Episode 8 The Death of Chinggis Khan

The Mongol Empire

Dr Craig Benjamin (2020)

Film Review

Chingghis Khan’s death resulted from an August 1226 hunting accident in which his horse bolted and threw him. He was leading a renewed campaign against the Tenguit leaders of Xi Xia, ao punish them for making peace with the Jin Empire. When the eight-year Kharazmian campaign ended in January 1226, he returned to Tuul and invaded Xi Xia. It was traditional to hold a massive ceremonial hunt to prepare Mongols for battle.

He never recovered. Prior to his death (at age 65) in August 1226, he convened a kuritai (meeting of klan elders), which voted to support his proposal to divide the Mongol empire into four regions to be ruled by his three sons (Tolui, Ogedai and Chagtai) and his grandson Batu (son of his deceased son Jochi). Each of the four khanates was allotted 4,000 families. Ogedai was designated to succeed Chinggis Khan as Great Khan.

His sons Ogedai and Tolui eventually decimated the Xi Xia capital Gongsing and the Tengut royal family, integrating Xi Xia into Mongolia.

In assessing the legacy of Chinggis Khan, Benjamin observes that the mass murder of civilians and life-supporting infrastructure was unprecedented prior to the 20th century. The first Great Khan was most likely guilty of genocide, a concept that didn’t exist in the 13th century.

The first great Mongol leader also left a massive genetic legacy with roughly 16 million (8%) Asian men estimated to be his direct descendants (as determined by Y chromosome analysis).

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/12373094/12373110