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00:07Genghis Khan, the world's most famous warrior.
00:15He rose from abject poverty to rule most of the known world.
00:23It is claimed that one in every 200 men alive today is descended from him.
00:33History records him as a brutal butcher, but for centuries his true story lay buried, forgotten, in Chinese archives.
00:46Who was the real man behind the legend, and how did he inspire his successors from beyond the grave to
00:54conquer the largest land empire the world has ever seen?
01:02Written nearly 800 years ago, an extraordinary text reveals the secret history of Genghis Khan.
01:31Europe, in the year 1241.
01:35Although Genghis Khan had been dead for more than a decade, his legacy lived on.
01:45Priests prophesied a coming apocalypse as Mongolian hordes approached the borders of the Holy Roman Empire.
01:54The whole continent watched and waited in terror.
02:00Drawing from the Book of Revelations, they saw the invaders as the armies of Satan.
02:08Their fears would soon be realized.
02:10Their fears would soon be realized.
02:19The Mongol army descended like a storm.
02:28The Knights of Europe faced warriors the likes of which they had never seen before.
02:43Fearless in battle, moving at lightning speed on highly trained horses.
02:48Armed with bows able to penetrate the strongest armor.
02:53Mongol warriors had yet to be defeated.
02:59And they were now within striking distance of the very heart of Europe.
03:05Genghis Khan was no longer alive.
03:09But his legacy, passed on through the pages of the secret history of the Mongols, was all too real.
03:30The
03:31Fourteen years earlier, just after Genghis Khan's death, the heads of the Mongol tribes gathered together.
03:43They were preparing for the fulfilment of Genghis's grand strategy, sketched out just
03:49before he died.
03:51Nothing less than the conquest of the entire world.
03:57In the midst of this tribal gathering was the Khan's adopted son, known as Shiggy the
04:03Blessed.
04:06He was recording for the secret history the events surrounding the great Khan's extraordinary
04:11life.
04:14In the year of the rat they came all together, the nobles of the right wing, the princes of
04:20the left wing and the leaders of the thousands.
04:26But the secret history of the Mongols was not to be an ordinary history book.
04:32The inspiration for future leaders, it was a blueprint for power.
04:38We have to bear in mind always that the secret history is a history written in order to educate.
04:45This is essentially a mirror for princes, a manual of statecraft.
04:53The original manuscript has never been found, but over 500 years after it was written, a
05:00Chinese copy came to light, hidden away in private archives.
05:07It was not a straightforward history of the Mongol Empire.
05:11It was far more personal than that.
05:15Genghis's rise is the real subject of the secret history.
05:19How he puts this into effect in the actual creation of the empire is of less interest.
05:25This is not a military history at all.
05:32Genghis Khan's story begins in the middle of the 12th century.
05:39Genghis's father, a powerful Mongolian general, returned to camp after a successful raid on
05:45a neighbouring tribe.
05:49He was spurred on by good news.
05:54His wife had given birth to a son.
06:00As he was born, he emerged clutching a blood clot the size of a knuckle-bone dice in his
06:06right hand.
06:08To this boy, they gave the name Temujin.
06:16The shamans interpreted the blood clot as a sign from heaven, a sign Temujin, the future
06:22Genghis Khan, would become a fierce warrior.
06:26Genghis Khan.
06:27In the legend that grew up around Genghis in later centuries, he was meant to be not
06:32the child of an ordinary person, but the child of the son himself.
06:36So there's room for the belief that his birth was supernatural, and that heaven presided over
06:44his birth, and that his destiny as a world conqueror was a heavenly ordained destiny.
07:06Temujin was born into a family of noble descent.
07:12His father was a respected warrior, who had increased his clan's wealth and land.
07:27He brought up Temujin to ride and hunt from an early age.
07:32skills essential for survival in the vastness of Central Asia.
07:45As he grew, Temujin became friendly with a boy from a neighboring clan called Jamukha.
07:52Following Mongol tradition, as the two became closer, they swore vows to be friends for life.
08:00Becoming sworn friends was, if you like, the glue, the political glue of Mongol society.
08:06loyalty.
08:06In this very flexible society, loyalty was the key political virtue.
08:12To break it was one of the most serious of crimes.
