The Secret History of the Mongols - Definition and Overview

The Secret History of the Mongols is the first literary work of Mongolian culture. It is written for the royal Mongol family some time after Genghis Khan's death in 1227 AD, by an anonymous author, originally in Uighur script, though the surviving manuscripts all derive from a Chinese transliteration and translation of the 14th century, significantly after the death of Genghis Khan on his conquests and perceptions viewed by the Mongols. The book's origin is Mongolian and like much of the texts during the period, it is somewhat folkic, poetic and not really as factual as some historians would have really wanted.

The book was discovered for the West by a Russian sinologist in China, where it was well-known as a text for teaching Chinese to read and write Mongolian during the Ming Dynasty, and first translated into Russian. It is currently regarded as the single significant Mongolian account of the Genghis Khan in Mongolia. It is regarded as a classic literature in Mongolia.

Its first translation into English was Francis Woodman Cleaves, 'The Secret History of the Mongols: For the First Time Done into English out of the Original Tongue and Provided with an Exegetical Commentary, 1. (Harvard-Yenching Institute) Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982. The somewhat archaic and stilted language adopted by Cleaves was not satisfying to all, and between 1971 and 1985, Igor de Rachewiltz published a fresh translation in eleven volumes of the series Papers on Far Eastern History accompanied by extensive footnotes commenting not only on the translation but also various aspects of Mongolian culture.

Several passages of the Secret history appear in slightly different versions in the 17th century Mongolian chronicle Altan Tobci.

External links

• The Secret History of the Mongols (http://www.mongolianculture.com/TheSecretHist.htm): partial text
• Secret History of the Mongols (http://altaica.narod.ru/shengl.htm)
• Timothy May: Extensive review of the publication of Rachewiltz' translation and notes (http://www.deremilitari.org/REVIEWS/Rachewiltz_Mongols.htm) September 2004