Original subtitles

NARRATOR: A noble prince called Temujin is born

on the vast plains of Mongolia.

His story is told in a mysterious book called

The Secret History of the Mongols.

After the murder of his father,

his family are reduced to a life of poverty.

PROF SNEATH: It would have been a terribly harsh

and miserable existence.

NARRATOR: As Temujin matures into a young man,

he displays bravery and intelligence.

DR DASHDONDOG: He learns survival instincts.

PROF SNEATH: He had fire in his eyes.

He obviously did have a commanding presence.

So all of these qualities were parts of his amazing character.

NARRATOR: When his wife, Börte, is kidnapped

by a rival house, the Merkits.

Temujin forms his first political alliance

to rescue her.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: They conquer the Merkit.

They destroy the Merkit.

There are lots of suffering happening

for the Merkit families.

JOHN: The couple find each other and fall into each other's arms.

NARRATOR: Now, Temujin will build unstoppable armies

to reclaim his lost legacy.

He has a thirst for power, and he will conquer

and control all who stand in his way

as he rises to become Chinggis Khan.

PROF SNEATH: Temujin, with Jamuqa, his Anda, ally,

and To'oril Khan, the ruler of the Kerait,

basically defeat The Merkit,

one of the other rival noble houses.

We've got different accounts of the massacres

that were sometimes carried out by Mongol armies.

Common practice was to what they called measure

against the lynch pin.

That is, when they eliminated the nobility,

they often judged how tall they were.

If they were taller than the sort of axle of the wagons,

they killed them, and if they were shorter than that,

they were so young that it didn't really matter,

and they could still be adopted and brought up

and they loot the area. And both Temujin and Jamuqa

must have enriched themselves considerably from that,

gaining, certainly livestock, other sorts of wealth.

Commoner subjects might have also been captured

and brought back.

NARRATOR: A decade earlier, Temujin and his family

were exiled on the Mongolian steppes,

But now the young warrior will begin to forge

powerful alliances and build a mighty army raised

from defeated rival houses.

PROF SNEATH: Temujin's career has really taken off.

He now seems to be in command of the Tümen 10,000 unit,

and he's successfully defeated some rivals in battle.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: After Börte and Temujin are United

Börte was pregnant.

PROF SNEATH: Later she gives birth to Temujin's first son,

Jochi. And questions were later raised

as to the paternity of Jochi.

Was he actually the son of the minor nobleman of the Merkit

whose house Börte was living in when eventually

Temujin rescued her.

NARRATOR: According to The Secret History of the Mongols,

the nobleman rumored to be Jochi's real father

fled the Merkit camp never to be seen again.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Temujin himself always regarded

Jochi as his own first son.

Always mentioned him as my first son,

so he gives his full love to Jochi.

PROF SNEATH: And the question as to why he treated Jochi

his first son without apparently caring

if he was the true father himself, I think the answer

is that, you know, he was a Dynast.

Amongst everything else, he's a ruler,

and so first born male issues have always been important

for rulers. If you don't have one,

your dynasty is not all that secure.

So I think actually, whatever his personal opinions,

he was pleased to have an elder son,

and these kinds of questions were just much less important

to Temujin than the idea of securing the succession

of his dynasty.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Temujin had several sons and daughters,

but Secret History usually mentions the boys.

The eldest son was Jochi, second son is Chaghadai,

and third son is Ogodei and fourth son is Tolui.

PROF SNEATH: Temujin also had daughters,

but we don't know so much about them,

and they don't become these sort of prime political players

in the way that his sons did, because it was indeed

a Patriarchal age, and these kinds of royal courts,

women were often part of diplomatic marriages,

which actually Temujin made Very good use to secure

and expand his empire.

NARRATOR: Almost 10 years pass,

and Temujin matures into a bold leader.

He is determined to rebuild the kingdom of his ancestors

and unite the dynasties of the steppes

to achieve this grand vision, he tightens His bond

with his blood brother, Jamuqa.

DR MAY: And Jamuqa is, I think, one of the most fascinating

figures in the Mongol Empire.

JOHN: His childhood friends, Temujin and Jamuqa

got on extremely well. They exchanged arrow heads

and they played together on the ice

and they did hunting together.

PROF URADYN: Temujin doesn't have any other friends

other than Jamuqa.

