{"id":14428,"date":"2016-05-01T10:40:49","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T14:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/?p=14428"},"modified":"2016-05-01T10:49:22","modified_gmt":"2016-05-01T14:49:22","slug":"genghis-khan-emperor-of-emperors-bogdo-race-of-the-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/?p=14428","title":{"rendered":"Genghis Khan–Emperor Of Emperors–Bogdo–Race Of The Gods"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/span> http:\/\/dublinsmick.wordpress.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Sky<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.archive.org\/stream\/genghiskhantheem035122mbp\/genghiskhantheem035122mbp_djvu.txt<\/a><\/p>\n

The above is a very worthwhile read, the book is probably the only one of it\u2019s kind<\/p>\n

This is from the Keystone library and I will outline some of it briefly.<\/h1>\n

This is from the Keystone library and some think
\nthe only authentic translations of the life and
\ntimes of Genghis Khan. I am only going to provide
\na few excerpts.<\/p>\n

Many speak of Genghis Khan but we really do not know
\nthat much about him, only 700 year old tales. Some in
\nIndia paint Kahn as a Hindu as he is known to have had
\ngreenish gray eyes, light skin and long brownish red
\nhair.<\/p>\n

We do know that Marco Polo traveled halfway around the world to
\nmeet Kubla Khan, the son of Genghis Khan<\/p>\n

Both the Mohammedan Shah and the leaders of China
\nbehind the great wall soon found out it was a great
\nmistake to treat Genghis Khan with disrespect. He
\nallied himself with a tribe beyond the wall who
\nhad grievances against Chinese rulers and they
\nopened the gates for the Bogdo.<\/p>\n

It is said that Genghis Khan himself later in
\nlife confided to a close friend he may have
\nwent to far with the carnage against the Pashtuns
\nin Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Genghis Kahn felt the only way to to channel
\nthe warlike spirit of the Mongols was to focus
\nthem on an external enemy or else they were
\nprone to fight among themselves and settle old
\nconflicts.<\/p>\n

GENGHIS KHAN<\/h1>\n

FOREWORD<\/h1>\n

THE MYSTERY<\/h1>\n

SEVEN hundred years ago a man almost conquered
\nthe earth. He made himself master of half the
\nknown world, and inspired mankind with a fear that
\nlasted for generations.<\/p>\n

In the course of his life he was given many names-
\nthe Mighty Manslayer, the Scourge of God, the
\nPerfect Warrior, and the Master of Thrones and
\nCrowns. He is better known to us as Genghis
\nKhan.<\/p>\n

Unlike most rulers of men, he deserved all his
\ntitles. We moderns have been taught the muster-
\nroll of the great that begins with Alexander of
\nMacedon, continues through the Caesars, and ends
\nwith Napoleon. Genghis Khan was a conqueror of
\nmore gigantic stature than the well-known actors
\nof the European stage.<\/p>\n

Indeed it is difficult to measure him by ordinary
\nstandards. When he marched with his horde, it
\nwas over degrees of latitude and longitude instead of
\nmiles ; cities in his path were often obliterated, and
\nrivers diverted from their courses; deserts were
\npeopled with the fleeing and dying, and when he had<\/p>\n

I 4 GENHGIS KHAN<\/p>\n

Napoleon appeared to be the most brilliant of Europeans. (Napoleon) But we
\ncannot forget that he abandoned one army to its fate
\nin Egypt, and left the remnant of another in the snows
\nof Russia, and finally strutted into the debacle of
\nWaterloo. His empire fell about his ears, his Code
\nwas torn up and his son disinherited before his death.
\nThe whole celebrated affair smacks of the theatre and
\nNapoleon himself of the play-actor.<\/p>\n

Of necessity we must turn to Alexander of Macedon,
\nthat reckless and victorious youth, to find a con-
\nquering genius the equal of Genghis Khan. Alexander
\nthe god-like, marching with his phalanx toward the
\nrising sun, bearing with him the blessing of Greek
\nculture. Both died in the full tide of victory, and
\ntheir names survive in the legends of Asia to-day.<\/p>\n

(There is a separate post concerning\u00a0Alexander<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"ac7aa29a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many things have contributed to keep the per-<\/p>\n

GENGHIS KHAN 15<\/p>\n

sonality of Genghis Khan hidden from us. For one
\nthing the Mongols could not write, or did not care
\nto do so. In consequence the annals of his day exist
\nonly in the scattered writings of the Ugurs, the
\nChinese, the Persians and Armenians. Not until
\nrecently was the saga of the Mongol Ssanang Sctzen
\nsatisfactorily translated.<\/p>\n

So the most intelligent chroniclers of the great
\nMongol were his enemies a fact that must not be
\nforgotten in judging him. They were men of an
\nalien race. Moreover, like the Europeans of the
\nthirteenth century, their conception of the world as
\nit existed outside their own land was very hazy.<\/p>\n

They beheld the Mongol, emerging unheralded
\nout of obscurity. They felt the terrible impact of
\nthe Mongol horde, and watched it pass over them to
\nother lands, unknown to them. One Mohammedan
\nsummed up sadly in these words his experience with
\nthe Mongols, \u201d They came, they mined) they slew
\ntrussed up their loot and departed\u201d<\/p>\n

The difficulty of reading and comparing these
\nvarious sources has been great. Not unnaturally, the
\norientalists who have succeeded in doing so have
\ncontented themselves mainly with the political details
\nof the Mongol conquests. They present Genghis
\nKhan to us as a kind of incarnation of barbaric power
\na scourge that comes every so often out of the desert
\nto destroy decadent civilizations.<\/p>\n

