Around the khan stand the men who came to him in the years after his election.
Qorchi of the Ba'arin foretold that Heaven had chosen Temujin and became his chief archer. Jedei of the Uru'ut and Quyildar of the Mangqut came over with their clans after Jamuqa boiled his prisoners at Dalan Balzhut (our memory of the Secret History; the excerpt we could read does not cover it). Mönglik of the Qongqotan, an old friend of Yesugei, has seven sons, among them Kokochu.
At the election Temujin gave household offices: Ogele Cherbi as archer, Soyiketu Cherbi as cook, Degei as shepherd, Dodai Cherbi as camp attendant (Kahn/Cleaves). At the election Temujin gave household offices (Kahn/Cleaves, p. 49): Ogele Cherbi, of the Arulat and a kinsman of Bo'orchu, as archer; Soyiketu Cherbi as head cook; Degei as head shepherd; Guchugur over the tent carts; Dodai Cherbi over the men and women serving in the tents; Belgutei over the horses; Mulkhalkhu over the cattle; three personal swordsmen with Qasar; Subedei to gather the soldiers; and Bogorchu and Jelme as chiefs over the rest of the people.
Camp circles of the Jalair, Mangqut, Besud, Suldus, Qongqotan, Sukeken, Olqunut, Qorulas, Dorben, Noyakin, Oronar and Barulas followed him at the parting, so Qubilai of the Barulas may already be among them (his own date is not pinned). Not yet with him: Jebe (Jirqo'adai of the Besut, a Tayichi'ut dependant) and Sorqan-shira's own household (with the Tayichi'ut, by our memory; see the likely course).
Who he is
- Name
- Qorchi (Ba'arin), Jedei (Uru'ut), Quyildar (Mangqut), Mönglik (Qongqotan) and his sons, Ogele Cherbi, Soyiketu Cherbi, Degei and Dodai Cherbi
- Title
- Noyans and household officers
- Since
- at the election (about 1189) or after Dalan Balzhut
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low to medium
Names of officers from the Kahn/Cleaves text; clan arrivals from the Secret History as we recall it.
Overlord
Temujin.
What it holds
- Followers: Ba'arin, Uru'ut, Mangqut, Qongqotan
How it was acquired
By choice.
How things stand that morning
With Temujin.
Military
Each leads his own clan's 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.
- 1200 or 1201Jirqo'adai of the Besut, the Tayichi'ut archer who shot at Temujin or his horse in the fight, comes over and is renamed Jebe.Depends on: Temujin winning the fight with the Tayichi'ut and sparing the archer. Stopped by: Temujin's defeat; Jirqo'adai killed or lost in the flight.
Where the sources disagree
- The regional brief says to include companions only where they had joined by 1 January 1200; the Secret History's order for Jebe (1201) and for Sorqan-shira's family (1200 or after) puts them outside.
Evidence: The names are firm; the order of arrival is not.
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)
- The Secret History of the Mongols, adapted by Paul Kahn from the Cleaves translation (names and place names of the early chapters)
- Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), transl. W. M. Thackston
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.