Anyone who has seen “Night at the Museum”, or studied history may know that Genghis Khan, and his descendants once controlled an Empire that held sway over vast parts of Asia and even came close to defeating Europe as well. The image of barbarian hordes at the gates of Europe has come to be represented by the horseback riding archers of Mongolian legend, and in reality the Mongols were just as brutal as we have come to believe. In the battles for Persia, Genghis had all the male, and most of the women and children of the city of Urgench killed, with only artisans sparred for use in the Mongol capital.
A contemporary writer, the Persian scholar Juvayni asserted that 50 thousand Mongol soldiers were told to execute 2 dozen people each after the battle, which roughly translates to over 1.2 million people. He then goes on to state that only a handful of the best women were taken back as slaves for his armies, and the most beautiful of these was given to Genghis himself. Laters writers say this was an exaggeration meant to drum up fear of the Mongol invasion, but current findings may support that this was not far off the mark.
