Genghis Khan (Chinggis Khan) (ca. 1162–1227)
Mongol emperor and military leader
Though he became famous for his leadership, military
skills, and cruelty, little is known of Genghis Khan’s early
life. He was born about 1162 in the northern area of
what is now Mongolia, into a family that appears to have
been of noble origin. However, his life changed when he
was nine years old and his father was murdered. It was
left to his mother to teach him the ways of becoming a
fighter. Before his 20th birthday, around 1180, Geng-
his assembled a group of men loyal to him; this group
was called Nököd. Through a series of marriages, family
and tribal ties, and other alliances, by 1206 Genghis had
brought together many of the bands of nomadic tribes
in what is now Mongolia.
Utilizing the military prowess of some of these fierce
warriors, Genghis formed an army. He also claimed that
he was of divine parentage, and this was one reason he
received obedience from those who served under him.
This loyalty became a blood brotherhood known as
“anda.” However, Genghis Khan also showed that he was
completely ruthless: When men were no longer needed,
he had them murdered and replaced. This ruthlessness
was also applied to those he fought: In Herat, now in
modern Afghanistan, he built a tower with the skulls of
20,000 people he had systematically slaughtered.
In 1211, Genghis and his armies marched into
northern China, which at that time consisted of three
independent empires: the Song (Sung) Empire in the
south, the Qin Empire in the north, and the Xi-Xia
(Hsi Hsia) Empire in the northwest. In a series of bat-
tles, he defeated numerous tribes in the northern area,
and by 1217 he controlled most of northern China.
(However, the ultimate conquest of “the land of Qin”
was not completed until 1234, after Genghis had died.)
In 1218, his men moved westward, conquering the
area of Qara-Khitai in central Asia. Genghis’s forces
also took on the Muslim rulers of southeastern Asia,
including the empire of the Khwarazm Shah, who con-
trolled what is now Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Turk-
menistan. It was during this campaign that Genghis’s
men slaughtered the populations of Herat, Samarkand,
Nishapur, Merv, and Bokhara. According to one his-
torical account: “Genghis’ armies were composed of
mounted archers, trained from an early age in military
techniques largely indistinguishable from what was re-
quired of them as hunters and herders. Hence Genghis
was able to mobilize an unusually high proportion of
the adult male population. As expansion continued, the
Mongols secured the services of Chinese and Muslim
siege engineers. The army was intensely maneuverable,
which may partly explain the (probably misleading) im-
pression of vast numbers. Genghis’ practice of warfare
had been much admired by such modern authorities as
Liddell Hart.”
It was during Genghis’s push into Central Asia to
fight the tribe known as the Tanguts that he suddenly
died in August 1227. He was interred by his troops, but
his burial place is unknown. Genghis’s place in history
is assured as perhaps one of the most important war-
rior/conquerors. Historian E. D. Phillips writes: “As a
leader and conqueror Chingis ranks with Alexander and
Napoleon, though his methods were those of his fel-
low nomads attila and timur. His armies were not
overwhelmingly numerous, though their mobility often
made them appear so. His cruelty had been learnt in a
hard school, among peoples whose traditions included
tribal massacre after a conclusive victory. His religious
vision of destined rule over the world was an extreme
example of the belief in historic mission which has been
a commonplace even among Christian rulers down to
recent times... .”References: “Genghis (Chinggis) Khan” in The Oxford
Companion to Military History, edited by Richard Holmes
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 354; “Khan,
Genghis,” in Command: From Alexander the Great to Zhu-
kov—The Greatest Commanders of World History, edited
by James Lucas (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1988),
42–43; Edwards, Mike, “Genghis: Lord of the Mongols,”
National Geographic 190, no. 6 (December 1996): 2–37;
Phillips, E. D., The Mongols (London: Thames and Hud-
son, 1969), 67.Genseric See gaiseric.Giap, Vo Nguyen (1910/1912– ) North
Vietnamese military leader
Despite his lengthy career fighting for the independence
of his homeland, Vo remains a shadowy figure. He was
born in either 1910 or 1912 in the village of An-Xa, in
the Quang Binh province, slightly north of the “parti-
tion line” located at the 17th parallel, where the division
between North and South Vietnam would be located. genghiS khAn