South of the Altai and the Naiman steppe lie the Gobi Altai and the western Gobi: dry mountains and gravel plains with springs and oases where herders keep camels, horses and sheep.
No source names a people or a chief here in 1200. The Naiman are the natural overlords (their ground meets it), and the Uyghur of Hami and Qocho and the Tangut kingdom of Xia lie across the Chinese border to the south; the road from the Naiman and the Kereyit to the Uyghur oases and to Xia's Ejina runs through it. The Gobi Altai's winter pastures are in the springs at the foot of the ranges, not on the high ground.
Who holds it
- Title
- Elders and clan heads; no chief named
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
See the evidence note.
Overlord
None shown.
What it holds
- Camel and sheep herding at the springs and wells of the Gobi Altai
- The caravan track between the Naiman and Kereyit country and the Uyghur oases (thin)
- Salt and soda lakes of the desert basins (not documented for 1200)
How it was acquired
Inherited ranges.
Allies and rivals
See the summary.
How things stand that morning
Thinly peopled; no fighting or raiding recorded. Who rides here is not pinned. Across the Chinese border to the south the Uyghur kingdom of Qocho and the Tangut kingdom of Xia lie on the Tarim sheet.
Wealth
Herds, hunting and furs.
Military
Hunters and herders; no castles.
Threats
- Dzud (winter of ice), a hard year for the herds
Places of note
- Winter springs at the foot of the Gobi Altai (guess): Springs and wells at the foot of the ranges, where camels and sheep winter. No camp is named.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: No source; the Naiman claim is inferred from neighbourhood.
On the map: A claim drawn on neighbourhood only; the Chinese side of the border is the Tarim sheet's.
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
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.