Jack Weatherford

by The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire

  Rockhill, William Woodville. William of Rubruck’s Account of the Mongols. Maryland: Rana Sada, 2005.

  Rossabi, Morris. Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988.

  Rybatzki, Volker. “Female Personal Names in Middle Mongolian Sources.” In The Role of Women in the Altaic World, ed. Veronika Veit, 211–29. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007.

  Sagang Sechen. Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen und ihres Fürstenhauses, verfasst von Ssanang Ssetsen Chungtaidschi der Ordus. Translated by Isaac Jacob Schmidt. St. Petersburg, Russia: 1827.

  ———History of the Eastern Mongols to 1662: The Bejeweled Summary of the Origin of the Khans (Qad-un-ü ündüsün-ü Erdeni-yin Tobŭi.) Translated by John R. Krueger. Bloomington, IN: Mongolia Society, 1967.

  Serruys, Henry. The Mongols and Ming China: Customs and History. London: Variourum Reprints, 1987.

  ———“Notes on a Few Mongolian Rulers of the 15th Century.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 76 (1956): 82–90.

  ———“The Office of Tayisi in Mongolia in the Fifteenth Century.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 37 (1977): 353–80.

  Thackson, W. M., trans. Khwandamir Habibu’s Siyar: The Reign of the Mongol and the Turk. Part 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1994.

  ———, trans. Mirza Haydar Dughlat’s Tarikh-I-Rashide: A History of the Khans of Moghulistan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1996.

  Togan, Isenbike. Flexibility and Limitation in Steppe Formation: The Kerait Khanate and Chinggis Khan. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1998.

  Urangua, J., and D. Enkhtsetseg. Mongol Khatad. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: private printing, 2000.

  Wada, Sei. “A Study of Dayan Khan.” Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko 19 (1960): 1–42.

  Waldron, Arthur. The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

  Weirs, Michael, ed. Die Mongolen: Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte und Kultur. Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1986.

  Žamcarano, C. Ž. The Mongol Chronicles of the Seventeenth Century, translated by Rudolf Loewenthal. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1955.

  Zhao, George Qingzhi. Marriage as Political Strategy and Cultural Expression: Mongolian Royal Marriages from World Empire to Yuan Dynasty. New York: Peter Lang, 2008.

  A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION

  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY MONGOLIAN HISTORY HAS BEEN ONE of the most confusing times for scholars because of the difficulty of establishing a clear timeline. The chronicles using the animal cycle of years are often difficult to correlate with one another or with the modern calendar. The best chronology available has been published in Mongolian in three comprehensive volumes by Professor B. Baljinnyam, and whenever possible I rely upon his dates.

  English-speaking scholars use many different ways of transliterating classical and modern Mongolian names and words. The correct title for the founder of Mongolia is Chinggis Khan, pronounced CHIN-gis, but by tradition it is rendered in English as Genghis Khan. Generally, I use the spelling that is easiest for the reader rather than adhering to only one system. For example in the name Qaidu Khan, the Q and Kh represent the same guttural sound. I use the Qaidu spelling solely because the reader can find more additional information on him under that spelling; yet, for his daughter Khutulun, more can be found using the Kh spelling. For the same sound I use only an h as in the common spelling Manduhai (rather than Mandukhai or Manduqai), because it better approximates the pronunciation of Man-du-HI.

  Similarly, I use classical and modern spellings, depending on the need, and avoid alternate spelling for the different Turkic and Mongolian dialects of different eras. Thus for simplification, khan is used for khaghan, khan, and khagan or the modern khaan; similarly, beki is used for bek, beg, beghi, bägi, and begi. Scholars will recognize the underlying form, but for most readers, using only a single form will be easier.

  Modern Mongolian names are usually written with an initial preceding the name. In the twentieth century, the use of clan names was forbidden, and since Mongolians generally have only one name, they added the initial of the father’s, or sometimes the mother’s, name to distinguish them from others with the same name.

