Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227), born Temujin, was the eldest son of a Mongol ruling family whose power was in precipitous decline. At his birth, the Mongols, living in the arid steppes of Asia, were a leaderless nomadic people scattered by constant warfare with competing tribes and by a hostile Chinese government to the south. When he died, Genghis Khan was Emperor of the Steppes and conqueror of a vast territory stretching from China through Persia, as far east as the Caucasus Mountains. This compelling biography recounts the early life and rise to power of one of the world's most fearsome warriors, as seen and remembered by Genghis Khan's compatriots. The author based his work on The Secret History of the Mongols the sole contemporary record of the great Khan and his people. This rare and remarkable view of politics and power in the thirteenth century, lost to history for some seven hundred years, is made accessible in this incisive look at a fascinating leader as skilled in government as he was in battle."