The mountain frontier on the west of the upper Orkhon, from the Tamir headwaters to the Orkhon falls, where the Kereyit pastures end and the Naiman ground begins.
It is a wide upland of forest and high grass, not a line. The Naiman rulers winter far to the west (Tayang on the Black Irtysh and the Zaysan basin, Buyiruq on the Ulungur and Kishil-bash: guesses on the mnw record), so on 1 January 1200 contact is by frontier watchmen and raiding bands, not armies. The Naiman have reached into Kereyit land before: in 1196, on the Wikipedia chronology of Temujin's rise, Inanch Bilge backed Erke Qara's coup against Toghrul, Toghrul fled to the Qara Khitai and a Naiman army 'penetrated Keraite territory' to strike Temujin's camp.
On the working reading of 1199, after the Kereyit and Mongol attack on Buyiruq beyond the Altai, his captain Kokse Sabraq fell on Toghrul's retreating column, beat Senggum and took his wife and son and part of the people and herds, and Temujin's four companions won them back; the Secret History puts the blow at the mouth of the Telegetu pass, which no one has located. Erke Qara, Toghrul's exiled brother, sits at Buyiruq's court. The Naiman keep watchmen (sübechi) on the Kereyit frontier: Qori Subechi, a Naiman watchman known from the later story of Toghrul's death (Qori Subechi), is one.
How things stand that morning
Hostile and recently burned on the working reading; on the Secret History's order a quiet march with a grudge. No source shows fighting in the winter. Tayang, who holds the north of the Naiman realm, has not moved on Toghrul in force; the Naiman join the coalition of Jamuqa in 1201 (one line).
Threats
- A Naiman reprisal with Erke Qara as the claimant
- A raid on the Kereyit camps while the army is away in the east
- Dzud on the high pastures
Who raids here
Naiman frontier watchmen and raiding bands under the captains of Buyiruq and Tayang (Kokse Sabraq in 1199) against Kereyit camps and returning columns; the Kereyit and Mongols, with Jamuqa, in the other direction against Buyiruq beyond the Altai in 1199. Erke Qara gives the Naiman a claimant to put forward against Toghrul.
Anchors on each side
Kereyit side: the upper Orkhon camps (the Kharkhorin and Khujirt reach) and the Black Forest behind them; no fort. Naiman side: no camp of the Naiman rulers lies on the sheet (Tayang and Buyiruq winter in the far west, on mnw's ground); the Naiman presence here is the watchmen's posts, whose places are not known. Nearest gazetteer places: Tsetserleg, Bayanhongor, Tariat.
Last campaign
Autumn 1199 on the working reading (the year is in the chronologies, the season is the campaign brief's working date): Kokse Sabraq's blow on Toghrul's retreating column. Earlier: the Naiman army in Kereyit land in 1196. On the Secret History's own order the blow of Kokse Sabraq belongs to the Year of the Dog (1202 on the translator's footnotes), and then nothing has been fought on this march since 1196.
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.
- 1200 (not pinned; inference)Tayang may try to avenge Buyiruq's defeat by raiding the Kereyit marches again; no source dates a Naiman move before the coalition of 1201.Depends on: The two Naiman brothers acting together; Toghrul being away on the Onon with Temujin in 1200; the working reading of 1199 being right. Stopped by: A Kereyit guard on the march (none is known); the quarrel of the Naiman brothers.
Where the sources disagree
- Dating: the working reading (1199) and the Secret History's own order (the Year of the Dog, 1202 on the footnotes) cannot be reconciled with certainty; see Kereyit. On the second the belt has no recent campaign and 'raided' is too strong.
- Kokse Sabraq: the Wikipedia chronology of Temujin's rise sends him out under Tayang; the English article on Toghrul makes him Buyiruq's general; the mnw record keeps him with Buyiruq for the Kishil-bash campaign.
- Senggum lost 'wife and son' (English article on Toghrul and the mnw record, citing the Secret History) against 'wife and children' in other retellings.
- The Telegetu pass is named in the Secret History for the blow and cannot be placed; the polygon is the natural frontier of the two peoples, not a mapped battlefield.
Evidence: The raids are in the sources (read through two Wikipedia articles and the mnw record, which cites the Secret History sections 159, 162 and 163); no place on this ground is secure and nothing is dated to the winter. Included because the assignment names the march and the events are recent on the working reading.
On the map: A rough band along the Khangai crest and the upper Orkhon; the real limit was the herds' pastures and the passes.
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia article on the rise of Genghis Khan, as mirrored at AloneReaders (year-by-year chronology 1177-1204)
- Wikipedia, Toghrul (read late in the work through a redirect; the Keraites article and the Secret History text could not be reached)
- Wikipedia, Tayang Khan
- Wikipedia, Inanch Bilge khan
- Igor de Rachewiltz, The Secret History of the Mongols (Brill 2004; abridged ed. ANU/CEDAR 2015). Section numbers quoted from memory of the text; not re-read this session
- Rashid al-Din, Jami al-tawarikh (Thackston translation, 1998-99), Keraites and Merkits chapters. Quoted from memory; not re-read this session
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.