They were sworn brothers. They admire each other.

It's a sworn friendship. You have to take oath, right?

You have to swear to certain spiritual beings

that he will never betray you or will promise you.

DR DASHDONDOG: Jamuqa was clever. He was grown up

also in a noble family,

and he had the same education as Temujin.

DR MAY: He was somewhat aristocratic,

but he wasn't from the high level of aristocrats

such as Temujin's family was.

he was not of the main elite lines.

He was from a secondary branch,

so he was not at the same level, but he wanted to be.

He was an immensely talented general,

unfortunately for him, he was also very arrogant.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Jamuqa and Temujin became inseparable

neighbors, actually, Jamuqa kind of adopts Temujin

to his camp, and Temujin lives with Börte

and entire family with Jamuqa's camp.

PROF SNEATH: so both Temujin and Jamuqa have emerged

as sort of prime political candidates

for a reunited Mongol Khanate.

And Jamuqa and Temujin are partners and close allies.

The Secret History describes a very, very close friendship.

PROF URADYN: You have two leaders.

They were equally good, equally brave, equally smart.

But in a society in which there is only one hierarchy,

there couldn't be two leaders without fighting each other,

and yet here we have such situation.

NARRATOR: Bound by blood and ambition.

Temujin and Jamuqa begin their ascent,

gathering wealth and power as they wage brutal battles

against their enemies,

but there can only be one supreme ruler

on the Mongolian steppes, and soon their alliance

will be stretched to its very limit.

PROF SNEATH: At some stage this apparently kind of insoluble,

super secure and loyal partnership breaks up

the passages that describe this in the Lost text.

The Secret History of the Mongols are quite odd.

It's not easy to interpret.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: At some point, Jamuqa says,

let's have a separate camps.

Those who have sheep can stay in the open step,

and those who have horses should camp in the mountains,

but Temujin just didn't comprehend those who are

occupying the biggest steppe has a potential to bring

more families to his own circle.

And those who is staying in the mountain has limited pasture,

and fewer families will be following him.

Of course, the person who is occupying this step

would be bigger leader.

Jamuqa wanted to say that I have more sheep

and I need to camp in this steppe.

Why don't you go to the mountain?

Because if you have horses and you should go to mountain.

PROF SNEATH: And it's said that Temujin consulted

his wife, Börte

JOHN: Börte, I would imagine, saw Jamuqa as a threat

to her husband's claims to authority.

And she said, Well, perhaps he's not to be trusted.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Börte says, I heard that Jamuqa is a very

unstable friend, and Jamuqa probably got fed up from us,

and he doesn't want to be neighbor with us.

Why don't we not settle in the mountain.

Let's not accept this small proposal instead,

let's just go find the next big steppe.

That's what Temujin did.

Temujin followed Börte's words and just didn't stop.

Just kept moving.

DR MAY: What they find out is that many Mongols who had

formerly been with Jamuqa Leave Jamuqa to join Temujin

because they view him as a better overall leader.

Jamuqa was a great military leader, but in dealing with,

you know, the day to day issues of being a leader,

he was selfish, he was arrogant, and overall,

not someone who really appreciated those below him,

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: those who followed Temujin

in that fateful night, in that migration together,

convened and announced, Temujin, as their Khan.

NARRATOR: Both Temujin and Jamuqa are crowned Khan.

They are now kings to their followers.

With these two rulers now in opposition,

conflict is inevitable and war beckons.

PROF SNEATH: So these two become the prime candidates

for the throne that might be created now.

So in that sense, they become rivals.

The rivalry that emerges is kind of,

then a matter of appealing to the other nobles.

How many other important families can one get to back

and support you in your bid to reunite

this bigger Mongolian kingdom.

So at this stage it's not clear quite what Temujin rules.

I should think we're talking about

maybe 10 or 20,000 households, perhaps

and Jamuqa seems to have something of a comparable size.

So one of the leading characters who attaches himself

to Temujin is called Subutai. He's clearly a noble,

and he turns out to be a really brilliant tactical thinker

and ends up being Temujin's most celebrated

and brilliant General.

He's one of the supporters within the old Mongolian royal

family, and other people begin to support Temujin in his

Candidacy for the top job of ruler of all the Mongols.

