The Secret History of the Mongols was probably written during or after the reign of Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan who ruled over much of China in the years after his father's death in 1227

The work was written using Chinese characters to approximate the sounds of the Mongolian language during the thirteenth century. The knowledge of this code and many of the circumstances of the culture of thirteenth century Mongolia was lost to scholarship until the present, when an Australian researcher, Dr. Igor de Rachewiltz , succeeded in making the work accessible to modern scholars.

A brief summary of the life of Genghis Khan, or Temujin, as he was named by his parents, was extracted from The Secret History of the Mongols by Jack Weatherford in his work, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World , (Crown Publishers, NY, 2004).

Genghis Khan was born to Hoelun and Yesugei in the Spring of the year 1162, she having been kidnapped by the Mongol on the eve of her wedding and taken as a second wife. Both parents were members of the Mongol tribe, sometimes called Blue Turks or Black Tartars . Linguistically the Mongols are affilliated with the Korean and Japanese languages. The original home of the Huns, whom they claim as ancestors, was perhaps Northern Korea. A portentious omen noted by history is the large clot of blood the baby grips in his fist.

From the age of 3 to 5, perhaps as a result of this his family inadvertently left Temujin (Genghis Khan) behind when moving camp. The boy was well cared for by a sympathetic clan.

At around the age of 8, he was repatriated with his own clan and he was led in search of a wife by his father. His search was successful and he was betrothed to Borte. He began a life of labour under the protective eyes of his in-laws to make the “bride price,” which was several years of service. His father was murdered by Tartars while returning to his family. Temujin was recalled to his father’s burial, and then, when his mother, Hoelin, and his family were abandoned by their band, worked to assist his mother in raising her children by hunting rats and dogs, and fishing with hooks made from the needles his mother sewed with.

Around the age of 8, Temujin formed an alliance with an aristocratic boy, distantly related to his father’s family, though he himself was considered to be “black-boned,” or a commoner. Then, when his older half-brother, Begter, appeared about to enter into marriage with his mother as allowed by Mongol custom, he conspired with a younger full-brother to slay him in cold blood, and did so, thereby incurring the wrath of his mother, but at the same time assuming the role of head of household.

From the age of 10 to 15, Temujin was declared an outlaw among the Mongols, and later arrested. His punishment was to wear a heavy, wooden yoke around his neck, while being passed between the families of the aristocratic clan, the Tayichiud , which captured him. These would be responsible for sustaining him and correcting him, if such was deemed possible. A servant clan, one of several made up of war captives and those of common lineage, took sympathy on him, and ministered to the wounds caused by the galling yoke. When he broke free from a captor, using his yoke as a weapon, the family first hid him, and then gave him food and a horse with which to escape.

At around the age of 16, Temujin went to claim his wife, Borte, and did so with the blessing of his in-laws. Borte had become unmarriageable during the interim through having grown too old, and her father was happy to be rid of her, while she was, in turn, satisfied with Temujin. He used her dowry, a sable coat, as a gift to win an alliance with Torghil , or Ong Khan .

When Temujin as around 18, Borte is kidnapped by the band from whom Temujin's mother was taken. He decided to wage war against them, and did so in alliance with Ong Khan.

At around 20, Jamuka and Temujin join in an alliance of their peoples. The alliance was short-lived as Jamuka ordered Temujin and his clan into a subservient posture. Temujin refused, and at the age of 19, split from the company of his anda, or bloodbrother with his family and followers in his trail.The rift caused a civil war involving increasing numbers of the nomadic hunter-herdsmen who occupied the land now called Inner Mongolia, or Mongolia.

At age 27, Temujin claimed the title of khan, or chief of the Mongols, and having succeeded by the appearance of a substantial number in answer to his call, he began to set up a new political system, one which rewarded loyalty and talent, rather than family and friends. War with Jamuka ensued, and under the pretext of revenging a theft of cattle, Jamuka perpetrated an act of hideous cruelty on Temujin's followers, one which would ensure that the Mongol sympathies would work in Temujin's favor in the future.

When Temujin was 33, he joined Ong Khan in an attack on the Tartars, instigated by their commercial rivals, the Jurkin. However, his alliance with the Jurkin was short-lived. Turning upon them, he destroyed their army and absorbed their women and children.

When Temujin was 35, Jamuka declared himself Khan and the two, Jamuka and Temujin joined in a contest to the death.