Genghis Khan
Leo de Hartog
When I was in China and talking with one of the young assistant leaders, Chinese history would come up from time to time. With it there was often a reference to Genghis Khan, a man about whom I knew essentially nothing, so when I saw this book I decided to try to fill in some of that gap in my knowledge.
I found the first sentence of the Preface interesting: “The study which forms the basis of this book began in 1941 when I was a prisoner of war in Colditz.” After the war, however, he found little time to work on the book until 1972 and the hard cover version of the book was first published in 1989. Although he says that the book is addressed primarily to the general reader, it could also be considered a more scholarly book as there are sixty and more notes for every chapter. The bibliography comprises six pages of about thirty references each. I found that if I didn’t try too hard to follow the details of each campaign the book was quite readable.
The Mongols considered water to be sacred. It could not be polluted in any way. Thus they could not bathe in it nor could dishes, food, clothes nor anything else be washed in it. When the Mongols were approaching not only could they be seen and heard, they could be smelled.
As Genghis Khan’s power and influence spread he realized that a code of laws was required; thus the Yasa which put in writing the customs, traditions, and unwritten laws came into being and which included additional laws written by Genghis Khan himself. Whatever was laid down in the Yasa had to be followed to the letter.
In nearly every battle Genghis Khan’s troops were up against numerically superior armies. He won because of his incredible ability to judge his men and his genius as a military commander.
The Mongol army left a bloody trail as they advanced although the author states that their acts were in keeping with the times. When they captured a city and marched on there was always a fear that those left in the city would rise up and strike the Mongol army from the rear. Genghis Khan solved that problem by killing all the able bodied men so that could not happen. And if the defenders particularly offended Genghis Khan, by killing one of his favorite generals, for example, the entire city and its citizens might be destroyed. The author cites one instance when all of the “inhabitants were driven out through the gates and each soldier was given 300 or 400 victims to behead.”
Genghis Khan died in 1227 at the age of 66.