In addition, he is immediately recognized and supported

by his old patron, To'oril Khan of the Kerait.

And this is enormously significant.

NARRATOR: The support of the powerful ruler, To'oril,

gives Temujin much needed strength,

but his rise to power will not be easy,

as Jamuqa stands in his way.

Even though they were once bound by blood,

Temujin and Jamuqa are now bitter enemies.

As they build their armies, their rivalry deepens

with every follower that joins their cause.

PROF SNEATH: Tensions between Jamuqa and Temujin grow.

There's actually some noble relatives of both of them

kind of raid each other's horses at first,

and then Jamuqa's relative is killed,

and that's finally the kind of spark that sets off

the war between the two rival claimants.

They clash at the Battle of Dalan Baljut.

NARRATOR: For the first time, Temujin and Jamuqa lock eyes

on the battlefield.

Jamuqa commands a fearsome army of up to 30,000 warriors.

And although Temujin has raised an army of a similar size,

he faces an expert on the battlefield.

PROF SNEATH: This time, a full army was raised by recruiting

one's subjects on the steppes. They'd all be herders.

The steppe lands had for centuries, for millennia,

produced really high quality cavalry.

That is, horsemen with a range of different skills,

but it was really the horse Archer that was the sort of

most powerful troop type that originated and emerged

from the steppe lands, and they were able to control

one's horse well enough to simultaneously take both

Hands off the reins and use them for archery.

The combination of these really sophisticated,

high powered, efficient bows and really top horsemanship

skills meant that the basic soldier that could be recruited

from the steppe was a very formidable advantage.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Jamuqa, at the time, was already

experienced battle leader.

Temujin wasn't experienced enough leader,

and his people were new.

He didn't have time to organize strong army.

DR MAY: His first real battle where he's in command.

He loses.

This is going to be one of maybe two defeats

in his lifetime, and he flees.

PROF SNEATH: In a way, it looks like Jamuqa is now winning.

The problem is he seems to maybe have won on the battlefield,

but lost diplomatically.

After the battle Jamuqa is described as having boiled

17 nobles of the losing side.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: According to The Secret History,

he burnt a fire, decapitated them,

and tossed them into boiling water.

PROF SNEATH: It looks like a very cruel and brutal act

of vengeance of some sort.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Jamuqa was a cruel person,

and Jamuqa proved how cruel person he was.

PROF SNEATH: And this seems to really lost Jamuqa support.

He's probably seen as being too harsh,

and it's part of a passage in the history which describes

the reasons for his political support ebbing away

so several nobles and top aristocrats

leave jamuqa's entourage.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Every nomadic family close to Jamuqa felt

that they might one day participate in that kind of

cruelty or be a victim of that kind of cruelty,

so they just left.

NARRATOR: Although support for Jamuqa fades,

Temujin must seek refuge.

His forces devastated in battle.

He escapes to the land of a powerful rival,

the Empire of the Jin.

PROF SNEATH: the following years intelligence life,

not a lot is recorded about them.

DR MAY: The sources go silent on him and the

in The Secret History, it just picks up,

right up after even though there's a 10 year gap.

NARRATOR: Although this period is omitted

from The Secret History, other historical texts

say he moved south into the vast lands of the Jin Empire,

one of the Most Powerful dynasties in the world.

DR MAY: The Jin Empire is a vast empire.

It had an army that numbered, allegedly, 600,000 men.

PROF SNEATH: The Jin Dynasty is a major player to the south

and the east, that rules northern China and Manchuria.

DR MAY: We know he was in the Jin empire

from a Chinese source.

We don't know what he was doing there.

Was he a slave? Was he a captive?

Was he a mercenary?

I tend to conclude that he was there in some capacity

of status that the Jin thought to themselves,

let's keep him on the payroll.

He might be useful down the road.

The Jin have this practice of using proxies for their

influence in the steppe to prevent one tribe

from getting more powerful than the other.

PROF SNEATH: The influence of the Jin is kind of

underestimated, but we know from other accounts during

that time, To'oril and many of the other regional lords,

they're engaged in some kind of diplomacy and political

relations with the Jin Dynasty.

NARRATOR: In 1196, after a decade away,

Temujin returned to his homeland on the Mongolian

steps, supported by the Jin.

He learns that many of the powerful nobles who supported

Jamuqa have been repelled by his savage cruelty

and are ready to join Temujin's cause.

