People or range · The Onggirat · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Ikires

The Ikires are a Mongol-speaking clan of the Onggirat group, who live east of the Tatars in the grass and forest edge between the Khalkha and the Khingan and defer to the Onggirat.

By our memory of the Secret History (not in the excerpt we could read) the Ikires and the Onggirat stand with Jamuqa at Dalan Balzhut, and the Ikires are later in his coalition (see the likely course). Hoelun's own clan, the Olqunut, are not here: the text we could read puts the Olqunut camp circles with Temujin from the parting from Jamuqa (c. 1189), so Hoelun's kin ride with her son.

The Ikires are not Temujin's followers on 1 January 1200.

Who holds it

Title
Clan elders; no chiefs named
Confidence
low

What it holds

  • Pastures on the lower Khalkha and the Khingan foot (guess)
  • Hunting in the forest edge

Allies and rivals

Kin of the Onggirat and neighbours of the Tatars. The Jin and Tatars attacked the Onggirat in 1195 and the Onggirat beat a Jin detachment on 4 February 1196 (English Wikipedia, Rise of Genghis Khan); whether the Ikires were hit or took part is not known.

How things stand that morning

Quiet; with the Onggirat.

Wealth

Horses, sheep and cattle; furs; the Jin market road.

Military

Clan levies; no numbers.

Threats

  • Another Jin punitive raid
  • Being pulled into Jamuqa's coalition

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. Autumn 1201 (one line)The Ikires and Onggirat swear to Jamuqa and are beaten at Koyiten.Depends on: Jamuqa's coalition forming. Stopped by: Temujin's diplomacy with his Onggirat in-laws.

Places of note

  • Winter camp (guess): No source gives a site.

Where the sources disagree

  • The assignment names the Olqunut as an Onggirat branch; the Cleaves text (Kahn, p. 47) puts the Olqunut with Temujin at the parting, so we do not draw them here.

Evidence: Name and kinship attested; range inferred.

On the map: A guess inside the Onggirat range.

Primary sources for The Onggirat

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

Sources and studies

  1. The Secret History of the Mongols, adapted by Paul Kahn from the Cleaves translation (names and place names of the early chapters)
  2. The Secret History of the Mongols, transl. and commentary Igor de Rachewiltz (Brill 2004; shorter edition ed. J. C. Street, Western Washington University 2015)
  3. Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), transl. W. M. Thackston
  4. Khongirad (Wikipedia)
  5. Christopher P. Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire (2004)
  6. Rise of Genghis Khan (Wikipedia)

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