Ghengis: Birth of an Empire
2 years, 10 months By Allyson
In: Books
Ghengis: Birth of an Empire is a book that I just finished listening to. I seem to have much better luck with that rather than trying to steal time to read. With listening to a book I can do a couple of things at once...such as feeding a small child. Ha.
Anyhow, this book is based on actual history. Overall I loved this book. Though it is definitely a bloody affair. But whenever you tell the story of how a leader came to be I guess it generally is.
The story is well written, and does well with building suspense and climaxes. However, there is one problem with the book. I think he assumes too much or maybe I just don't give people enough credit. The book is about the Mongolian leader from childhood and how he came to be the leader or Khan (pronounced Han) of Mongolia. The thing is if you knew or know nothing of Mongolian history I think there are several things you might be lost on because he doesn't go into much detail about it. I am familiar with asian history as well as Mongolian so I was able to follow along with little trouble.
Some things to understand in order to help you out with this book.
Mongolia is an incredibly cold and unforgiving place environmentally speaking. It gets extremely cold there, 20 below is not the exception, it's the norm.
Gehr is a type of tent. It's actually round in shape and flat at the top unlike a teepee or modern day triangular tents. They are incredibly large but only have one room to them, but they have enough space to them that if the occupant wanted to, they could put a fire in the center and it would not cause the tent to burn down. If I remember correctly they do have holes in the tops of the tents to let out the smoke.
The book also makes mention of ques. I'm uncertain if it is the same for Mongolian as it is for Chinese, but the que is when a man's hair has grown long and they bind it into a braid. The longer the braid the more mature or honorable the man. To cut a man's que is to disgrace him. However in this story the que does not seem to hold as much significance. I don't know if that is a mongolian thing or not. But in Chinese history, having long hair was a big deal.
Those are the only things I can remember right now. The author does eventually tell you about these things but he waits until about the 14th or 23rd chapters to do so. Which might leave you a little confused during the first part of the book. But overall I liked the book and I'm glad that I read it.
Comments
One other thing to mention about ques, is that in China it showed loyalty to the emperor.
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