The saga of Ssanang Setzen does not help to
\nexplain the mystery. It says, quite simply, that
\nGenghis Khan was a bogdo of the race of gods. Instead
\nof a mystery, we have a miracle.<\/p>\n

The medieval chronicles of Europe incline, as we<\/p>\n

16 GENGHIS KHAN<\/p>\n

have seen, toward a belief in a sort of Satanic power
\ninvested in the Mongol and let loose jan Europe.<\/p>\n

All this is rather exasperating that modern his-
\ntorians should re-echo the superstitions of the thir-
\nteenth century, especially of a thirteenth-century
\nEurope that beheld the nomads of Genghis Khan only
\nas shadowy invaders.<\/p>\n

There is a simple way of getting light on the mystery
\nthat surrounds Genghis Khan. This way is to turn
\nback the hands of the clock seven hundred years and
\nlook at Genghis Khan as he is revealed in the chron-
\nicles of his day ; not at the miracle, or the incarnation
\nof barbaric power, but at the man himself.<\/p>\n

We will not concern ourselves with the political
\nachievements of the Mongols as a race, but with the
\nman who raised the Mongols from an unknown tribe
\nto world mastery.<\/p>\n

To visualize this man, we must actually approach
\nhim, among his people and on the surface of the
\nearth as it existed seven hundred years ago. We
\ncannot measure him by the standards of modern
\ncivilization. We must view him in the aspects of a
\nbarren world peopled by hunters, horse-riding and
\nreindeer-driving nomads.<\/p>\n

Here, men clothe themselves in the skins of
\nanimals, and nourish themselves on milk and flesh.
\nThey grease their bodies to keep out cold and
\nmoisture. It is even odds whether they starve or
\nfrdcze to death, or are cut down by the weapons of
\nother men.<\/p>\n

\u201d Here arc no towns or cities,\u201d says valiant Fra
\nCarpini, the first European to enter this land, \u201d but
\neverywhere sandy barrens, not a hundredth part cf<\/p>\n

GENGHIS KHAN 17<\/p>\n

the whole being fertile except where it is watered by
\nrivers, which arc very rare.<\/p>\n

\u201d This land is nearly destitute of trees, although
\nwell adapted for the pasturage of cattle. Even the
\nemperor and princes and all others warm themselves
\nand cook their victuals with fires of horse and cow
\ndung.<\/p>\n

\u201d The climate is very intemperate, as in the middle
\nof summer there arc terrible storms of thunder and
\nlightning by which many people are killed, and
\neven then there are great falls of snow and such
\ntempests of cold winds blow that sometimes people
\ncan hardly sit on horseback. In one of these we had
\nto throw ourselves down on the ground and could
\nnot sec through the prodigious dust. There are often
\nshowers of hail, and sudden, intolerable heats followed
\nby extreme cold \u201d :<\/p>\n

This is the Gobi desert, A,D. 1162, the Year of
\nthe Swine in the Calendar of the Twelve Beasts.
\nOnly after death the measure of their achievements
\ndiffers beyond comparison. Alexander\u2019s generals
\nwere soon fighting among themselves for the king-
\ndoms from which his son was forced to flee.<\/p>\n

CHAPTER I<\/p>\n

THE DESERT<\/p>\n

LIFE did not matter very much in the Gobi.
\nLofty plateaus, wind-swept, lying close to the
\nclouds. Reed bordered lakes, visited by migratory
\nwinged creatures on their way to the northern tundras.
\nHuge Lake Ba\u2019ikul visited by all the demons of the
\nupper air. In the clear nights of mid-winter, the flare
\nof the northern lights rising and falling above the
\nhorizon.<\/p>\n

Children of this corner of the northern Gobi were
\nnot hardened to suffering ; they were born to it.
\nAfter they were weaned from their mother\u2019s milk to
\nmarc\u2019s milk they were expected to manage for
\nthemselves.<\/p>\n

The places nearest the fire in the family tent
\nbelonged to the grown warriors and to guests. Women,
\nit is true, could sit on the left side, but at a distance,
\nand the boys and girls had to fit in where they could.<\/p>\n

So with food. In the spring when horses and cows
\nb.cgan to give milk in quantity, all was very well.
\nThe sheep grew fatter, too. Game was more abundant
\nand the hunters of the tribe would bring in deer and
\neven a bear, instead of the lean fur-bearing animals
\nlike the fox, marten and sable. Everything went into<\/p>\n

z8<\/p>\n

GENGHIS KHAN *9<\/p>\n

the pot and was eaten the able-bodied men talcing
\nthe first portions, the aged and the women received
\nthe pot next* and the children had to fight for bones
\nand sinewy bits. Very little was left for the dogs.<\/p>\n

In the winter when the cattle were lean the children
\ndid not fare so well. Milk existed then only in the
\nform of kumiss milk placed in leather sacks and
\nfermented and beaten. It was nourishing and slightly
\nintoxicating for a young man of three or four years
\nif he could contrive to beg or steal some. Meat
\nfailing, boiled millet served to take the edge off
\nhunger after a fashion.<\/p>\n

The end of winter was the worst of all for the
\nyoungsters. No more cattle could be killed off with-
\nout thinning the herds too much. At such a time
\nthe warriors of the tribe were usually raiding the
\nfood reserves of another tribe, carrying off cattle
\nand horses.<\/p>\n

The children learned to organize hunts of their
\nown, stalking dogs and rats with clubs or blunt
\narrows. They learned to ride, too, on sheep, clinging
\nto the wool.<\/p>\n

