Summary: In the first two chapters of this series we recalled the assassination of the Mongol warlord Genghis Khan and explored its effects on literature, the arts, film, pop culture, and world history in the centuries that followed. In this final segment, we’ll discuss some of the most popular theories concerning the assassin’s identity and speculate on how human history might have played out had the Khan not been murdered.

******

Whenever a political or military leader dies under unusual circumstances, there are inevitably some people who will assert that said death was the result of a shadowy cabal. For proof of this, one need look no further than the plethora of conspiracy theories which sprang up in the wake of President Lyndon Johnson’s sudden death from a heart attack in 1963-- and Johnson lived(and died) in an era when it was relatively easy to establish how a person had met their demise. One can only imagine how many more far-fetched ideas were inspired by Genghis Khan’s death; there were no witnesses at all to his murder or even a hint about the identity of the murderer. Everybody from Satan himself to a village goatherd has been named as a potential suspect in the Khan’s assassination.

Here, however, we’ll focus solely on the most common theories in regard to the assassin’s identity. The most popular such hypothesis is that he was slain by a jealous relative or family member who hoped to replace him as khan and fled in terror when he realized things had gone wrong with his plot. Intriguing though this theory might be, its crucial flaw is that it underestimates the strength of family loyalty between the Khan and his fellow clansmen; many scholars of the Mongol era suggest that the Khan’s closest relatives-- in particular his son Ogadai --would have been much more likely to oppose an assassination conspiracy than to hatch one. Still, the idea of Genghis being slain by one of his own kin remains very popular despite historians’ efforts to refute it. In fact, two bestselling paperback novels published last fall built their entire storylines around the notion of Genghis being the victim of a power-hungry relative.

The second-most common theory regarding the assassination suggests one of his generals was responsible for the killing. This notion too is somewhat suspect given what we know about the depths of the loyalty the Khan inspired in his troops and his commanders. It most likely would have taken something extraordinary to disaffect these men to the point where they would even consider forming a plot to take his life, and there’s no concrete evidence to suggest such a traumatic event had taken place prior to the Khan’s death. In fact, as far as historical records are available to give accounts of the khan’s army, the Mongols were almost universally successful in combat against every foe they encountered. Their reputation was sufficiently fearsome and well-known that at the time Genghis Khan was murdered, the shoguns who ruled Japan were concerned about the possibility the Mongols might one day try to invade their island realm. The Khan’s demise did little if anything to squash such fears; it took nearly a century for Japan’s rulers to finally overcome their anxiety about the prospect of a full- fledged Mongol attack on the Japanese home islands.

The third, and most plausible, theory regarding the Khan’s assassination is that he was slain by a relative of one of the khan’s victims. Sketchy as they are, the Mongolian historical records of the 13th century do contain evidence that at least one of his generals was concerned someone was stalking the Mongol chieftain across the Chinese interior. If the Khan was ever informed of such misgivings, he either brushed them aside or never had time to act on the warnings before he was murdered. Still, the theories of the khan’s murder being a revenge killing are gaining increasing traction among historians. The present- day Chinese government has shown particularly strong interest in this idea, sponsoring at least three archeological expeditions into China’s interior to search for evidence that might help tie the Khan’s murder to a descendant of one of the victims of the Mongol hordes’ rampage.

******

Now let’s ask ourselves for just a moment how the history of the world might have unfolded over the last eight centuries if the khan hadn’t been assassinated and the Mongols had been able to keep waging their campaigns of conquest throughout Asia. There were quite possibly the most effective strategists and cavalrymen of the medieval era, and as has been previously mentioned Genghis Khan was a highly charismatic military and political leader who commanded extraordinary loyalty from his men. How far could they have extended their empire? Most experts on medieval history and warfare in general agree that, at a minimum, the Mongols could have ranged across all of China and made deep inroads into the Russian interior; some scholars have even argued the Mongol armies could have eventually gotten as far as the banks of the Danube River.

In fact, one of the most popular premises of alternate history literature in the last twenty years has been the idea of a vast Mongol Empire dominating Asia and the Middle East. One especially fashionable riff on this theme has been SF author Harry Turtledove’s Golden Horde series, which portrays a surviving Genghis Khan building up the Mongol Empire into the medieval world’s predominant superpower and a besieged Christian Europe fighting to halt his armies’ advance. The four novels so far published in the series have all consistently been bestsellers, and social media buzz has helped stoke anticipation for a fifth novel. There’s even talk of adapting the first book as a cable TV mini-series or feature film.

In the online gaming world a first-person fighting simulator based on the notion of a powerful Mongol Empire has attracted tens of millions of subscribers over the last five years. Legions Of The Khan, the brainchild of a San Diego-based design team, has prompted both praise for its attention to period detail and condemnation for what is regarded by some critics as excessive amounts of gore in its combat sequences. As of the time this article is going to press, at least three major Hollywood film studios are reported to be bidding for the rights to adapt the game for the silver screen.

On television Showtime scored a ratings hit in 2009 with its six- part miniseries depicting a triumphant Mongol army rolling all the way to the borders of modern-day France, while the BBC drew critical raves that same year for a documentary special that explored the possibility of Mongol troops overrunning France and crossing the English Channel to attack medieval Britain. Though some historians criticized the BBC documentary for its dry narration and melodramatic soundtrack, those were minor quibbles compared with the documentary’s vivid and highly realistic portrayal of a Mongol army marching to the English people’s very doorstep.

There have even been explorations of the audacious if somewhat implausible notion of Mongol armies invading North America. In 2005 a four-part graphic novel miniseries titled Journey To The Sun generated massive buzz in the comics industry with its vivid, brutal depictions of Mongol cavalrymen doing battle with Iroquois warriors on the banks of the Hudson River. A movie adaptation of Journey is currently in the works and is scheduled to be released sometime next year; development is also underway on a proposed TV series that would continue the story of Journey’s central protagonists.

Suffice it to say it isn’t likely that interest in Genghis Khan or the effects of his assassination on human history are likely to dwindle any time soon. If anything, in light of Asia’s growing significance as a major economic regional power in the modern world and the continuing quest by scholars in all parts of the globe to find the truth about the khan’s death, such interest is likely to increase in the years ahead. In fact, even as you read this, a joint South Korean-Chinese archeological expedition is in the Gobi Desert searching for clues that might at last give a tangible sign of the identity of the Khan’s assassin.

The End