Genghis Khan

choi

Maxwell Carter, An Empire on the Move; Chinggis's true aim was not to annihilate enemies so much as to absorb them, and thereby compound his dynasty's economic power Wall Street Journal, Apr 10, 2021 (in the Review section that appeared every Saturday)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the ... f-khans-11618005601
(book review on Marie Favereau, The Horde; How the Mongols changed the world. Belknap Press, Apr 20, 2021)


Note:
(a)
(i)
(A) Belknap Press is an imprint of Harvard University Press.
(B) In 1949 Waldron Phoenix Belknap, Jr established Press within Harvard University Press. He had received AB in 1920 and architecture degree in 1933, both from Harvard, and then worked for eight years in investment and finance.
(ii) illustration caption in print: "SELF PROMOTION  Temüjin proclaims himself Chinggis Khan, from a manuscript of Rashid al-Din."
(A) Rashid al-Din Hamadani
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashid_al-Din_Hamadani
(1247–1318 born and died in present-day Iran; born as a Persian Jew but converted to Islam at 30; a court official of Ilkhan Mahmud Ghazan; section 2 Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh)
• An epithet meaning holy war fighter, Ghazan is not his surname.
• About ilkhan. This Wiki page does not explain, but Encyclopaedia Britannica says an "il-Khan" was "a subordinate khan" and Wiktionary.com says "a provincial khan, especially in Iran between the 13th and 14th centuries."

Ilkhan (title)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilkhan_(title)  
(Turkic languages)

(B) Name of Rashid al-Din in the preceding Wikipedia page ince written Rashid al-Din Hamadani and another time Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlullāh Hamadānī. What was his true name?  

Encyclopedia.com says "al-Din, Fazlallah Tabib al-Hamdani, 'the physician from Hamadan [name of a city, then and hown, in Iran].' "

Arabic-English dictionary:
* فضل الله  means "Allah's grace."
   ^ Its transliteration is Fazlallah
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazlallah  
      ("composed of the elements Fadl [فضل: Arab for grace or virtue] and Allah")
* طبيب (noun masculine; transliteration: ṭabīb): "doctor, physician"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/طبيب
(C) Rashid (name)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashid_(name)


(b)
(i)
(A) Genghis Khan: "(1162–1227), founder of the Mongol empire; born Temujin. He took the name Genghis Khan ('ruler of all') in 1206 after uniting the nomadic Mongol tribes. When he died, his empire extended from China to the Black Sea. His grandson Kublai Khan completed the conquest of China"
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/genghis_khan

Also note the pronunciation. I say this because en.wikipedia.org for Genghis Khan pronounces the first word of his name the same way as if it were spelled as Chinggis Khan.
(B) Where does the English spelling of Chinggis Khan come from? It is the romanization (or transliteration) of Mongolian (language). See Genghis Khan
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan
(read Alternative forms and Etymology)
(C) What does the word Genghis or Chinggis mean in Mongolian?  Where did the word Genghis come from?  See Genghis Khan. World History Encyclopedia, undated
https://www.worldhistory.org/Genghis_Khan/

Quote:

Paragraph 1: "Genghis Khan (aka Chinggis Khan, c 1162/67-1227 CE) was the founder of the Mongol Empire (1206-1368 CE) which he would rule from 1206 until his death in 1227 CE. Born Temujin, he acquired the title of Genghis Khan, likely meaning 'universal ruler', and, after unifying the Mongol tribes, he attacked ['attack' is not equal to conquer] the Xi Xia [1038 - 1227; formed by Tangut people (Chinese: 党項)] and Jin [(1115–1234, formed by Jurchen 女真] states and then Song China [Northern Song 北宋 (960–1127) and Southern Song 南宋 (1127–1279)]. In the other direction, his fast-moving armies invaded Persia, Afghanistan, and even Russia. Utterly ruthless with his enemies, countless innocents were slaughtered in his campaigns of terror - millions according to medieval chroniclers. Genghis Khan was, though, an able administrator who introduced writing to the Mongols, created their first law code, promoted trade and permitted all religions to be freely practised anywhere in the Mongol world. In this way, Genghis Khan built the foundations of an empire which would, under his successors, ultimately control one-fifth of the globe.

Paragraph 5: "As his army swelled to ever greater proportions, Temujin defeated, over a period of ten years or so, such rivals as the Tartars, Kereyids, Naimans, and Merkids until a Mongol confederation met at a great conference or kurultai at the Kerulen river in 1206 CE and formally declared Temujin their leader. He was given the title of Genghis Khan which likely means 'universal' leader (the spelling in Mongol is Chinggis but 'Genghis' remains more familiar today and derives from medieval Arab scholars not having a ch in their language)."

