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Genghis Khan. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:10 | |
The world's most famous warrior. | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
He rose from abject poverty to rule most of the known world. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:20 | |
It is claimed that one in every 200 men alive today is descended from him. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:30 | |
History records him as a brutal butcher. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:37 | |
But, for centuries, his true story lay buried, forgotten in Chinese archives. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:43 | |
Who was the real man behind the legend? | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
And how did he inspire his successors from beyond the grave | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
to conquer the largest land empire the world has ever seen? | 0:00:53 | 0:00:58 | |
Written nearly 800 years ago, | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
an extraordinary text reveals the Secret History Of Genghis Khan. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:10 | |
Europe, in the year 1241. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
Although Genghis Khan had been dead for more than a decade, his legacy lived on. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:41 | |
Priests prophesied a coming apocalypse, | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
as Mongolian hordes approached the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:52 | |
The whole continent watched and waited in terror. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:58 | |
Drawing from the Book of Revelations, | 0:02:00 | 0:02:02 | |
they saw the invaders as the armies of Satan. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:06 | |
Their fears would soon be realised. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
The Mongol army descended like a storm. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:21 | |
The knights of Europe faced warriors the likes of which they had never seen before. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
Fearless in battle, | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
moving at lightning speed on highly-trained horses, | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
armed with bows able to penetrate the strongest armour, | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
Mongol warriors had yet to be defeated. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:55 | |
And they were now within striking distance of the very heart of Europe. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
Genghis Khan was no longer alive. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:07 | |
But his legacy, passed on through the pages of the Secret History Of The Mongols, | 0:03:09 | 0:03:15 | |
was all too real. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
14 years earlier, just after Genghis Khan's death, | 0:03:30 | 0:03:34 | |
the heads of the Mongol tribes gathered together. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:38 | |
They were preparing for the fulfilment | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
of Genghis's grand strategy, sketched out just before he died - | 0:03:46 | 0:03:50 | |
nothing less than the conquest of the entire world. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:54 | |
In the midst of this tribal gathering was the Khan's adopted son, known as Shigi the Blessed. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:03 | |
He was recording for the Secret History the events surrounding the great Khan's extraordinary life. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:12 | |
"In the Year of the Rat, they came all together, | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
"the nobles of the right wing, the princes of the left wing, and the leaders of the thousands." | 0:04:17 | 0:04:24 | |
But the Secret History Of The Mongols was not to be an ordinary history book. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
The inspiration for future leaders, it was a blueprint for power. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:38 | |
We have to bear in mind always that the Secret History | 0:04:38 | 0:04:42 | |
is a history written in order to educate. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:45 | |
This is essentially a mirror for princes, | 0:04:45 | 0:04:49 | |
a manual of statecraft. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:51 | |
The original manuscript has never been found. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
But over 500 years after it was written, | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
a Chinese copy came to light, hidden away in private archives. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:04 | |
It was not a straightforward history of the Mongol Empire. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:11 | |
It was far more personal than that. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
Genghis's rise is the real subject of the Secret History. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:20 | |
How he puts this into effect in the actual creation of the empire | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
is of less interest. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
This is not a military history at all. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:27 | |
Genghis Khan's story begins in the middle of the 12th century. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:36 | |
His father, a powerful Mongolian general, | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
returned to camp after a successful raid on a neighbouring tribe. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:47 | |