PROF SNEATH: Temujin seems to actually increase his following,

although he must have obviously suffered a setback

in military terms.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: So even though Temujin was defeated

in the war. He became the accepted leader.

NARRATOR: As his following grows,

Temujin hosts a lavish banquet, inviting the important noble

house of the Jurkin to join the festivities.

PROF SNEATH: The House of the Jurkin were actually

a kind of elite principality created by Kabhul Khan,

Temujin's great grandfather. So the Jurkin are very proud.

They were proud of being this elite kind of principality.

Apparently, this feast turns into a chaotic fight,

and their nobles clashed with relatives of Temujin.

People are clearly beaten up and brawling.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: One of these Jurkin people sliced

Temujin's half brother, that is a big challenge to Temujin,

because we can do anything, you know,

we can do something to your brother.

It was quite an incident. It wasn't forgotten.

NARRATOR: To restore peace, Temujin promises an alliance

with the Jurkin, but soon after they betray Temujin

launching a surprise raid on his camp while he's away

engaged in a military campaign.

PROF SNEATH: The Jurkin seem to stab him in the back,

and as a result, Temujin eliminates them.

They killed the nobles and then took the subject peoples,

the commoners, into their own establishment.

In fact, the Jurkin elite principality of old

becomes Temujin's own principality.

NARRATOR: One Jurkin nobleman is kept alive by Temujin,

the same man who fought his half brother in the brawl.

PROF SNEATH: So these old grievances from earlier clashes

and brawls were remembered, and so this character called Buri,

the brawny, who was this champion wrestler,

Temujin said, Okay, now, why don't you go and wrestle

my half brother, Belgutei. Let's see who wins now.

JOHN: Temujin's half brother Belgutei was a famous wrestler.

He was called Belgutei, the strong.

JOHN: The two wrestlers lock themselves together

and try to throw the other person to the ground.

You're allowed to put your hand on the ground,

but if you put any other part of your body other than

your feet on the ground, you lose bouts can go on

for a very long time, sometimes hours.

PROF SNEATH: The Jurkit wrestler doesn't want to offend

the new masters who are in charge of his life now.

So he takes the fall, he kind of allows himself to be thrown

but Temujin is not going to let him off with that.

JOHN: And he has this idea, because he's a significant

figure of having him killed in a way which seems

maybe not quite murder.

PROF SNEATH: Apparently, Temujin makes a signal.

JOHN: Belgutei grabs hold of his jacket.

PROF SNEATH: and sits on his back and then wrenches Boris

a neck right up until he breaks his spine

and kills him anyway, throwing the fight

to please Temujin, it didn't work out, if you're on

the list for execution, then they were going to get you

one way or another.

One of the most important things to remember about the rise

of Temujin as it was not happening in a vacuum.

This was a region where there was a powerful political

strategy used by the Jin empire to the south to try to manage

the rulers of the steppe by pitting them against each

other to counterbalance them so they wouldn't unite

and pose a real threat to northern China.

NARRATOR: Temujin, now in his 30s,

continues to fight enemies on the Mongolian steppes,

alongside his ally, To'oril, ruler of the Kerait.

Aligning with the Jin empire, Temujin and To'oril turned

their sights on shared enemies, neighboring people known

as the Tatars.

PROF SNEATH: This was another moment in Temujin's career where

he really began to enter the big time between them,

with To'oril, the Kerait ruler, and Temujin on one side,

and the Jin generals on the other attacked the Tatar,

and of course, gained a lot of loot from that.

In addition, they also received noble titles from the Jin court.

He's becoming increasingly significant as one of

the petty warlords or rulers in this borderland between

the Jin Empire and the Kerait Khanate.

NARRATOR: Temujin grows in strength,

but his former friend Jamuqa remains a daunting adversary

whose power threatens his ambitions.

PROF SNEATH: In his career, Temujin's already began to make

quite a lot of enemies, and they've tended to join Jamuqa.

So increasingly, then we've got two confederations

opposing each other.

On the one hand, Jamuqa and the enemies, and on the other side,

Ong Khan of the Kerait and any friends that Temujin has been

able to mobilize and these two rival factions now,

who increasingly are clashing in order to control

this part of the Eastern steppe.

