The reasons for his success were simple but effective. Besides a personal talent for fighting and marrying, both of which were essential tools of steppe diplomacy, he had also lighted upon some radical reforms to traditional Mongol tribal and military organization. Like Muhammad uniting the bickering tribes of Arabia during the seventh century a.d., Temüjin saw that bonds of clan and blood repelled as often as they attracted, and that by weakening them in favor of a direct bond to himself, he could create a whole that was much more powerful than its constituent parts.
