After amassing an army of supporters, he began forging alliances with the heads of important tribes. By , he had successfully consolidated the steppe confederations under his banner and began to turn his attention to outside conquest.
No contemporary portraits or sculptures of him have survived, and what little information historians do have is often contradictory or unreliable. Most accounts describe him as tall and strong with a flowing mane of hair and a long, bushy beard.
Perhaps the most surprising description comes courtesy of the 14th century Persian chronicler Rashid al-Din, who claimed Genghis had red hair and green eyes. The Great Khan had a keen eye for talent, and he usually promoted his officers on skill and experience rather than class, ancestry or even past allegiances.
One famous example of this belief in meritocracy came during a battle against the rival Taijut tribe, when Genghis was nearly killed after his horse was shot out from under him with an arrow. When he later addressed the Taijut prisoners and demanded to know who was responsible, one soldier bravely stood up and admitted to being the shooter. One of his most famous campaigns of revenge came in , after the Shah of the Khwarezmid Empire broke a treaty with the Mongols.
Genghis had offered the Shah a valuable trade agreement to exchange goods along the Silk Road , but when his first emissaries were murdered, the enraged Khan responded by unleashing the full force of his Mongol hordes on the Khwarezmid territories in Persia.
He followed up on his victory by returning east and waging war on the Tanguts of Xi Xia, a group of Mongol subjects who had refused his order to provide troops for his invasion of Khwarizm. After routing the Tangut forces and sacking their capital, the Great Khan ordered the execution of the entire Tangut royal family as punishment for their defiance.
Unlike many empire builders, Genghis Khan embraced the diversity of his newly conquered territories. He passed laws declaring religious freedom for all and even granted tax exemptions to places of worship. This tolerance had a political side—the Khan knew that happy subjects were less likely to rebel—but the Mongols also had an exceptionally liberal attitude towards religion.
The 1,, refers to the estimated population in April of a Persian city called Nishapur. This city, located in what is now Iran, was a bustling cultural center during Khan's time. And during his campaign to the West, following his successful subduing of China, Nishapur was one of the cities his troops sacked.
Genghis Khan whose adopted name means "Universal Ruler" in Altaic, his native tongue was something of a populist conqueror.
He generally followed a self-imposed rule that those who surrendered to him were allowed to live. The same fate met anyone else who dared resist. It's not entirely clear whether a revolt broke out after Khan's troops had already overtaken the city, or if the fateful event took place during an initial siege. Either way, this proved to be the death warrant for the inhabitants of the city.
Khan's daughter was heartbroken at the news of her husband's death, and requested that every last person in Nishapur be killed. Khan's troops, led by his youngest son, Tolui undertook the gruesome task. Women, children, infants, and even dogs and cats were all murdered. Worried that some of the inhabitants were wounded but still alive, Khan's daughter allegedly asked that each Nishapuran be beheaded, their skulls piled in pyramids.
Ten days later, the pyramids were complete. Exactly how many died at Nishapur during the siege is questionable, but it does appear that a great many people were killed and beheaded. There is no evidence that Genghis Khan was at the city when the massacre took place, however. It's unclear why the legends say these events transpired in just one hour.
And when the 1. Even more difficult to understand is how the idea made it on so many lists of amazing statistics. Regardless, a great many people died at the hands of Genghis Khan or his men. But in a strange, roundabout way, he put back more than he took. Thanks to his far-flung travels and his appetite for women, a study found that as many as 16 million people alive today -- or about 0. Sign up for our Newsletter!
Mobile Newsletter banner close. Genghis Han killed so many people, that it was actually good for the environment, new study claims by Mihai Andrei. May 27, Reading Time: 2 mins read. Get more science news like this Tags: carnegie climate change genghis khan global cooling.
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