Chapter 3 Central Asia, Xinjiang, and Tibet 97Arabic, Turkic, and Persian civilizations that were rich and sophisticated in
virtually every branch of learning, possessing the world’s highest levels of liter-
acy among the general population. The Mongols killed off soldiers and aristo-
cratic classes but absorbed their clerks, doctors, craftsmen, musicians, cooks,
and engineers.
What Genghis Khan had was, evidently, charisma, and military genius. As
Temujin, a poor boy from an inferior clan with no natural constituency, he had
joined the nomadic tribal rivalries, stealing each other’s women, making alli-
ances, and waging war. Every Mongol male was a mounted warrior, and they
joined the strongest leaders against common enemies. Temujin played in this
great game until finally he had defeated every tribe, killed off their aristocrats,
and married their women to his sons and followers. At a great khuriltai (assem-
bly) in 1206, hundreds of thousands of Mongol, Turkic, Naiman, Tayichiud,
and other tribes gathered near the sacred mountain Burkhan Khaldun to affirm
the rule of Temujin, who took the name Chinggis Qa’an (Genghis Khan is the
Persian spelling by which he is known in the West).
Having united the various Mongol and Turkic tribes, he reorganized them
to ensure their loyalty, creating a unique military system for the time. Ten
brothers were organized into a squad (arban); 10 squads formed a company
(zagun); 10 companies formed a battalion (mingan); 10 battalions formed an
army (tumen). An officer might be the head of 100, 1,000, or 10,000, which was
how rank was noted. This system broke the old lineage system and gave Geng-
his Khan control over officers and units loyal only to him. This vast army of
about a million men consisted entirely of cavalry and an assortment of siege
engines. Bringing together engineers from China, Persia, and Europe and vari-
ous technologies from their conquered territories (gunpowder from China,
flamethrowers from the Muslim world, and European bell-casting), they
invented the cannon. No city could—or did—resist them.
With the reconfigured army and military technology the Mongols set out
to acquire the wealth and accumulated achievements of all their neighbors.
Caravans of booty brought the wealth of conquered civilizations back to the
Mongol capital at Karakoram, providing them a century and a half of extraor-
dinary wealth. They particularly valued the trade along the Silk Road and
organized it into “history’s largest free-trade zone” (Weatherford 2004:xix).
Genghis Khan demanded complete religious freedom in his empire but
was himself a devout shamanist who worshipped the Eternal Blue Sky. The
most sacred part of his empire was the mountain Burkhan Khaldun out of
which the Onan River flowed in northeastern Mongolia. Frequently he would
retreat to this sacred mountain for days of prayer and meditation, while his fol-
lowers and family waited quietly in their gers (yurts) for him to come down.
This sacred territory is an inaccessible region of forests, mountains, river val-
leys, and steppes 150 miles east of the capital of Mongolia that has been closed
since the time of his death, and many believe he himself is buried there. Known