Genghis Khan (1162-1227), emperor of all the Mongols, was one of the most famous conquerors in history. His father was chieftain over some of the nomadic Mongol tribes that roamed the country of what is today Outer Mongolia.
At his father's death Temujin (the original name of Genghis Khan) was only 12 years old, and the tribes refused to obey him. He therefore went to live with the neighboring tribes, among whom he rose to power. His followers proclaimed him ruler, or khan, in 1196. He took the name Genghis, meaning "very mighty," and proceeded to conquer the tribes of eastern Mongolia.
After western Mongolia had also fallen under his rule, Genghis was proclaimed in 1206 great khan of the Mongols and chose the city of Kara-koram as his capital. By this time he had a powerful army, skillful on horseback and with the bow and arrow. With this army, used to great hardships and to iron discipline, he conquered northern China and occupied Peking. Then his armies conquered Kara-khitai, the large Turkish empire in central Asia. Before he was slain in northern China in 1227, Genghis Khan ruled an empire stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Ural Mountains and the Persian Gulf.
Genghis Khan was a brilliant military leader, with the fastest cavalry in the world at his disposal. He was cruel and ordered whole people who resisted him to be slain or to be enslaved. But he respected learning and appointed some Turks and Chinese to high positions in the administration of the empire. He seems to have favored the Taoist religion instead of Buddhism.