He was spurred on by good news. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
His wife had given birth to a son. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:57 | |
"As he was born, he emerged clutching a blood clot | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
"the size of a knucklebone dice in his right hand. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
"To this boy, they gave the name Temujin." | 0:06:08 | 0:06:12 | |
The shamans interpreted the blood clot as a sign from heaven, | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
a sign Temujin, the future Genghis Khan, would become a fierce warrior. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:25 | |
In the legend that grew up around Genghis in later centuries, | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
he was meant to be not the child of an ordinary person, | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
but the child of the sun himself. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
So there's room for the belief | 0:06:36 | 0:06:40 | |
that his birth was supernatural and that heaven presided over his birth, | 0:06:40 | 0:06:45 | |
and that his destiny as a world conqueror was a heavenly, ordained destiny. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:52 | |
Temujin was born into a family of noble descent. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
His father was a respected warrior who had increased his clan's wealth and land. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:18 | |
He brought up Temujin to ride and hunt from an early age - | 0:07:27 | 0:07:32 | |
skills essential for survival in the vastness of Central Asia. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:37 | |
As he grew, Temujin became friendly with a boy from a neighbouring clan called Jamuka. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:52 | |
Following Mongol tradition, as the two became closer, they swore vows to be friends for life. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:58 | |
Becoming sworn friends was, if you like, the glue, the political glue, of Mongol society. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:06 | |
In this very flexible society, loyalty was the key political virtue. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:11 | |
To break it was one of the most serious of crimes. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
As the two boys exchanged arrows as a symbol of their promise, | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
they forged a bond that should have lasted forever. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:25 | |
Instead, Temujin would learn a harsh lesson about betrayal. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:34 | |
When Temujin was just eight years old, his father took him to find a bride. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:52 | |
As was Mongol tradition, his marriage would cement an alliance with a neighbouring tribe. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:04 | |
In a world of inter-tribal feuding, there was security in numbers. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:13 | |
On arrival at their camp, Temujin's eyes were drawn to a graceful girl named Borte. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:20 | |
This would turn out to be much more than just a typical Mongolian arranged marriage. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:34 | |
It would become a bond of love. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
In a rare romantic moment, the Secret History lapses into poetry to describe the betrothal. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:50 | |
"She had light in her eyes, she had fire in her eyes. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
"He was pleased with her." | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
Genghis could be seen as a bit of a romantic. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
He absolutely adored Borte. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
They were said to have been united in the light of the moon. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
Contrary to his reputation as a womaniser, | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
the Secret History reveals that she would be his one great love. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:18 | |
The Secret History portrays Genghis in a much fuller sense than we're used to in the West. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:23 | |
He was a very soft man | 0:10:23 | 0:10:24 | |
who cared for and looked after his mother and his wife and his children, | 0:10:24 | 0:10:31 | |
and was incredibly loyal to those alliances that he built up. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:36 | |
Later, as Khan, Genghis would take more wives, as tradition demanded. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:43 | |
But it would be Borte's children who would rule the empire after his death. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
Shortly after his betrothal to Borte, a messenger brought news | 0:11:00 | 0:11:04 | |
that would, for a time, tear the two children apart. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:08 | |
In an act of revenge, Temujin's father had been poisoned | 0:11:12 | 0:11:17 | |
by the tribe he had been raiding at the time of his birth. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:21 | |
The boy had to return to his people. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:23 | |
And to an uncertain fate. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:28 | |
In a defining moment in the future Khan's life, he, his mother and seven siblings, | 0:11:30 | 0:11:36 | |
were abandoned by their own tribe, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
left to fend for themselves. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