Endurance was the first heritage of Genghis Khan,
\nwhose birth name was Temujin.* At the time of
\nhis birth his father had been absent on a raid against
\na tribal enemy, Temujin by name. The affair went
\nwell both home and afield ; the enemy was made
\nprisoner, and the father, returning, gave to his infant
\nson the name of the captive foe.<\/p>\n

His home was a tent made of felt stretched over
\na framework of wattled rods with an aperture at the<\/p>\n

Temujin signifies \u201d The Finest Steel \u201cTumur-ji. The Chinese version
\nis T\u2019M mou j** t which has another meaning altogether, \u201d Supreme Earth
\nMan,\u201d<\/p>\n

20 GENGHIS KHAN<\/p>\n

top to let out the smoke. This was coated with white
\nlime and ornamented with pictures. A, peculiar kind
\nof tent, this yurt that wandered all over the prairies
\nmounted on a cart drawn by a dozen or more oxen.
\nServiceable, too, because its dome-like shape enabled
\nit to stand the buffeting of the wind, and it could be
\ntaken down at need.<\/p>\n

The married women of the chieftains and Temu-
\njin\u2019s father was a chieftain all had their own orna-
\nmented yurts in which their children lived. It was
\nthe duty of the girls to attend to the yurt^ to keep the
\nfire burning on the stone hearth under the opening
\nthat let the smoke out. One of Temujin\u2019s sisters,
\nstanding on the platform of the cart before the
\nentrance flap, would manage the oxen when they
\nwere on the move. The shaft of one cart would be
\ntied to the axle of another and would creak and roll
\nin this fashion over the level grassland where, more
\noften than not, no single tree or bit of rising ground
\nwas to be seen.<\/p>\n

In the yurt were kept the family treasures, carpets
\nfrom Bokhara or Kabul, looted probably from some
\ncaravan chests filled with women\u2019s gear, silk gar-
\nments bartered from a shrewd Arab trader, and inlaid
\nsilver. More important were the weapons that hung
\non the walls, short Turkish scimitars, spears, ivory or
\nbamboo bow cases arrows of different lengths and
\nweights, and perhaps a round shield of tanned leather,
\nlacquered over.<\/p>\n

These, too, were looted or purchased, passing from
\nhand to hand with the fortunes of war.<\/p>\n

Tcmujin the youthful Genghis Khan had many
\nduties. The boys of the family must fish the streams<\/p>\n

GENGHIS KHAN at<\/p>\n

they passed in their trek from the summer to winter
\npastures. The horse herds were in their charge, and
\nthey had to ride afield after lost animals, and to search
\nfor new pasture lands. They watched the skyline for
\nraiders, and spent many a night in the snow without
\na fire. Of necessity, they learned to keep the saddle
\nfor several days at a time, and to go without cooked
\nfood for three or four days sometimes without any
\nfood at all.
\nTemujin\u2019s (Genghis Kahn), father was a chieftain all had their own orna-
\nmented yurts in which their children lived.<\/p>\n

Temujin was marked by great physical strength,
\nand ability to scheme which is only another way of
\nadapting oneself to circumstances. He became the
\nleader of the wrestlers, although he was spare in
\nbuild. He could handle a bow remarkably well;
\nnot so well as his brother Kassar who was called the
\nBowman, but Kassar was afraid of Temujin.<\/p>\n

From the tales of the minstrels he knew that he
\ncame of distinguished stock, the Bourchikoun, or
\nGrey-eyed Men. He harkened to the story of his
\nancestor, Kabul Khan, who had pulled the emperor
\nof Cathay by the beard and who had been poisoned
\nas a consequence. He learned that his father\u2019s sworn
\nbrother was Toghrul Khan of the Karaits, the most
\npowerful of the Gobi nomads he who gave birth
\nin Europe to the tales of Prester John of Asia.*<\/p>\n

A few days later a Mongol galloped up with word
\nthat Ycsukai, who had passed a night in the tent of
\nsome enemies and had presumably been poisoned,
\nlay dying and had asked for Temujin. Although the
\nthirteen-year-old boy rode as fast as a horse could
\ncarry him to the ordu or tent village of the clan, he
\nfound his father dead.<\/p>\n

Temujin was now seated on the white horseskin,
\nKhan of the Yakka Mongols, but he had no more than
\nthe remnant of a clan around him, and he was faced
\nwith the certainty that all the feudal foes of the
\nMongols would take advantage of the death of
\nYesukai to avenge themselves upon his son.
\nAnd Targoutai who had persuaded most of Temu-
\njin\u2019s clansmen to join his standard must now hunt
\ndown the youthful khan of the Mongols, as an older
\nwolf seeks and slays a cub too prone to take the
\nleadership of the pack.<\/p>\n

Genghis Kahn\u2019s father died and he now found himself
\nhunted. All feudal clans would now take advantage and
\navenge themselves upon him.<\/p>\n

Houlun was suffered to live Targoutai seeking no
\none but Temujin.<\/p>\n

Thus the hunt began, with the Taidjuts close upon
\nthe heels of the boys. The hunters made no great
\nhaste. The trail was fresh and clear, and these nomads
\nwere accustomed to track down a horse for days if
\nneed be. So long as Temujin did not get a fresh
\nmount, they would close in on him.<\/p>\n

The boys headed instinctively for the shelter of
\ngorges, with timber growth to screen them. At times
\nthey dismounted to hack down trees over the narrow
\ntrack and hinder the pursuers. When twilight came
\nupon them they separated, the younger brothers and
\nthe girls hiding in a cave, Kassar turning off, and
\nTemujin himself riding on toward a mountain that
\noffered concealment.<\/p>\n

