Genghis Khan
Of all the images the name Genghis Khan brings to mind, that of a visionary who brought literacy, law and culture to his people rarely springs to mind. His name is usually synonymous with evil, his image that of a brutal barbarian who slaughtered millions in his quest for power. Yet a BBC drama-documentary is aiming to change the reputation of one of the world's most notorious warlords to that of a heroic figure who achieved greatness against all odds.
Genghis Khan is right up there with the likes of Hitler and Attila the Hun as one of the bogeymen of history, said Ed Bazalgette, the programme's producer.
We hear the phrase somewhere to the Right of Genghis Khan. Everyone has heard the name yet few people know much about his story. It is one of the great untold stories of history and we wanted to get behind the myths. No one is suggesting that he was a benign individual but his history was written by those he defeated. To make a parallel, imagine if our country's history was written by the people of Africa or India.
He was intent on sharing his riches with his people, and wanted to raise levels of culture, law and literacy. He also brought Chinese medicine to his people. Amassing material wealth did not matter much to him, as he shared everything with his loyal supporters. He was seen as a generous leader.
Genghis Khan also demonstrated a rather liberal and tolerant attitude to the beliefs of others, and never persecuted people on religious grounds. Born in Mongolia sometime after 1160, he created the largest known empire, covering a fifth of the world, stretching from the Pacific to the Black Sea.
A few things. His empire collapsed after a few generations. Sorry that is wrong The last khanate of the Golden Horde was destroyed by the Soviet Union in 1924. As to descendents. only 200 people have been found to be his descendents. The rest is BS. The Khaan was no better or worse than any conqueror in history just better at it. Unlike the Muslims and Christians he did no allow torture. Also, the two main religions of this time in Mongolia were Tengriism and Christianity. Mongolia did not become a Buddhist country until the 17th century. The Kalmyk Republic is S.E. Europe is a Mongolian state and is the only Buddhist country in Europe.
He wasn't 'blood-thirsty'; there was a reason behind everything he did. Also, he never said that thing about 'taking everything away from the conquered is the highest pleasure in life.' Read Jack Weatherford's book 'Ghengis Khan'.
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History has a 5 series podcast titled Wrath of Khans that is very insightful and discusses exactly what avd420 mentions. Genocidal maniac turns epic hero because of the passage of time. I highly recommend the entire HH series, but especially the Wrath of Khans for a different perspective.
Cannot watch it because I live in Denmark :-[
Really annoying!
Djingis Khan was the greatest. He did the historie for the rest of the wourld. And all wars are barbaric and the most of the men are barbaric to....
The name "Mongol" until 17th-18th centuries meant belonging to a political community, and was not the ethnic name. While “the name "Tatar" was “the name of the native ethnos (nation) of Genghis Khan” , “…Genghis Khan and his tribesmen did not speak the language, which we now call the "Mongolian”…" (academic Vasiliev, 19th century). This also is confirmed by many other facts. Read about a real Tatar (Turk) History in a book "Forgotten Heritage of Tatars" (by Galy Yenikeyev). You can find it on Smashwords company site.
A well-grounded rebuttal of the chinese- persian myths about "incredible cruelty of nomadic mongol-tatar conquerors", and about "a war between the Tatars and Genghis Khan", as well as a lot of from the real Tatar (Turk) History, what the official historians hidden from the public, you can learn in the book of an independent historian Galy Yenikeyev "Forgotten Heritage of Tatars", published by Smashwords. On the site of Smashwords is an electronic version of this book in English – it’s easy to find on the Internet.
Absolutely brilliant, many, many thanks for this documentary.
I always have to wonder when I see documentaries like these, you know, all the labeling. Why is it that a quest for power is always seen as evil? I mean is power really so bad, because if it is, then you could say that our politicans today with THEIR diplomatic quests for power are also Evil.
I don't understand the thought process behind the label artists.
kinda interesting but not detailed enough
this is a frail, frrraaaiiiillll skeleton of information on Genghis Khan compared to the four books by Conn Iggulden called "the epic story of the khan dynasty" which details Temujin/Genghis Khan's life from his birth to after his death when his sons and grandsons conquered. GREAT books.
history repeats itself , as with the rise in 2011 + of China once again
He was the greatest emperor the world has ever had
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He was the greatest emperor that the world has ever had.
Thank you but how can I have the full move and not from you tube
Good general account. Not specific enough, but very smoothly done. The doc seems much shorter than it actually is because of all the action.
Most of the story that are past down about Genghis Khan were by chinese people so what would you think the outcome would had been? Lets ask the Indians back in the 1700 and 1800's what they thought of the White man.
He was the perfect embodiment of a monstrous barbarian.The world would have been better off without him.
to Conqueror the world huh? i think he might've actually did it if he didnt die of an illness speaking of his death i thought he died in a tsunami heading towards japan?? anyways great documentary
great documentary, i agree with greg...
I thought the doc was pretty good but like rtiom I would have prefered it be longer, although that could just be because I was enjoying watching it and didn't want it to end so quickly.
"Most complete television portrait of Genghis Khan ever made", my assess!!
It one of the shortest documentaries I've ever seen. This should have been an introduction to a 6 hour detailed account of not only his trials and tribulations, but also his conquests and losses until empire collapse. So, as for quality of this documentary it wasn't bad but I think I learned more from that movie that came out not too long ago.
great doc only thing its lacking are subtitles
I liked this one. The combination of narration while the actors do their lines keeps a nice flow and give more information.
He was just atyran, evil and left just death och notihing else. An evil death do human glad.