Qutuqa Beki

Who he is

Name

Qutuqa Beki (Khudukha, Quduqa)

Title

Beki (chief of the Oirat with a shaman's standing)

Since

not known

Born

not known; an elder in 1217 (his later marriage to the Khori-Tumed widow Botoqui Targun belongs to that year)

Family

Oirat. Sons Inalchi and Toralchi are named for the marriages of 1207-09 (Secret History; Rashid); the long family list in Wikipedia belongs mostly to later generations. Ages in 1200 not known.

Confidence

medium for the person

Secret History 143-144 (Koyiten and the flight to the Shisgis forest); Wikipedia on Qutuqa Beki; Zoriktuev on sections 239-240.

What it holds

• The Oirat clans of the Shishged and Bii-Khem forests
• The forest's furs, game and high pastures
• His own camp (not known); the shamans' rites and the jada

How it was acquired

Chiefship of the Oirat; no source says how he came to it.

Allies and rivals

Allied with Buyiruq and Jamuqa in 1201. Later marriage ties to Temujin (1207-09). The forest peoples (Tubas, Uriangkhai, Telengit) lie round him; he is their most prominent chief in 1207, but no source makes them his subjects in 1200.

How things stand that morning

In the forest, at peace so far as the sources show. He has not yet sworn to Jamuqa.

Wealth

Furs, game, forest products; herds on the high pastures.

Military

Foot and horse hunters of the Oirat forest; no castle; ambush country. No numbers.

Threats

• The Naiman brothers
• The Kereyit if they push west
• The cold of the Sayan valleys

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 and 1207He swears to Jamuqa and fails at Koyiten; in 1207 he submits to Jochi and leads him to the Kyrgyz.Depends on: Jamuqa's election, then Temujin's rise. Stopped by: Jamuqa's failure; Naiman revival.

Places of note

• Shishged (Shiqshit) forest valley: The Shishged valley, in the east of Tuva where it joins the Bii-Khem, is read by Zoriktuev as the Shikshit of section 239; the village is only a locator.

Where the sources disagree

• Wikipedia gives a long list of 'sons' of Qutuqa Beki; most names are marriages of the Ilkhanate period. Only Inalchi and Toralchi are attested for 1207-09.

Evidence: A handful of lines in the Secret History, a later submission and Wikipedia's family list.

On the map: No map part: the Oirat realm record carries the polygon.

Primary sources for The Oirat

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