The Mongol state

Mongol tribes had long lived in southern Siberia, Manchuria and Mongolia; most were nomadic herders, and some clans lived by hunting and fishing. In their beliefs, veneration of ancestral spirits and shamanism, the faith in good and evil spirits acting on human life, survived. From the second half of the 12th century wealth differences grew: clan communities split into separate households, the ayl, and rich families and noyans (clan chiefs) emerged, while khans led tribal unions. Important matters, war, peace and the choosing of a khan, were decided at a kurultai. Temujin (1155–1227; sources differ on his birth year) won the wars among the tribes and in 1206 at a kurultai on the Onon River was proclaimed great khan; the chief shaman gave him the title Genghis Khan, a word explained in different ways (often as “strong, mighty” or “great as the ocean”). Karakorum became the capital. The army was built on a decimal system: leaders of ten, a hundred, a thousand and a tumen (ten thousand); warriors carried bows, spears and swords, lived in yurts and could set out quickly. In battle the centre feigned retreat and drew the enemy into attack from the wings; there was also a special guard, the keshik. In 1211 war began against northern China, from 1218 Semirechye and Eastern Turkestan were taken, in 1219–1221 the Khwarazmian state, and in 1223 the Mongols beat the Russians at the Kalka. About 1224 Genghis Khan divided the lands among his sons’ uluses — Jochi, Chagatai, Ogedei and Tolui — naming Ogedei his successor.