Jochi
Jochi | |
---|---|
Khan of the Ulus of Jochi | |
Predecessor | none |
Successor | Orda Batu |
Born | c. 1182 |
Died | c. 1225 |
Issue | Orda Khan Batu Khan Berke Khan Shiban Tuqa-Timur |
Dynasty | Borjigin |
Mother | Börte |
Religion | Tengrism |
Jochi (Mongolian:ᠵᠦᠴᠢ, also ; c. 1182 – c. 1225) was a Mongol army commander who was the eldest son of Temüjin (Genghis Khan), and presumably one of the four sons by his principal wife Börte, though issues concerning his paternity followed him throughout his life. An accomplished military leader, he participated in his father's conquest of Central Asia, along with his brothers and uncles. He founded the Golden Horde, which was part of the Mongol Empire and later became a functionally separate khanate after the Division of the Mongol Empire.
Birth and paternity
[edit]Jochi's mother, Börte, was born into the Onggirat tribe, who lived along the Greater Khingan mountain range south of the Ergüne river, in modern-day Inner Mongolia.[1] At the age of ten, she was betrothed to a Mongol boy named Temüjin, son of the Mongol chieftain Yesugei.[a] Seven years later (c. 1178), after he had survived a turbulent adolescence, they married.[3] They had their first child, a daughter named Qojin, in 1179 or 1180.[4] By forming alliances with notable steppe leaders, such as his friend Jamukha and his father's former ally Toghrul, and with the help of his own charisma, Temüjin had begun to attract followers and gain power.[5] Word of his rise spread and soon attracted the attention of the Merkit tribe, from whom Yesugei had abducted Temüjin's mother Hö'elün, sparking a blood feud; they resolved to take revenge on Yesugei's heir.[6]
Because of their consequences, the subsequent events were considered highly controversial: most contemporary authors omitted any mention of the events, while the two that did (the Secret History of the Mongols, a mid-13th-century epic poem, and the 14th-century Persian historian Rashid al-Din's Jami al-tawarikh) are badly contradictory.[7] In 1180 or 1181,[8] a large force of Merkits raided Temüjin's camp; while most of his family managed to escape, Börte was captured.[9] She was forcibly married to Chilger-Bökö, the younger brother of Hö'elün's original husband. Meanwhile, Temüjin had convinced his allies to assemble substantial forces to help him rescue Börte.[10] Under Jamukha's command, the combined army campaigned against the Merkits and defeated them, recovering Börte and taking large amounts of plunder.[11]
However, there was a problem—Börte was heavily pregnant and soon, in Jamukha's camp, gave birth to Jochi. As Chilger-Bökö had undoubtedly raped her, and as she had been among the Merkits for nearly nine months, Jochi's paternity was uncertain;[12] this was reflected in his name, meaning "guest" in Mongolian.[13] While Temüjin always regarded Jochi as his son by blood and treated him accordingly, many Mongols, such as his younger brother Chagatai, viewed him as a Merkit bastard.[14]
Adulthood
[edit]Marriages and family
[edit]By 1203, Jochi was old enough for marriage. Temüjin intended to betroth him to a daughter of his ally Toghrul, but this proposal was taken as insulting by Toghrul's people and it eventually led to war between the two leaders.[15] After Toghrul's defeat, Jochi was given one of his nieces, Begtütmish, as a wife.[16] He also married other women: Börte's niece Öki; her relative Sorghan; and a number of less powerful women, named Qutlugh Khatun, Sultan Khatun, Nubqus, Shīr, Qarajin, and Kul. In addition, Jochi took concubines. It is unknown who Jochi's senior wife was, but it was likely either Öki or Sorghan.[17]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Batu_Khan_on_the_Throne_by_Rashid_al-Din.jpg/220px-Batu_Khan_on_the_Throne_by_Rashid_al-Din.jpg)
Jochi's most important sons were Orda Khan and Batu Khan; they were the children of Sorghan and Öki respectively. Neither these women nor Begtütmish was the mother of Jochi's other notable son, Berke. In addition to these three, he fathered other sons and daughters, but none had significant careers, reflecting the junior status of their mothers.[18]
