title: Chadwick Boseman

text: In 2019 Boseman was announced as part of the cast for the Netflix films "Da 5 Bloods", directed by Spike Lee, and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", directed by George C. Wolfe. He took these "bucket-list roles" for opportunities to work with Lee and with "Ma Rainey" producer Denzel Washington, as well as the opportunity to perform in an August Wilson play, telling "Entertainment Weekly" that he wanted to make these non-superhero films because "if you don't do the films that you plan to do, I think you wouldn't feel fulfilled as an artist." He was also cast in a film telling the story of Yasuke, the only non-Asian samurai and the first black man in Japan, which he was set to co-produce; Boseman said: "[the story is] not just an action movie, [it is] a cultural event, an exchange, and I am excited to be part of it." "Time" included Boseman on their list of the 10 Best Movie Performances of 2020, for both "Da 5 Bloods" and "Ma Rainey" for "Ma Rainey", Boseman received posthumous nominations in the Best Actor category at the Academy Awards, British Academy Film Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and Screen Actors Guild Awards, becoming the eighth person (and seventh man) to receive a posthumous Academy Award acting nomination.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: "Da 5 Bloods" was released on June 12, 2020. Lee, in choosing Boseman for the divine-like character of Stormin' Norman, said: "This character is heroic; he's a superhero. Who do we cast? We cast Jackie Robinson, James Brown, Thurgood Marshall, and we cast T'Challa." Reception of his character was mostly positive; for the Associated Press, Jocelyn Noveck wrote that Boseman played Norman "with movie-star charisma and classic war-movie grit", and "Empire"s Kambole Campbell said his performance had "regal charisma", while Chuck Bowen of "Slant" said that he "has a hauntingly gaunt presence, but he's already played too many saints." "The A.V. Club"s Ashley Ray-Harris felt the lack of digital de-aging for the other characters was unsuccessful in its aims and that "Lee's script doesn't give Boseman much to do outside of this confused, Christ-like characterization and never exposes Norman's own naïveté." Conversely, Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" saw it as a reflection that "[he] has grown not old as those that are left grew old", and a way to show how Norman has been romanticized in his comrades' memories; Odie Henderson of "RogerEbert.com" had a similar view and said that Boseman was "a perfect casting move", with the actor already carrying such a mythical status in black culture that he does not need to do much to be a believable mythical black icon as Norman.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: The film "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", in which Boseman co-stars as trumpeter Levee, was released after the actor's death in 2020. Director Wolfe said that Boseman was excited by the role for the challenge it posed, saying that "it's a "monster" role and it's a thrilling role, it's a difficult role. All of those things are exhilarating for an actor. And [Boseman] rose to the occasion and more than delivered." The film is based on the August Wilson play of the same name; Boseman was a fan of Wilson and wrote about him and his inspiration on Boseman's own work in a 2013 essay for the "Los Angeles Times". According to Chris Jones, Boseman's Levee is "an astonishing, revelatory performance and formidably distinct from the numerous interpretations seen on the stage"; A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" similarly opined that "it will be hard, from now on, to imagine [...] a Levee to compare with Boseman." Angelica Jade Bastién for "Vulture" wrote at length on Boseman's performance, saying that "many of the important turns in the film hinge on Boseman's presence at the center. [...] In the first of his lachrymose monologues, Boseman is called to embody [anger and] gives the scene his all." Charlotte O'Sullivan of the "Evening Standard" said Boseman was brave to take on a "more curdled" role than the heroic leaders he is best known for, and that "as skilful as he was talented, [he] hits the right notes, all the time." Clarisse Loughrey wrote that it was the actor's finest performance, that "when [he] rages against an unjust God [...] it strikes like thunder" and is "delivered with such grace that there's a sense he had another hundred performances like it still in him."


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: In 2022, Boseman posthumously won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for the "What If...?" episode What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord? at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: According to film critic Owen Gleiberman of "Variety", "Boseman was a virtuoso actor who had the rare ability to create a character from the outside in and the inside out [and he] knew how to fuse with a role, etching it in three dimensions [...] That's what made him an artist, and a movie star, too. Yet in "Black Panther", he also became that rare thing, a culture hero". Similarly, reviewer Richard Brody in "The New Yorker" finds the originality of Boseman's formidable acting technique in his ability to empathize with the interior lives of his characters and render them on screen as fully and completely belonging to the character. He was uniquely able to capture and portray the dignity of his characters, according to "The New York Times" critic Wesley Morris. Well known for taking biopic roles, Hanna Flint for the BBC said he became the frequent choice because of his dedication to embodying character. Peter Bradshaw wrote of the actor's "beauty, his grace, his style, his presence [...] These made up Chadwick Boseman's persona [and he became] the lost prince of American cinema[,] glorious and inspirational".


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: Culture writer Steve Rose, in "The Guardian", said that Boseman's career was revolutionary and he "leaves behind a gamechanging legacy", attributing this to the actor's careful planning and selection of roles. Eulogizing him, Rose wrote:


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: As the Black Panther, Boseman led a predominantly black cast in a major blockbuster for the first time; "Variety" said that "the significance of Chadwick Boseman [...] to the African American and Black community is immeasurable." Further expressing the weight of Boseman's legacy, Robert Daniels wrote for "Vulture" that "his performance [as T'Challa] wouldn't just be a demonstration of craft [...] It'd become a piece of history. He'd face a slew of pressures, because a Black epic, even a period piece, is forever expected to be "important", representative of the past, present, and future." He told BBC Culture that "through his acting, [Boseman] wrote, rewrote, and reclaimed black history". Boseman's "Ma Rainey" co-star Viola Davis told Rose that "he is going to be remembered as a hero", both as the Black Panther and for the authentic man he was, and that "his legacy, his body of work, his integrity, is going to influence on generations upon generations to come." BBC Culture called him "a film icon who changed Hollywood"; "a symbol of black excellence and of cinematic excellence"; and "a virtuoso and heroic figure, not just because of his iconic turn as Marvel's Black Panther but for how he raised the bar for racial equality and representation on screen."


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: Rhea Combs, film curator of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, said that with his screen presence, Boseman "was not only a conduit to the past and the way African-Americans persevered and pushed through so many challenges, he also represented brightness and the promise of tomorrow". The BBC also noted his impact of infusing African authenticity into his work, including his motivations for taking a role in "Gods of Egypt" as well as how T'Challa is presented, saying that he "connect[s] African-American audiences with their African heritage".


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: His alma mater, Howard University, renamed its College of Fine Arts in honor of Boseman on May 26, 2021.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: Boseman began dating singer Taylor Simone Ledward in 2015. The two reportedly got engaged by October 2019, and they later married in secret, as revealed by Boseman's family in a statement announcing his death.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: Boseman was raised a Christian and was baptized. He was part of a church choir and youth group and his former pastor said that he still kept his faith. He studied Hebrew and had a good knowledge of both the Old Testament and New Testament. Boseman had stated that he prayed to be the Black Panther before he was cast as the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: Outside of performing, Boseman supported various charities. He worked with cancer charities including St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, continuing to support those battling the disease up until his own death from it; in a message to a producer days before he died, Boseman inquired about sending gifts to childhood cancer patients. He donated $10,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem to provide free tickets for children who wanted to see "Black Panther"; he did this to support and promote the Black Panther Challenge started by a New Yorker to raise money for similar children across the country. In response, Disney donated $1million to the Boys & Girls Clubs to advance its STEM programs. Boseman advocated for children's charities, with the Jackie Robinson Foundation noting after his death that he helped with their youth outreach. When Disney planned to donate $400million to charitable causes, Boseman encouraged the move. In April 2020, he donated $4.2million in personal protective equipment to hospitals fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in black communities, starting his own Operation 42 challenge to encourage others to donate PPE.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: In politics, Boseman supported the When We All Vote campaign, and his last tweet before his death was congratulating Kamala Harris on her selection as Joe Biden's vice-presidential nominee.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: Boseman was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016, which eventually progressed to stage IV before 2020. He never spoke publicly about his cancer diagnosis, and according to "The Hollywood Reporter", "Only a handful of non-family members knew that Boseman was sick... with varying degrees of knowledge about the severity of [his] condition." During treatment, involving multiple surgeries and chemotherapy, he continued to work and completed production for several films, including "Marshall", "Da 5 Bloods", "Ma Rainey", and others.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: Boseman died at his Los Angeles home as a result of complications related to colon cancer on August 28, 2020, with his wife and family by his side. He was 43 years old. He died without a will, and his estate will be governed by California law with the representation of Ledward. A public memorial service was held on September 4, 2020, in Anderson, South Carolina, where the speakers included Boseman's childhood pastor as well as Deanna Brown-Thomas, daughter of James Brown, whom Boseman portrayed in "Get on Up". The city announced plans for the creation of a permanent art memorial at the service. Despite reports that Boseman was buried at Welfare Baptist Church cemetery in nearby Belton, South Carolina, the funeral home handling the services and the church pastor both denied this.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: Many fellow actors and other celebrities paid tribute to Boseman on social media following the announcement of his death, including a number of his Marvel Cinematic Universe co-stars. Marvel Studios president and CCO Kevin Feige called Boseman's death "absolutely devastating", writing: "Each time he stepped on set, he radiated charisma and joy, and each time he appeared on screen, he created something truly indelible [...] Now he takes his place [as] an icon for the ages." Co-stars from Boseman's other films also paid tribute to him. His alma mater, Howard University, tweeted in reaction that "his incredible talent will forever be immortalized through his characters and through his own personal journey from student to superhero".


