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A boy is born to a Mongol family living near the Onon River. He is named Temujin, which means “blacksmith.”
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Bekhter, an older half brother, torments Temujin and a younger brother by stealing the prize each time the younger boys fish or hunt. Enraged, Temujin and his brother stalk Bekhter and slay him with an arrow, the Mongol weapon of choice.
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When the Merkit, another tribe of the steppe, hear the news that Temujin has married, they see a long-awaited opportunity for revenge against his father, who stole a Merkit bride.Borte is captured. Temujin and his allies gather several hundred soldiers and rescue her.
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Temujin himself reportedly said, “My strength was fortified by Heaven and Earth.” The Mongols and several neighboring tribes have hailed him as their khan, or leader.
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At a kuriltai (great assembly) Temujin is lauded as Genghis Khan, the “strong ruler".At about the age of 40, Genghis is master of all the tribes in what is now Mongolia, an expanse about the size of Alaska.
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Several years of sparring with the Jin dynasty in northern China yield an outright attack in 1214. Genghis surrounds their capital, Zhongdu (located where Beijing now stands).The Jin emperor, Xuanzong, beseeches Genghis to withdraw, a plea sweetened with gold, silver, horses, slaves, and a princess (who became one of Genghis’s many wives). Genghis agrees.
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Making his way across Central Asia, Genghis crushes the great cities, Samarkand, Muhammad’s own capital, surrenders to the Mongols. So does Bukhara, a metropolis in what is now Uzbekistan.
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In 1227, when Genghis Khan died.He had lived about 60 years. The cause of death is a mystery, possibly because of Genghis’s order to shroud his passing with secrecy. His descendants expanded into Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and all of China.