Early commands
[edit]In 1206, having united the tribes of Mongolia, Temüjin held a large assembly called a kurultai where he was acclaimed as "Genghis Khan".[19] He also began to reorder his new nation, dividing the nation between members of his ruling dynasty. As the eldest son, Jochi received the largest share—nine thousand subject warriors, all with their own families and herds; Chagatai received eight thousand, and their younger brothers Ögedei, and Tolui received five thousand each.[20] As expected for a firstborn, Jochi received the territories furthest away from the homeland for his ulus (domain): they were located in western Mongolia along the River Irtysh.[21]
This allocation was made in the expectation that Jochi would expand, and so in 1207–08 he campaigned against and subjugated the Hoi-yin Irgen , a collection of tribes on the edge of the Siberian taiga between the Angara and Irtysh rivers.[22] Jochi secured a marriage alliance with the Oirats, whose leader Qutuqa Beki guided the Mongols to the Yenisei Kyrgyz and other Hoi-yin Irgen. These tribes soon submitted, and Jochi took control of the region's trade in grain and furs, as well as its gold mines.[23] He subsequently reinforced Subutai's army before it defeated the renegade Merkits at the battle of the Irtysh River in later 1208 or early 1209.[24] Jochi would campaign intermittently against the Merkits and their Qangli allies for the next decade, finally destroying the last remnants of the people in 1217 or 1218 alongside Subutai.[25] The historian Christopher Atwood has argued that this narrative minimised Jochi's role, that in reality he, not Subutai, was the primary commander in all campaigns against the Merkit and Qangli, and that his right to rule the former Qangli lands was justified by the success of the campaigns.[26]
Alongside his brothers Chagatai and Ogedei, Jochi commanded the right wing in the 1211 invasion of the Chinese Jin dynasty. The Mongols marched southwards from Genghis's campaign headquarters in modern Inner Mongolia: first they attacked the cities in the area between Hohhot and Datong, and then they followed the Taihang Mountains into Shanxi, where they pillaged and plundered.[27] He may have also taken part in the Irghiz River skirmish, an inconclusive engagement fought against the army of Muhammad II of Khwarazm;[28]
Khwarazmian war and familial conflicts
[edit]Jochi played a major role in the Khwarezm war of 1219–1221 in Central Asia – his forces captured the towns of Signak, Jand, and Yanikant in April, 1220, during this war. Subsequently, he was given the command of operation against the city of Urgench (Gurganj, in present-day Turkmenistan), the capital of the Khwarezmian Empire. Here the siege of the town suffered delays because Jochi engaged in extensive negotiation with the town to persuade it to surrender peacefully and to save it from destruction. Jochi's brother Chagatai regarded this action as militarily unsound: Chagatai wanted to destroy the city but Temüjin (now Genghis Khan) had promised the city to Jochi after his victory. This difference of opinion on military affairs deepened a rift beatween Jochi and Chagatai. Genghis Khan intervened in the campaign and appointed Ögedei as the commander of the operation. Ögedei resumed the operations vigorously – capturing, sacking and thoroughly destroying the town and massacring its inhabitants (1221).[citation needed]