08:17As the two boys exchanged arrows as a symbol of their promise, they forged a bond that should
08:23have lasted forever.
08:29Instead, Temujin would learn a harsh lesson about betrayal.
08:46When Temujin was just eight years old, his father took him to find a bride.
08:58As was Mongol tradition, his marriage would cement an alliance with a neighboring tribe.
09:08In a world of inter-tribal feuding, there was security in numbers.
09:14On arrival at their camp, Temujin's eyes were drawn to a graceful girl named Borte.
09:29This would turn out to be much more than just a typical Mongolian arranged marriage.
09:34It would become a bond of love.
09:43In a rare romantic moment, the secret history lapses into poetry to describe the betrothal.
09:51Genghis had light in her eyes.
09:53She had fire in her eyes.
09:55He was pleased with her.
09:59Genghis could be seen as a bit of a romantic.
10:02He absolutely adored Borte.
10:05They were said to have been united in the light of the moon.
10:09Contrary to his reputation as a womanizer, the secret history reveals that she would be
10:15his one great love.
10:18The secret history portrays Genghis in a much fuller sense than we're used to in the West.
10:23He was a very soft man who greatly cared for and looked after his mother and his wife and
10:30his children and was incredibly loyal to those alliances that he built up.
10:37Later, as Khan, Genghis would take more wives as tradition demanded.
10:43But it would be Borte's children who would rule the empire after his death.
11:03A messenger brought news that would, for a time, tear the two children apart.
11:13In an act of revenge, Temujin's father had been poisoned by the tribe he had been raiding
11:18at the time of his birth.
11:21The boy had to return to his people.
11:26And to an uncertain fate.
11:30In a defining moment in the future Khan's life, he, his mother and seven siblings were abandoned
11:36by their own tribe, left to fend for themselves.
11:44All the people had gone away, leaving only the mother and her sons.
11:48She was born of great courage.
11:52With a stick in her hand, she fed them by digging up roots.
12:02This was a woman who needed quite exceptional strength of character to save herself and her
12:10five boys.
12:11So I think her role in his upbringing was absolutely crucial.
12:17We have to bear in mind just what sort of environment Mongolia might have been.
12:22This is one of the coldest places in the world.
12:26With temperatures in winter that go down to 80 below zero.
12:31If you don't have an alpha male looking after you, you've had it.
12:38Without the guidance of a father, and with supplies scarce, Temujin began to fall out with his
12:44half-brother Begta.
12:49As they jockeyed for food and power, the conflict turned to violence.
12:55The future Khan had yet to learn the importance of family ties.
13:05Begta sat in the clearing watching the family's horses grazing.
13:12Temujin and his other brother crept up from behind, drawing their arrows to shoot.
13:21Begta said, how can you treat me like some dirt in your eye, like something that's keeping
13:27the food from your mouth?
13:28How can you do this, when there's no one to fight but our own shadows?
13:48Temujin doesn't declare that he's just killed his brother Begta, but his mother can see it.
13:53She says she can see it from his face as he enters through the doorway.
13:56And then she starts violently berating her son.
14:01The secret history describes his mother's reaction in graphic detail.
14:07She compares him to a ravening dog.
14:11She tells him that he's like a panther, a lion, a jackal, a monster, a pike.
14:19Temujin was not proud of what he had done.
14:22But he had learnt a harsh lesson, one that he was keen to pass on.
14:28Temujin at the time was 13 and was in no position, really, to judge himself.
14:33But later he was.
14:35And that was why he regarded it as so important that the rest of his tribe should know that
14:39this had been a great crime.
14:46But as a springboard for power, strong family ties were not enough.
14:52The secret history said the future Khan's path to leadership was preordained.
14:59To make the point, it tells of several narrow escapes where ordinary men would not have survived.
15:08It describes how, as a boy, Temujin and his family were constantly hunted by his father's old enemies.
15:24One day, unable to escape his pursuers, Temujin was captured, bound and brought to the camp of an enemy clan.
15:34He faced living the rest of his life as a slave.
15:44Humiliated and ridiculed, he was forced to serve his tormentors.
15:55But one of his captors, Shogun Shira, sensed in the young man a potential future leader, even as the others
16:03continued in their efforts to break his will.
16:11But with heaven on his side, all was not as hopeless as it seemed.
