Magnates and their honours · The Ongud, wardens of the Jin march · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Alaqush Digit Quri

Alaqush Digit Quri is the hereditary lord of the Ongud, Turkic Church of the East Christians who guard the Jin's northern marches north of Shanxi.

He holds a passage through the Jin's border works for the Jin. His northern seat, Olon Sume ('many temples'), is a walled place with churches; the southern, Koshang or Dongsheng, is inside the Jin side of the line. He has no tie to Temujin on 1 January 1200: he is a Jin client. No Jin title for him is attested in the sources we know.

Who he is

Name
Alaqush Digit Quri (Persian Alaqush Tegin Quri; Chinese Alawusi Tijihuli)
Title
Lord of the Ongud and warden of a border passage for the Jin
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Family
Son Buyan Shiban (Boyaohe); nephew Shigu (Zhenguo); his later descendants include George (Körgis).
Confidence
medium

The dates in the Wikipedia article (1204 alliance, 1207 marriage, 1211 death) are all after 1 January 1200.

Overlord

The Jin court.

What it holds

  • The pastures north of the Yin Shan
  • A passage in the border works
  • Olon Sume
  • The Ongud's caravan business

How it was acquired

Hereditary.

Allies and rivals

Jin ally; neighbours Tatars and Mongol clans; the Naiman and Tayang are far to the west.

How things stand that morning

Jin warden.

Military

Frontier horse archers; no numbers.

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. 1203 to 1205 (one line)Tayang Khan's messenger is refused and Alaqush warns Temujin and allies with him.Depends on: Tayang's war on Temujin. Stopped by: A Jin demand.

Where the sources disagree

On the map: The Ongud pastures extend into the Jin zone south of the line.

Primary sources for The Ongud

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
  • Brief Account of the Black Tatars, Peng Daya (彭大雅) with notes by Xu Ting (徐霆) (1237 (Peng Daya's text from a 1232 to 1233 embassy, Xu Ting's notes from a 1235 to 1236 embassy)). Two Song envoys' notes on the Mongols under Ogodei: the steppe, climate, herds, hunting, the ruler's tent and court, the army, taxes, trade, the postal relay, the Uyghur and Khitan clerks, and the subject peoples. Read online
  • Full Record of the Mongol Tatars, Zhao Gong (趙珙), formerly attributed to Meng Gong (孟珙) (1221). The earliest outside description of the Mongols, by a Song envoy sent to the Mongol commander Muqali at Yanjing (Beijing) in 1221. Read online

1 more in the sources library for Mongolia and the Steppe.

Sources and studies

  1. Alaqush (Wikipedia)
  2. Ongud (Wikipedia)
  3. History Atlas: the Ongud
  4. Yuanshi (History of the Yuan), Taizu benji and biographies (zh.wikisource.org)

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