of the Mongol-established Yuan Dynasty left an indelible imprint on Chinese political and social structures for subsequent generations.

However, the legacy of Genghis Khan and his successors, who completed the conquest of China after 65 years of struggle, remains a mixed topic, even to this day.


Recognitions

• The Conqueror, released in 1956 and starring John Wayne as Temüjin and Susan Hayward as Börte.
• Genghis Khan, released in 1965 and starring Omar Sharif.
• Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea, also known as "The Descendant of Gray Wolf") a Japanese-Mongolian film released in 2007 about the life of Genghis Khan.
• Mongol, a film by Academy Award nominee Sergei Bodrov released in 2007.
• The Conqueror Series, by Conn_Iggulden 2007

DNA evidence -The Genghis Khan effect

With the recent popularity of genealogical DNA testing, a wider circle of people started to claim descent from the great conqueror. Zerjal et al [2003] identified a Y-chromosomal lineage present in about 8% of the men in a large region of Asia (about 0.5% of the men in the world). The paper suggests that the pattern of variation within the lineage is consistent with a hypothesis that it originated in Mongolia about 1,000 years ago. Such a spread would be too rapid to have occurred by genetic drift, and must therefore be the result of selection. The authors propose that the lineage is carried by likely male-line descendants of Genghis Khan and his close male relatives, and that it has spread through social selection.

According to Family Tree DNA, Genghis Khan is believed to have belonged to Haplogroup C3.

The 25 Marker Y-DNA Profile of Genghis Khan released by Family Tree DNA is:

DYS number	385a	|385b|	388|	389i	|389ii|	390|	391|	392	|393|	394|	426|	437|	439	|447	|448|	449|	454|	455|	458|	459a|	459b	|464a	|464b|	464c|	464d
Haplotype	12	13	14	13	29	25	10	11	13	16	11	14	10	26	22	27	12	11	18	8	8	11	11	12	16

So now don't worry thinking that u might be one of the 0.5 % people. I'll be very happy to know if were one of the descendants of this truly amazing master figure.

You may or may not be his descendant-it doesn't matter, whatt matters is we need to take inspiration from his ideas and policies and materialize them.

If u find this article interesting or u might want to give any suggestions please digg them in the chat box there or post a comment.

The merit of an action lies in finishing it to the end - Genghis Khan

Sources:

• http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h11mon.htm
• wikipedia
• http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/genghis/
• http://www.leader-values.com/Content/detail.asp?ContentDetailID=799
• http://nobsnews.blogspot.com/1994/01/inspirations-of-historians.html#rashid-ad-din-juwayni
• http://www.accd.edu/sac/history/keller/Mongols/empsub2.html
• http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat0.htm#Mongol
• http://www.coldsiberia.org/
• http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=109217551
• http://web.archive.org/web/20060113174030/http://www.historychannel.com/thcsearch/thc_resourcedetail.do?encyc_id=210250