12 From the Rising Sun to the Setting Sun

Chapter 11 From the Rising Sun to the Setting Sun Genghis Khan had more goods from China than he knew what to do with. The Mongol people were well fed and comfortable. They had grown accustomed to the silks and jewels that had once seemed so exotic.

To the Mongols' west lay the Khwarizm Empire (present-day Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and beyond). Khwarizm was a young and large empire. It was just twelve years older than the Great Mongol Nation and stretched more than 1,500 miles across. People in Khwarizm knew the secrets of glassmaking. They were skilled at working with steel, farming cotton fields, and weaving beautiful textiles. Genghis Khan sent word to the leader of

Khwarizm, Sultan Muhammad II. He told the sultan he did not wish to expand his Mongol empire. He wished only for a peaceful trading partnership with Khwarizm. Genghis Khan referred to himself as the ruler of the lands of the rising sun, and called the sultan ruler of the lands of the setting sun. The sultan considered the Mongols uncivilized. He did not want them coming to his lands. But he wasn't ready to fight their powerful army, so he agreed to trade. In the meantime, he secretly prepared for war. In 1219, Genghis Khan sent a caravan of 450 merchants to the city of Otrar, in what is now southern Kazakhstan. They had camel cloth, jade, and silver to sell and trade. The governor of Otrar called the merchants spies and had them executed.

Genghis Khan sent a group of men to the sultan to demand an apology. He wanted harsh punishment for the murderous governor of Otrar. In response, Sultan Muhammad II killed some of the ambassadors! He cut the faces of those

he'd spared to send a message to Genghis Khan. When word reached Genghis Khan, he became furious. He climbed his sacred mountain and prayed to the Eternal Blue Sky: "Grant me strength to exact vengeance." Genghis Khan and his sons galloped to Khwarizm with more than 100,000 soldiers. Their first stop was Otrar. It took months to overtake the city, but the Mongols were finally victorious. They executed the governor. The army next approached the city of Bukhara from the forbidding Red Desert. Merchants traveled hundreds of miles out of their way to avoid this harsh landscape. But Genghis Khan crossed in the cold winter months, when dew formed on the ground and short grasses grew for his horses. He befriended desert nomads who helped show him the best way to

Bukhara. By the end of 1220, all the cities of Khwarizm had fallen to the Mongol armies. The sultan escaped to an island in the Caspian Sea, where he later died. Genghis Khan had only wished to trade with Khwarizm. Because of his violent expansion into