Genghis Khan (1965)

Cast: Omar Sharif (Genghis Khan), Stephen Boyd, James Mason, Eli Wallach, Francoise Dorleac, Telly Savalas, Robert Morely, Yvonne Mitchell, Woody Strode.

Director: Henry Levin.

Only loosely based on the life of Genghis, this story has little to recommend it except the action sequences.

Ethno-geography of 13th century Mongolia Peoples:

                                                           Tayyichi'ut

                Lake Baykal        Buryats

                Merkits                           

                                              Mongols                Tartars

Naimans                                 Inner Mongolian Plateau

                                              Onguts

                              Kereyits

Historical Background:

THE DYNASTIES OF CHINA

206B.C. - A.D. 220 Han Dynasty

220-263 Three Kingdoms Period

Genghis Khan (1167?-1227), Mongol conqueror and founder of the Mongol Empire, which spanned the continent of Asia by the time of his death.

1125-1234 Jin Dynasty in China.

1161  -- the Mongols were an important force in eastern Mongolia, but they lose their supremacy to a rival tribe, the Tartar, in alliance with the Jin (Chin) rulers of North China. (The name Tartar, or Tatar, was later used by Europeans to refer to the Mongol invaders of Europe in general.)

1167?  --   Originally named Temujin, Genghis was born on the banks of the Onon River, near the present-day border between northern Mongolia and southeastern Russia. His father, Yesugei, was a local chieftain and nephew of the former khan (ruler) of the Mongol tribe.

When Temujin was nine years old his father bethrothed him to ten year old Borte, daughter of the chieftain of his mother's people, the Konkirat.

Yesugei was poisoned by the Tatars. He survived long enough to reach his own encampment and send someone to bring Temujin back home.  Yesugei's wife and young children were deserted by his followers under the influence of the Taichi'ut, a rival clan. 

When Temujin had grown into a young man, he was taken captive by the Taichi'ut. They made him wear a wooden collar around his neck. He was befriended by a benefactor who helped him escape from his captors.

Temujin was taken under the wing of  Toghril, later known as Ong-Khan, the powerful ruler of the Kereit, a tribe in central Mongolia. Toghril and Jamuka, a young Mongol chieftain, helped Temujin defeat the Merkit and rescue Borte away from them.

During a time of political instability, the Mongol leaders declare Temujin their ruler with the title of Genghis Khan ("universal monarch").  But he was still primarily a protégé of Toghril.

1198 --  the two rulers took part, as allies of the Jin, in a successful campaign against the Tatar. Toghril was rewarded for his share in the victory with the Chinese title of wang ("prince"), and thereafter he was known as Ong-Khan ("Ong" is a corruption of wang).

1200-1202  --  the two rulers defeated a coalition of tribes headed by Genghis Khan's former friend Jamuka.

1202 --  Genghis Khan manages to totally exterminate the Tatar people.

1203  -- fights with Ong-Khan in an indecisive battle after which Genghis Khan withdraws into the extreme northeast of Mongolia.  After recovering his strength, he overwhelming defeats Ong-Khan, thereby becoming master of eastern and central Mongolia.

1206 --  his old rival, Jamuka, dies and Genghis Khan comes to possess all of Mongolia as he is proclaimed Great Khan.

1211  --  Mongols overrun northern China.

1214 --  all China north of the Yellow River in Mongolian hands.

1215  --  Beijing besieged and sacked. (Full conquest of North China not complete until 1234).

1216 --  Genghis Khan returns to Mongolia.

1219  -- war with the empire of Khwarizm, ruled by Sultan Muhammad (covering the present-day countries of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and most of Iran). Reaches Otrar. His forces lay siege and capture the town.

1220  --   attacks and seizes Bukhara. Capture Samarqand.  Finds and kills Sultan Muhammad. Crosses Caucasus mountains and defeats an army of Russians and Kipchak Turks in the Crimea.

1221 --  crosses the Oxus into northern Afghanistan. His youngest son sacks towns in Persia. Sultan Jalal al-Din, the son of Sultan Muhammad, wins a battle at Parvan, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, but is then defeated on the banks of the Indus River. Genghis Khan starts back home. 

1226 --  war with the Chinese Tangut tribal confederation, his last campaign.

1227  -- he dies in Gansu, China.

Genghis Khan had many wives and concubines, but it was Borte, his first and chief wife, who gave birth to his four most famous sons: Jochi, whose son Batu founded the Golden Horde and ruled in Russia and Eastern Europe; Jagatai who gave his name to a state in Central Asia; Ögödei who succeeded his father and ruled Mongolia and northern China; and Tolui.  Tolui was the father of Mangu Khan, ruler of the unified Mongol Empire from 1251 to 1259; Kublai Khan, who founded the Yuan dynasty in China; and Hulagu, who founded the il-Khanid dynasty of Persia.

The Great Khan's grandsons founded dynasties in China, Persia, and Russia, and his descendants ruled in Central Asia for centuries.

1227 -- Khan killed in battle in a campaign to put down a Tangut rebellion.

1231 -- Mongols conquer Korea.

1234 --  Mongols wipe out the remainder of the Jin Dyansty giving them control over all of northern China.

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