Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan, born Temüjin, united competing Mongol groups and was proclaimed universal ruler in 1206. Through disciplined organisation, diplomacy, terror and highly mobile warfare, his armies conquered northern China, Central Asia and much of the Islamic east. He created institutions that distributed command across loyal followers and family members, while his campaigns caused immense destruction and population loss. He died in 1227 during a campaign against the Western Xia.

Conn Iggulden’s Conqueror series begins with Wolf of the Plains and gives a sweeping fictional account of Temüjin’s rise and conquests. Pamela Sargent’s Ruler of the Sky also explores his life, including the experiences of women around the ruling family. Fiction alternates between admiring military and political achievement and confronting the extreme violence through which the empire expanded.

In Conn Iggulden’s Bones of the Hills, the murder of Mongol envoys by the Khwarazmian Empire gives Genghis Khan the cause for a vast western campaign. In Conn Iggulden’s Lords of the Bow, Recognised as Genghis Khan, Temujin must turn rival tribes into a disciplined nation capable of fighting beyond the steppe. Other novels featuring Genghis Khan include Jeanne Blanchet’s Forger of Empire, Angus Donald’s Templar Assassin, and Angus Donald’s Templar Traitor.

In non-fiction, Genghis Khan is discussed in John Man’s The Mongol Empire and John Man’s Conquering the North. John Man’s The Mongol Empire approaches the subject through empire, conquest and resistance, military command and battlefield decision-making, and family, marriage and personal loyalty.