The Secret History of the Mongols

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The Secret History of the Mongols is the first literary work of Mongolian culture. It is written for the royal Mongol family some time after Genghis Khan's death in 1227 AD, by an anonymous author, originally in the Uyghur script, though the surviving manuscripts all derive from a Chinese transliteration and translation of the 14th century, significantly after the death of Genghis Khan on his conquests and perceptions viewed by the Mongols.

The book's origin is Mongolian and like much of the texts during the period, it is somewhat folkic, poetic and not really as factual as some historians would have really wanted. The work was written using Chinese characters to approximate the sounds of the Mongolian language during the thirteenth century.

The book was discovered for the West by a Russian sinologist Palladiy Kafarov (1817 – 1878) in China, where it was well-known as a text for teaching Chinese to read and write Mongolian during the Ming Dynasty, and first translated into Russian. It is currently regarded as the single significant Mongolian account of the Genghis Khan in Mongolia. It is regarded as classic literature in Mongolia.

Arthur Waley published a partial translation of the Secret History, but the first full translation into English was Francis Woodman Cleaves, The Secret History of the Mongols: For the First Time Done into English out of the Original Tongue and Provided with an Exegetical Commentary, 1. (Harvard-Yenching Institute) Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982. The somewhat archaic and stilted language adopted by Cleaves was not satisfying to all, and between 1971 and 1985, Igor de Rachewiltz published a fresh translation in eleven volumes of the series Papers on Far Eastern History accompanied by extensive footnotes commenting not only on the translation but also various aspects of Mongolian culture.

Several passages of the Secret History appear in slightly different versions in the 17th century Mongolian chronicle Altan Tobci.

[edit] Summary of life of Genghis Khan

Main article: Genghis Khan

A brief summary of the life of Genghis Khan, or Temujin, as he was named by his parents, was extracted from The Secret History of the Mongols by Jack Weatherford in his work, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, (Crown Publishers, NY, 2004).

Genghis Khan was born to Hoelun and Yesugei in the Spring of the year 1162; although there is debate on the exact year Genghis was born, 1162 is generally agreed by most scholars. Hoelun was kidnapped by Yesugei on the eve of her wedding and taken as his first wife. Both of Genghis' parents were members of Mongol tribes, Hoelun from the Ongirads, and Yesugei from Borjigin. A portentious omen noted by The Secret History is the clot of blood in Genghis' right fist when he was born.

Genghis was named Temujin after a Tatar chief had been killed by Yesugei.

From the age of 3 to 5, perhaps as a result of this his family inadvertently left Temujin (Genghis Khan) behind when moving camp. The boy was well cared for by a sympathetic clan.

At age 8, Temujin was arranged to be married to Borte, from the Ongirad clan related to Hoelun. He was then left with his future in-laws to work off a dowry, which would later be a black sable gown. Yesugei fell ill shortly after this, possibly due to poisoning from the Tatars when he was feasting with them.

Temujin was recalled to his father’s burial, and then when his claim to clan leadership was rejected, his mother, Hoelun, and his family were abandoned by their band. He worked to assist his mother in raising her children by hunting rats and dogs, and fishing with hooks made from the needles his mother sewed with.

During this time, Temujin formed an alliance with an aristocratic boy named Jamukha, distantly related to his father’s family, though he himself was considered to be “black-boned,” or a commoner.

When Temujin was 13, he quarrelled over a minnow he had caught with his half-brother Begter. He then later, with the aid of his younger brother Kasar, killed him in cold-blood.

Shortly thereafter, Temujin was declared an outlaw among the Mongols (perhaps from killing his own brother), and later arrested. His punishment was to wear a heavy, wooden yoke around his neck, while being passed between the families of the aristocratic clan, the Tayichiud, which captured him. These would be responsible for sustaining him and correcting him, if such was deemed possible. Sorkan-shira, a member of the Taychiuts subject tribes, took sympathy on him, and ministered to the wounds caused by the galling yoke. When he broke free from a captor, using his yoke as a weapon, the family first hid him, and then gave him food and a horse with which to escape.

At around the age of 16, Temujin went to claim his wife, Borte, and did so with the blessing of his in-laws. Borte had become unmarriageable during the interim through having grown too old, and her father was happy to be rid of her, while she was, in turn, satisfied with Temujin. He used her dowry, a sable coat, as a gift to win an alliance with Torghil, or Ong Khan.

When Temujin was around 18, Borte was kidnapped by the band from which Temujin's mother was taken. He decided to wage war against them, and did so in alliance with Ong Khan.

At around 20, Jamuka and Temujin join in an alliance of their peoples. The alliance was short-lived as Jamuka ordered Temujin and his clan into a subservient posture. Temujin refused, and at the age of 19, split from the company of his anda, or bloodbrother with his family and followers in his trail.The rift caused a civil war involving increasing numbers of the nomadic hunter-herdsmen who occupied the land now called Inner Mongolia, or Mongolia.

At age 27, Temujin claimed the title of khan, or chief of the Mongols, and having succeeded by the appearance of a substantial number in answer to his call, he began to set up a new political system, one which rewarded loyalty and talent, rather than family and friends. War with Jamuka ensued, and under the pretext of revenging a theft of cattle, Jamuka perpetrated an act of hideous cruelty on Temujin's followers, one which would ensure that the Mongol sympathies would work in Temujin's favor in the future.

When Temujin was 33, he joined Ong Khan in an attack on the Tartars, instigated by their commercial rivals, the Jurkin. However, his alliance with the Jurkin was short-lived. Turning upon them, he destroyed their army and absorbed their women and children.

When Temujin was 35, Jamuka declared himself Khan and the two, Jamuka and Temujin joined in a contest to the death.

[edit] References

  • unknown; translated by Urgunge Onon, revised by Sue Bradbury [1228] (1993). Chinggis Khan: The Golden History of the Mongols (hardback) (in English), London: The Folio Society. Retrieved on 2007-01-17. 

[edit] External links

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