Settling down and remembering Genghis Khan

From raiders to rulers. As the Mongols settled into ruling farming societies, their attitudes changed. In the 1230s some Mongol leaders wanted to kill the peasants of north China and turn their fields into pasture. By the 1270s, Qubilai Khan, Genghis Khan's grandson, presented himself as the protector of peasants and cities. In Iran, Ghazan Khan (1295 to 1304), the first Il-Khanid ruler to convert to Islam, told his commanders not to plunder the peasants: if they took the peasants' oxen and seed, where would their own food come from next year? The speech, probably drafted by his wazir Rashiduddin, would have shocked Genghis Khan.

The empire divides. By the mid-thirteenth century, the shared family dominion gave way to separate dynasties, each ruling its own ulus, now a territory:

• Toluy's descendants ruled China (the Yuan dynasty) and Iran (the Il-Khans).
• Jochi's descendants ruled the Russian steppes as the Golden Horde.
• Chaghatai's successors ruled the steppes of Transoxiana and Turkistan.
• Nomadic traditions lasted longest among the Chaghataids and the Golden Horde, closest to the original steppe life.

Remembering the founder. The cousin dynasties competed, and the Toluyids, with the many scholars of China and Iran in their service, told the family history their way. Il-Khanid Persian chronicles described Genghis Khan's killings in gory detail and inflated the numbers: an eyewitness spoke of 400 soldiers defending the citadel of Bukhara, but a later chronicle claimed 30,000 were killed there. Praise of Genghis Khan was mixed with relief that those days were over, which made the present rulers look gentler.

From yasaq to yasa. In its earliest form, yasaq meant a law, decree or order, and the few rules we know dealt with practical matters: the hunt, the army and the postal system. By the mid-thirteenth century the Mongols used yasa to mean 'the legal code of Genghis Khan'. Why? The Mongols were now a small ruling minority over ancient, sophisticated societies. Claiming a sacred law from their founder, a 'lawgiver' like Moses or Solomon, helped them keep their identity, bound them to Genghis Khan's family, and gave them the confidence to impose their rule. Centuries later, a chronicler even described a Muslim ruler's festival prayers at Bukhara as being 'according to the yasa of Genghis Khan'.

Genghis Khan in world history. To the cities he attacked, he was a destroyer. To the Mongols, he was the greatest leader of all: he united them, ended endless tribal wars and Chinese exploitation, built a great empire, and restored trade routes that drew travellers like Marco Polo. The two pictures remind us how one dominant viewpoint can erase others.

• Mongol rulers followed many faiths, Shamanism, Buddhism, Christianity and later Islam, but did not let their personal faith dictate public policy. They recruited officials and soldiers from all groups: a multi-ethnic, multilingual, multi-religious regime, unusual for its time, and a model for later empires such as the Mughals.
• At the end of the fourteenth century, Timur, who wanted to rule the world but was not descended from Genghis Khan, declared himself sovereign only as guregen, 'royal son-in-law', having married a princess of the family.
• Today, the independent nation of Mongolia honours Genghis Khan as a national hero and a symbol of its identity.