"All the people had gone away, leaving only the mother and her sons. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:49 | |
"She was borne of great courage. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
"With a stick in her hand, she fed them by digging up roots." | 0:11:52 | 0:11:56 | |
This was a woman who needed quite exceptional strength of character | 0:12:02 | 0:12:07 | |
to save herself and her five boys. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:11 | |
So I think her role in his upbringing was absolutely crucial. | 0:12:11 | 0:12:17 | |
We have to bear in mind just what sort of environment Mongolia might have been. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:22 | |
This is one of the coldest places in the world, | 0:12:22 | 0:12:26 | |
with temperatures in winter that go down to 80 below zero. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:31 | |
If you don't have an alpha male looking after you, you've had it. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:36 | |
Without the guidance of a father, and with supplies scarce, | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
Temujin began to fall out with his half-brother, Begter. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
As they jockeyed for food and power, the conflict turned to violence. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:54 | |
The future Khan had yet to learn the importance of family ties. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:00 | |
"Begter sat in the clearing, watching the family's horses grazing. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
"Temujin and his other brother crept up from behind, drawing their arrows to shoot. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:17 | |
"Begter said, "How can you treat me like some dirt in your eye, | 0:13:21 | 0:13:25 | |
"like something that's keeping the food from your mouth? | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
"How can you do this when there's no-one to fight but our own shadows?" | 0:13:28 | 0:13:33 | |
Temujin doesn't declare that he's just killed his brother Begter, but his mother can see it. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:53 | |
She says she can see it from his face as he enters through the doorway. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
And then she starts violently berating her son. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
The Secret History describes his mother's reaction in graphic detail. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:07 | |
She compares him to a ravening dog. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:11 | |
She tells him that he's like a panther, a lion, a jackal, a monster, a pike. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:17 | |
Temujin was not proud of what he had done, | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
but he had learnt a harsh lesson, one that he was keen to pass on. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:27 | |
Temujin at the time was 13, and was in no position, really, to judge himself. But later he was. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:35 | |
And that was why he regarded it as so important | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
that the rest of his tribe should know that this had been a great crime. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:41 | |
But as a springboard for power, strong family ties were not enough. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:50 | |
The Secret History said the future Khan's path to leadership was preordained. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:57 | |
To make the point, it tells of several narrow escapes | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
where ordinary men would not have survived. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
It describes how, as a boy, Temujin and his family were constantly hunted by his father's old enemies. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:15 | |
One day, unable to escape his pursuers, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
Temujin was captured, bound and brought to the camp of an enemy clan. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:32 | |
He faced living the rest of his life as a slave. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:39 | |
Humiliated and ridiculed, he was forced to serve his tormenters. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:48 | |
But one of his captors, Sorkhan Shira, sensed in the young man | 0:15:55 | 0:15:59 | |
a potential future leader, even as the others continued in their efforts to break his will. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:06 | |
THEY LAUGH MOCKINGLY | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
But with heaven on his side, all was not as hopeless as it seemed, | 0:16:10 | 0:16:15 | |
for Temujin was already showing that he was an astute judge of character. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:20 | |
One night, whilst lashed to a yoke, he overcame his guard. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:33 | |
Realising that he had no chance of escaping on foot, he headed for the river. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:48 | |
"If I run for the woods, they will spot me," he thought to himself. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:58 | |
"So he went to the river, using his yoke as a float." | 0:16:58 | 0:17:02 | |
He should have been quickly recaptured, | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
but, in the Secret History, nothing happens by chance. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:16 | |
It was Sorkhan Shira, the captor who had seen in him a future leader, who found him. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:23 | |
