The History and the Life of Chinggis Khan: (The Secret History of the Mongols). Translated and Annotated

by Unknown, Urgunge Onon (Translator)

The History was written in the 13th Century. It deals briefly with the ancestors and successor (Ogodei, reign 1228-1241) of Chinggis Khan and in more detail with the life of Chinggis Khan, who was founder of the Mongol Empire. The empire during Khubilai Khan's reign was expanded from Mongolia and China to the western edge of Russia. It was the most extensive empire ever established on horseback (about 700 years later, the British empire was built on ships). The History has been translated into many foreign Hungarian, Turkish, Polish, Chinese, Russian, French, German, Japanese and English, but the integral text has never before been translated by a native Mongol scholar, using mainly the Mongolian sources to explicate the meaning of previous unknown words in it. As the translator and annotator says in his introduction, the History is the winners' history. The losers' version might well have been different. Chinggis Khan with his 129,000 Mongol cavalrymen never lost a battle. He was the best strategist the world has ever produced. In his article "Chingis Khan and the Mongol Conquest", the late Professor Owen Lattimore said "As a military genius, able to take over new techniques and improve them, Chingis stands above Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Caesar, Atilla and Napoleon" (See Scientific American, August 1963, p. 66).

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Asia, Biography, Biography Memoir, China

183 pages, Leather Bound

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

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Reviews

[John Mccullough · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a translation of a 13th or 14th century ms. describing events much closer to their occurrence than a modern book. As such, it does not read like a novel but the translator (Urgunge Onon) has done a fine job of making the narrative flow smoothly. Genghis (or Chinggis) Khan was a childhood hero of mine. I read Harold Lamb's biography of the great man and was amazed at the accomplishments that he was able to perform. I do not attempt to justify the actions that lead to his many successes, but simply take my hat off to a military genius who could have conquered the known world had he lived long enough. Certainly, he was a man of his time -brutal and elegant all at once. His legacy is widespread, culturally, historically, and genetically (2% of all male humans are thought to carry his Y-chromosome). His son, Kublai Khan and other descendants (probably Timur-a-lang, or Tamerlane, among others) carried on the tradition, if in a less than spectacular scale. Beginning from just about nothing, the boy Timujin who became the man Ghinggis, will be well-remembered by all who came in contact with him, for better or worse. BTW - I read a different edition (Folio Spciety) which came out in 1991 or 1992, not this edition

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the translation: I like this for Urgunge Onon's notes and material fore and aft. Certainly better annotated than the Cleaves (who meant to put his notes into a second volume that never saw the light of day). Maybe this version is the best of both worlds: not off-putting for non-scholars, but with Urgunge's knowledge on Mongol lifestyle and culture.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The events leading up to Genghis Khan's (in this translation Chinggis Qahan) unification of the Mongolian Empire, notwithstanding Khan's childhood years, is a bit hard to follow. I think I read somewhere that Mongol-to-English is particularly difficult, so I don't blame the translator. It's also kind of hard to keep track of all the Mongol names. There are so many footnotes that they end up on the bottom of opposite pages, so I was constantly flipping forwards and backwards to figure everything out. The second half of the book covers events from the unification up until Ögedei's succession and early campaigning and it's much easier to understand. The translator provides a fascinating appendix listing Genghis Khan's Sixteen Battle Tactics.

[Andrew Varga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since this book is a translation of the original source text, I am not reviewing the text, but rather the translation. Since the translator is a native Mongolian speaker, I found that there was invaluable detail added throughout, especially during the lengthy introduction, and the translator gave great insight into why in some instances he might have chose one word as the translation instead of another.

[Aatrey Saxena · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prose can be quite monotonous but overall a fantastic insight into the origins of the Mongol Empire through one of the most important source materials. Aside from the historical narrative I found the insight into Mongolian culture - especially the concepts of anda and nokor fascinating.

The translation also benefits from Urgunge Onon's knowledge of Mongol customs.

[Sicofonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an invaluable source when it comes to study the history of the Mongol empire. It has been translated into English by several authors.
As this is the only one I've read so far, my review is kinda pointless. I could not tell you which one is the best. However, Urgunge Onon has added multiple notes (nearly 800) throughout the book; making it very detailed this way. Every term is explained so the reader can keep up with the Secret History.

To me this deserves a 5 our of 5. Great effort from Onon on the translation side, and a round worthwhile literary piece.

[Gabit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a 13th century masterpiece. However, if you are not related to Genghis Khan, please do not touch this book as it was supposed to be kept secret from outsiders. Chances are high, however, that you are related to him, so go for it.

[Lee Broderick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Secret History of the Mongols is proto-history, combining myth and legend with fact. Written sometime after the death of Chinggis Khan it remains our best source not only for hs life, but for early Mongol culture and history generally. It clearly bears features of the epic narrative style and has been compared with Beowulf: A New Verse Translation but a more accurate comparison would probably be with The Icelandic Sagas.

[o n o · Rating 5 out of 5]

The translator has good commentary

[Lalwende · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author's choices in romanization gave me grief to no end, but otherwise it was an interesting read.

[Shaun Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting as a source on the early Mongol Empire, composed within decades of Chinggis Khaan's death and likely drawing upon the memories of those who knew him personally. also I know a lot more words for horses now

[Satyabrata Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an actual 13th century recount of Ghengis Khan's life, not some historian's research. Hence this book is colored deeply in the facets of Mongol life ( this can be bad sometimes, for it says too little about the imperfections in Ghengis while trying to potray him as the greatest ruler to walk on the face of earth)

[Lily]

So far I've just read the very very poorly translated (into English) Ulaanbaatar printed version, I had a hard time with it, and look forward to reading this translation.

[Maradox · Rating 5 out of 5]

actually it's not called history of genghis khan. it's called secret history of the yuan dynasty but this one clears up a lot of the dual translation issues.

[Oyundelgerekh · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was very confusing & hard to understand while reading it.
It was mandatory for me to read this due to the mongolian language course I take.

[J]

The book remains where I found it, on our hosts' bookshelf in Arhangai province, unfinished. I think in the end the clock ran out when I was about a third of the way through, and Temujin had just been acclaimed as Chinggis Khan by a handful of loyal hangers-on, though the world had yet to discover this devastating fact and its relevance to them.

The Secret History has an epic, alien quality (by which I mean, I have a vague notion of something called "epic" and I am not Mongolian). Like Tolkein it is interspersed with more bits of poetry and song than we today generally find seemly in our stories. Like much premodern literature (I say that like I've read much premodern literature) it's not easy to follow. Though loosely chronological it jumps around a bit, sometimes without warning, and picks up and drops story threads and characters in unexpected ways. I wish I had had more time and more mental energy for chewing through it. I will say this -- the editor's enviable scholarship and enlightening historical-philological explanatory footnotes were not quite as helpful in every case as some family tree diagrams, more maps, and some sort of interactive 3D VR hologram graphic with blood, gore, bells and whistles would have been.

I was reading it ostensibly in parallel with Weatherford on the Mongol Queens, but there was no doubt that I would get through the fatty portion much more quickly than the mutton (it is convenient for this overdrawn metaphor that Mongolians are said to have an abhorrence for eating lamb, because to kill a young animal is mean and short-sighted).