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: On August 29, 2020, the day after Boseman died, the tweet in which his family announced his death on his Twitter account became the most-liked tweet in history, with over six million likes in under 24 hours, and accumulating over seven million by August 31, far displacing the previous record holder. His death was likened to other unexpected deaths of young black celebrities in 2020, particularly Kobe Bryant and Naya Rivera. The Associated Press and "Clarín" noted Rivera and Boseman as Hollywood's most impactful 2020 deaths.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: Major League Baseball and the Los Angeles Dodgers, the franchise for which Robinson played when the team was at its former home of Brooklyn, New York, issued statements honoring Boseman, in light of his acclaimed portrayal of the player. Several publications noted Boseman died on the observance of Jackie Robinson Day, seven years after his having portrayed Robinson. Prior to the fifth game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA playoffs, Boseman was honored with a moment of silence, alongside Cliff Robinson and Lute Olson. When Lewis Hamilton, the only black driver in Formula One, won the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix, he dedicated the win to Boseman.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: On August 28, 2020, a Change.org petition was started, seeking to replace a Confederate monument in his hometown of Anderson with a statue of Boseman; it collected more than 50,000 signatures in less than a week, surpassing its original goal of 15,000 signatures. Henry McMaster, the Governor of South Carolina, ordered the Statehouse flags be lowered to half-staff on August 30 in honor of Boseman, who was born and raised in the state. ABC (which, like Marvel Entertainment, is owned by Disney) aired a commercial-free version of "Black Panther", followed by a special about Boseman's life and work titled "Chadwick Boseman — A Tribute for a King" on the same day. Also aired on August 30 was the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards; the ceremony was dedicated to Boseman. On September 24, 2020, Disney unveiled a mural titled "King Chad", by artist Nikkolas Smith dedicated to Boseman at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, California. In February 2021, another mural dedicated to Boseman was painted at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville, Georgia, by artist Brandon Sadler. Following his Best Actor win at the Academy Awards in April 2021, Anthony Hopkins said, "I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who was taken from us far too early, and again thank you all very much."


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: Boseman is also memorialized in the 2020 video game "". The game includes an after-credits message dedicating it in memory of Boseman, as well as a street called Boseman Way on 42nd Street; the number 42 bears significance in the Miles Morales mythos as well as referring to Boseman's portrayal of Jackie Robinson. A Wakandan flag also appears. Amazon also made "Black Panther" comic titles available for free on its ComiXology platform in the wake of Boseman's death. On November 29, 2020, Marvel changed the studio's logo animation in the opening of "Black Panther" on Disney+ to include images of Boseman from the film, as well as his appearances in "Captain America: Civil War", "Avengers: Infinity War", and "Avengers: Endgame", to honor what would have been Boseman's 44th birthday.


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: In a 2020 tribute, Ryan Coogler, the director of "Black Panther" and an upcoming 2022 sequel, offered condolences to Boseman's family and said that he had spent the last year "preparing, imagining and writing words for him to say [in the sequel] that we weren't destined to see". Coogler and Marvel Studios executives were unaware of Boseman's illness until his death. By the time of Boseman's death, Coogler was in the middle of writing the script and had already turned in a draft. Also paying tribute, Feige confirmed that the role of T'Challa would not be recast. Producer Nate Moore said that Boseman "was such an integral part of that character for us, both as the character and as a person, that we could not conceive of a version with having someone else on set".


title: Chadwick Boseman

text: Co-writers Coogler and Joe Robert Cole reworked the script following Boseman's death. The sequel, "" (2022), depicts T'Challa's death from illness and Wakandans processing the resultant grief; the Marvel Studios opening, usually featuring other MCU characters, only depicts the faint sound of wind and images of Boseman. The end credits featured the words “Dedicated to our friend Chadwick Boseman”, and "The Independent" described "Wakanda Forever" as a "soulful Chadwick Boseman tribute". Coogler said that while the film was a tribute to Boseman, it was also a tribute to the resilience of the cast to "honor Boseman".


title: Genghis Khan

text: Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; – August 25, 1227) was the founder and first Great Khan (Emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of the Mongol steppe and being proclaimed the universal ruler of the Mongols, or "Genghis Khan". With the tribes of Northeast Asia largely under his control, he set in motion the Mongol invasions, which ultimately witnessed the conquest of much of Eurasia, and incursions by Mongol raiding parties as far west as Legnica in western Poland and as far south as Gaza. He launched campaigns against the Qara Khitai, Khwarezmia, the Western Xia and Jin dynasty during his life, and his generals raided into medieval Georgia, Circassia, the Kievan Rus', and Volga Bulgaria.


title: Genghis Khan

text: His exceptional military successes made Genghis Khan one of the most important conquerors of all time, and by the end of the Great Khan's life, the Mongol Empire occupied a substantial portion of Central Asia and present-day China. Genghis Khan and his story of conquest have a fearsome reputation in local histories. Many medieval chroniclers and modern historians describe Genghis Khan's conquests as wholesale destruction on an unprecedented scale that led to drastic population declines in some regions as a result of both mass exterminations and famine. Estimates of the number of people who died as a consequence of Genghis Khan's military campaigns range from about four million in the most conservative estimates to up to sixty million in the most sweeping historical accounts. On the other hand, Genghis Khan was also portrayed positively by medieval European authors, out of respect for the great spread of culture, technology and ideas along the Silk Road under the Mongol Empire.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Beyond his military successes, Genghis Khan's civil achievements included the establishment of Mongol law and the adoption of the Uyghur script as a writing system across his vast territories. He also practiced meritocracy and religious tolerance. Present-day Mongolians regard him as the founding father of Mongolia for unifying the nomadic tribes of Northeast Asia. By bringing the Silk Road under one cohesive political environment, he also considerably eased communication and trade between Northeast Asia, Muslim Southwest Asia, and Christian Europe, boosting global commerce and expanding the cultural horizons of all the Eurasian civilizations of the day.


title: Genghis Khan

text: According to "The Secret History of the Mongols", Genghis Khan's birth name "Temüjin" () came from the Tatar chief Temüjin-üge whom his father had just captured. The name Temüjin is also equated with the Turco-Mongol "temürči(n)", "blacksmith", and there existed a tradition that viewed Genghis Khan as a smith, according to Paul Pelliot, which, though unfounded, was well established by the middle of the 13th century.


title: Genghis Khan

text: "Genghis Khan" is an honorary title meaning "universal ruler" that represents an aggrandization of the pre-existing title of "Khan" that is used to denote a clan chief in Mongolian. The appellation of "Genghis" to the term is thought to derive from the Turkic word ""tengiz"", meaning sea, making the honorary title literally "oceanic ruler", but understood more broadly as a metaphor for the universality or totality of Temüjin's rule from a Mongol perspective.


title: Genghis Khan

text: When Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty in 1271, he had his grandfather Genghis Khan placed in official records and accorded him the temple name "Taizu" () and the posthumous name "Emperor Shengwu" (). Genghis Khan is thus also referred to as "Yuan Taizu" (Emperor Taizu of Yuan; ) in Chinese historiography. Külüg Khan later expanded Genghis Khan's title to "Emperor Fatian Qiyun Shengwu" ().


title: Genghis Khan

text: Temüjin was born the first son of Hoelun, second wife of his father Yesügei, who was the chief of the Borjigin clan in the nomadic Khamag Mongol confederation, nephew to Ambaghai and Hotula Khan, and an ally of Toghrul of the Keraite tribe. Temüjin was related on his father's side to Khabul Khan, Ambaghai, and Hotula Khan, who had headed the Khamag Mongol confederation and were descendants of Bodonchar Munkhag ( 900), while his mother Hoelun was from the Olkhunut sub-lineage of the Khongirad tribe. Temüjin's noble background made it easier for him, later in life, to solicit help from and eventually consolidate the other Mongol tribes.


title: Genghis Khan

text: There is considerable uncertainty surrounding both the date and location of Temüjin's birth, with historical accounts assigning dates of birth ranging from 1155 to 1182 and a wide variety of possible birth locations. The Arab historian Rashid al-Din asserted that Temüjin was born in 1155, while the "History of Yuan" records his year of birth as 1162 and Tibetan sources implausibly present 1182 as the correct date. Modern historical studies have largely attested the 1162 date presented by the Chinese history as the most realistic, given the significant problems associated with how either the 1155 or 1182 dates would reflect on other event's in Temüjin's timeline. Accepting a birth in 1155, for instance, would render Temüjin a father at the age of 30 and would imply that he personally commanded the expedition against the Tanguts at the age of 72. "The Secret History of the Mongols" relates that Temüjin was an infant during the attack by the Merkits, when a birth date of 1155 would have made him 18 years old. The 1162 date has meanwhile been attested by various sources, including a 1992 study of the Mongol calendar commissioned by UNESCO that suggested the specific date of 1 May 1162.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The location of Temüjin's birth largely shrouded in mystery, with a wide range of locations proposed, many in the vicinity of the mountain Burkhan Khaldun. One such location is Delüün Boldog, which lies near the rivers Onon and Kherlen.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Temüjin grew up with three brothers, Qasar, Hachiun, and Temüge; one sister, Temülen; and two half-brothers, Behter and Belgutei. As was common to nomads in Mongolia, Temüjin's early life was marked by difficulties.


title: Genghis Khan

text: At age nine, his father arranged a marriage for him and delivered him to the family of his future wife Börte of the tribe Khongirad. Temüjin was to live there serving the head of the household Dai Setsen until the marriageable age of 12. While heading home, his father ran into the neighboring Tatars, who had long been Mongol enemies, and they offered his father food under the guise of hospitality, but instead poisoned him. Upon learning this, Temüjin returned home to claim his father's position as chief, but the tribe refused him and abandoned the family, leaving it without protection.