"As Sorkhan Shira passed by the river, he saw Temujin lying there and spoke to him quietly. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:30 | |
"It's because you're a clever young man that they are afraid of you. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:37 | |
"Just stay where you are. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
"I won't tell them I've seen you." | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
Temujin shows himself to be a remarkable judge of character. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
He sees instantly the sort of person who is going to help him. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:50 | |
He is able to choose the character, to choose his allies, and to then build on this, | 0:17:50 | 0:17:55 | |
and it's going to be the basis for his political career. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
The Secret History has many gaps, lost years in the life of the young Genghis Khan. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:21 | |
It is years later before Shigi takes up the story again. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
His youth behind him, Temujin emerged as an imposing man, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
a man now in command of a small army of Mongol warriors. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:45 | |
Having been reunited with his childhood love, Borte, now his wife, | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
Temujin became ever more ambitious. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:01 | |
But the Secret History tells us that there was more to his path to power than simple brute force. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:07 | |
Instead, Temujin set about recruiting allies. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
He set his sights on the most powerful warlord in all Mongolia, | 0:19:15 | 0:19:20 | |
Toghril Khan, leader of the Kereits. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:23 | |
He would give him his most precious possession. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
"In the old days, you and my father were blood brothers. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
"You were like my father. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:40 | |
"I've just married a woman, and I've brought the wedding gift to you." | 0:19:43 | 0:19:48 | |
He had a knack for getting people on board. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:57 | |
He simply gives him the most valuable object he has. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:03 | |
And, without asking for a favour in return, | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
he throws it entirely before this ruler whom he wants to impress. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:11 | |
And his bread comes back to him on the waters. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:14 | |
A year later, Toghril comes to him and says, "I have not forgotten that coat, that sable coat you gave me. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:22 | |
"And I inscribed my promise to help you under my own heart. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:27 | |
"And now I will help you." | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
As his influence continued to grow, eager and enterprising young men | 0:20:36 | 0:20:41 | |
were soon drawn to Temujin's side, where they were trained as warriors. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:46 | |
As an incentive for loyalty, | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
he promised them raids and rich rewards. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
His riders were trained in a very special skill - | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
to fire their arrows at their enemies while riding away at full gallop. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:07 | |
It was a manoeuvre that would help make them the greatest army on earth. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:11 | |
The archer gallops towards the enemy lines. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
At the last moment, pivots, swings round in the saddle, | 0:21:20 | 0:21:24 | |
and looses, in quick succession, up to six arrows. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:28 | |
And the damage that this does has to be seen to be believed. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
It is a fearsome bow. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:36 | |
I think we would need to forget the idea of a bow altogether and think of a rifle | 0:21:36 | 0:21:42 | |
if we wanted to get some idea of the toll that these bowmen took. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:47 | |
But before Temujin and his men faced the armies of the West, | 0:21:51 | 0:21:55 | |
they would be forced to contend with enemies closer to home. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:59 | |
The Mongols were surrounded by other powerful tribes who were a constant threat. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:11 | |
Through the Secret History, Temujin's successors learnt that, away from battle, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:16 | |
heaven's chosen leader should always put his own safety first. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:21 | |
The point was made as his family made camp during a hunting expedition. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:30 | |
"The camp was at the Kerulen river's source, | 0:22:30 | 0:22:35 | |
"when one morning, just before dawn, his mother's servant woke the camp with a startling cry. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:42 | |
"Mother, mother, get up, the ground is shaking. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:53 | |
"I hear it rumble." | 0:22:53 | 0:22:54 | |
