The Genghis School of leadership

In the medieval world military competence, like military genius, was a rarity.  However that didn’t extend to the world inhabited by Genghis Khan and his Mongol fighters.  These things were expected.  What’s more, unlike many of their contemporaries, the Mongols didn’t base the ability to command on lineage.  This is not to say lineage wouldn’t help to support a claim to some authority.

The ability to lead was not measured against a person’s ability on the field of battle alone.  You could have been a mighty warrior and still not measure up.  Genghis Khan remarked about one individual:

 

                "There is no warrior like Bahadur, and no one else possesses the skill he had, but he did not suffer from hardship and was not affected by hunger or thirst.  He thought his liege men could tolerate hardship as well as he could, but they couldn’t.  A man is worthy of leadership who knows what hunger and thirst are and who can judge the condition of others thereby, who can go at a measured pace and not allow the soldiers to get hungry and thirsty or the horses to get worn out.”

 

   A good leader then measures not the abilities of those under their command by their strengths, but also their weaknesses.  You are only as good as your weakest link. 

In the pursuit of such leadership abilities the Mongols didn’t leave everything solely to chance, choosing to nurture those who they saw potential in.  Two methods of leadership training were favoured, one was to become a part of the Khan’s own bodyguards, the Keshik, where those who are to be nurtured would gain their training and stay within the bodyguard structure until the Khan selected them to take command of a mission. The second was through a kind of apprenticeship where those with potential would be paired up with those people already seen as talented leaders. This idea of the apprenticeship is thought to have come about due to Genghis Khan’s own experiences while growing up, being a vassal to the ruler of the powerful Kereit confederation in Mongolia, Toghril Ong-Qan, who had him paired up with Jamuqa, a war chief of his on many occasions.  This apprenticeship system was maintained throughout Genghis Khan’s reign.

When it came to the command structure of his armies, Genghis Khan would choose a field-marshal, örlüg, then that field-marshal would select the tümen-ü noyad, who in turn selected the minqan-u noyad, and this carried on down until the rank of arban-u noyad. This way the army had a structure based on trust, but one with the understanding that promotions and demotions would be carried out in the field, and that included generals.

One amazed medieval traveller, Franciscan friar John de Plano Carpini, in 1240, commenting on the authority of the Khan and his generals stated:

            “The Emperor of the Tartars(Tartars being a term Europeans used to describe Mongols at the time) has a remarkable power over everyone.  No one dare stay anywhere except in the place he has assigned to him.  It is he who appoints where the chiefs are to be, but the chiefs fix the positions of the captains of a thousand, the captains of a thousand those of the captains of a hundred, and the captains of a hundred those of the captains of ten.  Moreover, whatever command he gives them, be it battle, to life or to death, they obey without word of objection.”

 

A couple of Genghis Khan’s maxims which might help to explain the extra sense of discipline witnessed go like this:

 

“Commanders of units of ten thousand, one hundred, and one thousand should keep their soldiers in such order and in such readiness that whenever a command is given, they should mount without regard to day or night”

“Let any officers who cannot keep order in his own squad be branded a criminal along with his wife and children, and let another be chosen as officer from his squad and companies of a hundred, a thousand, and ten thousand likewise.”

 

Genghis Khan knew how to get the best out of his men without exhausting them.  It was due to this and the knowledge of the commanders on how to look after their troops’ interests, that the men were so willing to trust them and obey their decisions.

Edited by TheAlaniDragonRising - 28-May-2011 at 17:22

The system used by Genghis Khan while still alive was probably second to none. Though I couldn't say if there was better created later. Does anyone know of better system to train a whole army?

The Mongols learned to ride as small children. They learned how to use swords and bow as soon as they were able to lift them. Their martial prowess was such that by the age of sixteen, they were actively engaged in warfare. The leaders of the various military numbers were chosen for their ability, mainly in man management and military planning, as they were all good fighters. Elections of Khans were based on who the men would follow, and it wasn't always the one chosen by the late Khan. But, as Ogedei demonstrated, it was also possible to have a leader with culture and political nouse, one who could see the future and start preparing his people for change.