GENGHIS, JENGHIS, or ZINGIS KHAN, jen'gis Kan {1162-1227). A celebrated conqueror, originally known as Temujin, the title Genghis Khan merely signifying Great Khan or Ruler. He was born at Deylun Yeldak, near the northern bend of the Hwang-ho, in Mongolia, being the son of Yesuka Bahadur, a Mongol chief who ruled over the tribe of Neyrun, dwelling between the Amur and the Great Wall of China, and paying tribute to the Khan of East Tartary. On his father's death Temujin assumed the reins of government, though only thirteen years of age. Some of the subject tribes, however, refused to obey him, and chose another chief belonging to the same family. A war of several years' duration was the result, at the termination of which the young ruler was• compelled to retire to Kara korum, the capital of Toghrul Ungh, Khan of the Keraites and place himself under that monarch's protection. Ungh Khan gave him his daughter in marriage, and appointed him to the command of the army, in which capacity Temujin gave proof of great military talent, conquering the Mekreit, Tanjut, Jellaeir, and other neighboring tribes. His growing reputation aroused the jealousy of his master, who ordered him to be assassinated; but Temujin fled to his own country, where he arrived after many hairbreadth escapes at the head of 5000 cavalry. Raising an army, he marched against his father-in-law; and Toghrul, vanquished in battle in 1203, sought refuge among the Naymans, but was slain by the guards situated on the frontiers. Temujin immediately seized upon Toghrul's dominions. In the follow ing year a number of Tatar tribes, alarmed at his increasing power, formed a powerful league against him. The command was given to Tai Ungh Khan, chief of the Naymans; but in a battle fought on the banks of the Amur Temujin routed his enemies, slew their leader, and became at once master of almost all Mongolia. Grander views of conquest seemed now opened up before him. In the year 1206 he convoked a general as sembly on the banks of the Onon, a tributary of the Amur, flowing through his native land. This meeting was attended by deputies from the sub jugated hordes of Tartary, and the astute mon arch contrived to obtain a religious confirmation of his designs. Up to this period he had borne the name of Temujin; but a renowned magician or priest, surnamed Bout-Tangri (`Son of Heav en'), venerated by all the Mongols, now came forward and pronounced him Genghis Khan—i.e. Greatest of Khans, or Khan of Khans, declaring that he should rule over the whole earth. The deputies were duly impressed. About this time the Uigurs, an agricultural and civilized people, inhabiting the country at the sources of the Hwang-ho and Yang-tse-kiang, voluntarily sub mitted to his sway. From this people, who pro fessed Buddhism, the Mongols appear to have acquired a knowledge of writing. They adopted the Uigur alphabet, but preserved their own lan guage, and Genghis selected one of the tribe to instruct his children.
The most important incident in the career of Genghis was the conquest of the northern part of China or Khatai. The immediate cause of the war between him and the Emperor of China, Tchong Hei, was the refusal of the former to recognize the latter as his suzerain or liege lord. Most of the Tatar tribes which Genghis had subdued were really vassals of the Chinese Empire; and Tchong Hei, though he had not interfered to prevent the conquests of the Mongols, now called upon Gen ghis to acknowledge his superiority by paying tribute. Genghis immediately prepared for war, scaled the Great Wall in 1211, and after a series of bloody and protracted campaigns succeeded in taking Peking in 1215. Meanwhile Genghis had quelled an insurrection, headed by the Naymans, and conquered the Gur-Khan of Kara-Khatai.
These tribes were nearly exterminated in a great fight which took place near the sources of the Yenisei. Pressing westward, the Mongols at length reached the Sihun, the northeastern bound ary of the Empire of Khwarezm or Khorasmia, whose ruler, Ala-ed-Din Mohammed, was one of the most powerful sovereigns in Asia. The dynasty to which he belonged had risen into power through the weakness of the Seljuk sul tans; and its sway now extended from the bor ders of Syria to the River Indus, and from the River Sihun to the Persian Gulf. The murder of some Mongol merchants at Otrar, a town on the Sihun, afforded Genghis a pretext for in vasion. In 1219 an army of 700,000 men, accord ing to the Eastern chroniclers, commanded by Jujy, the son of Genghis Khan, entered Khwa rezm. Samarkand, Bokara, and all the other important cities of the country were captured. In 1221 Genghis Khan assumed personal com mand. The Mongols in three separate divisions now scoured and ravaged Khwarezm in all direc tions. In the course of five or six years they overran Persia, subdued the inhabitants of the Caucasus, crossed into Russia, and plundered the land between the Volga and the Dnieper. They swept over the whole of Southern Asia, as far as the Sutlej in Northern India, but the exhaustion of the Mongol hordes compelled Genghis to re turn to Karakorum, the capital of his empire. in 1224. During his absence his generals had been prosecuting the Chinese war with the great est success. Genghis had still the old thirst of conquest; and, having recruited his forces, he led them across the great desert of Gobi to the King dom of Tanjout, in the northwest of China, the capital of which, Nin-hai, he besieged. Dis heartened by the loss of the greater part of his army, the King of Tanjout promised to capitulate at the end of a month; but in the interval Gen ghis died, August 24, 1227, on the hill Liou-pan, worn out with years and toils. He is said to have had five hundred wives and concubines, and to have left a great number of children, among three of whom he divided his enormous posses sions. The third son, Outai, was appointed Grand Khan, and received for his share the region now called Mongolia, with Khatai or Northern China as far north as the mouth of the Amur. The second son, Tcheghatai, received Turkestan north of the Amur. Jujy, for his share, obtained Kiptchak (q.v.) and all the country west and north of Turkestan, an immense tract extending from the Caspian Sea almost to the Arctic Ocean. Sanguinary and barbarous though he was, Genghis showed many statesman like qualities and many virtues. He was a strict monotheist, hut tolerated all religions; exempted from taxes and military service physicians and priests; made obligatory the practice of hos pitality; established severe laws against adul tery, theft, and homicide; organized a system of communication throughout his dominions, mainly no doubt for military nurnoses: and so thoroughly organized what may be called the police or civil authority, that it was said that one might travel without fear or danger from one end of his empire to the other. He would appear to have respected men of learning, and to have retained several of such about his person. The only memorial of Genghis now known to exist is a granite tablet, with a Mongol inscrip tion deciphered by Schmidt of Saint Petersburg, discovered among the ruins of Nertchinsk. This tablet had been erected by Genghis in commem oration of his conquest of the Kingdom of Kara Khatai. Consult: Howorth. History of the Mon gols (London, 1876-88) ; Erdmann, Temudschin der Unerschiltterliche (Leipzig, 1862) ; Douglas, Life of Genghis Khan (London, 1877).