(Hunted like an animal in Childhood, Genghis Kahn
\nrose to leader of the mongols.)<\/p>\n

\u201d The deep water is gone,\u201d they said, \u201d the strong
\nstone is broken. What have we to do with a woman
\nand her children ? \u201d<\/p>\n

Houlun, the wise and courageous, did what she
\ncould to avert the break-up of the clan. Taking the
\nstandard of the nine yak-tails in her hand she rode
\nafter the deserters and pleaded with them, persuading
\nsome few families to turn back their herds and carts.<\/p>\n

(From the hunted a small child forms an empire to
\nbecome known as Genghis Khan.) One must read the following
\nbook to understand the hardships experienced by the young
\nKahn.<\/p>\n

So utterly had Genghis Khan made himself master
\nfrom Armenia to Korea, from Tibet to the Volga,
\nthat his son entered upon his heritage without protest,
\nand his grandson Kubilai Khan still ruled half the
\nworld. (A world I might add was visited by Marco Polo)<\/p>\n

This empire, conjured up out of nothing by a
\nbarbarian, has mystified historians. The most recent
\ngeneral history of his era compiled by learned persons
\nin England admits that it is an inexplicable fact.
\nA worthy savant pauses to wonder at \u201d the fateful
\npersonality of Genghis Khan, which, at bottom, we
\ncan no more account for than the genius of Shake-
\nspeare. 11<\/p>\n

Many things have contributed to keep the per-<\/p>\n

GENGHIS KHAN 15<\/p>\n

sonality of Genghis Khan hidden from us. For one
\nthing the Mongols could not write, or did not care
\nto do so. In consequence the annals of his day exist
\nonly in the scattered writings of the Ugurs, the
\nChinese, the Persians and Armenians. Not until
\nrecently was the saga of the Mongol Ssanang Sctzen
\nsatisfactorily translated.<\/p>\n

So the most intelligent chroniclers of the great
\nMongol were his enemies a fact that must not be
\nforgotten in judging him. They were men of an
\nalien race. Moreover, like the Europeans of the
\nthirteenth century, their conception of the world as
\nit existed outside their own land was very hazy.<\/p>\n

They beheld the Mongol, emerging unheralded
\nout of obscurity. They felt the terrible impact of
\nthe Mongol horde, and watched it pass over them to
\nother lands, unknown to them. One Mohammedan
\nsummed up sadly in these words his experience with
\nthe Mongols, \u201d They came, they mined) they slew
\ntrussed up their loot and departed\u201d<\/p>\n

The difficulty of reading and comparing these
\nvarious sources has been great. Not unnaturally, the
\norientalists who have succeeded in doing so have
\ncontented themselves mainly with the political details
\nof the Mongol conquests. They present Genghis
\nKhan to us as a kind of incarnation of barbaric power
\na scourge that comes every so often out of the desert
\nto destroy decadent civilizations.<\/p>\n

The saga of Ssanang Setzen does not help to
\nexplain the mystery. It says, quite simply, that
\nGenghis Khan was a bogdo of the race of gods. Instead
\nof a mystery, we have a miracle.<\/p>\n

This is the Gobi desert, A,D. 1162, the Year of
\nthe Swine in the Calendar of the Twelve Beasts.<\/p>\n

He was conscious of his strength, and his right of
\nleadership. Was he not the first-born of Yesukai the
\nValiant, Khan of the Yakka or Great Mongols,
\nmaster of forty thousand tents ?<\/p>\n

From the tales of the minstrels he knew that he
\ncame of distinguished stock, the Bourchikoun, or
\nGrey-eyed Men. He harkened to the story of his
\nancestor, Kabul Khan, who had pulled the emperor
\nof Cathay by the beard and who had been poisoned
\nas a consequence. He learned that his father\u2019s sworn
\nbrother was Toghrul Khan of the Karaits, the most
\npowerful of the Gobi nomads he who gave birth
\nin Europe to the tales of Prester John of Asia.*<\/p>\n

But at that time Temujin\u2019s horizon was limited
\nby the pasture lands of his tribe, the Yakka Mongols.<\/p>\n

\u201d We are not a hundredth part of Cathay,\u201d a wise
\ncounsellor said to the boy, \u201d and the only reason why
\nwe have been able to cope with her is that we are all
\nnomads, carrying our supplies with us, and experienced
\nin our kind of warfare. When we can, we plunder ;
\nwhen we cannot, we hide away. If we begin to build<\/p>\n

* This name originated in Europe. At that time there were many tales
\nof a Christian emperor who ruled inner Asia, who was known as Prester John
\nor Presbyter Johannes. Marco Polo and others after him have chosen to
\nidentify Toghrul with the mythical Prester John.<\/p>\n

GENGHIS KHAN 23<\/p>\n

towns and change our old habits, we shall not prosper.
\nBesides, monasteries and temples breed mildness of
\ncharacter, and it is only the fierce and warlike who
\ndominate mankind\/ 9 *<\/p>\n

When he had served his apprenticeship as herd
\nboy, he was allowed to ride with Yesukai. By all
\naccounts the young Temujin was good to look upon,
\nbut remarkable more for the strength of his body and
\na downright manner than for any beauty of features.<\/p>\n