NARRATOR: With Jamuqa power on the rise,

Temujin knows that one day he will again have to face him

on the battlefield.

But before he confronts his enemy,

he destroys the smaller powers who pose a threat.

PROF SNEATH: He turns to his old enemies, the Tayichiud.

Now this is the noble house who at one point had arrested him,

probably in connection with the killing of his half-brother

and these Tayichiud he decides to eliminate completely.

So he fights a series of battles to destroy them.

NARRATOR: As combat rages on, danger lurks at every turn

at one savage battle.

Temujin's horse is shot in the neck with an arrow,

but the death of his steed leads to the forging

of an important and unexpected bond.

PROF SNEATH: Afterwards, he wins the battle,

and then the prisoners are there, and he says,

Who was it? Who shot my horse?

And one person bravely pipes up and says, it was me.

PROF URADYN: Many would have sort of hide themselves,

hide that they committed that crime.

But he was a brave and he admitted it

and he was honored.

PROF SNEATH: Temujin rewards his bravery by recruiting him.

PROF URADYN: And for his honesty, he gave this new name,

and he was Jebe. And Jebe means Arrow head.

PROF SNEATH: And he becomes one of Temujin's main generals.

So that's part of Temujin's conquests.

He's eliminating his rival nobility,

but he's taking on and often employing the subjects of

those other ruling groups and incorporating them in his

realm and also into his military establishment.

At this time on the Mongolian steppe in the far west,

going into Mongolia and what's now Kazakhstan,

is the large Naiman khanate in central Mongolia.

There's the Kerait, ruled by Ong Khan.

And to the east, mow, increasingly,

Temujin is becoming the most important ruler,

having defeated all sorts of rivals.

NARRATOR: As Temujin conquers rival, leader after leader,

unease rises among his own allies,

fearful of his rising dominance.

PROF SNEATH: as Temujin is expanding his power

and influence in the east.

Ong Khan is facing a kind of more and more difficult

and tricky public opinion in his own court,

in particular, his own son, Senggum is getting really

unhappy with the amount of power and influence Temujin

and his family are having in the court of the Kerait Khan,

and he even begins to worry that the throne of The Kerait

might pass to Temujin rather than coming to him,

Senggum, Ong Khan begins to listen to these kinds of rumors

that Temujin is really after your throne.

Shouldn't you turn against him?

Eventually, Ong Khan, in the end, is sort of talked round

by those bad advisors and the sort of poison

of his son Senggum.

NARRATOR: Although Ong Khan has become a father figure

to Temujin, he turns his back on the young ruler

for the first time, they will meet on the battlefield

as enemies.

PROF SNEATH: Temujin's army finally clashes

with that of Ong Khan's at the Qalqajit Sands.

And in this battle, Temujin is soundly defeated.

His son Ogodei is very badly wounded.

His forces are scattered, and he has to retreat.

He flees with quite a small portion of his army.

It's not clear how many subjects Temujin now has.

He's probably down to a few 1000.

This is the kind of lowest point he's been properly,

soundly defeated militarily.

It looks really as if his political career might be over

NARRATOR: Temujin's armies have been decimated

by Ong Khan's troops.

He is forced to retreat.

To recover from this crushing defeat,

he must urgently gather new allies and rebuild his forces

or risk being lost to history.

PROF SNEATH: Temujin somehow begins to sort of lick his

wounds and recuperate.

He actually manages to assemble a remarkably diverse set of

followers, and this is a die hard set of Temujin's loyalists

who are prepared to back him even at this lowest ebb of

his fortunes, when it looks like he's really defeated.

NARRATOR: Temujin rebuilds his depleted forces,

winning new followers to his cause.

He must confront Ong Khan before he grows too powerful.

Temujin leads his new army into battle, vastly outnumbered,

he will have to take his enemy by surprise.

PROF SNEATH: It's probably fought over several days.

Temujin created different ranks of horse archers

and shock cavalry.

The horse Archer remained the kind of distinctive ace

in the hand of any steppe general.

They would be able to outmaneuver, outflank,

and use their mobility to draw out the enemy.

One of the prime tactics that step armies used was

the feigned retreat, that is to appear to run away

and to draw out your enemy.

In the end, Temujin assembled army defeat span of Ong Khan

of the Kerait, and eventually Ong Khan himself is killed,

and his son, Senggum has to flee.

