Magnates and their honours · The Tayichi'ut of Tarqutai · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Tarqutai Kiriltuq

Tarqutai Kiriltuq is the enemy of Temujin's boyhood: he led the Tayichi'ut away from Hoelun and her sons, and later seized young Temujin and held him in a cangue until Sorqan-shira freed him.

He is the chief of the strongest Mongol lineage that is not Temujin's.

Who he is

Name
Tarqutai Kiriltuq (Targutai Kiriltuk)
Title
Senior noyan of the Tayichi'ut
Since
not pinned
Born
not known; an old man
Family
Of the line of Ambaghai Khan; kinsman Todo'en Girte; Qudu'udar among his people.
Confidence
medium

What it holds

  • The Tayichi'ut and their dependants (the household of Sorqan-shira of the Suldus; Jirqo'adai of the Besut)
  • Pasture on the middle and lower Onon

How it was acquired

By descent.

Allies and rivals

Enemy of Temujin. Friend of Jamuqa.

How things stand that morning

Winter camp on the Onon; war has not begun.

Military

Tayichi'ut and dependent levies.

Threats

  • Temujin and Toghrul

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. 1200Defeated on the Onon; flees; by our memory of the Secret History (not checked) he is seized by Shirgu'etu Ebugen and his sons Alaq and Naya'a and killed.Depends on: Temujin and Toghrul's attack. Stopped by: A retreat in good time.

Where the sources disagree

On the map: The camp is not pinned.

Primary sources for The Tayichi'ut

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

Sources and studies

  1. The Secret History of the Mongols, transl. and commentary Igor de Rachewiltz (Brill 2004; shorter edition ed. J. C. Street, Western Washington University 2015)
  2. The Secret History of the Mongols, adapted by Paul Kahn from the Cleaves translation (names and place names of the early chapters)
  3. Christopher P. Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire (2004)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.