Church of the east · The Naiman of Tayang and Buyiruq · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Naiman Christians

The Naiman are called Christians of the Church of the East, the 'Nestorians', by the later writers.

Juvaini says the Naiman were 'for the most part Christian'; William of Rubruck, who crossed the steppe in 1253-55, calls them Nestorian Christians and says the Nestorians called their lord King John; John of Plano Carpini, in the 1240s, calls them pagans, perhaps because he met shamanist clans. Kuchlug, Tayang's son, was born a Christian of the East Syrian rite and gave it up for Buddhism at the urging of his Qara Khitai wife after 1211 (Juvaini). Nothing names a Naiman bishop, priest, church, monastery, cross or tombstone, nothing dates the conversion, and no source says what Tayang or Buyiruq believed.

Li Tang's guess is that Uyghur Christians, with whom the Naiman traded and whom they employed as officials, carried the faith to them; he doubts the Kereyit as the source because the two peoples fought so often. No Naiman queen is named as a Christian before 1200 (Gurbesu's faith is not stated). On 1 January 1200 the Church of the East among the Naiman is therefore a faith of the ruling house and some clans, served by clergy the sources do not name, among shamanist majorities, and it holds no land, people or revenue that any source records.

Who holds it

Title
No bishop, priest or monastery of the Naiman is named
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not applicable
Confidence
low

Li Tang (2009) on the Naiman Christians; Wikipedia 'Kuchlug'.

Overlord

None shown.

What it holds

  • Christian clergy and believers in the khan's household and some clans (thin)
  • No land, estate, toll or guard is recorded

Allies and rivals

Serves the court of Tayang and Buyiruq; its link to the Kereyit Christians (Toghrul's people) is doubtful given the wars; its link to the Uyghur Christians of the Tarim is probable.

How things stand that morning

Present at the Naiman court and among some clans; its priests, if any, are not named. Nothing is dated to the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Gifts of the court, if any; none recorded.

Threats

  • Conversion of the court to another faith (Kuchlug himself turns Buddhist after 1211)
  • The Naiman fall in 1204

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. 1204The Naiman house is broken by Temujin; the Christian court scatters, Kuchlug flees west.Depends on: Tayang's war with Temujin. Stopped by: A Naiman victory.

Places of note

  • The Naiman court (guess): Marks Tayang's guessed winter court, where a Christian household would pray; no church is known.

Where the sources disagree

  • The sheet assignment asks for 'their clergy, any bishop or church, the Nestorian queens'. None of the three can be named for the Naiman before 1200; the Nestorian queens known from the sources belong to the Kereyit and to later years.
  • Carpini's 'pagans' and Juvaini's 'mostly Christian' disagree; both may be right for different clans.

Evidence: Late witnesses (Juvaini c. 1260, Rubruck 1253-55, Carpini 1240s) read back from the 1200s; one modern article (Li Tang) collects them; no contemporary source names a Naiman Christian before Kuchlug.

On the map: A point at the guessed court; no church or house is known anywhere.

Primary sources for The Naiman

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 World Conqueror: the Qara Khitai (Gur Khans) and the Uyghurs of Beshbaliq, Ala al-Din Ata-Malik Juvayni (begun about 1252 to 1253, ends with 1260). Juvayni's chapters on the Uyghur kingdom (its origin legend, Beshbaliq and Qocho, and the idiqut Barchuq's murder of the Qara Khitai resident before his submission to Chinggis Khan in 1209) and on the Gur Khans of the Qara Khitai are the fullest Muslim account of the Tarim and Zhetysu around 1200: the gurkhan Zhilugu's court at Balasagun, his tax collectors in the oasis towns and in Samarkand, his relations with the Khwarazmshah Tekish and then Muhammad, and the arrival of the Naiman prince Kuchlug in 1208. 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

Sources and studies

  1. Li Tang, 'Medieval sources on the Naiman Christians and on their prince Kuchlug Khan' (2009), on academia.edu
  2. Wikipedia, 'Kuchlug'
  3. Wikipedia, 'Naimans'
  4. Dilber Usul, on the ethnic origin of Ta-ta Tonga (Dergipark, 2023, abstract)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.