16:16For Temujin was already showing that he was an astute judge of character.
16:28One night, whilst lashed to a yoke, he overcame his guard.
16:44Realizing that he had no chance of escaping on foot, he headed for the river.
16:55If I run for the woods, they will spot me, he thought to himself.
16:58So he went to the river, using his yoke as a float.
17:09He should have been quickly recaptured, but in the secret history, nothing happens by chance.
17:16It was Shogun Shira, the captor who had seen in him a future leader, who found him.
17:24As Shogun Shira passed by the river, he saw Temujin lying there and spoke to him quietly.
17:33It's because you're a clever young man that they are afraid of you.
17:37Just stay where you are. I won't tell them I've seen you.
17:43Temujin shows himself to be a remarkable judge of character.
17:46He sees instantly the sort of person who is going to help him.
17:50He is able to choose the character, to choose his allies and to then build on this.
17:56And it's going to be the basis for his political career.
18:14The secret history has many gaps.
18:17Lost years in the life of the young Genghis Khan.
18:24It is years later before Shigi takes up the story again.
18:35His youth behind him, Temujin emerged as an imposing man.
18:40A man now in command of a small army of Mongol warriors.
18:57The secret history tells us that there was more to his path to power than simple brute force.
18:58Instead, Temujin set about recruiting allies.
19:01The secret history tells us that there was more to his path to power than simple brute force.
19:09Instead, Temujin set about recruiting allies.
19:15He set his sights on the most powerful warlord in all Mongolia, Toghril Khan, leader of the Kerites.
19:25He would give him his most precious possession.
19:34In the old days, you and my father were blood brothers. You were like my father.
19:43I've just married an Ungerad woman, and I've brought the wedding gift to you.
19:53He had a knack for getting people on board.
19:57He simply gives him the most valuable object he has.
20:03And without asking for a favour in return, he throws it entirely before this ruler whom he wants to impress.
20:11And his bread comes back to him on the waters.
20:15A year later, Toghril comes to him and says,
20:18I have not forgotten that coat, that sable coat you gave me.
20:22And I inscribed my promise to help you under my own heart.
20:28And now I will help you.
20:36As his influence continued to grow, eager and enterprising young men were soon drawn to Temujin's side, where they were
20:44trained as warriors.
20:48As an incentive for loyalty, he promised them raids and rich rewards.
20:58His riders were trained in a very special skill, to fire their arrows at their enemies while riding away at
21:06full gallop.
21:07It was a manoeuvre that would help make them the greatest army on earth.
21:18The archer gallops towards the enemy lines at the last moment, pivots, swings round in the saddle and looses in
21:26quick succession up to six arrows.
21:29And the damage that this does has to be seen to be believed.
21:33It is a fearsome bow.
21:35I think we would need to forget the idea of a bow altogether and think of a rifle if we
21:43wanted to get some idea of the toll that these bowmen took.
21:51But before Temujin and his men faced the armies of the West, they would be forced to contend with enemies
21:57closer to home.
22:05The Mongols were surrounded by other powerful tribes who were a constant threat.
22:11Through the secret history, Temujin's successors learnt that, away from battle, Heaven's chosen leader should always put his own safety
22:20first.
22:24The point was made as his family made camp during a hunting expedition.
22:30Their camp was at the Harolin River's source.
22:35When one morning, just before dawn, his mother's servant woke the camp with a startling cry.
22:49Mother, mother, get up. The ground is shaking. I hear it rumble.
22:58An enemy tribe had spotted them.
23:03With his warriors too far away to help, Temujin and his family were forced to flee for their lives.
23:13But there were not enough horses for everyone.
23:24In what looked like a selfish act, Temujin took a horse for himself, then ordered his mother to take the
23:32only remaining one, abandoning his wife to certain capture.
23:39But there was method to his madness.
23:43Temujin might have been seen as a coward here, just leaving his wife behind, but he knew that she would
23:49be strong enough to be able to cope with this,
23:51and that she would be able to gather crucial information about the inner workings of the Merket for him when
23:56he went to retrieve her later on.
24:00With his wife now acting as his spy, to assure his own safety, Temujin fled into the hills.
24:11Yet again, Shigi wrote, the heavens had spared him from death.
24:18The future Khan started to believe that his destiny was ordained.
