398 Jerome, Saint
opened the way for an assault on China proper. In 1211
the Mongols invaded and overran the whole of the
region north of the Great Wall. In 1213 the wall was
breached, and their forces ran wild over the North
China plain. In the summer of 1215, Peking was cap-
tured and sacked, with the Chin emperor fleeing. Leav-
ing one of his generals in charge of further operations in
North China, Jenghiz Khan returned to Mongolia to
devote his attention to events in Central Asia. The
acquisition of Afghanistan gave the Mongols a common
frontier with Sultan Muhammad II (r. 1200–20) of the
KHWARIZMSHAHS, the hereditary rulers of Khiva, who
had only recently conquered much of western Central
Asia as well as Afghanistan and the greater part of Persia
or IRAN.
CONQUESTS WEST AND IRANWar was soon precipitated by the rash execution of
Jenghiz Khan’s ambassadors and a group of merchants
accompanying them at the frontier town of Otrar.
Jenghiz personally set out from Mongolia in the spring
of 1219 and advanced on BUKHARA, which fell in March
1220, and on SAMARKAND, which capitulated a month
later. From Samarkand, Jenghiz sent his two best gener-
als in pursuit of Muhammad, who met his sad end on an
island in the Caspian Sea. Continuing their westward
sweep, the Mongols crossed the Caucasus Mountains
and defeated an army of Russians and Kipchak TURKSin
the CRIMEAbefore returning along the northern shores of
the Caspian to rejoin their khan on his way back to
Mongolia. Jenghiz passed the summer of 1220 in the
mountains south of Samarkand, capturing a city, Termez,
in the autumn, and then wintered in what is now Tajik-
istan. Early in 1221 he crossed the Oxus River to attack
the Persian province of Khurasan, which he subjected to
such devastation that it supposedly never fully recov-
ered. In the late summer Jenghiz Khan advanced south-
ward through Afghanistan to attack Sultan Jalal al-Din (r.
1220–31), the son of Muhammad. Jalal al-Din was deci-
sively defeated and captured, escaping only by swim-
ming across a river. With Jalal al-Din’s defeat the
campaign in the west was virtually complete for the
moment. Jenghiz returned by slow stages to Mongolia,
which he did not reach till the spring of 1225. By the
autumn of 1226, he was again at war with the local
Tanguts. He died, while a campaign was in progress, in
the Liupan Mountains in Kansu on August 25, 1227,
maintaining a traditional nomadic way of life until his
death.
Further reading: Ala al-Din Ata Malik Juvayni,
Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror,trans.
J. A. Boyle, with a new introduction and bibliography by
David O. Morgan (Seattle: University of Washington
Press, 1997); Urgunge Onon, ed. and trans., The History
and the Life of Chinggis Khan: The Secret History of the
Mongols(Leiden: New York: E. J. Brill, 1990); Robert
Marshall, Storm from the East: From Ghenghis Khan to
Khubilai Khan(Berkeley: University of California Press,
1993); Leo de Hartog, Genghis Khan, Conqueror of the
World (London: Tauris, 1989); Paul Ratchnevsky,
Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy(Oxford: Blackwell,
1991).Jerome, Saint (Sophronius Eusebius, Hieronymus) (ca.
341–420)ascetic, biblical scholar
Born in Strido in DALMATIAabout 341, the well-educated
Jerome produced biblical commentaries, translations of
Greek works, as well as a paraphrase of the Chronicleof
EUSEBIOS of Caesarea, a number of homilies on the
thought of ORIGEN, and a world history from Abraham
to 325. He also wrote polemics against ARIANISM and
other heresies. He spent several years as a hermit in the
Syrian desert, and he was secretary to Pope Damasus I
(r. 366–384) from 382 to 384. He retired in 386 to Beth-
lehem, where he died in 420. As a doctor of the church,
he became famous for his translation of the BIBLEinto
Latin, the VULGATE, which became the most commonly
used version during the Middle Ages and for far longer.
See alsoFATHERS OF THE CHURCH.
Further reading:Irena Backus, ed., The Reception of
the Church Fathers in the West: From the Carolingians to
the Maurists,2 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997); J. N. D.
Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies(Lon-
don: Duckworth, 1975); Eugene F. Rice, Jr., Saint Jerome
in the Renaissance(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1985).Jerusalem (al-Quds, the Holy) Jerusalem was in the
Middle Ages and to the present day an important reli-
gious center and focus of abiding controversy among
Christians, JEWS, and Muslims. The conversion of CON-
STANTINEI and his mother, Helena (ca. 250–330), to
Christianity brought Christian control to Jerusalem.
Helena visited the city in 326 and discovered a tomb she
identified as the HOLYSEPULCHERof Christ. A nearby
rocky hill she identified as Golgotha. Constantine I built
three basilicas, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,
another on the Mount of Olives, and a third one inEmperor Julian the Apostate
to rebuild a Jewish Temple did not derail the rapid
transformation of the city into a center of Christian
pilgrimage.
In 451, at the Fourth Ecumenical COUNCIL ATCHAL-
CEDON, the city became one of the five patriarchates. In
614 the Persians captured the city and carried off the true
cross. The emperor HERAKLEIOSI recaptured the city and
returned the relic to it in 629, but in 638 the patriarch of
the city, Sophronios, was forced to surrender Jerusalem to
the ARABS. After a siege of seven months, the town capit-
ulated into the hands of Caliph UMAR, on lenient terms.
Civil and religious freedom was granted in exchange for
an annual tribute. The Muslims claimed the esplanade
of Solomon’s Temple, revered already as the place of