Genghis Khan, a Mongolian warrior-ruler who consolidated nomadic tribes into a unified Mongolia and whose troops fought from China's Pacific coast to Europe's Adriatic Sea, creating the basis for one of the greatest continental empires of all time. The leader of a destitute clan, Temüjin fought various rival clans and formed a Mongol confederacy, which in 1206 acknowledged him as Genghis Khan (“Universal Ruler”).

At the Merkit camp in the mountains of northern Mongolia, Temujin went looking for his wife.

We made the Merkits pay for their deeds. We destroyed their families and emptied their breasts.

Temujin, the man who was to become Genghis Khan, was barely 20 and he'd already eliminated one of the Mongolia's great tribes.

In those early days, Temujin and Jamuqa shared the leadership of the tribe. Yet, even as they celebrated the victory over the Merkits, there was a hidden tension between them. At the root was a fundamental question- how to measure a man's worth? Both Temujin and Jamuqa were the sons of tribal leaders, Mongolian aristocrats. But only Temujin had experienced a childhood of real adversity and learned from it.

Now I cared only for the strength in a man's heart. A warrior does not win a battle by virtue of his birth.

Temujin rewarded / ability and loyalty alone. One of his most promising warriors was Subedei, the son of a humble herdsman. But this attitude flew in the face of Mongol tradition. Jamuqa's noble birth led him to believe that / high-rank should be reserved only for Mongol aristocrats. But now, his blood brother was throwing out the old ways. The gulf between Temujin and Jamuqa widened still further. Until a prophecy of the Mongol holy man brought their relationship to a crisis, the shaman said he had ascended into heaven in a holy trance where the Supreme God told him that he would give to me and to my sons the whole surface of the world.