24:25He escaped once again from his pursuers and began to realize, saw for the first time, that perhaps he was
24:33being saved for a particular purpose.
24:35It was, if you like, a revelation of divine backing.
24:38It seems that he wished his followers to believe that he had always had divine backing,
24:44and that what was happening was a mere working out of the divine will.
24:53With his wife rescued, it was now that Genghis first emerged as the brutal mass murderer of history.
25:02Still barely 20 years old, he was gaining the reputation the shamans had forecast at his birth.
25:13As news of his successes spread, more and more men joined him.
25:19He was now strong enough to take on the Tatars, a blood feud that spanned generations.
25:32Now is the time of our revenge. We will kill every Tatar man taller than the lynchpin on the wheel
25:39of a cart.
25:40We will kill them until they're destroyed as a tribe.
25:46On his way to power, he trod on corpses. There's no question.
25:51Return what people give to you, he said.
25:56He paid back the Tatars by measuring every one of their people against the axle of a dog cart.
26:04Anyone taller than the axle was exterminated.
26:10Generations of inter-tribal anger were unleashed.
26:17Here, the secret history offers a terrible lesson.
26:21The battle was more than a skirmish to avenge a death, steal a bride or loot.
26:28This was to be the complete destruction of an entire tribe.
26:39All surviving Tatar men were beheaded.
26:45Only children and potential concubines were spared, taken as slaves.
26:55But Temujin's successes began to cause tensions, even amongst his own allies.
27:09The most powerful, Jamukha, his sworn friend from childhood, was now also a successful general in his own right.
27:19But there could not be two leaders.
27:22The ambitious Jamukha was about to change from friend to foe.
27:29The secret history records a powerful message on the dangers of betrayal.
27:39Jamukha called upon his tribes to desert Temujin and ride with him instead.
27:47The childhood vow of lifelong friendship turned into bitter hatred and jealousy.
27:54This is betrayal at a very high level.
27:58And we're supposed to believe from the secret history that this was done easily by Jamukha.
28:03The secret history is trying to set up Jamukha as the anti-hero to Genghis.
28:10Genghis remains true. He remains loyal to his oath.
28:13Jamukha betrays him.
28:14And this is a very important theme now, from now on, in the secret history.
28:24Jamukha's betrayal did not end there.
28:29In a conference between the three supposed allies,
28:33he sought to turn Temujin's sworn friend, Togril, against him as well.
28:39The secret history tells us that although Genghis relied on the notion of sworn brotherhood,
28:46he was a little bit naive about these alliances.
28:49And it often took the insights of his mother or his wife to point out
28:52that these were very fragile alliances that could be betrayed.
29:01Jamukha whispered to Togril that Temujin was seeking new alliances behind his back.
29:09Temujin is sending messages back and forth to the Naiman.
29:12While his mouth is saying words like father and son,
29:16his actions speak otherwise.
29:18How can you trust such a man?
29:20If you don't stop him now, who will save you?
29:23If you attack Temujin now, I'll pledge to attack him from the rear.
29:28I'll pledge to attack him.
29:30I'll pledge to attack him.
29:36Jamukha and Togril combined forces and attacked Temujin together.
29:51It was a bitter battle.
29:53For all knew the winner would be the most powerful force on the Mongolian steppe.
30:18After a lengthy and close run campaign, a year later the fighting finally came to an end.
30:33Despite the odds and having stared defeat in the face, Temujin emerged victorious.
30:44His former lord Togril was now dead and Jamukha, his arch rival, was on the run.
30:55Having once commanded tens of thousands of warriors,
31:00Jamukha now had to hide in the mountains with only a handful of followers.
31:05But Jamukha was not Temujin.
31:08He was incapable of inspiring the loyalty the future Khan had.
31:21Jamukha's men had learnt to their caste that he was not to be trusted.
31:27He had proved himself a traitor.
31:32Disillusioned, his followers hatched a desperate plan.
31:36A plan, they believed, would save their own lives.
32:00Bound, Jamukha was delivered to Temujin by his former comrades-in-arms.
32:10The men expected gratitude from Temujin for delivering his enemy.
32:25But in a powerful lesson in loyalty and allegiance, the secret history makes it clear that they were gravely mistaken.
32:35Temujin turned on them in disgust.
