Kereyit clans

Who holds it

Title

Clan chiefs and nobles under Toghrul; no chief named for 1200

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

Rashid al-Din lists the Kereyit as a body of tribes, usually given as Jirqin, Tonqayit, Sakayit, Tumaut and Albat (spellings and the list vary); the Secret History speaks of the Kereyit as one people under Toghrul. Where each clan wintered is not known.

Overlord

Toghrul, Ong Khan.

What it holds

• The herds and pastures of each clan (no division known)
• Church of the East priests and families among them
• Hunting in the Black Forest and the Khangai forests

How it was acquired

By descent in the Kereyit.

Allies and rivals

Under Toghrul; neighbours of the Merkit on the north and the Naiman on the west.

How things stand that morning

In winter camp in the valleys of the Orkhon and the Tula; the western clans nearest the Naiman are the ones a Naiman raid would reach (on the working reading one did in autumn 1199).

Wealth

Herds of horses, sheep, cattle; furs and game; no figures.

Military

Clan bands under their nobles; no numbers.

Threats

• Naiman raids on the Khangai side
• A dzud

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. 1203The clans are divided among the Mongol nobles after the Kereyit defeat (one line; after the opening date).Depends on: The war of 1203. Stopped by: No war.

Places of note

• Upper Orkhon winter camps (approximate): Sheltered valleys of the upper Orkhon.

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment asks for the Kereyit clans 'where no chief can be named'. The list of clans is from Rashid as remembered; it should be checked against Thackston before the campaign uses a clan name.

Evidence: Clan names from Rashid; no ranges.

On the map: No clan ranges are known; the polygon is the part of the realm not under the khan's own ordu.

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