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Genghis Khan [a] (born Temüjin; c. 1162 – August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, [b] was the founder and first khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongol tribes , he launched a series of military campaigns , conquering large parts of China and Central Asia .
By capturing Bukhara, Genghis Khan had split the forces of the Shah, which were located at Samarkand, Balkh, and Urgench. The Mongols, having encircled the city, were engaged by the Turko-Iranian defenders. The sortie, which consisted of twenty war-elephants and a large body of cavalry, was ambushed and driven back. [4]
In 1262, Berke began a war with the Il-Khan Hulagu Khan. This led to several battles on the west side of the Caspian which the Horde usually lost. The interruption of trade and conflict with Persia led the Horde to build trading towns along the northern route. They also allied with the Mamluks of Egypt who were the Il-Khan's enemies.
This civil war, along with the Berke–Hulagu war and the subsequent Kaidu–Kublai war, greatly weakened the authority of the great khan over the entirety of the Mongol Empire, and the empire fractured into four khanates: the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, the Ilkhanate in Iran, and the Yuan dynasty [a ...
Genghis Khan forged the initial Mongol Empire in Central Asia, starting with the unification of the nomadic tribes of the Merkits, Tatars, Keraites, Turks, Naimans and Mongols. The Buddhist Uighurs of Qocho surrendered and joined the empire. He then continued expansion via conquest of the Qara Khitai [6] and of the Khwarazmian Empire.
The caliphate reemerged as a significant power under al-Nasir (r. 1180–1225), who saw off threats from the last Seljuk rulers and their successors, the Khwarazmians. Muhammad II of Khwarazm's 1217 invasion of the Abbasids failed, and his realm was soon invaded by the armies of Genghis Khan, first ruler of the Mongol Empire. [3]
According to some scholars, the Yassa was proclaimed by Genghis Khan at the kurultai of 1206, [4] when he officially assumed the title of Genghis Khan. In the Secret History, Genghis Khan tells his adopted son Shigi Qutuqu to create a register of jurisprudence, which implies the existence of such a document:
Detail of the Catalan Atlas depicting Marco Polo travelling to the East during the Pax Mongolica. The Pax Mongolica (Latin for "Mongol Peace"), less often known as Pax Tatarica [1] ("Tatar Peace"), is a historiographical term modeled after the original phrase Pax Romana which describes the stabilizing effects of the conquests of the Mongol Empire on the social, cultural and economic life of ...