Church of the East (Kereyit)

Who holds it

Title

A clergy of priests and deacons attached to the khan's ordu and the camps of the nobles; no bishop or metropolitan of the Kereyit is named in any source reached

Since

The faith is dated by tradition to about 1009

Born

not known

Family

The ruling house carries Christian names in Rashid: Marghuz (Marcus) Buyiruq Khan, Toghrul's grandfather, and Qurjaqus (Cyriacus) Buyiruq Khan, his father. Toghrul's niece Sorqaqtani, born in the 1190s on the usual dating and so a child in 1200, is a Christian in later life.

Confidence

medium for the church among the people; low for persons and for the year

Bar Hebraeus preserves the letter in which Abdisho, metropolitan of Merv, told the Patriarch that a king of the Kereyit, lost in a snowstorm, had been guided by a saint in a vision and had asked for Christian teachers; the Patriarch sent priests and deacons and a tent for the altar. The year is given as about 1009. This session could not open Bar Hebraeus; the account is from memory. The English Wikipedia article on Toghrul says the Keraites took the Church of the East early in the 11th century.

Overlord

The Patriarch (Catholicos) of the East at Baghdad, Yahballaha II (1190 to 1222). His hold on a church so far away is nominal, and the nearest metropolitan see is not known.

What it holds

• No estates, villages or revenue attested
• A tent altar, books and vessels at the ordu (inferred from the 1009 mission)
• The offerings and protection of the khan and the nobles
• Baptised families among the clans (no count, no list)

How it was acquired

Tradition: the Kereyit were baptised about 1009 after the letter of Abdisho of Merv.

Allies and rivals

Patron: the Kereyit khan and nobles. Of the same faith in part: the Naiman (the Kereyit's enemies, so the faith is no bond), the Ongud who guard the Jin march, some Merkit and Onggirat. Distant brethren: the Church of the East in the Tarim and at Qocho (tar sheet). The shamans share the camps; no open quarrel is recorded.

How things stand that morning

No bishop is named in any source reached. A priesthood of unknown size serves the ordu and the clans. The royal house is Christian in name by descent and Sorqaqtani is a Christian child of the family. The Patriarch's authority is a name. Priests, scribes and merchants who pass between the Kereyit court, the Ongud and the Tarim cities are the church's link to the world (see Merchants at the ordu).

Wealth

Offerings and protection from the khan and the nobles; books, vessels and a tent for the altar. No land.

Threats

• The khan's fall: a church that lives on the khan's tent has no ground of its own
• Few priests and no known bishop (inference)
• The loss of the khan's protection if Senggum and the nobles turn on Temujin and the Mongols answer

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1203After the fall of the Kereyit, Kereyit Christian women marry into the Mongol house, Sorqaqtani among them, who will be the mother of khans; the church survives under Mongol protection (one line; after the opening date).Depends on: The war of 1203. Stopped by: A different end to it.

Places of note

• Tent church at the khan's winter ordu (inferred): Where the Kereyit church would stand in winter: a tent beside the khan's; not described for 1200.

Where the sources disagree

• The brief and the assignment speak of Toghrul's 'Christian household'. The English Wikipedia article on Toghrul says there is no credible proof that he was Christian himself, because the Mongolian sources say nothing of his religion; it lists his religion as 'Nestorian Christian (presumed)'. This record keeps the church of the people and the Christian names of his house, and treats his own faith as presumed.
• The assignment asks for 'their bishops'. No bishop of the Kereyit is named in any source reached.
• The identification of Toghrul with Prester John is of the 1250s to 1290s (Rubruck and Marco Polo, who speak of the Kereyit king as 'Unc' or 'Unc Khan') and has not happened on 1 January 1200.

Evidence: The conversion tradition and the Christian names are in Bar Hebraeus and Rashid, from memory. A tent church and priests at Toghrul's ordu in 1200, and the royal women's faith, are inferred from the people's faith and from later lives.

On the map: No ground; a point at the khan's winter ordu. The faith ran through the clans across the whole Kereyit range.

Primary sources for Kereyit

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
• The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
• Compendium of Chronicles, Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani (1300 to 1311, at Tabriz). The official Ilkhanid history, compiled from Mongol oral tradition and the lost Altan Debter. Read online
• Compendium of Chronicles: the Turkic and Mongol tribes and the life of Chinggis Khan, Rashid al-Din Hamadani (about 1300 to 1311, in the Ilkhanate). The fullest description of who held what on the steppe around 1200, written a century later from Mongol court records (the Altan Debter) and from informants such as Bolad Chingsang. Read online
• History of the Yuan, Song Lian (宋濂) and the Ming history office (1369 to 1370). Juan 1, the annals of Taizu (Chinggis Khan), gives a dated outline of Temujin's early wars drawn from the same lost Altan Debter as the Shengwu qinzheng lu: the Tatar war with the Jin in 1196, the Merkit and Naiman campaigns, the Tayichi'ut war, Jamuqa's coalition of 1201 and the Tatar and Kereyit wars of 1202 and 1203. Read online
• History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
• Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun (Qiu Chuji), Li Zhichang (李志常) (about 1228, from the journey of 1220 to 1224). A dated eyewitness itinerary across the steppe and the Tarim twenty years after 1200: the Kereyit country and the Ongud frontier, the Naiman mountains, the Uyghur towns of Beshbaliq and the Tarim with their Buddhist and Christian communities, Almaliq of the Qarluq, and Samarkand. Read online