  NOTES

  INTRODUCTION

  “Let us reward our female offspring” Igor de Rachewiltz, trans., The Secret History of the Mongols (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2004), §§ 214–15. The sentence is repeated in both sections, but in order to make sense of the text, many translators and editors have omitted the duplication or filled in this section with words cut from other parts of the document.

  “From age to age” Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles, translated by W. M. Thackson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998).

  “Genghis Khan loved this one” Ibid.

  “a great luster” François Pétis de la Croix, The History of Gengizcan the Great (Calcutta, 1816).

  PART I

  “There is a khan’s daughter” Nicholas Poppe, trans., Tsongol Folklore: The Language and Collective Farm Poetry of the Buriat Mongols of the Selenga River (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1978).

  CHAPTER 1

  A renegade Tatar Igor de Rachewiltz, trans., The Secret History of the Mongols (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2004), § 214. His name was Qargil Sira or Khargil Shira; an alternate version of the story is found in Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles, translated by W. M. Thackson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998).

  baatuud The heroes were known collectively as the baatuud.

  “looked like so many white demons” N. Elias and E. Denison Ross, A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia: Being the Tarikhi-I-Rashidi of Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlát (London: Curzon, 1895).

  Several Chinese commentators Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh: Chinesische Gesandtenberichte über die frühen Mongolen 1221 und 1237 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1980).

  “their eyes were so narrow” A History of the Moghuls.

  Queen Gurbesu Secret History, § 189.

  “If one is concluding a marriage” Paul Ratchnevsky, Genghis Khan (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1991).

  that his eldest daughter marry Ong Khan’s grandson Secret History, § 165.

  “like dry horse dung in a skirt” Secret History, § 174.

  “looks like a frog” Franz von Erdmann, Temudschin der Unerschütterliche: Nebst einer geographisch-ethnographischen Einleitung unter erfordelichen besondern Anmerkungen und Beilagen (Leipzig: F. A. Brochkaus, 1862).

  Genghis Khan killed him Shir Muhammad Mirab Munis and Muhammad Riza Mirab Agahi, Firdaws al-Iqbal: History of Khorezm, translated by Yuri Bregel (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1999).

  Hassan Secret History, § 182.

  “strength increased by Heaven and Earth” Ibid., § 113.

  Mother Earth Comments of D. Bold-Erdene and B. Baljinnyam, quoted in Chinggis Khaan, edited by Enkhbaatar Naidansod (Ulaanbaatar: Ungut Hevlel, 2006).

  CHAPTER 2

  “I did not say that you have a bad character” Igor de Rachewiltz, trans., The Secret History of the Mongols (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2004), § 208.

  Each wife would rule Hidehiro Okada, “Mongol Chronicles and Chinggisid Genealogies,” Journal of Asian and African Studies 27 (1984): 147.

  He married three of his daughters Franz von Erdmann, Tmudschin der Unerschütterliche (Leipzig: F. A. Brochkaus, 1862); Isaac Jacob Schmidt, “Die Volkstämme der Mongolien,” Jahrbücher der Literature, vol. 77 (Vienna: Carl Gerold, 1837).

  Tumelun was the daughter; Temulun was the sister. 31 “These feasts seldom end” François Pétis de la Croix, The History of Gengizcan the Great (Calcutta, 1816).


  “How shall I watch you two enjoying each other in bed?” Hidehiro Okada, “Outer Mongolia in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Journal of Asian and African Studies 5 (1972): 70.

  Genghis Khan singled out only Boroghul Secret History, § 214.

  “If a two-shaft cart” Ibid., § 177.

  “The management of the man’s fortune” Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles, translated by W. M. Thackson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998).

  pulling one cart Secret History, §§ 186, 200.

  “Whoever can keep a house in order” Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh.

  Ogodei summoned the wrestler Ibid.

  “The dragon who growls in the blue clouds” Walther Heissig “A Contribution to the Knowledge of Eastmongolian Folkpoetry,” Folklore Studies 9 (1950): 161.