He must have been tall, with high shoulders, his
\nskin a whitish tan. His eyes, set far apart under a
\nsloping forehead, did not slant. And his eyes were
\ngreen, or blue-grey in the iris, with black pupils.
\nLong reddish-brown hair fell in braids to his back.
\nHe spoke very little, and then only after meditating
\non what he would say. He had an ungovernable
\ntemper and the gift of winning fast friends.
\nHe had been weaned among the nomads and he knew that the one way to keep them from each other\u2019s throats was to lead them to war elsewhere. He meant to harness the whirlwind and direct it away from the Gobi.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese men who will share with me the good and
\nbad of the future, whose loyalty will be like the clear
\nrock crystal I wish them to be called Mongols.
\nAbove everything that breathes on earth I wish them
\nto be raised to power.\u201d<\/p>\n

They had been united before, briefly, under the
\nHiung-nu monarchs who harried Cathay until the
\ngreat wall was built to shut them out. (Cathay is China)<\/p>\n

Khan planned to use his legions against the people behind the great wall, cathay, ruled by the son of heaven.<\/p>\n

He did and he won with great cunning and skill. You must read portions of the book to find out why.<\/p>\n

From the China to the Aral sea one master reigned. Rebellion had ceased.
\nThe couriers of the Khan galloped over fifty degrees
\nof longitude, and it was said that a virgin carrying a
\nsack of gold could ride unharmed from one border of
\nthe nomad empire to the other.
\nBut this administrative activity did not altogether
\nsatisfy the aging conqueror. He no longer relished
\nthe winter hunts over the prairies. One day in the
\npavilion at Karakorum he asked an officer of the
\nMongol guard what, in all the world, could bring the
\ngreatest happiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe open steppe, a clear day, and a swift horse
\nunder you,\u201d responded the officer after a little thought,
\n\u201d and a falcon on your wrist to start up hares\/\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201d Nay,\u201d responded the Khan, \u201d to crush your
\nenemies, to see them fall at your feet to take their
\nhorses and goods and hear the lamentation of their
\nwomen. That is best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Master of Thrones and Crowns was also the
\nScourge. His next move was one of conquest, terrible
\nin its effect, and it was toward the west. And it came
\nabout in a most curious way.<\/p>\n

In the finest traditions of the middle east, Persia and Bagdad were at war with each other (1200). The emperor of emperors proposed trade with the Mohammed Shah and it began peacefully until his trade envoys were murdered by agents of the Shah.<\/p>\n

When the survivors of his embassy returned to
\nGenghis Khan, the master of the Gobi went apart to
\na mountain to meditate upon the matter. The slaying
\nof a Mongol envoy could not go unpunished ;
\ntradition required revenge for the wrong inflicted.<\/p>\n

\u201d There cannot be two suns in the heavens,\u201d the
\nKhan said, \u201d or two Kha Khans upon the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

A
\nbrief and ominous message went this time to the
\nShah.<\/p>\n

\u201d Thou hast chosen war. That will happen which
\nwill happen, and what it is to be, we know not. God
\nalone knows.\u201d<\/p>\n

War, inevitable in any case between these two
\nconquerors, had begun. And the careful Mongol had
\nhis casus belli.<\/p>\n

This accomplished, there remained the second and
\ngreater problem to transport the horde of a quarter-<\/p>\n

Z22<\/p>\n

GENGHIS KHAN 123<\/p>\n

million warriors from Lake Baikal over the ranges of
\nmid-Asia into Persia. A distance of some two thousand
\nmiles as the crow flies, and a country wherein travellers
\nto-day only venture with a well-equipped caravan.
\nA march impossible for a modern army of that size.<\/p>\n

He had no doubt of the ability of the horde to
\nmake the march. In it, he had fashioned a fighting
\nforce that was able to go anywhere on land. Half of
\nit never saw the Gobi again, but some of his Mongols
\nmarched over ninety degrees of longitude and back
\nagain.<\/p>\n

Apparently it struck him during this ride to his
\nhost that he himself might not return alive. Passing
\nthrough a fine woodland, and looking at a lofty grove
\nof pines, he remarked :<\/p>\n

\u201d A good place for roe-deer, and for hunting.
\nA good resting place for an old man.\u201d<\/p>\n

(A glimpse of Tecumseh<\/a>, who indeed knew the day he would die and gave his prized possessions to the indians with him in Canada.)<\/p>\n

He gave orders that upon his death the Tassa, his
\ncode of laws, was to be read aloud, and men were to
\nlive according to it. For the horde and his officers
\nhe had other words :<\/p>\n

\u201d Ye go with me, to strike with our strength the man
\nwho has treated us with scorn. Ye shall share in my
\nvictories. Let the leader of ten be as vigilant and
\nobedient as the leader of ten thousand. If either fail
\nin duty, he will be deprived of life, and his women and
\nchildren also.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kits were small and strictly serviceable
\nleather sacks holding nose-bags for the pony and a
\npot for the man ; wax, and files for sharpening the
\narrow-heads, and spare bow-strings. Later on, every
\nman would have his emergency rations smoke-cured
\nmeat, and dry milk curds. This dried milk could be
\nput into water and heated.<\/p>\n

The main body of the horde moved more slowly
\nwestward, dropping through gorges, and over frozen
\nlakes to the icy floor of the Sungarian gate, the pass
\nfrom which all the nomad clans have come out of high
\nAsia. Here they were buffeted by winds and chilled
\nby a cold so great that whole herds might be frozen if
\ncaught in the pass during a bur an > a black wind storm.
\nBy now most of the cattle had died off and had been
\neaten. The last stores of hay had vanished ; the carts,
\nperforce, had been left behind, and only the hardiest
\nof the camels survived.<\/p>\n

