[Cyfer]

Genghis Khan. How do you view him. Hero or Villain?

I plan to read the Secret History of the Mongols (thank you MrJohnDClare) quite soon since now I'm back from my holiday and hopefully that will further my knowledge of this truly remarkable man and affect my opinion but so far my opinion goes as follows:

To me and many other people (particularly Mongolians whose most surnames are dedicated after the man) Genghis Khan is a hero. Yes he was brutal, ruthless and dangerously unpredictable and sporadic but this is what gave him the world's largest empire. He couldn't have conquered the mighty Chinese by letting cities not be affected while being sporadic enough to play psychologically with the minds of people, giving easy surrender or suicide in cases of Chinese towns (for the first statement) and in the incident of the 'Falling Petals' (for the second statement)

He fashioned a life from nothing into an empire while not playing into greed and pleasure, emotions that could have ruined him. He did this by not caring for gold or silver, a castle or a fort but merely to be the very best.

~Cipher

[MrJohnDClare]

I have moved this to the discussion forum, Cyfer, because I think you wanted feedback from other students.

For myself, I think - whether hero or villain - he must have been a genius, to fashion such an empire given the technology of the times.