Merchants at the ordu

Who he is

Title

Merchant and scribal communities, no leader named

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

No source names a merchant or a scribe at Toghrul's court for 1199-1200. The presence of Uyghur and Muslim traders at the courts of the steppe khans is attested for the next years (the Muslim merchants at Temujin's camp in 1203, the Uyghur scribes of the Naiman court) and the Kereyit lay on the caravan roads, so the record is an inference.

Overlord

Toghrul, who protects them and takes gifts and tolls.

What it holds

• Their goods and caravans, passing through the Kereyit range under the khan's protection

How it was acquired

By trade.

Allies and rivals

Dependent on Toghrul; in touch with the Ongud and the Jin frontier markets.

How things stand that morning

At the ordu in winter if the roads allow; most caravans move in the warm months.

Wealth

Cloth, silk, tea, metal, silver; no figures.

Military

Armed caravan guards; no numbers.

Threats

• Raiders on the Gobi roads
• A dzud that stops the caravans

Places of note

• Merchants' halt at the ordu: Where caravans are received; inferred.

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment asks for Muslim and Uyghur merchants at the Kereyit court. No named individual survives; this record states the likelihood, not a fact.

Evidence: Inference from the trade routes and from later sources.

On the map: A community, drawn as a point.

Primary sources for Kereyit

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
• 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