title: Genghis Khan

text: For the next several years, the family lived in poverty, surviving mostly on wild fruits, ox carcasses, marmots, and other small game killed by Temüjin and his brothers. During this time, Temüjin's mother, Hoelun, taught him about Mongol politics, including the lack of unity between the different clans and the need for arranged marriages to solidify temporary alliances, and strong alliances to ultimately ensure the stability of Mongolia. Indeed, he was later successful, in part, because of his mother's role as a warrior in battle.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Over time, Temüjin's older half-brother Behter began to exercise power as the eldest male in the family, creating tension in the family that boiled over during one hunting excursion by the men of the family and resulted in the death of Behter at the hands of Temüjin and his brother Qasar.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Later, in a raid around 1177, Temüjin was captured by his father's former allies, the Tayichi'ud, enslaved, and, reportedly humiliated by being shacked in a cangue (a form of portable stocks). With the help of a sympathetic guard, he escaped from the ger (yurt) at night by hiding in a river crevice. The escape earned Temüjin a reputation. Soon, Jelme and Bo'orchu joined forces with him, and they and the guard's son Chilaun eventually became generals of Genghis Khan.


title: Genghis Khan

text: As was common for powerful Mongol men, Temüjin had many wives and concubines. These women were often queens or princesses that were taken captive from the territories he conquered or gifted to him by allies, vassals, or other tribal acquaintances. His principal or most famous wives and concubines included: Börte, Yesugen, Yesui, Khulan Khatun, Möge Khatun, Juerbiesu, and Ibaqa Beki.


title: Genghis Khan

text: He gave several of his high-status wives their own "ordos" or camps to live in and manage. Each camp also contained junior wives, concubines, and children. It was the job of the Kheshig (Mongol imperial guard) to protect the yurts of Temüjin's wives. The guards had to pay particular attention to the individual yurt and camp in which Temüjin slept, which could change every night as he visited different wives. When he set out on his military conquests, he usually took one wife with him and left the rest of his wives and concubines to manage the empire in his absence.


title: Genghis Khan

text: In the early 12th century, the Central Asian plateau north of China was divided into several prominent tribal confederations, including Naimans, Merkits, Tatars, Khamag Mongols, and Keraites, that were often unfriendly towards each other, as evidenced by random raids, revenge attacks, and plundering.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Temüjin began his ascent to power by offering himself as an ally (or, according to other sources, a vassal) to his father's "anda" (sworn brother or blood brother) Toghrul, who was Khan of the Keraites. This relationship was first reinforced when Börte was kidnapped by Merkits in around 1184. To win her back, Temüjin called on the support of Toghrul, who offered 20,000 of his Keraite warriors and suggested that Temüjin involve his childhood friend Jamukha, who was Khan of his own tribe, the Jadaran.


title: Genghis Khan

text: As Jamukha and Temüjin drifted apart in their friendship, each began consolidating power and they became rivals. Jamukha supported the traditional Mongolian aristocracy, while Temüjin followed a meritocratic method, and attracted a broader range and lower class of followers. Following his earlier defeat of the Merkits, and a proclamation by the shaman Kokochu that the Eternal Blue Sky had set aside the world for Temüjin, Temüjin began rising to power. In 1186, Temüjin was elected khan of the Mongols. Threatened by this rise, Jamukha attacked Temujin in 1187 with an army of 30,000 troops. Temüjin gathered his followers to defend against the attack, but was decisively beaten in the Battle of Dalan Balzhut. However, Jamukha horrified and alienated potential followers by boiling 70 young male captives alive in cauldrons. Toghrul, as Temüjin's patron, was exiled to the Qara Khitai. The life of Temüjin for the next 10 years is unclear, as historical records are mostly silent on that period.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Around the year 1197, the Jin initiated an attack against their formal vassal, the Tatars, with help from the Keraites and Mongols. Temüjin commanded part of this attack, and after victory, he and Toghrul were restored by the Jin to positions of power. The Jin bestowed Toghrul with the honorable title of Ong Khan, and Temüjin with a lesser title of "j'aut quri".


title: Genghis Khan

text: Around 1200, the main rivals of the Mongol confederation (traditionally the "Mongols") were the Naimans to the west, the Merkits to the north, the Tanguts to the south, and the Jin to the east.


title: Genghis Khan

text: In his rule and his conquest of rival tribes, Temüjin broke with Mongol tradition in a few crucial ways. He delegated authority based on merit and loyalty, rather than family ties. As an incentive for absolute obedience and the Yassa code of law, Temüjin promised civilians and soldiers wealth from future war spoils. When he defeated rival tribes, he did not drive away their soldiers and abandon their civilians. Instead, he took the conquered tribe under his protection and integrated its members into his own tribe. He would even have his mother adopt orphans from the conquered tribe, bringing them into his family. These political innovations inspired great loyalty among the conquered people, making Temüjin stronger with each victory.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Senggum, son of Toghrul (Wang Khan), envied Temüjin's growing power and affinity with his father. He allegedly planned to assassinate Temüjin. Although Toghrul was allegedly saved on multiple occasions by Temüjin, he gave in to his son and became uncooperative with Temüjin. Temüjin learned of Senggum's intentions and eventually defeated him and his loyalists.


title: Genghis Khan

text: One of the later ruptures between Temüjin and Toghrul was Toghrul's refusal to give his daughter in marriage to Jochi, Temüjin's first son. This was disrespectful in Mongolian culture and led to a war. Toghrul allied with Jamukha, who already opposed Temüjin's forces. However, the dispute between Toghrul and Jamukha, plus the desertion of a number of their allies to Temüjin, led to Toghrul's defeat. Jamukha escaped during the conflict. This defeat was a catalyst for the fall and eventual dissolution of the Keraite tribe.


title: Genghis Khan

text: After conquering his way steadily through the Alchi Tatars, Keraites, and Uhaz Merkits and acquiring at least one wife each time, Temüjin turned to the next threat on the steppe, the Turkic Naimans under the leadership of Tayang Khan with whom Jamukha and his followers took refuge. The Naimans did not surrender, although enough sectors again voluntarily sided with Temüjin.


title: Genghis Khan

text: In 1201, a Khuruldai elected Jamukha as Gür Khan, "universal ruler", a title used by the rulers of the Qara Khitai. Jamukha's assumption of this title was the final breach with Temüjin, and Jamukha formed a coalition of tribes to oppose him. Before the conflict, several generals abandoned Jamukha, including Subutai, Jelme's well-known younger brother. After several battles, Jamukha was turned over to Temüjin by his own men in 1205.


title: Genghis Khan

text: According to "The Secret History of the Mongols", Temüjin again offered his friendship to Jamukha. Temüjin had killed the men who betrayed Jamukha, stating that he did not want disloyal men in his army. Jamukha refused the offer, saying that there can only be one sun in the sky, and he asked for a noble death. The custom was to die without spilling blood, specifically by having one's back broken. Jamukha requested this form of death, although he was known to have boiled his opponents' generals alive.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The part of the Merkit clan that sided with the Naimans were defeated by Subutai, who was by then a member of Temüjin's personal guard and later became one of Temüjin's most successful commanders. The Naimans' defeat left Temüjin as the sole ruler of the Mongol steppe – all the prominent confederations fell or united under his Mongol confederation.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Accounts of Temüjin's life are marked by claims of a series of betrayals and conspiracies. These include rifts with his early allies such as Jamukha (who also wanted to be a ruler of Mongol tribes) and Wang Khan (his and his father's ally), his son Jochi, and problems with the most important shaman, who allegedly tried to drive a wedge between him and his loyal brother Khasar. His military strategies showed a deep interest in gathering intelligence and understanding the motivations of his rivals, exemplified by his extensive spy network and Yam route systems. He seemed to be a quick student, adopting new technologies and ideas that he encountered, such as siege warfare from the Chinese. He was also ruthless, demonstrated by his tactic of measuring against the linchpin, used against the tribes led by Jamukha.


title: Genghis Khan

text: As a result, by 1206, Temüjin had managed to unite or subdue the Merkits, Naimans, Mongols, Keraites, Tatars, Uyghurs, and other disparate smaller tribes under his rule. This was a monumental feat. It resulted in peace between previously warring tribes, and a single political and military force. The union became known as the Mongols. At a "Khuruldai", a council of Mongol chiefs, Temüjin was acknowledged as Khan of the consolidated tribes and took the new title "Genghis Khan". The title Khagan was conferred posthumously by his son and successor Ögedei who took the title for himself (as he was also to be posthumously declared the founder of the Yuan dynasty).


title: Genghis Khan

text: According to "The Secret History of the Mongols", the chieftains of the conquered tribes pledged to Genghis Khan by proclaiming:"We will make you Khan; you shall ride at our head, against our foes. We will throw ourselves like lightning on your enemies. We will bring you their finest women and girls, their rich tents like palaces."


title: Genghis Khan

text: During the 1206 political rise of Genghis Khan, the Mongol Empire and its allies shared their western borders with the Tangut Western Xia dynasty. To the east and south of the Western Xia dynasty was the militarily superior Jin dynasty, founded by the Manchurian Jurchens, who ruled northern China as well as being the traditional overlords of the Mongolian tribes for centuries.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Though militarily inferior to the neighboring Jin, the Western Xia still exerted a significant influence upon the adjacent northern steppes. Following the death of the Keraites leader Ong Khan to Temüjin's emerging Mongol Empire in 1203, Keriat leader Nilqa Senggum led a small band of followers into Western Xia before later being expelled from Western Xia territory.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Using his rival Nilga Senggum's temporary refuge in Western Xia as a pretext, Temüjin launched a raid against the state in 1205 in the Edsin region. The next year, in 1206, Temüjin was formally proclaimed Genghis Khan, ruler of all the Mongols, marking the official start of the Mongol Empire, and the same year Emperor Huanzong of the Western Xia was deposed by Li Anquan in a "coup d'état". In 1207, Genghis led another raid into Western Xia, invading the Ordos region and sacking Wuhai, the main garrison along the Yellow River, before withdrawing in 1208. Genghis then began preparing for a full-scale invasion, organizing his people, army and state to first prepare for war.