The ponies dug up moss and dry grass with their hoofs
\nfrom under the snow. The hunters went afield for
\ngame. Forging ahead in the utter cold of high Asia,
\na quarter-million men endured hardships that would
\nhave put a modern division into hospital. The Mongols
\ndid not mind it particularly. Wrapped up in their
\nsheepskins and leather, they could sleep under drifting
\nsnow ; at need, the round, heavy yurts warmed them.
\nWhen food failed, they opened a vein in a horse,
\ndrank a small quantity of blood and closed the vein.<\/p>\n

THE FIRST CAMPAIGN<\/p>\n

MEANWHILE Juchi and Chepd Noyon had
\nhad a pitched battle with the Mohammedans
\nunder the Roof of the World. It is worth telling about.<\/p>\n

The Mohammedan Shah was in the field before
\nthe Mongols. Fresh from victories in India, he had
\nmustered his host of four hundred thousand. He had
\ngathered his atabegs, and strengthened his Turks with
\ncontingents of Arabs and Persians. This host he had
\nled north, searching for the Mongols who were not
\nyet on the scene. He met and attacked some of
\nChepd Noyon\u2019s patrols who were not aware of the
\nwar, and the appearance of these fur-clad nomads on
\ntheir shaggy ponies aroused the contempt of the much
\nbetter clad Kharesmians. When his spies brought him
\naccounts of the horde, the Shah did not alter his
\nopinion. \u201d They have conquered only unbelievers
\nnow the banners of Islam are arrayed against them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon the Mongols were visible. Raiding detach-
\nments descended the heights toward the wide river
\nSyr. They appeared at villages in fertile valleys,
\ndriving off the herds, gathering up all available grain
\nand foodstuffs ; they set fire to the dwellings and
\nretired in the smoke. Their carts and herds were sent
\nback to the north with detachments of warriors and
\na day later they rode into a village fifty miles away.<\/p>\n

The chronicle relates that the losses of the Moham-
\nmedans were beyond all counting, and as the Mongol
\nadvance penetrated within the centre of the Turks,
\nthe Shah himself was in danger. He saw within arrow
\nflight the horned standards of the horde, and only
\nthe desperate efforts of his household divisions saved
\nhim from death. And Juchi\u2019s life was saved, so the
\nstory runs, by a Cathayan prince who was serving in
\nhis command.<\/p>\n

\u201d A fear of these un-
\nbelievers was planted in the heart of the Sultan, and
\nan estimation of their courage. If anyone spoke of
\nthem before him, he said that he had never seen men
\nas daring and as steadfast in the throes of battle, or as
\nskilled in giving blows with the point and edge of
\ntheir swords.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even before this two sons of the Khan had appeared
\nat Otrar, down the Syr to the north. Otrar, whose
\ngovernor had put to death Mongol merchants.
\nInaljuk, who had ordered the execution of the mer-
\nchants, was still governor of the city. Knowing that
\nhe had little mercy to expect from the Mongols, he
\nshut himself up in the citadel with the best of his men,<\/p>\n

138 GENGHIS KHAN<\/p>\n

and held out for five months. He fought to the end,
\ntaking refuge in a tower when the Mongols had cut
\ndown or captured the last of his men ; and when his
\narrows gave out, he still hurled stones down on his
\nfoes. Taken alive, in spite of this desperation, he was
\nsent to the Khan, who ordered molten silver to be
\npoured into his eyes and ears the death of retri-
\nbution. The walls of Otrar were razed and all its
\npeople driven away.<\/p>\n

Mohammed, the Warrior, called by his people a
\nsecond Alexander, had been thoroughly outgeneralled.
\nThe Mongols under the sons of the Khan, carrying
\nfire and sword along the Syr, had been no more than
\nso many masks for the real attacks thrust home by
\nChep Noyon and Genghis Khan.<\/p>\n

Genghis Khan had said with much truth, \u201d The
\nstrength of a wall is neither greater nor less than the
\ncourage of the men who defend it.\u201d In this case, the
\nTurkish officers chose to leave the townspeople to
\ntheir fate and escape to join the Shah. So they went
\nout, with the soldiery of the Shah at night, by the
\nwater gate, and headed toward the Amu.<\/p>\n

The Mongols suffered them to pass, but three
\ntumans followed them and came up with them at the
\nriver. Here the Turks were attacked and nearly all
\nof them put to the sword.<\/p>\n

From the mosque, the Khan went to the city square
\nwhere orators were accustomed to assemble an audience
\nto lecture upon matters of science or doctrine.<\/p>\n

\u201d Who is this man ? \u201d demanded a newcomer, of a
\nvenerable sayyid.<\/p>\n

This passage is almost invariably misquoted in histories, and riven as
\nfollow* : \u201d Genghis Khan rode into the mosque and shouted to his men,
\nThe hay is cut give your horses fodder.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

14* GENGHIS KHAN<\/p>\n

\u201d Hush ! \u201d whispered the other. \u201d It is the anger
\nof God that descends upon us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Khan a man who knew well how to address
\na multitude, says the chronicle ascended the speaker\u2019s
\nrostrum and faced the people of Bokhara. First he
\nquestioned them closely about their religion, and com-
\nmented gravely that it was a mistake to make the
\npilgrimage to Mecca. \u201d For the power of Heaven is
\nnot in one place alone, but in every corner of the
\nearth.\u201d<\/p>\n

