Belgutei, the son of Yesugei's second wife Sochigil, is Temujin's half-brother and a famous wrestler.
At the great feast on the Onon the Jurkin wrestler Buri Boke wounded him and the quarrel that followed led to the Jurkin's destruction about 1197; Belgutei killed Buri Boke by breaking his back in a wrestling hold. He is loyal, blunt and trusted with horses and with the camp's order.
Who he is
- Name
- Belgutei
- Title
- Half-brother of the khan, wrestler and keeper of horses
- Born
- about 1160s (about 35); son of Yesugei and Sochigil
- Family
- Younger half-brother Bekhter was killed by Temujin and Qasar.
- Confidence
- medium
Overlord
Temujin.
What it holds
- Horses and a following within Temujin's camp
How it was acquired
By birth.
Allies and rivals
Rival of the Jurkin (destroyed).
How things stand that morning
With Temujin; Buri Boke is dead.
Military
Leads a band of wrestlers and riders.
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.
- 1200Rides against the Tayichi'ut with the brothers.Depends on: The war going ahead with Toghrul's help. Stopped by: No war, or a hard spring that keeps the camps apart.
Primary sources for Temujin's Mongols
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
- Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. 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
Sources and studies
- The Secret History of the Mongols, transl. and commentary Igor de Rachewiltz (Brill 2004; shorter edition ed. J. C. Street, Western Washington University 2015)
- Christopher P. Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire (2004)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.