title: Genghis Khan

text: By invading Western Xia, Genghis Khan would gain a tribute-paying vassal, and also would take control of caravan routes along the Silk Road and provide the Mongols with valuable revenue. Furthermore, from Western Xia he could launch raids into the even more wealthy Jin dynasty. He correctly believed that the more powerful young ruler of the Jin dynasty would not come to the aid of the Western Xia. When the Tanguts requested help from the Jin dynasty, they were refused. Despite initial difficulties in capturing Western Xia cities, Genghis Khan managed to force Emperor Renzong to submit to vassal status.


title: Genghis Khan

text: In 1211, after the conquest of Western Xia, Genghis Khan planned again to conquer the Jin dynasty. Luckily for the Mongols, Wanyan Jiujin, the field commander of the Jin army, made several tactical mistakes, including avoiding attacking the Mongols at the first opportunity using his overwhelming numerical superiority, and instead initially fortifying behind the Great wall. At the subsequent Battle of Yehuling, which the Jin commander later committed to in the hope of using the mountainous terrain to his advantage against the Mongols, the general's emissary Ming'an defected to the Mongol side and instead handed over intelligence on the movements of the Jin army, which was subsequently outmanoeuvred, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Jin casualties. So many, in fact, that decades later, when the Daoist sage Qiu Chuji was passing through this pass to meet Genghis Khan, he was stunned to still see the bones of so many people scattered in the pass. On his way back, he camped close to this pass for three days and prayed for the departed souls. In 1215, Genghis besieged the Jin capital of Zhongdu (modern-day Beijing). According to Ivar Lissner, the inhabitants resorted to firing gold and silver cannon shot on the Mongols with their muzzle-loading cannons when their supply of metal for ammunition ran out. The city was captured and sacked. This forced the Jin ruler, Emperor Xuanzong, to move his capital south to Kaifeng, abandoning the northern half of his empire to the Mongols. Between 1232 and 1233, Kaifeng fell to the Mongols under the reign of Genghis's third son and successor, Ögedei Khan. The Jin dynasty collapsed in 1234, after the siege of Caizhou.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Kuchlug, the deposed Khan of the Naiman confederation that Genghis Khan defeated and folded into his Mongol Empire, fled west and usurped the khanate of Qara Khitai (also known as the Western Liao, as it was originally established as remnants of the Liao dynasty). Genghis Khan decided to conquer the Qara Khitai and defeat Kuchlug, possibly to take him out of power. By this time the Mongol army was exhausted from ten years of continuous campaigning in China against the Western Xia and Jin dynasty. Therefore, Genghis sent only two "tumen" (20,000 soldiers) against Kuchlug, under his younger general, Jebe, known as "The Arrow".


title: Genghis Khan

text: With such a small force, the invading Mongols were forced to change strategies and resort to inciting internal revolt among Kuchlug's supporters, leaving the Qara Khitai more vulnerable to Mongol conquest. As a result, Kuchlug's army was defeated west of Kashgar. Kuchlug fled again, but was soon hunted down by Jebe's army and executed. By 1218, as a result of the defeat of Qara Khitai, the Mongol Empire and its control extended as far west as Lake Balkhash, which bordered Khwarazmia, a Muslim state that reached the Caspian Sea to the west and Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea to the south.


title: Genghis Khan

text: In the early 13th century, the Khwarazmian dynasty was governed by Shah Ala ad-Din Muhammad. Genghis Khan saw the potential advantage in Khwarazmia as a commercial trading partner using the Silk Road, and he initially sent a 500-man caravan to establish official trade ties with the empire. Genghis Khan and his family and commanders invested in the caravan gold, silver, silk, various kinds of textiles and fabrics and pelts to trade with the Muslim traders in the Khwarazmian lands. However, Inalchuq, the governor of the Khwarazmian city of Otrar, attacked the caravan, claiming that the caravan contained spies and therefore was a conspiracy against Khwarazmia. The situation became further complicated because the governor later refused to make repayments for the looting of the caravans and hand over the perpetrators. Genghis Khan then sent a second group of three ambassadors (two Mongols and a Muslim) to meet the Shah himself, instead of the governor Inalchuq. The Shah had all the men shaved and the Muslim beheaded and sent his head back with the two remaining ambassadors. Outraged, Genghis Khan planned one of his largest invasion campaigns by organizing together around 100,000 soldiers (10 tumens), his most capable generals and some of his sons. He left a commander and number of troops in China, designated his successors to be his family members and likely appointed Ögedei to be his immediate successor and then went out to Khwarazmia.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The Mongol army under Genghis Khan, generals and his sons crossed the Tien Shan mountains by entering the area controlled by the Khwarazmian Empire. After compiling intelligence from many sources Genghis Khan carefully prepared his army, which was divided into three groups. His son Jochi led the first division into the northeast of Khwarazmia. The second division under Jebe marched secretly to the southeast part of Khwarazmia to form, with the first division, a pincer attack on Samarkand. The third division under Genghis Khan and Tolui marched to the northwest and attacked Khwarazmia from that direction.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The Shah's army was split by diverse internecine feuds and by the Shah's decision to divide his army into small groups concentrated in various cities. This fragmentation was decisive in Khwarazmia's defeats, as it allowed the Mongols, although exhausted from the long journey, to immediately set about defeating small fractions of the Khwarazmian forces instead of facing a unified defense. The Mongol army quickly seized the town of Otrar, relying on superior strategy and tactics. Genghis Khan ordered the wholesale massacre of many of the civilians, enslaved the rest of the population and executed Inalchuq by pouring molten silver into his ears and eyes, as retribution for his actions.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Next, Genghis Khan besieged the city of Bukhara. Bukhara was not heavily fortified, with just a moat and a single wall, and the citadel typical of Khwarazmian cities. The city leaders opened the gates to the Mongols, though a unit of Turkish defenders held the city's citadel for another twelve days. The survivors from the citadel were executed, artisans and craftsmen were sent back to Mongolia, young men who had not fought were drafted into the Mongolian army and the rest of the population was sent into slavery. After the surrender of Bukhara, Genghis Khan also took the unprecedented step of personally entering the city, after which he had the city's aristocrats and elites brought to the mosque, where, through interpreters, he lectured them on their misdeeds, saying: "If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you."


title: Genghis Khan

text: With the capture of Bukhara, the way was clear for the Mongols to advance on the capital of Samarkand, which possessed significantly better fortifications and a larger garrison compared to Bukhara. To overcome the city, the Mongols engaged in intensive psychological warfare, including the use of captured Khwarazmian prisoners as body shields. After several days only a few remaining soldiers, loyal supporters of the Shah, held out in the citadel. After the fortress fell, Genghis executed every soldier that had taken arms against him. According to the Persian historian Ata-Malik Juvayni, the people of Samarkand were then ordered to evacuate and assemble in a plain outside the city, where they were killed and pyramids of severed heads raised as a symbol of victory. Similarly, Juvayni wrote that in the city Termez, to the south of Samarkand, "all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain".


title: Genghis Khan

text: Juvayni's account of mass killings at these sites is not corroborated by modern archaeology. Instead of killing local populations, the Mongols tended to enslave the conquered and either send them to Mongolia to act as menial labor or retain them for use in the war effort. The effect was still mass depopulation. The piling of a "pyramid of severed heads" happened not at Samarkand but at Nishapur, where Genghis Khan's son-in-law Toquchar was killed by an arrow shot from the city walls after the residents revolted. The Khan then allowed his widowed daughter, who was pregnant at the time, to decide the fate of the city, and she decreed that the entire population be killed. She also supposedly ordered that every dog, cat and any other animals in the city by slaughtered, "so that no living thing would survive the murder of her husband". The sentence was duly carried out by the Khan's youngest son Tolui. According to widely circulated but unverified stories, the severed heads were then erected in separate piles for the men, women and children.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Near to the end of the battle for Samarkand, the Shah fled rather than surrender. Genghis Khan subsequently ordered two of his generals, Subutai and Jebe, to destroy the remnants of the Khwarazmian Empire, giving them 20,000 men and two years to do this. The Shah died under mysterious circumstances on a small island in the Caspian Sea that he had retreated to with his remaining loyal forces.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Meanwhile, the wealthy trading city of Urgench was still in the hands of Khwarazmian forces. The assault on Urgench proved to be the most difficult battle of the Mongol invasion and the city fell only after the defenders put up a stout defense, fighting block for block. Mongolian casualties were higher than normal, due to the unaccustomed difficulty of adapting Mongolian tactics to city fighting.


title: Genghis Khan

text: As usual, the artisans were sent back to Mongolia, young women and children were given to the Mongol soldiers as slaves, and the rest of the population was massacred. The Persian scholar Juvayni states that 50,000 Mongol soldiers were given the task of executing twenty-four Urgench citizens each, which would mean that 1.2 million people were killed. These numbers are considered logistically implausible by modern scholars, but the sacking of Urgench was no doubt a bloody affair.


