Genghis Khan is remembered as one of history’s most fearsome rulers. He was best known for consolidating the Mongol tribes into a unified clan under his rule (A.D. 1206-1227), and he battled and defeated the infamous Jin dynasty in neighboring China. After his death, the Mongol empire reached its height and expanded as far west as the Persian Gulf and as far east as the Pacific, making it the largest contiguous empire that the world has ever seen.
Today, he’s known as a brutal warrior who killed his brother to take power, and had no problem using violence to expand his domain. But it was actually his lesser-known, more redeeming qualities that enabled his rise to the top — and kept him there for over two decades.