An enemy tribe had spotted them. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
With his warriors too far away to help, Temujin and his family were forced to flee for their lives. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:09 | |
But there were not enough horses for everyone. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
In what looked like a selfish act, Temujin took a horse for himself. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:29 | |
Then ordered his mother to take the only remaining one, abandoning his wife to certain capture. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:38 | |
But there was method to his madness. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
Temujin might have been seen as a coward here, just leaving his wife behind, | 0:23:41 | 0:23:46 | |
but he knew that she would be strong enough to be able to cope with this, and that she would be able to gather | 0:23:46 | 0:23:52 | |
crucial information about the inner workings of the Merkit for him when he went to retrieve her later on. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:57 | |
With his wife now acting as his spy, to assure his own safety, Temujin fled into the hills. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:07 | |
"Yet again," Shigi wrote, "the heavens had spared him from death." | 0:24:11 | 0:24:16 | |
The future Khan started to believe that his destiny was ordained. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:25 | |
He escaped once again from his pursuers and began to realise, saw for the first time, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:31 | |
that perhaps he was being saved for a particular purpose. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:35 | |
It was, if you like, a revelation of divine backing. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
It seems that he wished his followers to believe that he had always had divine backing, | 0:24:38 | 0:24:44 | |
and that what was happening was a mere working out of the divine will. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:49 | |
With his wife rescued, it was now that Genghis first emerged as the brutal mass murderer of history. | 0:24:53 | 0:25:00 | |
Still barely 20 years old, he was gaining the reputation the shamans had forecast at his birth. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:09 | |
As news of his successes spread, more and more men joined him. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:19 | |
He was now strong enough to take on the Tatars, a blood feud that spanned the generations. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:26 | |
"Now is the time of our revenge. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
"We will kill every Tatar man taller than the lynchpin on the wheel of a cart. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:39 | |
"We will kill them until they're destroyed as a tribe." | 0:25:39 | 0:25:44 | |
On his way to power, he trod on corpses. There's no question. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:51 | |
"Return what people give to you," he said. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:55 | |
He paid back the Tatars by measuring every one of their people | 0:25:55 | 0:26:01 | |
against the axle of a dog cart. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
Anyone taller than the axle was exterminated. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
Generations of inter-tribal anger were unleashed. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:14 | |
Here, the Secret History offers a terrible lesson. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:22 | |
The battle was more than a skirmish to avenge a death, steal a bride or loot. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:28 | |
This was to be the complete destruction of an entire tribe. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:32 | |
All surviving Tatar men were beheaded. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:43 | |
Only children and potential concubines were spared, taken as slaves. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:51 | |
But Temujin's successes began to cause tensions, even amongst his own allies. | 0:26:55 | 0:27:01 | |
The most powerful, Jamuka, his sworn friend from childhood, | 0:27:09 | 0:27:13 | |
was now also a successful general in his own right. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:17 | |
But there could not be two leaders. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
The ambitious Jamuka was about to change from friend to foe. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:27 | |
The Secret History records a powerful message on the dangers of betrayal. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:35 | |
Jamuka called upon his tribes to desert Temujin and ride with him instead. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:44 | |
Their childhood vow of lifelong friendship turned into bitter hatred and jealousy. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:53 | |
This is betrayal at a very high level. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:57 | |
And we're supposed to believe from the Secret History that this was done easily by Jamuka. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:03 | |
The Secret History is trying to set up Jamuka as the anti-hero to Genghis. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:08 | |
Genghis remains true, he remains loyal to his oath. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:13 | |
Jamuka betrays him, and this is a very important theme now, | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
from now on in the Secret History. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
Jamuka's betrayal did not end there. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:26 | |
In a conference between the three supposed allies, | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