title: Genghis Khan

text: After the defeat of the Khwarazmian Empire in 1220, Genghis Khan gathered his forces in Persia and Armenia to return to the Mongolian steppes. Under the suggestion of Subutai, the Mongol army was split into two forces. Genghis Khan led the main army on a raid through Afghanistan and northern India towards Mongolia, while another 20,000 (two tumen) contingent marched through the Caucasus and into Russia under generals Jebe and Subutai. They pushed deep into Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Mongols defeated the kingdom of Georgia, sacked the Genoese trade-fortress of Caffa in Crimea and overwintered near the Black Sea. Heading home, Subutai's forces attacked the allied forces of the Cuman–Kipchaks and the poorly coordinated 80,000 Kievan Rus' troops led by Mstislav the Bold of Halych and Mstislav III of Kiev who went out to stop the Mongols' actions in the area. Subutai sent emissaries to the Slavic princes calling for a separate peace, but the emissaries were executed. At the Battle of Kalka River in 1223, Subutai's forces defeated the larger Kievan force. They may have been defeated by the neighbouring Volga Bulgars at the Battle of Samara Bend. There is no historical record except a short account by the Arab historian Ibn al-Athir, writing in Mosul some away from the event. Various historical secondary sources – Morgan, Chambers, Grousset – state that the Mongols actually defeated the Bulgars, Chambers even going so far as to say that the Bulgars had made up stories to tell the (recently crushed) Russians that they had beaten the Mongols and driven them from their territory. The Russian princes then sued for peace. Subutai agreed but was in no mood to pardon the princes. Not only had the Rus put up strong resistance, but also Jebe – with whom Subutai had campaigned for years – had been killed just prior to the Battle of Kalka River. As was customary in Mongol society for nobility, the Russian princes were given a bloodless death. Subutai had a large wooden platform constructed on which he ate his meals along with his other generals. Six Russian princes, including Mstislav III of Kiev, were put under this platform and crushed to death.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The Mongols learned from captives of the abundant green pastures beyond the Bulgar territory, allowing for the planning for conquest of Hungary and Europe. Genghis Khan recalled Subutai back to Mongolia soon afterwards. The famous cavalry expedition led by Subutai and Jebe, in which they encircled the entire Caspian Sea defeating all armies in their path, remains unparalleled to this day, and word of the Mongol triumphs began to trickle to other nations, particularly in Europe. These two campaigns are generally regarded as reconnaissance campaigns that tried to get the feel of the political and cultural elements of the regions. In 1225 both divisions returned to Mongolia. These invasions added Transoxiana and Persia to an already formidable empire while destroying any resistance along the way. Later under Genghis Khan's grandson Batu and the Golden Horde, the Mongols returned to conquer Volga Bulgaria and Kievan Rus' in 1237, concluding the campaign in 1240.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The vassal emperor of the Tanguts (Western Xia) had earlier refused to take part in the Mongol war against the Khwarezmid Empire. Western Xia and the defeated Jin dynasty formed a coalition to resist the Mongols, counting on the campaign against the Khwarazmians to preclude the Mongols from responding effectively.


title: Genghis Khan

text: In 1226, immediately after returning from the west, Genghis Khan began a retaliatory attack on the Tanguts. His armies quickly took Heisui, Ganzhou, and Suzhou (not the Suzhou in Jiangsu province), and in the autumn he took Xiliang-fu. One of the Tangut generals challenged the Mongols to a battle near Helan Mountains but was defeated. In November, Genghis laid siege to the Tangut city Lingzhou and crossed the Yellow River, defeating the Tangut relief army. According to legend, it was here that Genghis Khan reportedly saw a line of five stars arranged in the sky and interpreted it as an omen of his victory.


title: Genghis Khan

text: In 1227, Genghis Khan's army attacked and destroyed the Tangut capital of Ning Hia and continued to advance, seizing Lintiao-fu, Xining province, Xindu-fu, and Deshun province in quick succession in the spring. At Deshun, the Tangut general Ma Jianlong put up a fierce resistance for several days and personally led charges against the invaders outside the city gate. Ma Jianlong later died from wounds received from arrows in battle. Genghis Khan, after conquering Deshun, went to Liupanshan (Qingshui County, Gansu Province) to escape the severe summer. The new Tangut emperor quickly surrendered to the Mongols, and the rest of the Tanguts officially surrendered soon after. Not happy with their betrayal and resistance, Genghis Khan ordered the entire imperial family to be executed, effectively ending the Tangut royal lineage.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Genghis Khan died within eight days of setting off for his final campaign against the Western Xia on 18 August 1227, according to the official "History of Yuan" commissioned during China's Ming dynasty. The date of his death is therefore said to have fallen on 25 August 1227, during the fall of Yinchuan. The exact cause of his death remains a mystery, and is variously attributed to illness, being killed in action or from wounds sustained in hunting or battle. According to "The Secret History of the Mongols", Genghis Khan fell from his horse while hunting and died because of the injury. The "Galician–Volhynian Chronicle" alleges he was killed by the Western Xia in battle, while Marco Polo wrote that he died after the infection of an arrow wound he received during his final campaign. Later Mongol chronicles connect Genghis's death with a Western Xia princess taken as war booty. One chronicle from the early 17th century even relates the legend that the princess hid a small dagger and stabbed or castrated him. All of these legends were invented well after Genghis Khan's death, however. In contrast, a 2021 study found that the great leader likely died from bubonic plague, after investigating reports of the clinical signs exhibited by both the Khan and his army, which in turn matched the symptoms associated with the strain of plague present in Western Xia at that time.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Years before his death, Genghis Khan asked to be buried without markings, according to the customs of his tribe. After he died, his body was returned to Mongolia and presumably to his birthplace in Khentii Aimag, where many assume he is buried somewhere close to the Onon River and the Burkhan Khaldun mountain (part of the Khentii mountain range). According to legend, the funeral escort killed anyone and anything across their path to conceal where he was finally buried. The Genghis Khan Mausoleum, constructed many years after his death, is his memorial, but not his burial site.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Before Genghis Khan died, he assigned Ögedei Khan as his successor. Genghis Khan left behind an army of more than 129,000 men; 28,000 were given to his various brothers and his sons. Tolui, his youngest son, inherited more than 100,000 men. This force contained the bulk of the elite Mongolian cavalry. By tradition, the youngest son inherits his father's property. Jochi, Chagatai, Ögedei Khan, and Kulan's son Gelejian received armies of 4,000 men each. His mother and the descendants of his three brothers received 3,000 men each. The title of Great Khan passed to Ögedei, the third son of Genghis Khan, making him the second Great Khan (Khagan) of the Mongol Empire. Genghis Khan's eldest son, Jochi, died in 1226, during his father's lifetime. Chagatai, Genghis Khan's second son was meanwhile passed over, according to "The Secret History of the Mongols", over a row just before the invasion of the Khwarezmid Empire in which Chagatai declared before his father and brothers that he would never accept Jochi as Genghis Khan's successor due to questions about his elder brother's parentage. In response to this tension and possibly for other reasons, Ögedei was appointed as successor.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Later, his grandsons split his empire into khanates. His descendants extended the Mongol Empire across most of Eurasia by conquering or creating vassal states in all of modern-day China, Korea, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and substantial portions of Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia. Many of these invasions repeated the earlier large-scale slaughters of local populations.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The Mongol Empire was governed by a civilian and military code, called the Yassa, created by Genghis Khan. The Mongol Empire did not emphasize the importance of ethnicity and race in the administrative realm, instead adopting an approach grounded in meritocracy. The Mongol Empire was one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse empires in history, as befitted its size. Many of the empire's nomadic inhabitants considered themselves "Mongols" in military and civilian life, including the Mongol people, Turkic peoples, and others. There were Khans of various non-Mongolian ethnicities such as Muhammad Khan.


title: Genghis Khan

text: There were tax exemptions for religious figures and, to some extent, teachers and doctors. The Mongol Empire practiced religious tolerance because Mongol tradition had long held that religion was a personal concept, and not subject to law or interference. Genghis Khan was a Tengrist, but was religiously tolerant and interested in learning philosophical and moral lessons from other religions. He consulted Buddhist monks (including the Zen monk Haiyun), Muslims, Christian missionaries, and the Daoist monk Qiu Chuji. Sometime before the rise of Genghis Khan, Ong Khan, his mentor and eventual rival, had converted to Nestorian Christianity. Various Mongol tribes were Shamanist, Buddhist or Christian. Religious tolerance was thus a well established concept on the Asian steppe.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Modern Mongolian historians say that towards the end of his life, Genghis Khan attempted to create a civil state under the Great Yassa that would have established the legal equality of all individuals, including women. However, there is no evidence of this, or of the lifting of discriminatory policies towards sedentary peoples such as the Chinese. Women played a relatively important role in the Mongol Empire and in the family, for example Töregene Khatun was briefly in charge of the Mongol Empire while the next male leader Khagan was being chosen. Modern scholars refer to the alleged policy of encouraging trade and communication as the Pax Mongolica (Mongol Peace).


