Conn Iggulden: Bones Of the Hills

Tolui’s wife Sorhatani has one of those names with many spelling variations. The most accurate is probably Sorkhakhtani, but I rejected that as too hard on the eye – and the ‘k’ sounds would have been pronounced as ‘h’ anyway. In a similar spirit, I have used the old-fashioned spelling of ‘Moslem’ throughout, though ‘Muslim’ is now the accepted form. Sorhatani plays only a small part in this book, but as mother to Mongke and Kublai, she had a huge influence over the future of the Mongol nation. As a Christian, she was one of those to influence Genghis’ grandsons and yet she allowed Yao Shu, a Buddhist, to become Kublai’s mentor. Between them, they would create a man who embraced Chinese culture as Genghis never could.

Jelaudin gathered approximately 60,000 men to his banners after his father’s death. Cut off from his own lands, he must also have been an extraordinary leader. At the valley of Panjshir in Afghanistan, he forced a Mongol army into retreat across a river. Underestimating him, Genghis sent only three tumans to crush the rebellion. For the only time in Genghis’ life, his army was routed. In just one year, the aura of invincibility he had worked so hard to create had been shattered. Genghis himself took the field with everything he had. He moved his men so quickly that they could not cook food, catching up with Jelaudin at last on the banks of the river Indus in what is now Pakistan. Genghis trapped the prince’s army against the banks. I have not continued Jelaudin’s story here, but after surviving the battle on the Indus, he made his way across Iran to Georgia, Armenia and Kurdistan, gathering followers until he was murdered in 1231. It was his army that overran Jerusalem without him, so that it remained under Muslim control until 1917.

The man who fell from the walls at Herat is a peculiar part of the histories. The abandoned fortress city still stands today, much as I have described it. Genghis did indeed spare the man, astonished that he could have survived such a fall. As with so many other times, Genghis the man was quite different from Genghis the ruthless khan. As a man, he enjoyed displays of courage, as when Jelaudin took his horse over a sheer drop. As khan, Genghis ordered the slaughter of every living thing in Herat, knowing that it would send a message to all those who thought his control had been shaken by Jelaudin’s rebellion. The killing at Herat was his last major action in Afghanistan. Like that city, the Chinese region of Xi Xia thought the Mongols were too stretched to defend distant outposts, so stopped sending tribute. Their refusal would bring the khan out of Arab lands at last, intent on resuming the utter subjugation of the Chin empire, begun more than a decade before.

In 1227, only twelve years after taking Yenking in 1215, Genghis Khan was dead. He spent about eight of those twelve years at war. Even when there was no obvious enemy, his generals were always on the move, reaching as far as Kiev in Russia, where Tsubodai made the only successful winter attack in history. Of all Genghis’ generals, Tsubodai is rightly known as the most gifted. I have barely done him justice here.

Genghis died after falling from his horse in the process of attacking the Xi Xia for a second time. His last command was to wipe out Xi Xia. There is a persistent legend that the great khan was stabbed by a woman before that last ride. As he was on his way to destroy Xi Xia, it made sense to give that role to the princess he had taken as his wife. Given that his birth date can only be estimated, he was between 50 and 60 years old. For such a short life, and from such humble beginnings, he left an incredible mark on the world. His immediate legacy was that his sons did not tear the nation to pieces in deciding who should lead. They accepted Ogedai as khan. Perhaps there would have been civil war if Jochi had still been alive, but he was gone.

The army of Genghis Khan was organised in tens upwards, with a rigid chain of command.

arban: 10 men – with two or three gers between them if travelling fully equipped.

jagun: 100

minghaan: 1000

tuman: 10,000

Commanders of 1000 and 10,000 were given the rank of ‘noyan’, though I used ‘minghaan’ and ‘general’ for simplicity. Above those, men like Jebe and Tsubodai were ‘orloks’, or eagles, the equivalent of field marshals.

It is interesting to note that although Genghis had little use for gold, plaques of the substance known as paitze became the symbol of rank for his armies and administration. Jagun officers carried one of silver, but noyans carried one weighing approximately 20 oz of gold. An orlok would have carried one weighing 50 oz.

At the same time, the growth of army organisation, field weapons and messenger routes required a quartermaster type of rank to come into existence. These were known as ‘yurtchis’. They chose camp sites, and organised the messengers across thousands of miles between armies. The most senior yurtchi was responsible for reconnaissance, intelligence and the day-to-day running of the camp of Genghis.