Qa'atai-darmala

Who he is

Name

Qa'atai-darmala

Title

Chief of the Qa'at Merkit ('kings' Merkit' in the English Wikipedia article)

Since

Not known

Born

Not known

Family

Not known

Confidence

low

Named as the third of the Merkit chiefs in the Secret History for the raid on Temujin's camp. Nothing is known of him after that.

What it holds

• The Qaraji steppe on the Selenga (Qa'at Merkit)

Allies and rivals

Fellow chiefs Toqto'a and Dayir Usun.

How things stand that morning

Not pinned; on the Selenga.

Military

Raiders; no numbers.

Threats

• Kereyit and Mongol raids

Places of note

• Qa'at camp on the Selenga (approximate): Approximate.

Where the sources disagree

• The Wikipedia article on the Merkit calls the division 'Khaad' and puts it at Kharaji-kheer on the Selenga; the name Qa'at (the Secret History) is used here.

Evidence: One naming; nothing for 1200.

On the map: Placed from the English Wikipedia article only.

Primary sources for Merkit

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