Temujin: Childhood Hardship and the Path to Power

Temujin was born, according to the chronology most widely accepted by modern historians, around 1162 near the Onon River, in what is now northeastern Mongolia. His name may derive from "temür" (iron), and according to the "Secret History," it was given in honor of a Tatar chief his father had captured on the very day of his birth; legend holds that he came into the world clutching a blood clot the size of a knucklebone, an omen of a warrior's destiny. His father, Yesugei Baatar, chief of the Borjigin clan, was poisoned by Tatars around 1171, when Temujin was about nine years old, after sharing a meal with them in a gesture of hospitality that proved fatal.