title: Genghis Khan

text: Genghis Khan realised that he needed people who could govern cities and states conquered by him. He also realised that such administrators could not be found among his Mongol people because they were nomads and thus had no experience governing cities. For this purpose Genghis Khan invited a Khitan prince, Chu'Tsai, who worked for the Jin and had been captured by the Mongol army after the Jin dynasty was defeated. Jin had risen to power by displacing the Khitan people. Genghis told Chu'Tsai, who was a lineal descendant of Khitan rulers, that he had avenged Chu'Tsai's forefathers. Chu'Tsai responded that his father served the Jin dynasty honestly and so did he; also he did not consider his own father his enemy, so the question of revenge did not apply. This reply impressed Genghis Khan. Chu'Tsai administered parts of the Mongol Empire and became a confidant of the successive Mongol Khans.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Genghis Khan put absolute trust in his generals, such as Muqali, Jebe, and Subutai, and regarded them as close advisors, often extending them the same privileges and trust normally reserved for close family members. He allowed them to make decisions on their own when they embarked on campaigns far from the Mongol Empire capital Karakorum. Muqali, a trusted lieutenant, was given command of the Mongol forces against the Jin dynasty while Genghis Khan was fighting in Central Asia, and Subutai and Jebe were allowed to pursue the Great Raid into the Caucasus and Kievan Rus', an idea they had presented to the Khagan on their own initiative. While granting his generals a great deal of autonomy in making command decisions, Genghis Khan also expected unwavering loyalty from them.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The Mongol military was also successful in siege warfare, cutting off resources for cities and towns by diverting certain rivers, taking enemy prisoners and driving them in front of the army, and adopting new ideas, techniques and tools from the people they conquered, particularly in employing Muslim and Chinese siege engines and engineers to aid the Mongol cavalry in capturing cities. Another standard tactic of the Mongol military was the commonly practiced feigned retreat to break enemy formations and to lure small enemy groups away from the larger group and defended position for ambush and counterattack.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Another important aspect of the military organization of Genghis Khan was the communications and supply route or "Yam", adapted from previous Chinese models. Genghis Khan dedicated special attention to this in order to speed up the gathering of military intelligence and official communications. To this end, Yam waystations were established all over the empire.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Genghis Khan is credited with bringing the Silk Road under one cohesive political environment. This allowed increased communication and trade between the West, Middle East and Asia, thus expanding the horizons of all three cultural areas. Some historians have noted that Genghis Khan instituted certain levels of meritocracy in his rule, was tolerant of religions and explained his policies clearly to all his soldiers. Genghis Khan had a notably positive reputation among some western European authors in the Middle Ages, who knew little concrete information about his empire in Asia. The Italian explorer Marco Polo said that Genghis Khan "was a man of great worth, and of great ability, and valor", while philosopher and inventor Roger Bacon applauded the scientific and philosophical vigor of Genghis Khan's empire, and the famed writer Geoffrey Chaucer wrote concerning :


title: Genghis Khan

text: In Mongolia, Genghis Khan has meanwhile been revered for centuries by Mongols and many Turkic peoples because of his association with tribal statehood, political and military organization, and victories in war. As the principal unifying figure in Mongolian history, he remains a larger-than-life figure in Mongolian culture. He is credited with introducing the Mongolian script and creating the first written Mongolian code of law, in the form of the Yassa.


title: Genghis Khan

text: During the communist period in Mongolia, Genghis was often described by the government as a reactionary figure, and positive statements about him were avoided. In 1962, the erection of a monument at his birthplace and a conference held in commemoration of his 800th birthday led to criticism from the Soviet Union and the dismissal of secretary Tömör-Ochir of the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee.


title: Genghis Khan

text: In the early 1990s, the memory of Genghis Khan underwent a powerful revival, partly in reaction to its suppression during the Mongolian People's Republic period. Genghis Khan became a symbol of national identity for many younger Mongolians, who maintain that the historical records written by non-Mongolians are unfairly biased against Genghis Khan and that his butchery is exaggerated, while his positive role is underrated.


title: Genghis Khan

text: There are conflicting views of Genghis Khan in China, which suffered a drastic decline in population. The population of north China decreased from 50 million in the 1195 census to 8.5 million in the Mongol census of 1235–36; however, many were victims of plague. In Hebei province alone, 9 out of 10 were killed by the Black Death when Toghon Temür was enthroned in 1333. Northern China was also struck by floods and famine long after the war in northern China was over in 1234 and not killed by Mongols. The Black Death also contributed. By 1351, two out of three people in China had died of the plague, helping to spur armed rebellion, most notably in the form of the Red Turban Rebellions. However according to Richard von Glahn, a historian of Chinese economics, China's population only fell by 15% to 33% from 1340 to 1370 and there is "a conspicuous lack of evidence for pandemic disease on the scale of the Black Death in China at this time." An unknown number of people also migrated to Southern China in this period, including under the preceding Southern Song dynasty.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The Mongols also spared many cities from massacre and sacking if they surrendered, including Kaifeng, Yangzhou, and Hangzhou. Ethnic Han and Khitan soldiers defected en masse to Genghis Khan against the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty. Equally, while Genghis never conquered all of China, his grandson Kublai Khan, by completing that conquest and establishing the Yuan dynasty, is often credited with re-uniting China, and there is a great deal of Chinese artwork and literature praising Genghis as a military leader and political genius. The Yuan dynasty left an indelible imprint on Chinese political and social structures and a cultural legacy that outshone the preceding Jin dynasty.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The conquests and leadership of Genghis Khan included widespread devastation and mass murder. The targets of campaigns that refused to surrender would often be subject to reprisals in the form of enslavement and wholesale slaughter. The second campaign against Western Xia, the final military action led by Genghis Khan, and during which he died, involved an intentional and systematic destruction of Western Xia cities and culture. According to John Man, because of this policy of total obliteration, Western Xia is little known to anyone other than experts in the field because so little record is left of that society. He states that "There is a case to be made that this was the first ever recorded example of attempted genocide. It was certainly very successful "ethnocide"." In the conquest of Khwarezmia under Genghis Khan, the Mongols razed the cities of Bukhara, Samarkand, Herāt, Ṭūs, and Neyshābūr and killed the respective urban populations. His invasions are considered the beginning of a 200-year period known in Iran and other Islamic societies as the "Mongol catastrophe." Ibn al-Athir, Ata-Malik Juvaini, Seraj al-Din Jozjani, and Rashid al-Din Fazl-Allah Hamedani, Iranian historians from the time of Mongol occupation, describe the Mongol invasions as a catastrophe never before seen. A number of present-day Iranian historians, including Zabih Allah Safa, have likewise viewed the period initiated by Genghis Khan as a uniquely catastrophic era. Steven R. Ward writes that the Mongol violence and depredations in the Iranian Plateau "killed up to three-fourths of the population... possibly 10 to 15 million people. Some historians have estimated that Iran's population did not again reach its pre-Mongol levels until the mid-20th century."


title: Genghis Khan

text: Although the famous Mughal emperors were proud descendants of Genghis Khan and particularly Timur, they clearly distanced themselves from the Mongol atrocities committed against the Khwarizim Shahs, Turks, Persians, the citizens of Baghdad and Damascus, Nishapur, Bukhara and historical figures such as Attar of Nishapur and many other notable Muslims. However, Mughal Emperors directly patronized the legacies of Genghis Khan and Timur; together their names were synonymous with the names of other distinguished personalities particularly among the Muslim populations of South Asia.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Unlike most emperors, Genghis Khan never allowed his image to be portrayed in paintings or sculptures.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The earliest known images of Genghis Khan were produced half a century after his death, including the famous National Palace Museum portrait in Taiwan. The portrait portrays Genghis Khan wearing white robes, a leather warming cap and his hair tied in braids, much like a similar depiction of Kublai Khan. This portrait is often considered to represent the closest resemblance to what Genghis Khan actually looked like, though it, like all others renderings, suffers from the same limitation of being, at best, a facial composite. Like many of the earliest images of Genghis Khan, the Chinese-style portrait presents the Great Khan in a manner more akin to a Mandarin sage than a Mongol warrior. Other portrayals of Genghis Khan from other cultures likewise characterized him according to their particular image of him: in Persia he was portrayed as a Turkic sultan and in Europe he was pictured as an ugly barbarian with a fierce face and cruel eyes. According to sinologist Herbert Allen Giles, a Mongol painter known as Ho-li-hosun (also known as Khorisun or Qooriqosun) was commissioned by Kublai Khan in 1278 to paint the National Palace Museum portrait. The story goes that Kublai Khan ordered Khorisun, along with the other entrusted remaining followers of Genghis Khan, to ensure the portrait reflected the Great Khan's true image.


title: Genghis Khan

text: The only individuals to have recorded Genghis Khan's physical appearance during his lifetime were the Persian chronicler Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani and Chinese diplomat Zhao Hong. Minhaj al-Siraj described Genghis Khan as "a man of tall stature, of vigorous build, robust in body, the hair of his face scanty and turned white, with cats’ eyes, possessed of dedicated energy, discernment, genius, and understanding, awe-striking...". The chronicler had also previously commented on Genghis Khan's height, powerful build, with cat's eyes and lack of grey hair, based on the evidence of eyes witnesses in 1220, which saw Genghis Khan fighting in the Khorasan (modern day northwest Persia). According to Paul Ratchnevsky, the Song dynasty envoy Zhao Hong who visited the Mongols in 1221, described Genghis Khan as "of tall and majestic stature, his brow is broad and his beard is long".


title: Genghis Khan

text: Other descriptions of Genghis Khan come from 14th century texts. The Persian historian Rashid-al-Din in "Jami' al-tawarikh", written in the beginning of the 14th century, stated that most Borjigin ancestors of Genghis Khan were "tall, long-bearded, red-haired, and bluish green-eyed," features which Genghis Khan himself had. The factual nature of this statement is considered controversial. In the Georgian Chronicles, in a passage written in the 14th century, Genghis Khan is similarly described as a large, good-looking man, with red hair. However, according to John Andrew Boyle, Rashid al-Din's text of red hair referred to ruddy skin complexion, and that Genghis Khan was of ruddy complexion like most of his children except for Kublai Khan who was swarthy. He translated the text as “It chanced that he was born 2 months before Möge, and when Chingiz-Khan's eye fell upon him he said: “all our children are of a ruddy complexion, but this child is swarthy like his maternal uncles. Tell Sorqoqtani Beki to give him to a good nurse to be reared”. 14th century Arabic historian Shihab al-Umari also disputed Rashid al-Din's translation and claimed Alan Gua falsified the origin of her clan. Some Historians such as Denise Aigle claimed that Rashid al-Din mythicized the origin of Genghis Khan ancestors (the Borjigin clan) through his own interpretations of "The Secret History of the Mongols". Italian historian Igor de Rachewiltz claimed that the Mongol origins of the early ancestors of Genghis Khan were animals born from the blue eye wolf (Borte Chino) and the fallow doe (Qo'ai Maral) that was described in the early legends, that their ancestors were animals.


