Of all the images the name Genghis Khan brings to mind, that of a visionary who brought literacy, law and culture to his people rarely springs to mind. His name is usually synonymous with evil, his image that of a brutal barbarian who slaughtered millions in his quest for power. Yet a BBC drama-documentary is aiming to change the reputation of one of the world’s most notorious warlords to that of a heroic figure who achieved greatness against all odds.
Genghis Khan is right up there with the likes of Hitler and Attila the Hun as one of the bogeymen of history, said Ed Bazalgette, the programme’s producer.
We hear the phrase somewhere to the Right of Genghis Khan. Everyone has heard the name yet few people know much about his story. It is one of the great untold stories of history and we wanted to get behind the myths. No one is suggesting that he was a benign individual but his history was written by those he defeated. To make a parallel, imagine if our country’s history was written by the people of Africa or India.
He was intent on sharing his riches with his people, and wanted to raise levels of culture, law and literacy. He also brought Chinese medicine to his people. Amassing material wealth did not matter much to him, as he shared everything with his loyal supporters. He was seen as a generous leader.
Genghis Khan also demonstrated a rather liberal and tolerant attitude to the beliefs of others, and never persecuted people on religious grounds. Born in Mongolia sometime after 1160, he created the largest known empire, covering a fifth of the world, stretching from the Pacific to the Black Sea.
16 Comments
Boise_LibFascinating person.
I recommend the series by Conn Iggulden
Genghis: Birth of an Empire
Genghis: Lords of the Bow
Genghis: Bones of the Hills
Khan: Empire of Silver
Very good historical fiction. It's fiction, but Iggulden does a very good job of staying true to history while writing a great novel.
lucky760*quality *asia
siftbotBoosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by lucky760.
Adding video to channels (Asia) - requested by lucky760.
GeeSussFreeKKHAAAAAAAAN!
ZappaDanMan>> ^Boise_Lib:
Fascinating person.
I recommend the series by Conn Iggulden
Genghis: Birth of an Empire
Genghis: Lords of the Bow
Genghis: Bones of the Hills
Khan: Empire of Silver
Very good historical fiction. It's fiction, but Iggulden does a very good job of staying true to history while writing a great novel.
Alright, i'll check them out. Looking for something different anyway, I'm stuck in a non-fiction grind at the moment. Which book do you start with ? are they serialised story telling.. from book to book (like lord of the rings).
Boise_Lib>> ^ZappaDanMan:
>> ^Boise_Lib:
Fascinating person.
I recommend the series by Conn Iggulden
Genghis: Birth of an Empire
Genghis: Lords of the Bow
Genghis: Bones of the Hills
Khan: Empire of Silver
Very good historical fiction. It's fiction, but Iggulden does a very good job of staying true to history while writing a great novel.
Alright, i'll check them out. Looking for something different anyway, I'm stuck in a non-fiction grind at the moment. Which book do you start with ? are they serialised story telling.. from book to book (like lord of the rings).
Yes, I listed them in order.
They run from Temujin's childhood to Kublai Khan's reign--including the splintering:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mongol_Empire_map.gif
ZappaDanMan@Boise_Lib cheers for that
Boise_Lib>> ^ZappaDanMan:
@Boise_Lib cheers for that
We share a fascination with Genghis Khan and Zappa. <thumbs up>
ChaosEngine>> ^Boise_Lib:
Fascinating person.
I recommend the series by Conn Iggulden
Genghis: Birth of an Empire
Genghis: Lords of the Bow
Genghis: Bones of the Hills
Khan: Empire of Silver
Very good historical fiction. It's fiction, but Iggulden does a very good job of staying true to history while writing a great novel.
I'd add the movie Mongol to that. Again, it's a dramatisation, but an excellent one...
Boise_Lib>> ^ChaosEngine:
>> ^Boise_Lib:
Fascinating person.
I recommend the series by Conn Iggulden
Genghis: Birth of an Empire
Genghis: Lords of the Bow
Genghis: Bones of the Hills
Khan: Empire of Silver
Very good historical fiction. It's fiction, but Iggulden does a very good job of staying true to history while writing a great novel.
I'd add the movie Mongol to that. Again, it's a dramatisation, but an excellent one...
From Russia, I bet they have an interesting take on this.
I love foreign movies.
Thanks, ChaosEngine.
Boise_LibA little on Genghis Khan's tactics:
After the Mongols surrounded your city:
On the first day they would erect a white tent--If the city surrendered the people would be spared (of course everything in the city would then belong to the Mongols.)
On the second day they would erect a red tent--If the city surrendered every male from the age of 13 up would be slaughtered.
On the third day they would erect a black tent--Everyone dies and the city is destroyed.
The Mongols would always leave a few survivors and give them horses, so that they could spread the word.
charliemsays...What language are they speaking?
Certainly doesnt sound like Chinese....sounds more like Japanese.
DerHasisttot>> ^charliem:
What language are they speaking?
Certainly doesnt sound like Chinese....sounds more like Japanese.
The Mongolian language is one of its own; wiki says: As for the classification of the Mongolic family relative to other languages, the Altaic theory (which is increasingly less well received among linguists[28]) proposes that the Mongolic family is a member of a larger Altaic family that would also include the Turkic and Tungusic, and usually Korean and Japonic languages as well.
There are more Chinese languages/dialects than Mandarin, which is regarded as THE Chinese language to most people. Mandarin became the standard language in 1924, but the other dialects and variants are still spoken today.
ZappaDanMan*promote
siftbotSelf promoting this video back to the front page; last published Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011 7:20am PDT - promote requested by original submitter ZappaDanMan.
YogiWhy is suddenly everyone talking about this guy in such a positive light? In the past few years there's been huge movies and books and documentaries talking about Genghis like he was really good. "OH yeah killed countless people...but really the law and the literacy is what we should be looking at here."
Not saying that any of those peoples lives matter, they clearly don't...I just find it facinating when these trends pop up.
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.