The Daily Bluster

Besides ruling the largest land empire the world has ever seen, Genghis Khan apparently is also the ancestor of 0.5 percent of the world’s male population. That’s around 16 million living, breathing great, great, great (and so on) grandkids of the Scourge of God himself. While the Phoenician Empire was built through commerce , Genghis Khan’s empire was built through warfare, with the result that he killed off a good portion of Asia’s population during his bloody conquests.   To be fair though, he also helped repopulate the world . How’d he manage it, though--how did he build an empire that, at its apex, occupied 16% of the world’s total land area? For one thing, he had an efficient, disciplined, well-organized army. For another, he had history’s greatest generals leading that army. One of them was Subutai, widely considered as the military mastermind behind the Mongol Empire. One of Genghis Khan’s legendary “Dogs of War” (there were four) Subutai is arguably the ...

I need not fear my enemies because the most they can do is attack me. I need not fear my friends because the most they can do is betray me. But I have much to fear from people who are indifferent. Assyrian Proverb  The Assyrian civilization is  one of the most brutal and fearsome civilizations of the ancient world , but little is known about their early history. According to some traditions, however, the city of Ashur (also spelled Assur ), one of the capitals of ancient Assyria, was founded by Ashur the son of Shem, the son of Noah. Yes, that Noah.    No, not this Noah. I mean the ark guy. Named for its ancient capital city Ashur, Assyria was originally a region on the Upper Tigris River. At its height, the Assyrian Empire controlled areas in what are now modern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, western Iran, Kuwait, and Egypt. Nineveh was its capital. The Kings of Assyria controlled large kingdoms...