Temujin's defeat of Ong Khan, the king of the Kerait is

a huge step up because we get a sense of the skill

and competence of the military leadership of not just

Temujin, but also his generals around him.

Temujin is now the ruler of the old Kerait khanate.

This is a meteoric rise from the low point of defeat up to

the heights now of ruling, not just the territories

that he'd won himself, but now this entire

large khanate as well.

NARRATOR: Temujin has only one true rival on the steppes,

Jamuqa, former blood brother, now allied with a powerful

Naiman Khanate, outnumbered once more,

Temujin must out think and outmaneuver them

on the battlefield.

PROF SNEATH: Temujin and Jamuqa clash at Naqu Qun,

and here, the secret history records some of the tricks

that Temujin used to confuse and misdirect the enemy,

lighting fires so that it looked like the forces were larger

than they actually were, moving in such a way as

to confuse the enemy, buying time for Temujin to be able

to assemble a large enough force.

NARRATOR: The clash is ferocious.

Temujin finally gains the upper hand.

Jamuqa survives the battle, but flees and lives as a bandit,

hiding in the wilderness to avoid capture.

PROF SNEATH: After the battle, Jamuqa himself flees,

but eventually as an exile, he's caught by his own troops,

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: so his followers brought

Jamuqa to Temujin.

But little did they know that Temujin valued loyalty

above everything

PROF SNEATH: He has the retainers who turned on

their master and brought Jamuqa to him executed

because Temujin wants to really show that you don't get

any rewards for betraying your master, even if it's very

convenient to me at that particular moment.

So he takes that sort of point of principle step,

and then he's left with Jamuqa as a prisoner.

And this is a difficult and interesting moment,

because so much of the support that Temujin has built was

for a long time in partnership with Jamuqa.

JOHN: The Secret History makes it all very poetic insofar

as Chinggis offers Jamuqa the chance to come aboard

and become an ally.

PROF URADYN: but as a great hero, he declined.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Jamuqa said, one hand should be in

the Mongolian steppe, and if I am still alive,

I will be burdened to you.

PROF SNEATH: I would be forever attracting rivals.

We wouldn't have a stable dynasty just kill me.

DR DASHDONDOG: So he fulfilled the wish of Jamuqa,

and he killed him without spilling his noble blood.

JOHN: What that meant in terms of his death is anybody's guess.

It perhaps meant having his back broken,

but nobody's quite sure.

NARRATOR: With Jamuqa and Ong Khan defeated,

Temujin moves swiftly to bring any remaining rival

households under his command.

He now stands on the verge of uniting all of the Mongolian

steppe beneath one banner.

JOHN: The area that he commanded was Eastern

and Central Mongolia, which reached down into

what is now Inner Mongolia.

PROF SNEATH: It's certainly a force to be reckoned with

a ruler who commands most of the steppe lands.

And, of course, controls hundreds of 1000s of families

living on the steppe who make excellent soldiers.

He divides up his new realm into different administrative

districts, he awards titles, and he reshapes the governance

of the steppe into the new machinery of his new dynasty.

NARRATOR: In 1206, a grand meeting is held on the banks

of the river Onon, a Kurultai.

It is here that Temujin will realize his true destiny

and create the great Mongolian state.

PROF SNEATH: Temujin rings together all the major nobles

and commanders from this big new empire that he's conquered,

and they raise him with his new reign name of Chinggis Khan.

There's this strange thing where the name ended up

as Genghis Khan.

We think that the way the word got written in Persian,

the pronunciation changed.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: The word Chinggis

is probably combination of important words of that time.

Qing, in Mongolian language, is also the most heart

will sing if we want to combine these two words.

It's like a true leader.

PROF SNEATH: Already, Temujin is taking a slightly unusual

name, perhaps he wanted to be a bit distinctive,

a little bit special.

So in 1206 we finally get the kind of conqueror figure,

the Chinggis Khan that we're familiar with

from the rest of world history.

He's established as the undisputed ruler

of this entire region.

NARRATOR: The man born Temujin now carries a new title

that will echo across the ages.

Chinggis Khan, despite losing everything after the death

of his father, he now controls more

than he could have ever imagined.

His ambition awakened,

he sets his sights beyond the Steppes.