Episode 4 The Rise of Chinggis Khan

The Mongol Empire

Dr Craig Benjamin (2020)

Film Review

This lecture is mainly based on the 1228 book Secret History of the Mongols, the earliest know document written in Mongolian. The grandson of Chinggis Khan Kublai Khan, who became the the first Yuan Dynasty emperor after conquering the southern Song Dynasty, revised the Secret History prior to translating it into Chinese.

According to Benjamin, Temujin was the son of Yesugei, leader of the Borjigin clan, and Hoelun of the Olkhonus. Yesugei had just secured a wife (Borte) for 9-year-old Temujin when he was poisoned by Tatar enemies. Subsequently Temujin, Hoelun, along with Yesugei’s second wife and six children siblings were expelled from their family clan, leaving his mother to support the family of nine with her basic hunting, fishing and foraging skills.

At 17 Temujin was arrested after killing his half-brother for stealing a fish and lived in a head-cage briefly before a sympathetic tribesman helped him escape. Shortly after his marriage to Borte, a member of the Merkit tribe kidnapped her. Temujin formed his first major alliance with Ong of the  Kereyids clan, who provided 20,000 warriors to help him free his wife. Ong, in turn, persuaded Temjuin’s boyhood friend Jamukha to provide an additional 20,000 warriors.

Following his reunion with Borte, Temujin spent time with Jamukha to acquire horse riding and weapon skills he missed out following his father’s death. The two eventually fell out over Temujin’s growing popularity with the Mongol aristocracy. Following a decisive defeat by Jamukha at the Battle Dalanbaljut, Temujin lost most of his army and disappeared into the Jin Dynasty (northern China) for ten years.

By the time he returned to Mongolia in 1195, Jamukha was extremely unpopular, and many of the clans supporting him switched their allegiance to Temujin. With the support of the Jin Dynasty, he joined forces with the Toghrul (khan of the Kareites) to defeat both the Tartars and the Jurchens.

In 1201 the Mongol elite called a Karutai (genera assembly of clan leaders) and skeptical of Temujin’s willingness to promote commoners to high rank, they elected Jamukha Great Khan. In response, Temujin and the Toghrul went to war against Jamukha.

By 1202 the Tatars had been destroyed as a fighting force and Mongolia was divided into three political region with the Naimans in control of western Mongolia, Jamukha in charge of Kereit in central Mongolia and Temujin in change of eastern Mongolia. He ultimately defeated Jamukha and the Kereites in 1204.

In 1206 a new Karutai appointed Temujin Great Khan.

Film can be viewed with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/12373094/12373102