Ogodei khan short biography
•
Ögedei Khan was the second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. As the third child born to the legendary Genghis Khan, Ögedei’s early years were influenced bygd the uncertain events of his father’s ascent to power, circa 1186. When he was a ung boy, Ögedei witnessed the disastrous defeat of Khalakhaljid Sands against the army of Jamukha, where he was heavily wounded and lost on the slagfält. During this time, his father’s adopted brother, Borokhula, rescued him and proved his loyalty and kamratskap that defined the Mongol people.
Despite the challenges of his early years, Ögedei’s potential was evident to his father. Genghis Khan recognized his son’s charisma, intelligence, and steadiness of character. These qualities would later prove instrumental in Ögedei’s rise to power and his ability to maintain the unity of the Mongol Empire after his father’s death.
In 1204, when Ögedei was just 18 years old, his father gave him Töregene, the wife
•
To the Great Sea: The Death of Ögedei Khan
Asia too was marching against the West. At one moment it had seemed as if all Europe would succumb to a terrible menace looming up from the East. Heathen Mongol hordes from the heart of Asia, formidable horsemen armed with bows, had rapidly swept over Russia, Poland, Hungary, and in 1241 inflicted simultaneous crushing defeats upon the Germans near Breslau and upon European cavalry near Buda. Germany and Austria at least lay at their mercy. Providentially in this year, the Great Khan died in Mongolia; the Mongol leaders hastened back the thousands of miles to the Karakorum, their capital, to elect his successor, and Western Europe escaped.
— Winston Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Book Two —
The Hungarian soldiers stood in their battle line, waiting for the enemy to advance. Their hearts were filled with both fear and rage. The horsemen of Asia had bested them twice before, and their country lay in ruins. Their ho
•
The Mongol Khans
For more than 100 years, a single family controlled a territorial empire stretching as far as 23 million square kilometers (nine million square miles), from East Asia to Europe. That family was descended from the great warrior Genghis (also spelled Chinggis) Khan, and its reign is known as the Chinggisid (or Genghisid) Dynasty. The following are profiles of some of the empire’s principal leaders.
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan (1162–1227 C.E.), the founder of the Mongol Empire, is widely regarded as one of the most successful military commanders in world history. In the year 1206 C.E., Genghis—originally known as Temujin—was in his forties, with his greatest military exploits still ahead of him. By that summer, he had conquered his domestic enemies. He summoned a kuriltai (a meeting of the Mongolian tribal chiefs) at which the nomadictribes of the Mongolian steppe agreed to unite as a new nation under his leadership, confirming his title as Genghis Khan (universal