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60 free Genghis Khan trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Genghis Khan trivia quiz follows Temüjin from an abandoned family on the Onon River to master of the largest contiguous empire in history: the poisoned father, the murdered half-brother, the kidnapped bride, the blood brother turned enemy, the assembly of 1206, the wars against Western Xia, the Jin and the Khwarazmian shah, and a death that was kept secret while a city fell. The easy questions cover the outline: his birth name, his wife, his heir, the grandson who founded the Yuan dynasty. The harder half is for readers of the Secret History: the tribe that poisoned his father, the phobia the Secret History admits to, the unit of a thousand, the size of the keshig, the shaman who tried to split the family, the spitting response to a Jin envoy, the border town where a caravan was massacred, the Taoist patriarch summoned to the Hindu Kush, the scribe who gave the Mongols an alphabet, and the thirty maidens sacrificed at his grave. Every answer was checked against Genghis Khan's encyclopaedia entry before publishing. If you enjoy this, try our Alexander the Great, Marco Polo and medieval history quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was Genghis Khan's birth name?
Temüjin
One tradition says he was named after a Tatar captive his father had just brought home; another links it to the word for iron.
Q 02Genghis was born into which clan of the Mongol tribe?
Borjigin
The clan claimed descent from the legendary warlord Bodonchar Munkhag.
Q 03According to the most prominent legend, what was Genghis clutching in his hand when he was born?
A blood clot
In Asian folklore the motif marked the child as a future warrior.
Q 04Genghis's father was poisoned while accepting a meal from members of which tribe?
Tatars
He relied on the steppe custom of hospitality to strangers, but they recognised their old enemy.
Q 05How old was Genghis when his father died and his family was abandoned by its tribe?
Eight
The family survived by gathering roots and nuts, hunting small animals and fishing.
Q 06Which older half-brother did the young Genghis kill to secure his position in the family?
Behter
The Secret History records that his mother angrily reprimanded her sons for the killing.
Q 07Which childhood blood brother of Genghis became his greatest rival and was eventually executed?
Jamukha
They swore the anda pact at eleven, exchanging knucklebones and arrows.
Q 08Who was Genghis Khan's principal wife, betrothed to him when he was eight?
Börte
She bore four sons and five daughters, all of whom became influential figures in the empire.
Q 09Genghis's principal wife came from which tribe, which had often intermarried with the Mongols?
Onggirat
Her father held the stronger negotiating position and made the boy stay in his household to work off the bride price.
Q 10Who was Genghis Khan's mother?
Hö'elün
His father had abducted her from her Merkit bridegroom, a grievance that came back to haunt the family.
Q 11Genghis's newlywed wife was kidnapped by around 300 raiders from which tribe?
Merkits
They were avenging his father's abduction of his mother years earlier.
Q 12Which eldest son of Genghis was born soon after his mother's rescue, his paternity in doubt?
Jochi
His brother Chagatai once called him a Merkit bastard and brawled with him in front of their father.
Q 13Toghrul, the patron who received a sable cloak from the young Genghis, was khan of which tribe?
Kereit
He had fought alongside Genghis's father and sworn the anda pact with him.
The Song diplomat Zhao Hong recorded that the future Genghis spent several years in what condition?
Q 21At the 1206 assembly, the keshig bodyguard was expanded from 1,150 to how many men?
10,000
It doubled as household staff, military academy and the centre of government.
Q 22Which shaman, titled Teb Tenggeri, tried to divide the imperial family and was killed for it?
Kokechu
Genghis then took over the shaman's role as the Mongols' highest spiritual authority.
Q 23According to the Secret History, Genghis had a phobia of what?
Dogs
The anonymous author is unusually critical, also presenting him as indecisive.
Q 24Which people were the first sedentary society to submit to the Mongols, in 1211?
As a slave of the Jin
Modern historians think it likely: nothing else explains his whereabouts between about 1187 and 1195.
Q 15The Baljuna Covenant of 1203 was what?
An oath of loyalty sworn with his faithful followers
The oath-takers came from nine tribes and included Christians, Muslims and Buddhists.
Q 16How did Toghrul, Genghis's former patron, meet his end after fleeing in 1203?
Killed by a Naiman who failed to recognise him
His son Senggum escaped to Tibet; Genghis absorbed the tribe's elite by marrying its princesses into his family.
Q 17At which 1204 battle in the Altai Mountains were the Naimans decisively defeated?
Chakirmaut
Their leader Tayang Khan was killed and his son Kuchlug fled west.
Q 18In which year did Temüjin formally adopt the title Genghis Khan at a kurultai?
1206
The assembly was held at the source of the Onon River, where he had grown up.
Q 19One theory holds that the title 'Genghis' derives from a Turkic word meaning what?
Ocean
Since the ocean was believed to surround the earth, the title would imply universal ruler.
Q 20What was the Mongol military unit of a thousand men called?
Minqan
Each was subdivided into hundreds and tens, and each also encompassed the soldiers' households.
The Uyghurs
Their leader Barchuk had freed them from the Qara Khitai; Genghis married a daughter to him.
Q 25The Xia kingdom, target of Genghis's 1209 invasion and of his final campaign, was ruled by which people?
The Tanguts
Its civilisation was essentially wiped out when its capital fell in 1227.
Q 26In 1210 Genghis tried to flood the Xia capital by damming which waterway, only to flood his own camp?
The Yellow River
The Mongols still lacked siege equipment better than crude battering rams.
Q 27How did Genghis respond in 1210 when a Jin envoy demanded that he submit and pay tribute?
He spat and rode away
The Jin could field 600,000 soldiers, potentially outnumbering him eight to one.
Q 28After his failed 1212 assault on Xijing, Genghis formed a corps of what from 500 Jin experts?
Siege engineers
He had been wounded by an arrow during the unsuccessful siege.
Q 29The Jin capital Zhongdu, which surrendered to the Mongols in 1215, is which modern city?
Beijing
The Jin court had already fled 600 km south, which Genghis took as a breach of the peace.
Q 30Which general infiltrated the Juyong Pass in 1213 and later annexed the Qara Khitai?
Jebe
He undermined the usurper Kuchlug by proclaiming Mongol religious tolerance, then had him beheaded.