Day of Empire_ How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--And Why They Fall - Amy Chua [57]
In the end, it was Temujin who ambushed the Kereyid leaders. Temujin and his men descended on the Kereyids as they celebrated—quite drunkenly—their perceived victory over him. After three days of hard battle, Temujin triumphed. Ong Khan fled with his court, while much of his army deserted to Temujin's side. As was always Temujin's policy, he accepted Ong Khan's followers as long as they had not committed any previous act of treachery against their former leader. Essentially folding the powerful Kereyid forces into his own, Temujin went on to conquer the Naimans, the last great steppe confederation not yet under his control. By 1204, Temujin had defeated every tribe on the steppe. His territory extended from the Gobi Desert to Manchuria to the Arctic tundra. Much of this land, however, was sparsely populated. It included perhaps twenty million animals but probably only around a million people.
In 1206, to legitimize his rule, Temujin convened a great meeting, or khuriltai, of representatives from every part of the steppe. In a massive open-air ceremony that included days of solemnity alternating with days of festivities, sports, and music, hundreds of thousands saw Temujin installed as Genghis Khan—originally Chinggis Khan, from the Mongolian chin, meaning “strong, firm, unshakable, and fearless”—ruler of all the tribes. The official name he chose for his new empire was the Great Mongol Nation, but he made a point of calling his followers the People of the Felt Walls, referring to the material out of which all the nomads made their tents. Out of the many warring tribes, clans, and lineages of the steppe, Genghis Khan had created a “people.”12
Once in power, Genghis Khan took a number of steps, some quite radical, to maintain unity in his new empire. He prohibited the stealing of animals and the kidnapping of women, two age-old sources of strife on the steppe. Punishments were severe: Any man who stole a horse or steer, for example, was “cut into two parts.” Also condemned to death were adulteresses, spies, sorcerers, and “men given to infamous vices.” More remarkably, Genghis Khan decreed absolute freedom of worship for everyone, whether they were Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, or shamanists. All religious leaders, monks, “criers of mosques,” and “persons who are dedicated to religious practice” were exempted from taxation and public service. He himself remained an animist, worshipping the spiritual forces of nature.13
At the same time, Genghis Khan continued to annex different tribes and ethnicities, such as the Koreans and the forest tribes of Siberia, into the Great Mongol Nation. To overcome ethnic divisions, Genghis Khan absorbed their warriors into his army and arranged marriages between his own children and those of the submitting tribal leaders. He also recruited the most able of their men, bringing to the Mongols talents and skills they had never before possessed. This is how the Mongols acquired writing.
Tradition has it that when Genghis Khan conquered the Naimans in 1204, he was amazed to discover that their khan kept a Uighur scribe who memorialized his official pronouncements. The Uighur people, closely related to the Mongols, had obtained their script from Christian missionaries; the script was based on the Syriac alphabet and originally flowed horizontally, from right to left. Genghis Khan took the Naiman's Uighur scribe into his entourage. More important, he ordered the creation of a new writing system, essentially adapting the Uighur script to the Mongolian language. The new Uighur-Mongolian script was almost exactly like the old Uighur script, except that it flowed vertically, from top to bottom, the way Chinese characters do. Over the years, Genghis Khan continued to recruit and rely on Uighur scribes to facilitate communication throughout the empire.14
By 1206, the man who started off as Temujin—an outcast who supposedly feared dogs and cried easily as a