• Kherlen River
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kherlen_River
(also known as Kerülen; Chinese: 克鲁伦河; 1,254 kml emptying into Hulun Lake in China)
The en.wikipedia.org places Lake after Hulun.
• Lake Hulun
https://www.britannica.com/place/Lake-Hulun
("Normally [freshwater] Hulun covers an area of about 894 square miles (2,315 square km). It is comparatively shallow and is joined by a seasonal channel to the Hailar River, which flows into the Argun River (the upstream portion of a tributary of the Amur River). For much of the year, however, it is undrained, and occasionally, when its level is at its lowest, there is a reverse flow of waters from the Hailar River into the lake. All of the rivers of this area are unstable, partly because of the concentration of rainfall in a short period of the summer and partly because of the great annual variations in the weather")
(D) Argun (Amur)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argun_(Amur)
(Russian: Аргунь, Mongolian: Ergüne mörön, Chinese: 额尔古纳河)

I search high and low in the Web, and there is absolutely nothing about etymology of Argun, why Russian word for the river starts with A whereas Mongolian with E. In the Web there is Ergun as the name of the river, too, whatever that language is. So the Russian spelling and Ergun is not much different (the difference is the first letter). It is safe to say that the English word (or Romanization) Argun is copied from Russian, in the same mode of Amur River.

English dictionary:
* Amur (proper name; "From Russian Аму́р Amúr, of unknown origin")
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Amur   

In the map on this page
• First and foremost, geography textbooks in Taiwan does not have 额尔古纳河 or 额尔古纳市. What Taiwanese textbooks have is 黑龙江, whose upstream is what Argun or 额尔古纳河 is.
• In this map, there are three spellings for the same river: Romanization, Russian and simplified Chinese. Eg, Argun  Аргунь  额尔古纳河,
• pay attention to "Hailar River (Chinese: 海拉尔河)" )

Argun should not be confused with Aigun. See Treaty of Aigun  瑷珲条约
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Aigun
(signed in 1858 in the town of Aigun)

Aigun  瑷珲
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/瑷珲
("民国时，设置为瑷珲县。瑷珲县驻地改为距古瑷珲以北三十多公里的黑河镇，即为现在的黑河市爱辉区的前身。1956年，在中华人民共和国的简化汉字运动中，'瑷珲县' 被视为生僻字地名，改称爱辉县。60年后，2015年5月，为保存历史记忆，爱辉区下辖的爱辉镇名称又被恢复为 '瑷珲' ")

(ii) "The origin of the term [khan] is disputed and unknown."  en.wikipedia.org for "Khan (title)."


(c) "rhythms and contours of steppe life are incomprehensible. * * * Marc Bloch decried his peers * * * The author [Marie Favereau], an associate professor of history at Paris Nanterre University * * * The Mongols of repute date to the 13th century, when they emerged as the dominant clan among an overlapping network of pastoral nomads and blood feuds around the Orkhon Valley. Chinggis Khan—born Temüjin, named for an enemy Tatar captured on the day of his birth ca. 1160—avenged his father and the politically motivated kidnapping of his wife, Börte, by defeating and subsuming his rivals * * * In 1206, Temüjin restyled himself Chinggis ('mighty' or 'universal') Khan. * * * Violent proclamations were faultlessly thorough: 'We shall measure the Tatars against the linchpin of a cart, and kill them to the last one'; Merkit [who hd kidnapped wife] prisoners were to be enslaved and dispersed 'here and there down to the last one.' "
(A) steppe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppe
(prairie of North America)

There is a Wikipedia page for "Eurasian Steppe."
(B) The non steppe is ultimately from Russian step.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/steppe
(ii) Marc Bloch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Bloch
(1886 - 1944; a French historian)
(iii) Paris Nanterre University
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Nanterre_University   
(1964- ; public; is located in the western suburb of Nanterre)
(iv) Orkhon Valley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkhon_Valley  
(Orkhon River; UNESCO's World Heritage List)
(v) Genghis Khan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan
("Temüjin means 'blacksmith' * * * Temüjin was named after the Tatar chief Temüjin-üge whom his father had just captured * * * His father arranged a marriage for him and delivered him at age nine to the family of his future wife Börte [10 at the time] of the tribe Khongirad. * * * While heading home, his father ran into the neighboring Tatars, who had long been Mongol enemies, and they offered him food that poisoned him. * * * Soon after the marriage between them took place, the Three Merkits attacked their family camp at dawn and kidnapped Börte.")
(vi)
(A) Tatars  鞑靼
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatars  
("is an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups * * * the 13th-century Mongol invaders became known as Tatars to Europeans. The original Tatars descended from the Rourans [柔然] * * * The largest group amongst the Tatars by far are the Volga Tatars, native to the Volga-Ural region")
(B) Tatar
https://www.etymonline.com/word/tartar
(vii)
(A) measuring against the linchpin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measuring_against_the_linchpin   
("The wagon wheel was a large wheel used to transport yurts and other goods")
(B) linchpin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linchpin


