Genghis Khan is one of the most notorious emperors and warlords in human history. He presided over the expansion of the Mongol Empire into the largest empire in all of Eurasia, conquering land throughout modern-day Russia, China, and the Middle East with sheer terror and brutality.
But what most people don’t know about Genghis Khan (once known as Temujin) is he once almost died.
During a battle with his rival, Jamukha, and the Taychigud, a tribe that followed Jamukha, Genghis Khan was hit in the neck with an arrow and was losing blood very fast.
If not for the heroic efforts of one of Genghis Khan’s trusted retainers, Genghis Khan’s wound would have been infected, and Genghis Khan would have died of dehydration.
According to The Secret History of the Mongols, the oldest literary history book of the Mongol Empire and Genghis Khan (translated by historian Paul Kahn), that retainer’s name was Jelme.
The wound and the rescue
Jelme was a commoner and the son of a blacksmith named Jarchigudai, who was also the father of Subutai, one of the most trusted and accomplished generals of Genghis Khan.
At first, Jelme was given to Genghis Khan to serve as an infant, but he was sent back because the former was too young at the time (the two were around the same age).
However, when Genghis Khan was a teenager, Jelme helped Genghis Khan and his family avoid a rival tribe who hunted his family on a mountain. Jelme was later made a chief of Genghis Khan’s army once the latter became a warlord.
In 1201, Temujin’s forces rivaled Jamukha’s at the Battle of Koyiten. At Koyiten, one of Temujin’s great allies split off to chase Jamukha, but Temujin and his forces fought the Taychigud people in a battle with significant casualties.
The Secret History of the Mongols notes the battle progressed into night hours after both sides suffered tremendous casualties. Both camps were absolutely exhausted, and they both set up camp very close to each other.
Sometime during the battle, someone shot an arrow that hit Genghis Khan. It hit him in the neck, and Temujin would not be able to stop the bleeding. He started losing his strength, and he had to rest without access to medical attention.
Jelme would watch over him the whole time, and to save Temujin’s life, Jelme sucked the blood from Temujin’s neck wound “until Jelme’s mouth and chin were stained with Chingis’s blood” (Chingis is another name for Genghis Khan).
Jelme stayed with Genghis Khan until midnight, sucking the wound, swallowing the blood, and spitting the blood onto the ground, all to stop Temujin from getting life-threatening blood clots.
At midnight, Temujin told Jelme he was extremely thirsty, so Jelme ran into the very close enemy cam““““““““““““““““““““““““““““`p, and looked for mare’s milk. While he could not find mare’s milk in the Tayichigud camp, Jelme was able to find a bucket of curds, pieces of coagulated milk. Jelme also found water, and mixed the curds with the water to make Temujin a drink.
He went back to Temujin, gave him the drink, and then Genghis Khan felt his strength returning and was finally able to sit up.
“The brightness has come back to my eyes,” Temujin said.
The aftermath
After Jelme saved Temujin’s life, you’d expect Genghis to be grateful. But instead, he chastised Jelme for not spitting the blood far enough. He asked him why he put his life in danger and went into the enemy camp:
“While I was laying there bleeding
why did you take off your clothes and run to the enemy camp?
If they captured you
would you have said I was wounded?”
Jelme then defended himself, saying he had a plan to avoid being caught and detected.
Temujin then thanked Jelme for saving his life, not once but twice. A previous time, Jelme had saved him when a rival tribe chased him around a mountain. But Jelme saved his life a second time after sucking the blood from his wound, and then saved him from dying from thirst by getting him a drink from an enemy camp.
Interestingly, in this same battle, a rival general named Jirghogadai admitted to shooting the arrow that killed Temujin’s horse. Jirghogadai offered his services to Temujin, and Genghis Khan respected the fact that the man was willing to admit to killing Genghis Khan’s horse, so he brought him into his army and renamed him Jebe.
Jebe would go on to become one of the most famous generals during Genghis Khan’s reign and most well-known and competent cavalry generals during Genghis Khan’s reign.
Takeaways
Melissa Sartore at Ranker notes Mongol nobles and elites like Genghis Khan often had retainers suck out blood from arrow wounds, which were common in battles. Jelme, as a commoner, was told to serve Temujin, the son of a chief, from a very young age. Despite the two being the same age, Jelme’s job was just to serve Temujin. Temujin later refers to Jelme as a “companion,” “servant at my threshold,” and “private slave at my door.”
Without the efforts of Jelme, who knows what would have become of the Mongol Empire. Jamukha would likely have gained an edge over Temujin’s forces, and the future of the Mongol Empire could have looked extremely different.
When people think about Genghis Khan, they think about the Mongol Empire’s endless brutality in pillaging, sacking, raping, and massacring their enemies.
But what most people don’t know about Genghis Khan was his devotion to meritocracy, which was revolutionary among Mongol chiefs. Jamukha wanted to carry on the status quo of maintaining the power of Mongol nobles and the hierarchy of lineage. Temujin, by contrast, was willing to accept enemy generals like Jebe as long as they were competent and assets to his empire.
He also respected loyalty, as Jelme was allowed to break the law nine times and still be absolved of punishment. He would later be referred to as one of Temujin’s fearsome “four dogs” by Jamukha, generals that were so competent they should be avoided.
Genghis Khan’s rivals and people who dishonored him, however, were shown no mercy. After Genghis Khan won the Battle of Koyiten, his forces looted their camp and then killed every single male member of their clan so “their seed blew away in the wind like the ashes.”
This is just one of many examples of Genghis Khan’s use of psychological warfare to terrorize his opponents.
But none of those victories and legacies would have been possible had Jelme not saved Genghis Khan’s life after his grievous arrow wound.
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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