What was the context of this famous Genghis Khan quote?

Question

It is often quoted that Genghis Khan said:

The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters.

Where does this quote come from? What did he mean when saying it? Do we actually have confirmation that he even did say this?

I've looked around and haven't found much. It's not in the Secret History of the Mongols. I've found a blog saying that it's quoted in Ibn Battuta's travelogues (writing over a hundred years after Genghis' death), possibly as a way to denigrate the Mongols:

http://albeityacademic.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/capturing-chinggis-qahan-in-secret.html

But I don't have access to Battuta's original text.

Did Battuta get it from any earlier source? Is the quote actually consistent with Mongols' self-portrayal, or is it just a volley in the propaganda wars between the Mongols and their enemies?

Answer 1

I found a similar quote in Rashid-ad-din, (=Rashid al Din (1247-1318) in Wikipedia), Collection of chronicles, vol. 1, book 2 (Russian edition, 1952). The chapter is called Tales on Genghiz Khan, on his laudable features, qualities of his soul, etc. [very long title].

I translate the relevant place (from the Russian): Once Genghiz Khan asked Boorchi-noyon who was the chief of the emirs, what is the greatest joy and pleasure for a man. Boorchi said: "That a man takes a falcon.... etc. [about hunting]

Then Genghis Khan said to Boragul: "You say too!" And Boragul said....[also something about hunting].

Then Cenghiz Khan asked the sons of Khublai. [they also replied something about hunting]

Then Genghiz Khan was willing to say: "You did not answer well! The greatest pleasure and joy for a man is to suppress a rebel and to defeat an enemy, uproot him and take everything he possesses, force his married women cry with tears, and to sit on his good and nice horses, and to make his beautiful wives.... [I cannot translate into English in a public site, what he proposes to do to those beautiful wives].

The whole chapter in Rashid is about 10 pages of such stories and quotations of Genghiz Khan.

Answer 2

The quote comes from the Jami' al-tawarikh (the Ilkhanate's "History of the World"). The quote as given by d'Ohsson, translated from the French:

This conqueror once asked to noyan Bourgoudji, one of his first generals, what was, in his opinion, the delight of man. "It is, he said, to go to the hunt, a spring day, mounted on a beautiful horse, holding his fist on a hawk or a falcon, and see it cut down its prey." The prince made the same question to General Bourgoul, and then to other officers, who all answered as Bourgoudji. "No," said Chingiz Khan, "the greatest enjoyment of a man is to overcome his enemies, drive them before him, snatch what they have, to see the people to whom they are dear with their faces bathed in tears, to ride their horses, to squeeze in his arms their daughters and women."

As far as I know, there is no English translation of the Jami' al-tawarikh, but there is a French translation to which I do not have access.

The context is that in the essay (the book is a series of hundreds of essays) the author gives several anecdotes concerning Genghis Khan and this is one of them.

Answer 3

Milius most likely pulled the quote from Harold Lamb's popular biography of Genghis Khan, which relayed the story and used very similar phrasing to that used in the movie. The Genghis Khan bio was in print for years, and perhaps the readiest source of information on the conqueror in English for long decades.