The differences in tactics between Jochi and Chagatai in early 1221 added to their personal quarrel about the succession. To settle the matter, Genghis Khan called for a "kurultai", a political and military council - a formal meeting used both in familial matters and in matters of state. Genghis Khan had won election/appointment as Khan of his tribe during a kurultai, and he called them often during his early campaigns to garner public support for his wars – such meetings were key to Genghis Khan's legitimacy. Tribal tradition was also critical. As Genghis Khan's first-born son, Jochi was favored[by whom?] to rule the clan and the empire after his father died. At the familial kurultai called in 1222, Chagatai raised the issue of Jochi's legitimacy. At that meeting, Genghis Khan made it clear that Jochi was his legitimate first-born son. However, he worried that the quarrelsome nature of the two would split the empire. By early 1223 Genghis Khan had selected Ögedei, his third son, as his successor. For the sake of preserving the Empire, both Jochi and Chagatai agreed, but the rift between them never healed. Their rift would later politically divide the European part of the Mongol Empire from its Asian part permanently.[citation needed]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Dzhuchi_khan_mausoleum.jpg/220px-Dzhuchi_khan_mausoleum.jpg)
During the autumn of 1223 Genghis Khan started for Mongolia after completing the Khwarezm campaign. Ögedei, Chagatai and Tolui went with him but Jochi withdrew to his territories north of Aral and Caspian Seas. There he remained until his death and would not see his father again in his lifetime. [citation needed]
Legacy
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/GoldenHorde1300.png/220px-GoldenHorde1300.png)
In the Kurultai of 1229 following Genghis Khan's death, Jochi's family was allocated the lands in the west up to 'as far as the hooves of Mongol horses had trodden'. Following the Mongol custom, Genghis Khan bequeathed only four thousand 'original' Mongol troops to each of his three elder sons and 101,000 to Tolui, his youngest son. Consequently, Jochi's descendants extended their empire mostly with the help of auxiliary troops from the subjugated populations which happened to be Turkic. This was the chief reason why the Golden Horde acquired a Turkic identity.
His sons Orda and Batu founded the White Horde and the Blue Horde, respectively, and would later combine their territories into the Kipchak Khanate or Golden Horde. Jochi's son Berke was among the earliest Mongols to convert to Islam. Under Jochi's son Batu, Mongol rule expanded to its westernmost limit, and the Golden Horde (Kipchak Khanate) was established to consolidate the Jochid ulus.
The first mention about his mausoleum is found in 16th century Sharaf-name-yi shahi, describing the 1582 the campaign of the Abdullah Khan II:[29]
On Saturday, 6th month, (khan) stopped near (Navaqi) Sarai in front of the mazar of Jochi khan.
Children
[edit]Jochi had at least 14 sons[30] and two daughters:
- Orda (c. 1206–1251)
- Batu (c. 1207–1255)
- Berke, Khan of the Golden Horde from 1257–1267[31]
- Berkhechir
- Shiban
- Tangad
- Teval (Buval). He was the grandfather of Nogai Khan.
- Chilagun
- Sinqur
- Chimbay
- Muhammed
- Udur
- Tuqa-Timur, the ancestor of late khans of the Great Horde.[32]
- Shingum
- Qoluyiqan.[33] She married Törelchi, eldest son of Quduqa-beki of the Oirats.
- Daughter who married the Qarluq chief of Almaliq.
- Begtütmish, sister of Sorghaghtani and Ibaqa
References
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ At this point in time, the word "Mongols" only referred to the members of one tribe in northeast Mongolia; because this tribe played a central role in the formation of the Mongol Empire, their name was later used for all the tribes.[2]
Citations
[edit]- ^ Atwood 2004, p. 456.
- ^ Atwood 2004, pp. 389–391.
- ^ Broadbridge 2018, pp. 49–50, 57; Ratchnevsky 1991, pp. 20–21, 31; May 2018, pp. 23–28.
- ^ Broadbridge 2018, p. 58.
- ^ Favereau 2021, p. 34; May 2018, pp. 28–30; Ratchnevsky 1991, pp. 31–34.
- ^ Ratchnevsky 1991, p. 34; Broadbridge 2018, pp. 46–47.
- ^ Broadbridge 2018, pp. 58–64; Ratchnevsky 1991, pp. 34–37; May 2018, pp. 30–31.
- ^ Broadbridge 2018, p. 63.
- ^ Ratchnevsky 1991, p. 34; May 2022a, p. 55.
- ^ May 2018, p. 30; May 2022a, pp. 55–56; Broadbridge 2018, p. 59; Atwood 2004, p. 278.
- ^ Favereau 2021, p. 34; Ratchnevsky 1991, pp. 35–36; May 2018, p. 30.
