Jali Buqa and the Tatar chiefs

Who he is

Name

Jali Buqa (named for 1201); Cha'an, Alchi and Yeke Cheren (named for 1202)

Title

Heads of the Tatar tribes

Since

after Megujin Se'ultu's death, summer 1196

Born

not known

Family

Yeke Cheren is the father of the sisters Yesui and Yesugen (who marry Temujin later).

Confidence

low

Their standing on 1 January 1200 is not pinned: they appear only in accounts of 1201 and 1202, except Zuxu, the Jin account's leader, who submits in 1198 and dies soon after.

Overlord

None; the Jin claim them.

What it holds

• The lake basins and their fisheries; the Jin road

How it was acquired

By tribal succession.

Allies and rivals

Enemies of Temujin and Toghrul; the Jin both patron and enemy (submission of 1198); at war with the Onggirat in 1195, when the Jin used the Tatars against them; neighbours of the eastern Mongol clans, with whom and the Onggirat they stand in the coalition against Temujin and Toghrul that English Wikipedia places after the Tayichi'ut war; Jamuqa's allies in 1201.

How things stand that morning

Chiefs dispersed after 1196; a leader submitted to the Jin in 1198; the tribes watch the Jin boundary.

Military

Tribal levies on horse; no numbers.

Threats

• Jin and Kereyit-Mongol revenge

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. 1201 to 1202The Tatars join Jamuqa in 1201 and are destroyed by Temujin and Toghrul in 1202.Depends on: Jamuqa's rise; the Jin's inaction. Stopped by: A Jin sweep or peace.

Primary sources for The Tatars

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
• 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