Genghis Khan

Seven hundred years ago a man almost conquered the earth. He made himself master of half the known world, and inspired humankind with a fear that lasted for generations. In the course of his life he was given many names - the Mighty Manslayer, the Scourge of God, the Perfect Warrior, and the Master of Thrones and Crowns. He is better known to us as Genghis Khan.

Unlike most rulers of men, he deserved all his titles. We Americans, raised in the European tradition, have been taught the roster of the great that begins with Alexander of Macedon, continues through the Cesars, and ends with Napoleon. Genghis Khan was a conqueror of more gigantic stature than the well known actors of the European stage.

Genghis Khan, a nomad chieftain who emerged from the Gobi desert, waged war upon the civilized peoples of the earth and was victorious. We must turn back to the thirteenth century for a realization of what this meant. We find the Muhammadans convinced that such an upheaval of earthly things could only be caused by a supernatural visitation. The end of the world, palpably, was at hand. "Never," cries the chronicler, "was Islam in such case, divided between the inroads of the Nazarenes and the Mongol."

And consternation filled all Christendom, a generation after the death of Genghis Khan, when the terrible Mongol horsemen were riding over western Europe, when Boleslas of Poland and Bela of Hungary fled from stricken fields, and Henry, Duke of Silesia, died under the Mongol arrows with his Teutonic Knights at Liegnitz - sharing the fate of the Grand Duke George of Russia - and fair Queen Blanche of Castile cried to Saint Louis, "My son, where art thou?"

If this devastation, this arresting of human progress, had been the whole of his story, Genghis Khan would have been no more than a second Attila, or Tamerlane - a formidable wanderer without a purpose. But the Scourge was also the Perfect Warrior and Master of Thrones and Crowns.

And here we are face to face with the mystery that surrounds Genghis Khan. A nomad, a hunter and herder of beasts, outgeneraled the powers of three empires; a barbarian who had never seen a city and did not know the use of writing drew up a code of laws for fifty peoples.

If necessity we must turn to Alexander of Macedon, that reckless and victorious youth, to find a conquering genius the equal of Genghis Khan - Alexander the god-like, marching with his phalanx toward the rising sun, bearing with him the blessing of Greek culture. Both died in the full tide of victory, and their names survive in the legends of Asia today.

Only after death the measure of their achievements differs beyond comparison. Alexander's generals were soon fighting among themselves for the kingdoms from which his son was forced to flee. So utterly had Genghis Khan made himself master from Armenia to Korea, from Tibet to the Volga that his son entered upon his heritage without protest, and his grandson Kubilai Khan still ruled half the world.

This empire, conjured up out of nothing by a barbarian has mystified historians. The most recent general history of his era compiled by learned persons in England admits that it is an inexplicable fact. A worthy savant pauses to wonder at "The fateful personality of Genghis Khan, which, at bottom, we can no more account for than the genius of Shakespeare."

Many things have contributed to keep the personality of Genghis Khan hidden from us. For one thing the Mongols could not write, or did not care to do so. In consequence the annals of his day exist only in the scattered writings of the Ugurs, the Chinese, the Persians and Armenians.