he sought to turn Temujin's sworn friend Toghril against him as well. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:37 | |
The Secret History tells us that, although Genghis relied on the notion of sworn brotherhood, | 0:28:39 | 0:28:45 | |
he was a little bit naive about these alliances, and it often took the insights of his mother or his wife | 0:28:45 | 0:28:51 | |
to point out that these were very fragile alliances | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
that could be betrayed. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:56 | |
Jamuka whispered to Toghril that Temujin was seeking new alliances behind his back. | 0:29:00 | 0:29:06 | |
"Temujin is sending messages back and forth to the Naiman. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:12 | |
"While his mouth is saying words like "father" and "son," his actions speak otherwise. | 0:29:12 | 0:29:18 | |
"How can you trust such a man? | 0:29:18 | 0:29:20 | |
"If you don't stop him now, who will save you? | 0:29:20 | 0:29:23 | |
"If you attack Temujin now, I'll pledge to attack him from the rear." | 0:29:23 | 0:29:28 | |
Jamuka and Toghril combined forces and attacked Temujin together. | 0:29:35 | 0:29:41 | |
It was a bitter battle, | 0:29:51 | 0:29:53 | |
for all knew the winner would be the most powerful force on the Mongolian steppe. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:58 | |
After a lengthy and close-run campaign, a year later, the fighting finally came to an end. | 0:30:18 | 0:30:25 | |
Despite the odds, and having stared defeat in the face, Temujin emerged victorious. | 0:30:33 | 0:30:40 | |
His former lord, Toghril, was now dead, and Jamuka, his arch rival, was on the run. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:50 | |
Having once commanded tens of thousands of warriors, | 0:30:55 | 0:30:59 | |
Jamuka now had to hide in the mountains with only a handful of followers. | 0:30:59 | 0:31:05 | |
But Jamuka was not Temujin. | 0:31:05 | 0:31:08 | |
He was incapable of inspiring the loyalty the future Khan had. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
Jamuka's men had learnt to their cost that he was not to be trusted. | 0:31:21 | 0:31:25 | |
He had proved himself a traitor. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:32 | |
Disillusioned, his followers hatched a desperate plan, a plan they believed would save their own lives. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:39 | |
Bound, Jamuka was delivered to Temujin by his former comrades in arms. | 0:31:59 | 0:32:05 | |
The men expected gratitude from Temujin for delivering his enemy. | 0:32:10 | 0:32:15 | |
But in a powerful lesson in loyalty and allegiance, | 0:32:25 | 0:32:29 | |
the Secret History makes it clear that they were gravely mistaken. | 0:32:29 | 0:32:33 | |
Temujin turned on them in disgust. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:39 | |
"How can we allow men who lay hands on their own lord to live? | 0:32:39 | 0:32:44 | |
"Who should trust people like this? | 0:32:46 | 0:32:50 | |
"Such people should be killed, along with their descendants." | 0:32:50 | 0:32:54 | |
Although Jamuka had betrayed him, | 0:32:56 | 0:32:58 | |
Temujin still believed in the strength of the sworn childhood bond. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:02 | |
He proposed to Jamuka that they bury their rivalries and join forces once again. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:13 | |
Jamuka refused, seeking only an honourable death. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:26 | |
"My blood brother, if you want to favour me, | 0:33:26 | 0:33:30 | |
"then simply see that my life is ended without shedding my blood." | 0:33:30 | 0:33:34 | |
His wish was granted. | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
But the Secret History would exonerate Genghis from blame. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:43 | |
The story of Jamuka's death is a story with a moral. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:48 | |
For Genghis himself | 0:33:48 | 0:33:51 | |
to wield the knife is a desecration of blood brotherhood. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:56 | |
How do we get round this? | 0:33:56 | 0:33:58 | |
We get round it, I think, in a Stalinist way, | 0:33:58 | 0:34:01 | |
with a show trial and a grovelling confession by the villain, | 0:34:01 | 0:34:07 | |
in which he begs for a merciful death. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:10 | |
Jamuka asks for his own death in order to exonerate Genghis himself. | 0:34:10 | 0:34:16 | |
In 1206, Temujin received the greatest honour ever given to a Mongol warrior. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:27 | |
At the age of 44, he was proclaimed Supreme Commander, | 0:34:31 | 0:34:35 | |
the Khan of all Mongols, by a grand assembly of tribes. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:40 | |
He determined to apply all the lessons he had learned throughout his life. | 0:34:43 | 0:34:48 | |
The importance of loyalty, allegiance, and total control, backed up by brutality. | 0:34:48 | 0:34:55 | |
Most of all, a real sense of divine mission and assured success. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:03 | |
But this was not to be the summit of his career, merely the beginning. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:11 | |
"Temujin, if you'll be our Khan, we'll search through the spoils | 0:35:17 | 0:35:22 | |
"for the beautiful women and virgins. | 0:35:22 | 0:35:25 | |
"If we disobey your command during battle, take away our possessions, | 0:35:30 | 0:35:35 | |
"our children and wives. Leave us behind in the dust, | 0:35:35 | 0:35:40 | |
"cutting off our heads where we stand, and letting them fall to the ground." | 0:35:40 | 0:35:45 | |
Temujin took a title nobody had ever been awarded before - Genghis Khan. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:57 | |
