Yesügei had been the leader of a small Mongol tribe in northeastern Mongolia, in an area adjacent to the modern border with Russia.

Another Mongol group, the Tatars, had in about 1177 poisoned Yesügei.

His orphaned nine-year-old son, Temüjin, had lived as an outlaw, protecting and providing for his mother and his siblings.

Temüjin had entered the service of Toghril Khan, the most powerful Mongol ruler of the time.

Temüjin, around thirty-four by 1202, had risen to power through years of struggle and bloodshed.

He has consolidated his rule over northeastern Mongolia’s warring tribes, in the process nearly annihilating the powerful Turkic tribe known as the Tatars. (Europeans will later identify the Mongols with the Tatars, whom they call Tartars. This play on words makes Tartary, European slang for hell, the home of the “Tartars.”) In 1202, the Mongols begin their first invasion of the Western Xia, pillaging and burning many outlying villages and cities.