The Secret History of the Mongols

An inventive translation of a great historical epic, and the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language, recounting the turbulent life and times of Genghis Khan and his Dothraki-like, nomadic horse lords

A Penguin Classic

The Secret History of the Mongols is one of the literary wonders of the world. Writing in the thirteenth century, the Secret Historian - whose identity remains unknown - combines insider history and verse to chronicle the life of Genghis Khan and the empire he founded. Following Genghis from his early years, through feasts and fights, alliances, rivalries and betrayals, we witness the birth of a new regime, and a unified Mongolia whose hordes swept across the steppe and remade the medieval world. It was a world of vast nomad tent cities and warrior horse lords, governed by a distant Heaven, a world which draws near in this vivid new translation.

Christopher P. Atwood is Professor of Mongolian and Chinese Frontier and Ethnic History, and Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. He spent two years in Inner Mongolia, and two decades at Indiana University. Atwood’s previous book sinclude The Rise of the Mongols and Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire.