In an interview on The Khyber Pass

Why did you choose John Man’s biography Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Resurrection?

It’s a gripping read and it’s very well written, covering Genghis Khan’s life from start to finish. The story itself is impressive – Khan’s father was murdered when he was very young and he was cast out on to the steppes of Mongolia with his mother and two siblings. How he got from that to becoming the most powerful man in the world is staggering.

It’s not explicitly mentioned in the book, but when you read it you become aware that it’s effectively a “how to” of leadership. It sets out the principles under which he rose to power, and it contains a lot of tips about how to lead. Interestingly, Man recently brought out a book called The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan. It’s a distillation of the biography, and I think it’s best read as a companion to it.

I also appreciate that John Man did a lot of on-the-ground research. He visited the places where Genghis Khan was probably born and where he was buried.

Did Genghis Khan travel through the Khyber Pass?

Just once, when he was on his way to invade India. Some wonder why he didn’t go further into India. One theory is that he didn’t like the weather. He had horses, you see, and it was too hot for there to be enough grass for his cavalry.

But the impact of the Mongols in Afghanistan was lasting. Eight hundred years ago, before the Mongols arrived, Afghanistan was a world centre for Buddhism. Most people would not imagine that it was like that, because today we think of it as very much a Muslim country. It was the Mongols that put an end to Buddhism there.