32:39How can we allow men who lay hands on their own lord to live?
32:47Who should trust people like this?
32:50Such people should be killed, along with their descendants.
32:56Although Jamukha had betrayed him, Temujin still believed in the strength of the sworn childhood bond.
33:08He proposed to Jamukha that they bury their rivalries and join forces once again.
33:22Jamukha refused, seeking only an honourable death.
33:27My blood brother, if you want to favour me, then simply see that my life is ended without shedding my
33:33blood.
33:36His wish was granted.
33:38But the secret history would exonerate Genghis from blame.
33:43The story of Jamukha's death is a story with a moral.
33:48For Genghis himself to wield the knife is a desecration of blood brotherhood.
33:57How do we get round this?
33:58We get round it, I think, in a Stalinist way, with a show trial and a grovelling confession by the
34:06villain in which he begs for a merciful death.
34:11Jamukha asks for his own death in order to exonerate Genghis himself.
34:21In 1206, Temujin received the greatest honour ever given to a Mongol warrior.
34:31At the age of 44, he was proclaimed Supreme Commander, the Khan of all Mongols, by a grand assembly of
34:39tribes.
34:43He was determined to apply all the lessons he had learned throughout his life.
34:48The importance of loyalty, allegiance and total control, backed up by brutality.
34:58Most of all, a real sense of divine mission and assured success.
35:06But this was not to be the summit of his career, merely the beginning.
35:17Temujin, if you'll be our Khan, we'll search through the spoils for the beautiful women and virgins.
35:30If we disobey your command during battle, take away our possessions, our children and wives.
35:37Leave us behind in the dust, cutting off our heads where we stand and letting them fall to the ground.
35:51Temujin took a title nobody had ever been awarded before.
35:56Genghis Khan.
35:59The title Genghis was utterly unique to him and nobody knows why it was chosen and nobody is quite sure
36:08what it means.
36:15The current thinking is that it's fierce, so that he comes over as the fierce Khan, the fierce king.
36:25He set about putting into practice the lessons he had learned during his rise to power.
36:33The secret history recorded each innovation in meticulous detail.
36:39Genghis Khan set the lives of all Mongolian peoples in order and made this decree.
36:46To reward those who fought with me to establish the nation, I will make them leaders of a thousand.
36:55He began by radically restructuring the army.
37:01Disregarding tribal affiliations, he rewarded his most loyal followers with power over a thousand men each.
37:09Without regard to rank or status, he promoted according to ability alone.
37:17It's one thing to talk about a meritocracy, it's quite another to operate it.
37:23And here it was operated.
37:25Shepherds were indeed given generalships and leaders of vassal tribes were also given generalships, as well as Mongols.
37:35So, this was the reward of loyalty.
37:47This is a new style of ordering large bodies of men.
37:52If a commander left a wounded Mongol on the battlefield, he would be executed.
37:59So, the buck stops here is what a Mongol commander might have had on his desk.
38:05And he paid for dereliction of duty with his own life.
38:14Genghis Khan now felt powerful enough to explore beyond the vastness of the steppe.
38:21He sent scouts in all directions, not just to find realms worthy of plunder, but whole nations to conquer on
38:30the far side of the great deserts.
38:38Neither the Gobi nor the Thakla Makan could stop Genghis Khan's faithful warriors.
38:49With astonishing endurance, they rode on through both freezing cold and burning heat.
39:02The scouts returned with good news.
39:05There was little obstacle to invasion.
39:09But the secret history once again reveals that, contrary to Western legend, Genghis Khan knew that there was more to
39:16achieving his ambitions than mere brute force.
39:28Genghis Khan, the warrior, proved to be a wise statesman as well.
39:34From defeated administrators, he would take lessons in ruling a realm.
39:40Just as his military tactics are endlessly inventive, endlessly flexible and receptive to new ideas,
39:48so too, when he saw what other people had to offer, he simply paid them and they did the job.
39:56So, what the Mongols couldn't do themselves, they found someone else to do for them.
40:02Although illiterate himself, the Khan was quick to grasp the importance of the written word.
40:08The secret history tells us how he overcame his own illiteracy.
40:13He told Shiggy to adopt writing from one of his new vassal tribes, the Uyghurs,
40:18and that was the script that was taken on and taught to the princes, even while Genghis was still alive.