title: Genghis Khan

text: In Mongolia today, Genghis Khan's name and likeness appear on products, streets, buildings, and other places. His face can be found on everyday commodities, from liquor bottles to candy, and on the largest denominations of 500, 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, and 20,000 Mongolian tögrög (₮).


title: Genghis Khan

text: Mongolia's main international airport in Ulaanbaatar is named Chinggis Khaan International Airport, and there is a 40m-high equestrian statue of Genghis Khan east of the Mongolian capital. There has been talk about regulating the use of his name and image to avoid trivialization.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Genghis Khan's birthday, on the first day of winter (according to the Mongolian lunar calendar), is a national holiday.


title: Genghis Khan

text: Outside of Mongolia, there have been numerous works of literature, films and other adaptation works based on the Mongolian ruler and his legacy.


title: Egypt

text: Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt, while Alexandria, the second-largest city, is an important industrial and tourist hub at the Mediterranean coast. At approximately 100 million inhabitants, Egypt is the 14th-most populated country in the world.


title: Egypt

text: Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage along the Nile Delta back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. Iconic monuments such as the Giza Necropolis and its Great Sphinx, as well the ruins of Memphis, Thebes, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, reflect this legacy and remain a significant focus of scientific and popular interest. Egypt's long and rich cultural heritage is an integral part of its national identity, which reflects its unique transcontinental location being simultaneously Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and North African. Egypt was an early and important centre of Christianity, but was largely Islamised in the seventh century and remains a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, albeit with a significant Christian minority, along with other lesser practiced faiths.


title: Egypt

text: Modern Egypt dates back to 1922, when it gained independence from the British Empire as a monarchy. Following the 1952 revolution, Egypt declared itself a republic, and in 1958 it merged with Syria to form the United Arab Republic, which dissolved in 1961. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Egypt endured social and religious strife and political instability, fighting several armed conflicts with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, and occupying the Gaza Strip intermittently until 1967. In 1978, Egypt signed the Camp David Accords, officially withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and recognising Israel. After the Arab Spring, which led to the 2011 Egyptian revolution and overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the country faced a protracted period of political unrest. Egypt's current government, a semi-presidential republic led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has been described by a number of watchdogs as authoritarian or heading an authoritarian regime, responsible for perpetuating the country's poor human rights record.


title: Egypt

text: Islam is the official religion of Egypt and Arabic is its official language. With over 100 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa (after Nigeria and Ethiopia), and the fourteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about , where the only arable land is found. The large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypt's territory, are sparsely inhabited. About 43% of Egypt's residents live across the country's urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.


title: Egypt

text: Egypt is considered to be a regional power in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world, and a middle power worldwide. It is a developing country, ranking 97th on the Human Development Index. It has a diversified economy, which is the third-largest in Africa, the 33rd-largest economy by nominal GDP, and the 20th-largest globally by PPP. Egypt is a founding member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab League, the African Union, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the World Youth Forum.


title: Egypt

text: "" (; "") is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern official name of Egypt, while "" (; ) is the local pronunciation in Egyptian Arabic. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew "" (""). The oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian "mi-iṣ-ru" ("miṣru") related to "miṣru/miṣirru/miṣaru", meaning "border" or "frontier". The Neo-Assyrian Empire used the derived term , "Mu-ṣur".


title: Egypt

text: There is evidence of rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in desert oases. In the 10th millennium BCE, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers was replaced by a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes or overgrazing around 8000 BCE began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralised society.


title: Egypt

text: By about 6000 BCE, a Neolithic culture took root in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining culturally distinct, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BCE.


title: Egypt

text: A unified kingdom was founded BCE by King Menes, leading to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, BCE, which constructed many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza pyramids.


title: Egypt

text: The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilisation of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom BCE, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BCE and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes.


title: Egypt

text: The New Kingdom BCE began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Tombos in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first historically attested expression of monotheism came during this period as Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded and conquered by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians eventually drove them out and regained control of their country.


title: Egypt

text: In 525 BCE, the powerful Achaemenid Persians, led by Cambyses II, began their conquest of Egypt, eventually capturing the pharaoh Psamtik III at the battle of Pelusium. Cambyses II then assumed the formal title of pharaoh, but ruled Egypt from his home of Susa in Persia (modern Iran), leaving Egypt under the control of a satrapy. The entire Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt, from 525 to 402 BCE, save for Petubastis III, was an entirely Persian ruled period, with the Achaemenid Emperors all being granted the title of pharaoh. A few temporarily successful revolts against the Persians marked the fifth century BCE, but Egypt was never able to permanently overthrow the Persians.


title: Egypt

text: The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians again in 343 BCE after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. This Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt, however, did not last long, as the Persians were toppled several decades later by Alexander the Great. The Macedonian Greek general of Alexander, Ptolemy I Soter, founded the Ptolemaic dynasty.


title: Egypt

text: The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to Cyrene to the west, and south to the frontier with Nubia. Alexandria became the capital city and a centre of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves as the successors to the Pharaohs. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life.


title: Egypt

text: The last ruler from the Ptolemaic line was Cleopatra VII, who committed suicide following the burial of her lover Mark Antony who had died in her arms (from a self-inflicted stab wound), after Octavian had captured Alexandria and her mercenary forces had fled.


title: Egypt

text: The Ptolemies faced rebellions of native Egyptians often caused by an unwanted regime and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its annexation by Rome. Nevertheless, Hellenistic culture continued to thrive in Egypt well after the Muslim conquest.


title: Egypt

text: Christianity was brought to Egypt by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the 1st century. Diocletian's reign (284–305 CE) marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in CE 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established.


title: Egypt

text: The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Sasanid Persian invasion early in the 7th century amidst the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 during which they established a new short-lived province for ten years known as Sasanian Egypt, until 639–42, when Egypt was invaded and


title: Egypt

text: conquered by the Islamic caliphate by the Muslim Arabs. When they defeated the Byzantine armies in Egypt, the Arabs brought Islam to the country. Some time during this period, Egyptians began to blend in their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices, leading to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. These earlier rites had survived the period of Coptic Christianity.


title: Egypt

text: In 639 an army of around 4,000 men were sent in Egypt by the second caliph, Umar, under the command of Amr ibn al-As. They were joined by additional 5,000 men in 640 and defeated a Roman army at the battle of Heliopolis. Amr next proceeded in the direction of Alexandria, which surrendered to him by a treaty signed on 8 November 641. Alexandria was regained for the Byzantine Empire in 645 but was retaken by Amr in 646. In 654 an invasion fleet sent by Constans II was repulsed. From that time no serious effort was made by the Byzantine Romans to regain possession of the country.


title: Egypt

text: The Arabs founded the capital of Egypt called Fustat, which was later burned down during the Crusades. Cairo was later built in the year 986 to grow to become the largest and richest city in the Arab caliphate, second only to Baghdad and one of the biggest and richest in the world.


title: Egypt

text: The Abbasid period was marked by new taxations, and the Copts revolted again in the fourth year of Abbasid rule. At the beginning of the 9th century the practice of ruling Egypt through a governor was resumed under Abdallah ibn Tahir, who decided to reside at Baghdad, sending a deputy to Egypt to govern for him. In 828 another Egyptian revolt broke out, and in 831 the Copts joined with native Muslims against the government. Eventually the power loss of the Abbasids in Baghdad has led for general upon general to take over rule of Egypt, yet being under Abbasid allegiance, the Tulunid dynasty (868–905) and Ikhshidid dynasty (935–969) were among the most successful to defy the Abbasid Caliph.


title: Egypt

text: Muslim rulers remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Fatimid Caliphate. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about 1250. By the late 13th century, Egypt linked the Red Sea, India, Malaya, and East Indies. The mid-14th-century Black Death killed about 40% of the country's population.


title: Egypt

text: Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, after which it became a province of the Ottoman Empire. The defensive militarisation damaged its civil society and economic institutions. The weakening of the economic system combined with the effects of plague left Egypt vulnerable to foreign invasion. Portuguese traders took over their trade. Between 1687 and 1731, Egypt experienced six famines. The 1784 famine cost it roughly one-sixth of its population.


title: Egypt

text: Egypt was always a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control, due in part to the continuing power and influence of the Mamluks, the Egyptian military caste who had ruled the country for centuries.


title: Egypt

text: Egypt remained semi-autonomous under the Mamluks until it was invaded by the French forces of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 (see French campaign in Egypt and Syria). After the French were defeated by the British, a power vacuum was created in Egypt, and a three-way power struggle ensued between the Ottoman Turks, Egyptian Mamluks who had ruled Egypt for centuries, and Albanian mercenaries in the service of the Ottomans.


title: Egypt

text: After the French were expelled, power was seized in 1805 by Muhammad Ali Pasha, an Albanian military commander of the Ottoman army in Egypt. While he carried the title of viceroy of Egypt, his subordination to the Ottoman porte was merely nominal. Muhammad Ali massacred the Mamluks and established a dynasty that was to rule Egypt until the revolution of 1952.


title: Egypt

text: The introduction in 1820 of long-staple cotton transformed its agriculture into a cash-crop monoculture before the end of the century, concentrating land ownership and shifting production towards international markets.


