Erke Qara in the Naiman land

Who he is

Name

Erke Qara (Erke-Qara)

Title

Kereyit prince in exile, a refugee among the Naiman

Since

Fled to Buyiruq about 1198 (Wikipedia's article on Toghrul, after Rashid; medium)

Born

not known

Family

Younger brother of Toghrul the Ong Khan; son of the Kereyit khan Qurchaqus Buyruq (the other Buyruq, not Tayang's brother)

Confidence

low

Wikipedia on Toghrul and Inanch Bilge (Inanch Bilge backed Erke Qara against Toghrul in 1174); Wikipedia on Cyriacus Buyruk Khan. Rashid not opened.

Overlord

None; Buyiruq's guest.

What it holds

• Nothing known; a guest of Buyiruq with a few followers (thin)

How it was acquired

Exile.

Allies and rivals

Enemy of Toghrul and of his brother Jakha Gambu (who is written by mnc); friend of the Naiman.

How things stand that morning

A refugee at Buyiruq's court on the Ulungur if Wikipedia's chronology holds. Not pinned.

Wealth

Nothing.

Military

None of his own.

Threats

• A Kereyit demand to give him up
• Death if Toghrul catches him

Where the sources disagree

• The Kereyit side (Toghrul, Jakha Gambu, Senggum) is written by the mnc researcher; this record only keeps the one prince who sits on Naiman ground.

Evidence: One line of Wikipedia's summary of Rashid.

On the map: No map part.

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