40:27Let no man violate his word, strike fear in the hearts of thieves, bring remorse to the tongues of liars,
40:35execute those whom custom has condemned to death.
40:39Write everything in a blue book.
40:42Let no one change anything, Shiggy Hootoku, after taking counsel with me, has written on the white paper of his
40:50blue book.
40:55With reform of his troops and administration underway, Genghis Khan set his sights on his greatest neighbour, China.
41:06The traditional source of Mongol loot, it was a goal that would have universal support from his people.
41:16His army would do more than loot and run. This time, they would stay.
41:27It was an expedition fraught with risk.
41:33Genghis Khan consulted the oracle.
41:43The outcome would be determined by how the bones split.
41:55The charred bones split lengthwise.
42:09The omens were good.
42:17The greatest army Mongolia had ever seen was assembled.
42:20They would march south, into the richest region in Asia, over 100,000 strong.
42:30As victory followed victory, the soldiers were accompanied by women, children and servants.
42:36Well over 100,000 horses and vast herds of goats and sheep brought along for food.
42:47At the command of Genghis Khan, his entire palace yurt was placed on a platform on wheels, drawn by more
42:54than 20 oxen.
43:01They approached northern China, not simply as invaders, but for the first time in Mongol history, with the intention of
43:09long term occupation.
43:13I think Genghis was driven by his character.
43:17What he was doing in psychological terms was to create himself a security network that could never, ever be threatened.
43:27You create new frontiers, which then have to be defended, which then have to be extended, which create new frontiers,
43:34etc.
43:35It's a never ending process.
43:43In 1211, the Mongol army first reached the walls of Beijing.
43:57As wave after wave of Mongols attacked the city, Genghis Khan continued his march northwards, leaving his generals to finish
44:06the job.
44:14Victory would take four more years, yet this astonishing military campaign barely rates a mention in the secret history.
44:23Designed to reveal Genghis's character, details of his military campaigns were simply not informed.
44:31His great conquests are by the by. Sure, he happened to capture Beijing. Sure, he happened to conquer Russia. Sure,
44:39he happened to conquer Iran, Iraq, on and on.
44:43But that is of no interest to the author of the secret history. That is strictly a sideshow.
44:56Although Genghis Khan was now at the height of his power, the secret history chooses to draw to a close,
45:03not on his military conquests, but on a final act of revenge against a former ally who had betrayed him.
45:14The Tangut people made a promise they didn't keep. Genghis Khan has gone to war with the Tangut a second
45:20time and has destroyed them.
45:23Now this writing is finished, in the seventh moon of the Year of the Rat.
45:29To the very end, it is the lessons Genghis wished to pass on which are the real message of the
45:35secret history.
45:38The importance of total control gained through loyalty, allegiances, fairness and trust.
45:50The power of brutality to strike terror into the hearts of enemies.
45:55And the self-assurance that flows from a sense of divine support.
46:01The secret history would teach these lessons, even if it meant exposing the Khan's own failings.
46:08I think that Genghis, in a way, allows himself to be almost like the guide throughout these teachings.
46:15So we see where he makes mistakes or where he succeeds, and future generations can see that this was actually
46:22a real person who had to confront real issues.
46:28For himself, Genghis Khan never claimed divinity.
46:33But after his death, the writer of the secret history wanted his successors to believe that from the moment of
46:40the Khan's birth, they were destined to rule the world.
46:45Already it was becoming believed that Genghis himself and the whole empire was divinely ordained.
46:53So for 150 years, his personality absolutely imbued the empire, and I think this makes it something quite unique in
47:02history.
47:07Yet the manner of his death was only too human.
47:14In 1227, legend says that the founder of a nation of riders fell off his horse and died of his
47:22wounds.
47:26Shigi does not reveal where he was buried.
47:31It is said that a thousand horses were driven over his grave until every last trace of Genghis Khan had
47:38vanished.
47:41But through the secret history, he was able to pass on the lessons he had learned on his way from
47:48illiterate nomad to one of the most powerful leaders the world has ever seen.
48:01Next this evening, Time Shift looks back over Hollywood's love affair with the epic movie in a cast of thousands.
48:08The End
48:10The End
48:10The End
48:26The End
48:27The End