Genghis Khan’s Legacy
“Man’s greatest joy is in victory: to conquer one’s enemies; to pursue them; to deprive them of their possessions; to make their beloved weep; to ride on their horses; and to embrace their wives and daughters.”
Genghis Khan, pictured here on the Mongolian Tugrik, is one of the central figures in F.M. Deemad’s historical novel The Sky Worshipers.
These are the famous words of an unforgiving soul determined to conquer the world and subjugate all mankind. More than seven centuries later, these words continue to haunt the nations he brutally defeated and baffles historians and researchers who try to understand the underlying motives that drove this warrior of the Steppes to take such extreme measures. He has been described as a genius in devising military strategy by some, a bloodthirsty warmonger by others, and even called an emancipator by some historians. There are those who see him as evil, and others who name their children after him.
Yesugai, Genghis khan’s father, engaged in battle with his Tatar foes and killed one by the name of Temujin Uge. When he returned victorious from combat, he saw that his wife Hoelun had given birth to a boy. He called the infant Temujin after the man he had killed in battle, not knowing that one day that name would be known the world over.
Read an blog post about the reign of the Mongol Empire.
Like all the other children in the land known today as Mongolia, Temujin learned herding and riding horses at a very young age. But when his father died before his eyes, poisoned by a rival clan, life took a cruel turn for Temujin. For a child of nine, watching one’s father fall off a horse and die is quite a traumatic experience, but for Temujin, it was only the beginning of a nightmare.
Despite his mother’s brave attempts to maintain the support of their tribe, they saw Hoelun and her children as a burden, an appendix that they could not effort to support. Thus, Temujin, his mother and siblings were abandoned, left to fend for themselves in the harsh, merciless wilderness of the Steppes. Even their animals, on which their livelihood depended, were stolen.
No one would have thought that this broken boy and his offspring would one day conquer nine million square miles of planet earth, ruling over the people of Poland, Hungary, Thrace, Anatolia, Georgia, Russia, China, Korea, Vietnam, Palestine, Baghdad, Damascus, and Persia.
As a boy growing up in the harsh wilderness of the Mongolian Steppes, Temujin (Genghis Khan) learned important survival skills.
At the tender age of nine, with the eternal blue sky ever-watchful above him and the frozen prairie his abode, Temujin learned to survive by fishing and hunting and relying on the flesh and skin of rodents when no other means were available. Instead of crumbling under the weight of the destiny he saw before him, Temujin grew to become a fierce warrior, determined to conquer his foes. In this pursuit, he showed little mercy.
After uniting the warring tribes of Northeast Asia and bringing them under his command, he called the nation thus formed, Mongolia. In the decades that followed, Genghis Khan, his children and grandchildren left behind a bloody legacy etched forever in the collective mind of the conquered nations.
Despite the carnage that took place, ultimately, the infighting within Europe and other regions of the world ended under what came to be known as Pax Mongolica, under which the social, cultural, and economic circumstances of the regions under Mongol control experienced much-needed stability. The unification achieved under Mongol rule also eased communication and commerce between different parts of the world.
The Sky Worshipers: A Novel of Mongol Conquests, will be released March 2, 2021 and is available now for Pre-Order.
Through beautiful language and powerful storytelling, this fact-based historical novel lays bare the once far-reaching and uncompromising Mongol empire. It shows readers the hidden perspectives of the captive, conquered, and voiceless. It brings to light the tremendous but forgotten influence of Genghis Khan and his progeny, while asking readers to reconsider the destruction and suffering of the past on which the future is built.
F.M. Deemyad is the author of the The Sky Worshipers , a historical saga that tells the story of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire as viewed through the eyes of three captive princesses. Born in Kermanshah, Iran, Deemyad grew up in Tehran attending bilingual schools run by Christian and Jewish minorities. At an early age she was exposed to the English language and, through her father’s guidance, she learned to love classic literature. Deemyad received a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from John Hopkins University. More of her work and writing can be found at her website, candleandquill.com.
