Question
Describe the military system of Genghis Khan.
Solution
His army was organised according to the old steppe system of decimal units: in divisions of 10s, 100s, 1,000s and [notionally] 10,000 soldiers. In the old system the clan and the tribe would have coexisted within the decimal units. Genghis Khan stopped this practice.
He divided the old tribal groupings and distributed their members into new military units. Any individual who tried to move from his/her allotted group without permission received harsh punishment. The largest unit of soldiers, approximating 10,000 soldiers (tuman) now included fragmented groups of people from a variety of different tribes and clans.
This altered the old steppe social order integrating different lineages and clans and providing them with a new identity derived from its progenitor, Genghis Khan. The new military contingents were required to serve under his four sons and specially chosen captains of his army units called noyan.
Also important within the new realm were a band of followers who had served Genghis Khan loyally through grave adversity for many years. Genghis Khan publicly honoured some of these individuals as his ‘bloodbrothers’ (anda); yet others, freemen of a humbler rank, were given special ranking as his bondsmen (naukar), a title that marked their close relationship with their master.
This ranking did not preserve the rights of the old clan chieftains; the new aristocracy derived its status from a close relationship with the Great Khan of the Mongols.