(d) "To the west, in the lower Volga region between Moscow and the Caspian Sea, lay the Qipchaqs, who had wandered from northern China centuries before and now provoked Mongol ire by giving refuge to Merkit rebels. Chinggis dispatched his eldest son and heir apparent, Jochi [Chinese: 朮赤], to set an example. In 1217-18, the Merkit remnants were crushed. Some 20 years later, so, too, were their Qipchaq protectors. Jochi's death [speculation was illness], in [February] 1227, preceded Chinggis's by six months. His [Jochi's] versatile community of followers in the western steppe, who in the coming centuries, Ms Favereau contends, 'took a foremost role in the future of its Russian, European, and Mediterranean neighbors,' would be known as the Horde.  Horde ('Orda')—defined as 'an army, a site of power, a people under a ruler, a huge camp'—did not then suggest an unruly mob.
(i)
(A) horde (n)
https://www.etymonline.com/word/horde
(B) horde (n; from Polish horda, ultimately from Turkic orda, ordu khan's residence)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/horde
(ii) Golden Horde
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Horde
(self-designated as Ulug Ulus, lit. 'Great State' in Turkic; section 1 Name)

Quote: "The territory of the Golden Horde at its peak extended from Siberia and Central Asia to parts of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the Danube in the west, and from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea in the south [see map not the top one but whose caption is: 'The division of the Mongol Empire, c. 1300, with the Golden Horde in yellow']"

There are Wikipedia pages for
• "Timeline of the Golden Horde" (view map only), and
• "Wings of the Golden Horde."


(e) "In the first [within Mongol empire], decisive test of succession, Jochi's sons, Batu and Orda, divided their spheres of influence peacefully into 'White' and 'Blue' hordes. * * * Not until the 14th and 15th centuries did the Horde revert to the baleful, self-destructive imperial mean. * * * movement insulated them from the enervating trappings of wealth and hoarding for its own sake. * * * This is not to say the Mongols were entirely insensible to beauty, as the book’s illustrations of their craftsmanship attest. * * * It took the Black Death [1346–1353], which killed an estimated one-third of the population in Europe and shattered global economic networks, to bring about the Horde’s downfall. * *  * Ms Favereau counters the revisionist myths that Tamerlane was the empire's destroyer and that Russians chafed under (and dramatically threw off) the 'Tatar yoke.' The Horde outlasted Tamerlane (d. 1405) and late 14th-century Russian resistance. Ironically, the Mughals, Central Asian migrants who conquered swaths of the Indian subcontinent in the 16th and 17th centuries, claimed inheritance from Tamerlane as well as Chinggis, while the duchy of Moscow's rise was facilitated by Mongol intervention.
(i) baleful
https://www.etymonline.com/word/baleful
(ii) enervate (vt; Latin enervatus, past participle of enervare, from e- + [noun masculine] nervus sinew — more at NERVE; Frequently Asked Questions About enervate: What is the difference between enervate and innervate?)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enervate
(iii) sensible (adj): "1 [example: sensible people] * * * 3 [example: felt a sensible chill]"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sensible
(iv) Tamerlane
(A) Timur  (accent on the second syllable)
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Timur  
("chiefly remembered for the barbarity of his conquests from India and Russia to the Mediterranean Sea and for the cultural achievements of his dynasty. * * * The name Timur Lenk signified Timur the Lame, a title of contempt used by his Persian enemies, which became Tamburlaine, or Tamerlane, in Europe")

There is no need to read the rest of this Web page.
(B) Timur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur   
(1336 – 1405; section 2 Early life: where he was born and meaning of his name his native tongue (now extinct); section 19.3 Exhumation and alleged curse)

Quote: "Timur was the last of the great nomadic conquerors of the Eurasian Steppe, and his empire set the stage for the rise of the more structured and lasting Islamic gunpowder empires in the 16th and 17th centuries. * * * Timur's injuries have given him the names of Timur the Lame and Tamerlane by Europeans.

(vi) Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasion_of_Kievan_Rus%27  
(table: 1237–1242, Result: Decisive Mongol victory, Territorial change  Rus' principalities become vassals of the Mongol Golden Horde, Rus casuality: 500,000 (6–7% of the population of Rus);   

Quote: "For the next three hundred years, all of the Rus' states, including Novgorod, Smolensk, Galich and Pskov, submitted to Mongol rule. After Mongol and Turco-Mongol suzerainty was fought off [ie, overthrown, 3 centuries later], this period of rule by the Golden Horde is commonly referred to negatively by Russian historiography the Mongol or Tatar 'yoke.' "