- ^ Biran 2012, p. 35; May 2022a, p. 56; Atwood 2004, p. 278.
- ^ Dunnell 2023, p. 25; Atwood 2004, p. 278.
- ^ Favereau 2021, p. 65; Biran 2012, p. 35; Atwood 2004, p. 278.
- ^ Ratchnevsky 1991, pp. 67–69; May 2022a, pp. 59–61; Broadbridge 2018, pp. 78–79.
- ^ May 2022a, p. 61.
- ^ Broadbridge 2018, pp. 230–231.
- ^ Broadbridge 2018, pp. 229–232.
- ^ Atwood 2004, pp. 98–99.
- ^ Dunnell 2023, pp. 30–31.
- ^ Biran 2012, p. 69; Favereau 2021, pp. 65–66; Favereau & Pochekaev 2023, p. 248.
- ^ May 2022b, p. 138; Favereau & Pochekaev 2023, p. 248.
- ^ Atwood 2004, p. 502; May 2018, pp. 44–45; May 2022b, p. 139.
- ^ May 2018, p. 45; Favereau 2021, pp. 43–44.
- ^ Atwood 2004, p. 278; Favereau 2021, pp. 46–47; Favereau & Pochekaev 2023, p. 248.
- ^ Atwood 2017, pp. 44–45, 50.
- ^ Favereau 2021, p. 48; Dunnell 2023, p. 35; Atwood 2004, p. 278; Atwood 2017, p. 36.
- ^ Dunnell 2023, p. 38; May 2018, pp. 58–59.
- ^ B. A. Baitanaeva (2017). Сакральная география Казахстана: Реестр объектов природы, археологии, этнографии и культовой архитектуры. Almaty: Institute of Archeology. pp. 448–450.
- ^ H.H.Howorth-History of the Mongols, part. II div. II, p. 35.
- ^ David Morgan, The Mongols, p. 224.
- ^ "GİRAY - TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi". TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi (in Turkish). Retrieved 2021-05-22.
- ^ The Secret History of the Mongols: The life and times of Chinggis Khan (2001) Onon, Urgunge [ed.], Abingdon: Routledge-Curzon Press, pp. 222–223. "He [Chinggis Qahan] gave ... Jochi's daughter Qoluyiqan to Inalchi's elder brother Törelchi."
Bibliography
[edit]- Atwood, Christopher P. (2004). Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-4671-3.
- Atwood, Christopher P. (2017). "Jochi and the Early Western Campaigns". In Rossabi, Morris (ed.). How Mongolia Matters: War, Law, and Society. Leiden: Brill. pp. 35–56. ISBN 978-9-0043-4340-5.
- Biran, Michal (2012). Chinggis Khan. Makers of the Muslim World. London: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1-7807-4204-5.
- Broadbridge, Anne F. (2018). Women and the Making of the Mongol Empire. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-1086-3662-9.
- Dunnell, Ruth W. (2023). "The Rise of Chinggis Khan and the United Empire". In Biran, Michal; Kim, Hodong (eds.). The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 19–106. ISBN 978-1-3163-3742-4.
- Favereau, Marie (2021). The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-6742-7865-3.
- Favereau, Marie; Pochekaev, Roman Yu. (2023). "The Golden Horde, c. 1260–1502". In Biran, Michal; Kim, Hodong (eds.). The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 243–318. ISBN 978-1-3163-3742-4.
- May, Timothy (2018). The Mongol Empire. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-4237-3. JSTOR 10.3366/j.ctv1kz4g68.11.
- May, Timothy (2022a). "The Rise of Chinggis Khan". In May, Timothy; Hope, Michael (eds.). The Mongol World. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 51–67. ISBN 978-1-3151-6517-2.
- May, Timothy (2022b). "The Conquest of Qara Khitai and Western Siberia". In May, Timothy; Hope, Michael (eds.). The Mongol World. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 137–149. ISBN 978-1-3151-6517-2.
- Ratchnevsky, Paul (1991). Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy. Translated by Thomas Haining. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-6311-6785-3.