He waited for the interpreter to explain his words.
\nThe Mohammedans seemed to him to be like the
\nCathayans, builders of cities, makers of books. Useful
\nin furnishing him with provisions, in yielding up their
\nwealth in giving him information about the rest of
\nthe world ; useful in giving labourers and slaves to
\nhis men artisans to send back to the Gobi.<\/p>\n

\u201d You have done well,\u201d he went on, \u201d in supplying
\nmy army with food. Bring now to my officers the
\nprecious things you have hidden away. Do not
\ntrouble about what is lying loose in your houses we
\nwill take care of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rich men of Bokhara were placed under guard<\/p>\n

Thirty thousand
\nKankali Turks on their own account went over to the
\nMongols were received amiably, given Mongol mili-
\ntary dress and massacred a night or two later. The
\nMongols would never trust the Turks of Kharesm,
\nespecially those who turned traitor.<\/p>\n

AT Samarkand it was reported to Genghis Khan
\nthat Mohammed Shah had forsaken the city
\nand gone south.<\/p>\n

\u201d Follow Mohammed Shah wherever he goes in
\nthe world. Find him, alive or dead. Spare the cities
\nthat open their gates to you but take by assault those
\nthat resist. I think you will not find this as difficult
\nas it seems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of his Turkish warriors grew discon-
\ntented and rebellious, and Mohammed saw fit to sleep
\nin a small tent pitched beside his own. And one
\nmorning he found the empty tent filled with arrows.<\/p>\n

\u201d Is there no place on earth,\u201d he asked an officer,
\n\u201d where I can be safe from the Mongol thunderbolt ? \u201d<\/p>\n

He was advised to take ship on the Caspian and go
\nout to an island where he could be hidden until his
\nsons and atabegs could collect an army strong enough
\nto defend him.<\/p>\n

After going south a bit to besiege and storm the important cities they had passed by in hunting down Mohammed, the Mongols turned north, into the
\nCaucasus.<\/p>\n

They raided Georgia. A desperate struggle took
\nplace between the Mongols and the warriors of the
\nmountains. Chep Noyon hid himself on one side of
\nthe long valley that leads up to Tiflis, while Subotai
\nmade use of the old Mongol trick of pretended flight.
\nThe five thousand men in ambush sallied out upon the
\nflank of the Georgians, who suffered terribly in the
\nbattle.*<\/p>\n

Left once more to their own devices, Subotai and
\nChep No yon wandered down into the Crimea and
\nstormed a Genoese trade citadel. What next they
\nmight have done there is no knowing. They were
\nintent on crossing the Dnieper into Europe when
\nGenghis Khan, who had followed their movements by
\ncourier, ordered them to return to a rendezvous some
\ntwo thousand miles in the east.<\/p>\n

\u201d Have you never heard,\u201d cries the Persian chron-
\nicler, \u201d that a band of men from the place where the
\nsun rises, overrode the earth to the Caspian Gates,
\ncarrying destruction among peoples and sowing death
\nin its passage ? Then, returning to its master it
\narrived sound and hale, loaded with booty. And this
\nin less than two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their Shah lost to them, and two of his sons killed in
\nbattle against the Mongols, they began to muster<\/p>\n

160 GENGHIS KHAN<\/p>\n

under their natural leaders, the Persian princes and
\nthe sayyids, the descendants of a warrior prophet.<\/p>\n

Genghis Khan was quite aware of his situation. He
\nknew that the real test of strength was before him
\nthat perhaps a million men, good horsemen and
\nexceedingly well armed, were now ready to move
\nagainst him. For the present they lacked a leader and
\nthey were scattered throughout a dozen kingdoms, in
\na circle around him.<\/p>\n

It made a tabula rasa of the heart of Islam. The
\nsurvivors of the massacres lived on so shaken in spirit
\nthat they cared for nothing except to find food and
\nto hide, too fearful to leave the weed-grown debris
\nuntil the wolves who came to the unburied dead
\nexterminated them or drove them away. Such sites
\nof destroyed cities were forbidden to human beings
\n-a scar on the face of a once fertile earth. More than
\nonce earth was ploughed into the ruins, and grain
\nplanted.<\/p>\n

The nomads, valuing human life less than the soil
\nthat could nourish grain and beasts, were eradicating<\/p>\n

GENGHIS KHAN 167<\/p>\n

the cities. Genghis Khan had paralysed the growing
\nmovement of rebellion had broken resistance
\nbefore it could form against him. He would allow
\nno mercy.<\/p>\n

\u201d I forbid you,\u201d he said to his Orkhons, \u201d to show
\ndemcncy to my enemies without an express order
\nfrom me. Rigour alone keeps such spirits dutiful.
\nAn enemy conquered is not subdued, and will always
\nhate his new master.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mongols have left us no record of such
\nexperiences. But we know that they accepted the
\nvictories of the Khan as a matter predestined. Was he
\nnot the Lord Bogdo, the sending from the gods, the
\nmaker of laws ? Why should he not take what portion
\nof the earth pleased him ?<\/p>\n

Genghis Khan, apparently, did not attribute his
\nvictories to any celestial intervention. He did say,
\nmore than once, \u201d There is only one sun in the sky,
\nand one strength of Heaven. Only one Kha Khan
\nshould be upon the earth. \u201c<\/p>\n

The veneration of his Buddhists he accepted with-
\nout comment ; he acquiesced in the role of the
\nScourge of God bestowed upon him by the Moham-<\/p>\n

