Part 3: Who is Temujin?

I have to admit majority of the history I can recall is either from movies or documentaries that I have watched in the past. So reading about Temujin was quite interesting. Do you know who Temujin is? Believe it or not that is Chinggis Khan's real name. Like I said, my history is based on movies and documentarites. I have the worse memory. Reading about the Mongols and Chinggis Khan in chapter 11 (Pastoral People on the Global Stage) caught my attention. Before I go into Temujin, there was something to be said about Pastoral Societies...

Women of Pastoral Societies...
First let me discuss a little about women of pastoral societies and what they offer to these types of communities. Pastoral societies (nomadic societies) generally offered woman a higher status (p. 515). The text went on to say that women were viewed as equal with men and were responsible for the food and children along with the opportunity to serve as political advisers. Throughout other countries that was unheard of. I wonder if this a reason outside communities would view this society as barbaric. Any tribe who would allow women to have power and be part of decision making are uncivilized. But yet the pastoral people I would say are group of people that understood the need to survive and pull their weight. It goes back to having that whole egalitarian view point. There was a statement stated in the text by a European visitor, Franciscan fiar Giovanni DiPlano Carpini view point of the women of Mongol - "Girls and women ride and gallop as skillfully as men. We even saw them carrying quivers and bows, and the women can ride horses for as long as men..." and he goes on to say how they are able to make a variety of things like shoes, and clothes, drive and repair carts. Because this society is very mobile, seasonal movement from land to land, it is crucial that these societies worked together. It takes a lot to move from one area to another especially with scares resources. I can go on about the how amazing this society is and how the managed to survive off the land with little. The texted had mention that they were not skilled agriculturist. I think the reason being is because they moved so much and with that they were driven to survive and would reach out to outside communities to get other items they needed to survive.

Ok. Who is Temujin?
As I mentioned before he is Chinggis Kahn. His story is fasinating. His father died from a  feuding tribe and he barely survived off the land with his mother. He did his own thing by developing a friendships and relationships outside of his kinship which helped him move up the ranks. It really caught my eye on how the text described the rise of Chinggis Kahn:

"Temujin's rise to power...it took place among shifting alliances and betrayals, a mounting string of military victories, the indecisiveness of his enemies, a reputation as leader generous to friends and ruthless to enemies, and the incorporation of warriors from defeated tribes into his own forces." 

What does it mean that his enemies were indecisive? They weren't sure if they wanted to go into battle with him? I would definitely want Chinggis Kahn as my friend. Anyway, it is interesting to read that the Mongol Empire really didn't have a game plan. "Each victory brought new resources for making war and new threats or insecurities that seemed to require more expansion" (p. 524). His universal mission - uniting the whole world in one empire. Wow!