Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227) was the title of Temujin, who was the founder and most successful ruler of the Mongolian Empire, the largest contiguous land empire in history.

Temejin ("iron-worker") rose to power by consolodating most of the nomadic tribes of Inner-Asian steppes into a single coalition, by gathering skillful captains and allies and by appealing to warrior families of other tribes by distributing war treasure evenly, rather than to aristocrats only, the traditional method; the crowning moment of this initial rise to power was his assumption of the title Genghis Khan (which probably means something like Oceanic Ruler or Universal Ruler) at the kurultai (general assembly of tribes) in 1206.

After assuming the title Genghis Khan, he initiated the conquests of several Asian land empires, including the Kara-Khitan Khanate, the Khwarezemian Empire, the Western Xia (a Tangut state), and the Jin Dynasty in China.

He died in 1227 after returning to Mongolia from fighting in China, leaving his (by that time) substantial empire in the hands of his third son, Ogedei.