172 GENGHIS KHAN<\/p>\n

mcdans he even reminded them of it when he saw
\nsomething to be gained by so doing. He listened to
\nthe urging of the astrologers, but made his own plans.
\nUnlike Napoleon, there was nothing of the fatalist
\nin him ; nor did he assume, as Alexander had done,
\nthe attributes of a god. He set about the task of ruling
\nhalf the world with the same inflexible purpose and
\npatience he had devoted to tracking down a stray
\nhorse in his youth.<\/p>\n

He viewed titles with a utilitarian eye. Once he
\nordered a letter to be written to a Mohammedan
\nprince on his frontier. The letter was composed by a
\nPersian scribe who put in all the imposing titles and
\nflattery beloved of the Iranians. When the missive
\nwas read over to Genghis Khan, the old Mongol
\nshouted with rage and ordered it to be destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201d Thou hast written foolishly,\u201d he said to the scribe.
\n\u201d That prince would have thought I feared him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such was the yam, and two generations later Marco
\nPolo described it as he saw it in his journey to Kam-
\nbalu,* which was then the city of the Khans.<\/p>\n

\u201d Now you must know that the messengers of the
\nEmperor travelling from Kambalu find at every
\ntwenty-five miles of the journey a station which they
\ncall the Horse Post House. And at each of these
\nstations there is a large and handsome building for<\/p>\n

* Khan baligh, the City of the King. Kubilai Khan, who was emperor
\nin Marco Polo\u2019s time, resided in the Chinese capital. \u201d Chandu \u201d is Shanda
\nthe \u201d Xanadu \u201d of Coleridge\u2019s poem.<\/p>\n

\u201d In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
\nA stately pleasure dome decree
\nWhere Alph the sacred river ran \u201d<\/p>\n

Marco Polo relates that it took him six days\u2019 travel from Chandu to Kambalu,
\nand his marches must have been long ones.<\/p>\n

When I came before the Khan I kneeled, and he
\nasked me whether I had said to his secretaries that he<\/p>\n

GENGHIS KHAN *6)<\/p>\n

was a Buddhist. To this I answered, \u201cMy lord,
\nI said not so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201d I thought well you said not so,\u201d he answered,
\n\u201d for it was a word you ought not to have spoken.\u201d
\nThen, reaching forth the staff on which he leaned
\ntoward me, he said, \u201d Be not afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this I answered, smiling, that if I had feared
\nI should not have come hither.<\/p>\n

\u201d We Mongols believe there is but one God,\u201d he
\nsaid then, \u201cand we have an upright heart toward
\nhim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201d Then,\u201d I responded, \u201d may God grant you this
\nmind, for without His gift it cannot be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201d God hath given to the hand divers fingers,\u201d he
\nadded, \u201d and hath given many ways to man. He hath
\ngiven the Scriptures to you, yet you keep them not.
\nSurely it is not in your Scriptures that one of you
\nshould dispraise another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201d Nay,\u201d said I, \u201d and I signified to your highness
\nfrom the beginning that I would not contend with
\nany one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201d I speak not,\u201d said he, \u201d of you. In like manner,
\nit is not in your Scriptures that a man should turn
\nfrom justice for the sake of profit.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this I answered that I had not come to seek
\nmoney, having even refused what was offered me.
\nAnd one of the secretaries then present avowed that
\nI had refused a bar of silver and a piece of silk.<\/p>\n

\u201d I speak not of that,\u201d said the Khan. \u201d God
\nhath given to you the Scriptures and ye keep them
\nnot ; but he hath given to us soothsayers, and we do
\nwhat they bid us and live in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

He drank four times, I think, before uttering this,<\/p>\n

264 GENGHIS KHAN<\/p>\n

and, while I waited attentively in expectation that he
\nmight disclose more respecting his faith, he spoke
\nagain :<\/p>\n

\u201d You have stayed a long time here and it is my
\npleasure that you return. You have said that you dared
\nnot take my ambassador with you. Will you take,
\nthen, my messenger or my letters ? \u201d<\/p>\n

To this I answered, if the Khan would make me
\nunderstand his words and put them in writing, I
\nwould willingly carry them to the best of my power.<\/p>\n

He then asked if I would have gold or silver or
\ncostly garments, and I answered that we were accus-
\ntomed to accept no such things, yet could not get out
\nof his country without his help. He explained that he
\nwould provide for us, and demanded how far we wished
\nto be taken. I said it were sufficient if he had us
\nconveyed to Armenia.<\/p>\n

\u201d I will cause you to be carried thither,\u201d he made
\nanswer, \u201d after which, look to yourself. There are
\ntwo eyes in a single head, yet they both behold one
\nobject. You came from Batu, and therefore you must
\nreturn to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, after a pause, as if musing, he said, \u201d You
\nhave a long way to go. Make yourself strong with
\nfood, that you may be able to endure the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he ordered them to give me drink, and I
\ndeparted from his presence and returned not again.<\/p>\n

XV<\/p>\n

THE GRANDSON OF GENGHIS KHAN IN THE HOLY LAND<\/p>\n

A LITTLE-KNOWN chapter of history is the
\ncontact of the Mongols with the Armenians
\nand the Christians of Palestine after the death of
\nGenghis Khan. Hulagu, his grandson, brother of
\nMangu who was then Khan, took over the dominion
\nof Persia, Mesopotamia and Syria in the middle of the
\nthirteenth century. What followed is well sum-
\nmarised in the Cambridge Medieval History -, Vol. IV,<\/p>\n

P- 175-<\/p>\n

Bogdo sometimes equate with\u00a0divine beings<\/a><\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/dublinsmickdotcom.wordpress.com\/2015\/06\/16\/genghis-khan-emperor-of-emperors-bogdo-race-of-the-gods\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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