title: Egypt

text: Muhammad Ali annexed Northern Sudan (1820–1824), Syria (1833), and parts of Arabia and Anatolia; but in 1841 the European powers, fearful lest he topple the Ottoman Empire itself, forced him to return most of his conquests to the Ottomans. His military ambition required him to modernise the country: he built industries, a system of canals for irrigation and transport, and reformed the civil service.


title: Egypt

text: He constructed a military state with around four percent of the populace serving the army to raise Egypt to a powerful positioning in the Ottoman Empire in a way showing various similarities to the Soviet strategies (without communism) conducted in the 20th century.


title: Egypt

text: Muhammad Ali Pasha evolved the military from one that convened under the tradition of the corvée to a great modernised army. He introduced conscription of the male peasantry in 19th century Egypt, and took a novel approach to create his great army, strengthening it with numbers and in skill. Education and training of the new soldiers became mandatory; the new concepts were furthermore enforced by isolation. The men were held in barracks to avoid distraction of their growth as a military unit to be reckoned with. The resentment for the military way of life eventually faded from the men and a new ideology took hold, one of nationalism and pride. It was with the help of this newly reborn martial unit that Muhammad Ali imposed his rule over Egypt.


title: Egypt

text: The policy that Mohammad Ali Pasha followed during his reign explains partly why the numeracy in Egypt compared to other North-African and Middle-Eastern countries increased only at a remarkably small rate, as investment in further education only took place in the military and industrial sector.


title: Egypt

text: Muhammad Ali was succeeded briefly by his son Ibrahim (in September 1848), then by a grandson Abbas I (in November 1848), then by Said (in 1854), and Isma'il (in 1863) who encouraged science and agriculture and banned slavery in Egypt.


title: Egypt

text: Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty remained nominally an Ottoman province. It was granted the status of an autonomous vassal state or "Khedivate" in 1867, a legal status which was to remain in place until 1914 although the Ottomans had no power or presence.


title: Egypt

text: The Suez Canal, built in partnership with the French, was completed in 1869. Its construction was financed by European banks. Large sums also went to patronage and corruption. New taxes caused popular discontent. In 1875 Isma'il avoided bankruptcy by selling all Egypt's shares in the canal to the British government. Within three years this led to the imposition of British and French controllers who sat in the Egyptian cabinet, and, "with the financial power of the bondholders behind them, were the real power in the Government."


title: Egypt

text: Other circumstances like epidemic diseases (cattle disease in the 1880s), floods and wars drove the economic downturn and increased Egypt's dependency on foreign debt even further.


title: Egypt

text: Local dissatisfaction with the Khedive and with European intrusion led to the formation of the first nationalist groupings in 1879, with Ahmed ʻUrabi a prominent figure. After increasing tensions and nationalist revolts, the United Kingdom invaded Egypt in 1882, crushing the Egyptian army at the Battle of Tell El Kebir and militarily occupying the country. Following this, the Khedivate became a "de facto" British protectorate under nominal Ottoman sovereignty.


title: Egypt

text: In 1899 the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement was signed: the Agreement stated that Sudan would be jointly governed by the Khedivate of Egypt and the United Kingdom. However, actual control of Sudan was in British hands only.


title: Egypt

text: In 1914 the Ottoman Empire entered World War I in alliance with the Central Empires; Khedive Abbas II (who had grown increasingly hostile to the British in preceding years) decided to support the motherland in war. Following such decision, the British forcibly removed him from power and replaced him with his brother Hussein Kamel.


title: Egypt

text: Hussein Kamel declared Egypt's independence from the Ottoman Empire, assuming the title of Sultan of Egypt. Shortly following independence, Egypt was declared a protectorate of the United Kingdom.


title: Egypt

text: After World War I, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement to a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on 8 March 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. The revolt led the UK government to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on 22 February 1922.


title: Egypt

text: Following independence from the United Kingdom, Sultan Fuad I assumed the title of King of Egypt; despite being nominally independent, the Kingdom was still under British military occupation and the UK still had great influence over the state.


title: Egypt

text: The new government drafted and implemented a constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary system. The nationalist Wafd Party won a landslide victory in the 1923–1924 election and Saad Zaghloul was appointed as the new Prime Minister.


title: Egypt

text: In 1936, the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded and British troops withdrew from Egypt, except for the Suez Canal. The treaty did not resolve the question of Sudan, which, under the terms of the existing Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement of 1899, stated that Sudan should be jointly governed by Egypt and Britain, but with real power remaining in British hands.


title: Egypt

text: Britain used Egypt as a base for Allied operations throughout the region, especially the battles in North Africa against Italy and Germany. Its highest priorities were control of the Eastern Mediterranean, and especially keeping the Suez Canal open for merchant ships and for military connections with India and Australia. The government of Egypt, and the Egyptian population, played a minor role in the Second World War. When the war began in September 1939, Egypt declared martial law and broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. It did not declare war on Germany, but the Prime Minister associated Egypt with the British war effort. It broke diplomatic relations with Italy in 1940, but never declared war, even when the Italian army invaded Egypt. King Farouk took practically a neutral position, which accorded with elite opinion among the Egyptians. The Egyptian army did no fighting. It was apathetic about the war, with the leading officers looking on the British as occupiers and sometimes holding some private sympathy with the Axis. In June 1940 the King dismissed Prime Minister Aly Maher, who got on poorly with the British. A new coalition Government was formed with the Independent Hassan Pasha Sabri as Prime Minister.


title: Egypt

text: Following a ministerial crisis in February 1942, the ambassador Sir Miles Lampson, pressed Farouk to have a Wafd or Wafd-coalition government replace Hussein Sirri Pasha's government. On the night of 4 February 1942, British troops and tanks surrounded Abdeen Palace in Cairo and Lampson presented Farouk with an ultimatum. Farouk capitulated, and Nahhas formed a government shortly thereafter. However, the humiliation meted out to Farouk, and the actions of the Wafd in cooperating with the British and taking power, lost support for both the British and the Wafd among both civilians and, more importantly, the Egyptian military.


title: Egypt

text: Most British troops were withdrawn to the Suez Canal area in 1947 (although the British army maintained a military base in the area), but nationalist, anti-British feelings continued to grow after the War. Anti-monarchy sentiments further increased following the disastrous performance of the Kingdom in the First Arab-Israeli War. The 1950 election saw a landslide victory of the nationalist Wafd Party and the King was forced to appoint Mostafa El-Nahas as new Prime Minister. In 1951 Egypt unilaterally withdrew from the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 and ordered all remaining British troops to leave the Suez Canal.


title: Egypt

text: As the British refused to leave their base around the Suez Canal, the Egyptian government cut off the water and refused to allow food into the Suez Canal base, announced a boycott of British goods, forbade Egyptian workers from entering the base and sponsored guerrilla attacks, turning the area around the Suez Canal into a low level war zone. On 24 January 1952, Egyptian guerrillas staged a fierce attack on the British forces around the Suez Canal, during which the Egyptian Auxiliary Police were observed helping the guerrillas. In response, on 25 January, General George Erskine sent out British tanks and infantry to surround the auxiliary police station in Ismailia and gave the policemen an hour to surrender their arms on the grounds the police were arming the guerrillas. The police commander called the Interior Minister, Fouad Serageddin, Nahas's right-hand man, who was smoking cigars in his bath at the time, to ask if he should surrender or fight. Serageddin ordered the police to fight "to the last man and the last bullet". The resulting battle saw the police station levelled and 43 Egyptian policemen killed together with 3 British soldiers. The Ismailia incident outraged Egypt. The next day, 26 January 1952 was "Black Saturday", as the anti-British riot was known, that saw much of downtown Cairo which the Khedive Ismail the Magnificent had rebuilt in the style of Paris, burned down. Farouk blamed the Wafd for the Black Saturday riot, and dismissed Nahas as prime minister the next day. He was replaced by Aly Maher Pasha.


title: Egypt

text: On 22–23 July 1952, the Free Officers Movement, led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, launched a coup d'état (Egyptian Revolution of 1952) against the king. Farouk I abdicated the throne to his son Fouad II, who was, at the time, a seven-month-old baby. The Royal Family left Egypt some days later and the Council of Regency, led by Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim was formed, The council, however, held only nominal authority and the real power was actually in the hands of the Revolutionary Command Council, led by Naguib and Nasser.


title: Egypt

text: Popular expectations for immediate reforms led to the workers' riots in Kafr Dawar on 12 August 1952, which resulted in two death sentences. Following a brief experiment with civilian rule, the Free Officers abrogated the monarchy and the 1923 constitution and declared Egypt a republic on 18 June 1953. Naguib was proclaimed as president, while Nasser was appointed as the new Prime Minister.


title: Egypt

text: Following the 1952 Revolution by the Free Officers Movement, the rule of Egypt passed to military hands and all political parties were banned. On 18 June 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic, serving in that capacity for a little under one and a half years.


title: Egypt

text: Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nassera Pan-Arabist and the real architect of the 1952 movementand was later put under house arrest. After Naguib's resignation, the position of President was vacant until the election of Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1956.


title: Egypt

text: In October 1954 Egypt and the United Kingdom agreed to abolish the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement of 1899 and grant Sudan independence; the agreement came into force on 1 January 1956.


title: Egypt

text: Nasser assumed power as president in June 1956. British forces completed their withdrawal from the occupied Suez Canal Zone on 13 June 1956. He nationalised the Suez Canal on 26 July 1956; his hostile approach towards Israel and economic nationalism prompted the beginning of the Second Arab-Israeli War (Suez Crisis), in which Israel (with support from France and the United Kingdom) occupied the Sinai peninsula and the Canal. The war came to an end because of US and USSR diplomatic intervention and the "status quo" was restored.