The title Genghis was utterly unique to him, | 0:35:59 | 0:36:03 | |
and nobody knows why it was chosen, and nobody's quite sure what it means. | 0:36:03 | 0:36:09 | |
CHEERING | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
The current thinking is that it's "fierce," | 0:36:15 | 0:36:18 | |
so that he comes over as the "Fierce Khan," the Fierce King. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:21 | |
He set about putting into practice the lessons he had learnt | 0:36:25 | 0:36:28 | |
during his rise to power. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:30 | |
The Secret History recorded each innovation in meticulous detail. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:38 | |
"Genghis Khan set the lives of all Mongolian peoples in order | 0:36:38 | 0:36:44 | |
"and made this decree. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:46 | |
"To reward those who fought with me to establish the nation, | 0:36:46 | 0:36:50 | |
"I will make them leaders of a thousand." | 0:36:50 | 0:36:54 | |
He began by radically restructuring the army. | 0:36:56 | 0:36:59 | |
Disregarding tribal affiliations, he rewarded his most loyal followers | 0:36:59 | 0:37:05 | |
with power over a thousand men each. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:08 | |
Without regard to rank or status, he promoted according to ability alone. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:15 | |
It's one thing to talk about a meritocracy, | 0:37:17 | 0:37:21 | |
it's quite another to operate it. And here it was operated. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:25 | |
Shepherds were indeed given generalships | 0:37:25 | 0:37:28 | |
and leaders of vassal tribes were also given generalships, as well as Mongols. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:35 | |
So this was the reward of loyalty. | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
This is a new style of ordering large bodies of men. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:51 | |
If a commander left a wounded Mongol on the battlefield, | 0:37:53 | 0:37:57 | |
he would be executed. So "the buck stops here," | 0:37:57 | 0:38:01 | |
is what a Mongol commander might have had on his desk. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:05 | |
And he paid for dereliction of duty with his own life. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:09 | |
Genghis Khan now felt powerful enough to explore beyond the vastness of the steppe. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:19 | |
He sent scouts in all directions. | 0:38:21 | 0:38:24 | |
Not just to find realms worthy of plunder, | 0:38:25 | 0:38:28 | |
but whole nations to conquer on the far side of the great deserts. | 0:38:28 | 0:38:32 | |
Neither the Gobi nor the Taklamakan | 0:38:37 | 0:38:41 | |
could stop Genghis Khan's faithful warriors. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:44 | |
With astonishing endurance, | 0:38:49 | 0:38:51 | |
they rode on through both freezing cold and burning heat. | 0:38:51 | 0:38:54 | |
The scouts returned with good news. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:05 | |
There was little obstacle to invasion. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
But the Secret History once again reveals | 0:39:08 | 0:39:12 | |
that, contrary to Western legend, | 0:39:12 | 0:39:13 | |
Genghis Khan knew that there was more to achieving his ambitions than mere brute force. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:20 | |
Genghis Khan the warrior proved to be a wise statesman as well. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:32 | |
From defeated administrators, he would take lessons in ruling a realm. | 0:39:34 | 0:39:39 | |
Just as his military tactics are endlessly inventive, | 0:39:40 | 0:39:45 | |
endlessly flexible and receptive to new ideas, | 0:39:45 | 0:39:48 | |
so too when he saw what other people had to offer, | 0:39:48 | 0:39:52 | |
he simply paid them and they did the job. | 0:39:52 | 0:39:55 | |
So what the Mongols couldn't do themselves, they found someone else to do for them. | 0:39:55 | 0:40:01 | |
Although illiterate himself, the Khan was quick to grasp the importance of the written word. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:08 | |
The Secret History tells us how he overcame his own illiteracy. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:12 | |
He told Shigi to adopt writing from one of his new vassal tribes, the Uyghurs, | 0:40:12 | 0:40:18 | |
and that was the script that was taken on and taught to the princes, even while Genghis was still alive. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:24 | |
"Let no man violate his word. | 0:40:27 | 0:40:29 | |
"Strike fear in the hearts of thieves. Bring remorse to the tongues of liars. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:35 | |
"Execute those whom custom has condemned to death. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:38 | |
"Write everything in a blue book. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:42 | |
"Let no-one change anything Shigi Khutukhu - after taking counsel with me - | 0:40:42 | 0:40:47 | |
"has written on the white paper of his blue book." | 0:40:47 | 0:40:50 | |
With reform of his troops and administration under way, | 0:40:55 | 0:40:59 | |
Genghis Khan set his sights on his greatest neighbour, China. | 0:40:59 | 0:41:04 | |
The traditional source of Mongol loot, | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
it was a goal that would have universal support from his people. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:14 | |
His army would do more than loot and run. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:19 | |
This time, they would stay. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
It was an expedition fraught with risk. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:30 | |