  “intercessors” Secret History, § 64.

  Urug also has the extended meaning of “seed,” since the Mongols considered seed as the womb of a plant.

  “It happened … as wide as a lake” Secret History, § 254.

  “My wives, daughters-in-law, and daughters are as colorful” Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh.

  “After Genghis Khan had tested his sons”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 3

  Genghis Khan accepted the Oirat Igor de Rachewiltz, The Secret History of the Mongols (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2004), § 239.

  Checheyigen was also recorded as Tsetseikhen.

  “Because you are the daughter” and related quotes to Checheyigen: George Qingzhi Zhao, Marriage as Political Strategy and Cultural Expression: Mongolian Royal Marriages from World Empire to Yuan Dynasty (New York: Peter Lang, 2008).

  “queens as our shields” Secret History, § 64.

  “You should be determined” Zhao, Marriage as Political Strategy.

  “Although many people can” Ibid.

  white felt rug Hansgerd Göckenjan and James R. Sweeney, Der Mongolensturm: Berichte von Augenzeugen und Zeitgenossen 1235–1250 (Graz, Austria: Verlag Styria, 1985).

  The mother’s blood Alena Oberfalzová, Metaphors and Nomad, translated by Derek Paton (Prague: Charles University, 2006).

  pail of milk Ibid.

  “It seemed to me as though the sky” Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles, translated by W. M. Thackson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998).

  “fifth son” Secret History, § 238.

  a slave into a noble Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh.

  “Whereas, by the Protection of Eternal Heaven” Francis Woodman Cleaves, “The Sino-Mongolian Inscription of 1362 in Memory of Prince Hindu,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 12, no. ½ (June 1949): 31.

  Her nation was her first husband Zhao, Marriage as Political Strategy.

  “The area has no rain or snow” D. Sinor, Geng Shimin, and Y. I. Kychanov, “The Uighurs, Kyrgyz and the Tangut (Eighth to the Thirteenth Century),” in History of Civilizations of Central Asia, vol. 4, edited by M. S. Asimov and C. E. Bosworth (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1999).

  excavations have uncovered Adam T. Kessler, Empires Beyond the Great Wall: The Heritage of Genghis Khan (Los Angeles: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 1993).

  Karluk are also known as Qarlu-ut, Qarluq, and Karluqs.

  “How can he be called Arlsan Khan?” Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh.

  Tolai B. Baljinnyam, Mongolchhuudin Buren Tuukhiin Tovchoon, vol. 1 (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: Admon, 2006).

  CHAPTER 4

  killing of Ala-Qush Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles, translated by W. M. Thackson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998).

  Jingue is also referred to as Zhenguo, Jinkhuu, or Jinkhui.

  “He recognized no business but merrymaking” Ata-Malik Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History of the World-Conqueror, translated by J. Boyle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997).

  “The demon of temptation” Ibid.

  Tokuchar Ebülgâzî Bahadir Han, The Shajrat Ul Atrak: Or, Genealogical Tree of the Turks and Tatars, translated by William Miles (London: Wm. H. Allen, 1838).

  “She left no trace” Ghiyas ad-Din Muhammad Khwandamir, Khwandamir Habibu’s Siyar: The Reign of the Mongol and the Turk, translated by W. M. Thackson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1994).

  “In the exaction of vengeance … rose gardens became furnaces” Juvaini, Genghis Khan.

  “rhetorically ornate rhyming words” Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh.

  Genghis Khan then gave the precocious Boyaohe Namio Egami, “Olon-Sume: The Remains of the Royal Capital of the Yuan-Period Ongut Tribe,” Orient: The Reports of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan 30/31 (1995): 2.

  “always obtain to wife” Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition, vol. 1, translated by Henry Yule (New York: Dover, 1993).

  “My people of the Five Colors and Four Foreign Lands” Charles Bawden, trans., The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobŭi (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrossowitz, 1955), § 43.

