Genghis Khan and the Quest for God

How the World's Greatest Conqueror Gave Us Religious Freedom

By: Jack Weatherford

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

A landmark biography by the New York Times best-selling author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World that reveals how Genghis harnessed the power of religion to rule the largest empire the world has ever known.

Throughout history the world’s greatest conquerors have made their mark not just on the battlefield, but in the societies they have transformed. Genghis Khan conquered by arms and bravery, but he ruled by commerce and religion. He created the world’s greatest trading network and drastically lowered taxes for merchants, but he knew that if his empire was going to last, he would need something stronger and more binding than trade. He needed religion. And so, unlike the Christian, Taoist and Muslim conquerors who came before him, he gave his subjects freedom of religion. Genghis lived in the 13th century, but he struggled with many of the same problems we face today: How should one balance religious freedom with the need to reign in fanatics? Can one compel rival religions - driven by deep seated hatred - to live together in peace?

A celebrated anthropologist whose best-selling Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World radically transformed our understanding of the Mongols and their legacy, Jack Weatherford has spent18 years exploring areas of Mongolia closed until the fall of the Soviet Union and researching The Secret History of the Mongols, an astonishing document written in code that was only recently discovered. He pored through archives and found groundbreaking evidence of Genghis’s influence on the founding fathers and his essential impact on Thomas Jefferson. Genghis Khan and the Quest for God is a masterpiece of erudition and insight, his most personal and resonant work.

©2016 Jack Weatherford (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"An engrossing history that sheds further light on a figure the West has long regarded as the ultimate barbarian." (Booklist)

"Weatherford's study of 13th-century Mongolia reveals how Genghis harnessed the power of religion to rule the largest empire the world has ever known, and draws parallels to religious extremism today." (Publisher's Weekly, Top 10 History Titles)

"Weatherford tells the gripping story of how a man rose from nothing to control almost all the known world. That the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan, the ultimate self-made man, was also the founder of religious liberty is only one of many surprises in this well-researched and well-written book." (Andrew Roberts, author of Napoleon)