Genghis Khan consulted the oracle. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:35 | |
The outcome would be determined by how the bones split. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:47 | |
The charred bones split lengthwise. | 0:41:56 | 0:41:59 | |
The omens were good. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:12 | |
The greatest army Mongolia had ever seen was assembled. | 0:42:16 | 0:42:21 | |
They would march south into the richest region in Asia, | 0:42:21 | 0:42:25 | |
over 100,000 strong. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
As victory followed victory, the soldiers were accompanied by women, children and servants, | 0:42:30 | 0:42:36 | |
well over 100,000 horses and vast herds of goats and sheep brought along for food. | 0:42:36 | 0:42:43 | |
At the command of Genghis Khan, his entire palace yurt was placed on a platform on wheels, | 0:42:47 | 0:42:53 | |
drawn by more than 20 oxen. | 0:42:53 | 0:42:55 | |
They approached northern China not simply as invaders, | 0:43:01 | 0:43:04 | |
but for the first time in Mongol history, with the intention of long-term occupation. | 0:43:04 | 0:43:11 | |
I think Genghis was driven by his character. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:17 | |
What he was doing, in psychological terms, | 0:43:17 | 0:43:19 | |
was to create himself a security network that could never, ever be threatened. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:25 | |
You create new frontiers, which then have to be defended, | 0:43:27 | 0:43:31 | |
which then have to be extended, which create new frontiers, etc. | 0:43:31 | 0:43:34 | |
It's a never-ending process. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:36 | |
In 1211, the Mongol army first reached the walls of Beijing. | 0:43:43 | 0:43:48 | |
As wave after wave of Mongols attacked the city, | 0:43:57 | 0:44:01 | |
Genghis Khan continued his march northwards, leaving his generals to finish the job. | 0:44:01 | 0:44:07 | |
Victory would take four more years. | 0:44:13 | 0:44:16 | |
Yet this astonishing military campaign barely rates a mention in the Secret History. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:22 | |
Designed to reveal Genghis's character, | 0:44:22 | 0:44:26 | |
details of his military campaigns were simply not important. | 0:44:26 | 0:44:30 | |
His great conquests are by the by. | 0:44:30 | 0:44:34 | |
Sure, he happened to capture Beijing. Sure, he happened to conquer Russia. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:39 | |
Sure, he happened to conquer Iran, Iraq, on and on. | 0:44:39 | 0:44:43 | |
But that is of no interest to the author of the Secret History. | 0:44:43 | 0:44:48 | |
That is strictly a sideshow. | 0:44:48 | 0:44:50 | |
Although Genghis Khan was now at the height of his power, | 0:44:56 | 0:44:59 | |
the Secret History chooses to draw to a close, not on his military conquests, | 0:44:59 | 0:45:04 | |
but on a final act of revenge against a former ally who had betrayed him. | 0:45:04 | 0:45:10 | |
"The Tanghut people made a promise they didn't keep. | 0:45:14 | 0:45:17 | |
"Genghis Khan has gone to war with the Tanghut a second time and has destroyed them. | 0:45:17 | 0:45:23 | |
"Now this writing is finished, | 0:45:23 | 0:45:25 | |
"in the seventh moon of the Year of Rat." | 0:45:25 | 0:45:29 | |
To the very end, it is the lessons Genghis wished to pass on | 0:45:29 | 0:45:33 | |
which are the real message of the Secret History. | 0:45:33 | 0:45:37 | |
The importance of total control, gained through loyalty, allegiances, fairness and trust. | 0:45:38 | 0:45:45 | |
The power of brutality to strike terror into the hearts of enemies. | 0:45:50 | 0:45:55 | |
And the self-assurance that flows from a sense of divine support. | 0:45:55 | 0:46:00 | |
The Secret History would teach these lessons, even if it meant exposing the Khan's own failings. | 0:46:02 | 0:46:08 | |
I think that Genghis, in a way, | 0:46:08 | 0:46:11 | |
allows himself to be almost like the guide throughout these teachings. So we see where he makes mistakes | 0:46:11 | 0:46:17 | |
or where he succeeds, and future generations can see | 0:46:17 | 0:46:20 | |
that this was actually a real person who had to confront real issues. | 0:46:20 | 0:46:24 | |
For himself, Genghis Khan never claimed divinity. | 0:46:28 | 0:46:32 | |
But after his death, the writer of the Secret History | 0:46:32 | 0:46:37 | |
wanted his successors to believe that from the moment of the Khan's birth, | 0:46:37 | 0:46:41 | |
they were destined to rule the world. | 0:46:41 | 0:46:44 | |
Already it was becoming believed that Genghis himself and the whole empire was divinely ordained. | 0:46:45 | 0:46:52 | |
So, for 150 years, his personality absolutely imbued the empire. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:59 | |
I think this makes it something quite unique in history. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:03 | |
Yet the manner of his death was only too human. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:11 | |
In 1227, legend says that the founder of a nation of riders | 0:47:14 | 0:47:19 | |
fell off his horse and died of his wounds. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:23 | |
Shigi does not reveal where he was buried. | 0:47:25 | 0:47:29 | |
It is said that a thousand horses were driven over his grave, | 0:47:31 | 0:47:35 | |
until every last trace of Genghis Khan had vanished. | 0:47:35 | 0:47:39 | |
But through the Secret History, | 0:47:41 | 0:47:43 | |
he was able to pass on the lessons he had learned, | 0:47:43 | 0:47:47 | |
on his way from illiterate nomad to one of the most powerful leaders the world has ever seen. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:54 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:48:19 | 0:48:22 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:48:22 | 0:48:25 |