  “water in the desert” Altan Tobŭi, § 46.

  “I leave you … one soul” François Pétis de la Croix, The History of Gengizcan the Great (Calcutta, 1816).

  His four dowager queens controlled the territory Hidehiro Okada, “Mongol Chronicles and Chinggisid Genealogies,” Journal of Asian and African Studies 27 (1984): 147.

  PART II

  “As the age declined” Hidehiro Okada, “Dayan Khan as Yüan Emperor: The Political Legitimacy in 15th Century Mongolia,” Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient 81 (1994): 51.

  CHAPTER 5

  Oirat girls Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles, translated by W. M. Thackson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998). Rashid al-Din identifies the girls as Oirat, but Juvaini (Genghis Khan: The History of the World-Conqueror, translated by J. Boyle [Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997]) leaves the name of the tribe blank. The Secret History (Igor de Rachewiltz, trans., The Secret History of the Mongols [Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2004]) identifies them as belonging to Uncle Otchigen, but Ogodei would hardly have been seeking to marry the women of his own patrilineage.

  “Because they had jeered at the Mongols” Rashid al-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan, translated by John Andrew Boyle (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971). 90 “star-like maidens” Juvaini, Genghis Khan.

  yeke khatun Igor de Rachewiltz, “Töregene’s Edict of 1240,” Papers on Far Eastern History 23 (March 1981): 38–63.

  “used to weep a great deal… Beki” Rashid al-Din, Successors of Genghis Khan.

  “became the sharer” Juvaini, Genghis Khan.

  “And the wind has pitched” Ibid.

  “They put to death the youngest” Rashid al-Din, Successors of Genghis Khan.

  “had killed his father… were judged and killed” Giovanni DiPlano Carpini, The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars, translated by Erik Hildinger (Boston: Branden, 1996), p.111.

  why they killed her Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh.

  khuriltai of 1229 Igor de Rachewiltz, trans., The Secret History of the Mongols (Leiden, Netherlands, 2004), § 269.

  “sent us to his mother” Carpini, Story of the Mongols.

  “wives had other tents” Ibid.

  “He took no part in affairs of state” Juvaini, Genghis Khan,.

  “Khatun to join Ogodei… excess sensuality” Abu-Umar-I-Usman, Tabakat-I-Nasirir: A General History of the Muhammadan Dynasties of Asia, vol.
2, translated by H. G. Raverty (London: Gilbert & Rivington, 1881).

  “And then they sent also for their ladies… they were put to death” William Woodville Rockhill, trans., The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253–55 as Narrated by Himself (London: Hakylut Society, 1900).

  “The affairs of the world… they might flee” Juvaini, Genghis Khan.

  “You are a woman” Rashid al-Din, Successors of Genghis Khan.

  “You cannot have peace…. We shall destroy you!” Christopher Dawson, The Mongol Mission: Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1955).

  “As to affairs of war and peace … destroyed her whole family by her witchcraft” Rockhill, Journey of William of Rubruck.

  praised effusively: Morris Rossabi, Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988).

  “amounted to little … pathway of righteousness” Juvaini, Genghis Khan.

  increase the taxes Thomas T. Allsen, “The Rise of the Mongolian Empire and Mongolian Rule in North China,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 6, edited by Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

  “He sent messengers” Rashid al-Din, Successors of Genghis Khan.

  one of the ministers Ibid.

  Tanggis George Qingzhi Zhao, Marriage as Political Strategy and Cultural Expression (New York: Peter Lang, 2008).

  three hundred families George Lane, Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth Century Iran: A Persian Renaissance (New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003).

  “ordered her limbs to be kicked” Rashid al-Din, Successors of Genghis Khan; also recorded in Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh.

  “he forthwith sent to his… the children he had of her” Rockhill, Journey of William of Rubruck.

  Menggeser Noyan Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh; see also Christopher P. Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire (New York: Facts on File, 2004).