Review
The rise of the Mongol
Empire is a great story in its own right. Genghis Khan, known as Temujin in
his boyhood, was the son of a tribal chieftain. After his father's murder,
Temujin was forced out of the tribe along with his brothers and mother,
abandoned to starve on the plains. Yet, he survived, and managed to unite
the disparate Mongol tribes under his leadership, eventually conquering most of
China. The great nation he founded developed into the largest contiguous
empire ever known by the time of his grandson, Kublai Kahn.
In Conn Iggulden's more than capable hands, the remarkable tale of Genghis Khan
becomes an action-adventure story.
Genghis: Lords of the Bow isn't a
great work of literature, but it certainly is great fun to read. It's the kind
of book you'd expect from the author of
The Dangerous Book for Boys - an...
Beyond the Book
The Yasa of Genghis Khan
As Genghis Khan consolidated the nomadic tribes of the
Asian steppe, he realized that a consistent rule of law was necessary to
maintain order. He accomplished this by creating his "Yasa" (or "Yassa"), a
comprehensive set of rules governing nearly all aspects of Mongolian life and
culture. The original
Yasa ("decree" or
"order") is thought to have been written on
scrolls bound into volumes, and kept in a secret archive to which only the khan
and his advisers had access, but the rules were widely known and observed, and in
many cases were adopted by rival cultures. They codified religious tolerance
and social equality, which helped promote peace between the diverse peoples who
made up the Mongol...
