A rude barbarian, an oriental despot, consumed by exorbitant ambition and obsessed with a disastrous political project? A sophisticated statesman whose ends justify the means? A wise conqueror, firmly determined to provide the Mongolian peoples with a place in the sun? The portrait of the man who founded the largest empire in the history of mankind may take on a wide variety of features, but will never receive final completion. Based on ancient manuscripts, including those written by contemporaries of the Great Khan, the author talks in detail and impartially about the life path of the creator of the Mongol Empire.