Although nomads historically adhered to shamanism, they had traditionally been tolerant towards other religions. while waging wars, snatching others’ lands and ruling different nations, they realized that if they would gain nothing except unceasing resistance. in fact, shamanism was not a monotheistic religion that worshiped one God, but it allowed for each to revere his own dead. Genghis Khan made wise use of this traditional environment for all kinds of worship, caused Kurokorum later become a capital of peaceful co-existence of different religions.
The freedom Declaration
When Genghis united the Mongol Empire, many religions followed suit. He assembled nations in his empire with their religions intact, for he understood that the Christian Hereids and Muslim Kara-Khitans could be easily united by the force of sabers, uniting their religions would have been virtually impossible. He realized, moreover, that by showing support in every possible way he would earn the love and admiration of his people. This shows how aside from being a great military general, he was also a brilliant leader. It is stated in Ih Zasag that “All religion shall not have special privileges.” Genghis Khan’s easy victory over the Kara-Khitan might be explained by the fact that aware of the Buddish Gur Khan’s persecution of Muslims, he gained by the support of the people Kara-Khitan by promising them freedom of worship. On his way back from the western campaign, he gathered Muslim scholars in the wasted city of Bukhara and asked them all about their religion. When he left, he exempted inams and cadis from taxation, reinforced their hereditary rights to these posts and even instituted the post of a Minister for Religious Affairs. Despite the wars going on between Muslims and Christian in the west, the persecution of the Manicheans, and constant fighting between Taoists and Buddhists, all religions enjoyed equal rights in Genghis Khan’s empire. This was prescribed by the yasaq.
Legacy
Hublai made his laws in conformity with the noble tradition of religious toleration; therefore, the Yuan Dynasty was a period not only of equitable co-existence between China’s own three faiths (Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism) but also of full freedom for the foreign faiths of Islam and Christianity. The fact that Islam and Christianity, religions not popular in Chinese society, were freely conducting their activities on an equal legal basis could very well be unique in China’s history in Easter, the Jewish Passover and Day of Atonement and the Muslim Ramadan were all celebrated.
Symbol of worship
For Mongols who traditionally revered their ancestor, Genghis Khan was a god. If Napoleon and Alexander the Great are national heroes and the pride of the French and Geeks, Genghis Khan is something more than that for Mongols: their lodestar, spiritual force, and the object of not only of national but of personal pride. genghis has been recognized around the world as a great leader. In a list of personalities that have most influenced the history of mankind , Micheal Hart placed Genghis khan twenty-first, after Karl Marx and before Adam Smith and William Shakespeare. He wrote, “In the course of history, there have been a succession of despotic tyrants, if you will who set out to conquer the world and who archived a considerable measure of success. Each of these four men controlled such a large territory and population, and exerted such an enermous influence on the lives of their contemporaries, that they cannot be curtly dissmised as common bandits”.
In another analyst of historical personalities, in 1995 The Washington Post named Genghis Khan the “Man of the Millennium”.