Toqto'a Beki

Who he is

Name

Toqto'a Beki (Tokhta Beki, Tuqtu'a)

Title

Beki (chief) of the Uduyit Merkit and first of the three Merkit chiefs

Since

Not known; leader of the Merkit by the 1180s on the Secret History's account of the raid for Borte

Born

Not known

Family

Brothers Yehe Chiledu and Chilger Boko (older generation; status in 1200 not known). Sons Qudu, Chilaun, Qal (Qaltoqan) and Majar (names as in the English Wikipedia article on the Irtysh battle; order of birth not known). Wife and daughters not named.

Confidence

medium for the man; low for his camp in the winter of 1199-1200

The Merkit have no record of their own. Toqto'a is the Merkit leader named first in the Secret History for the 1180s, in the 1204-1205 defeats and in the 1208-1209 end at the Irtysh.

What it holds

• The Buura steppe on the lower Orkhon (Uduyit Merkit) and its herds and hunters
• His own household and the camps of his sons
• A refuge in the Selenga forests and the Barguzin valley

Allies and rivals

Enemies: Toghrul and Temujin. Fellow chiefs: Dayir Usun and Qa'atai-darmala (the three act together in war). Possible protector: Tayang of the Naiman (later ally, 1201-1204). The Khori and Bargut of Baikal took Merkit refugees in the 1180s.

How things stand that morning

Position not pinned. The campaign board puts his orda at 50.3N 106.2E (Suhbaatar and Kyakhta on the Selenga); the lower Orkhon above the Selenga is as likely. The raids of 1198 and 1199 may have cost him herds and people. His sons are with him or on the other two chiefs' camps.

Wealth

Herds, furs and fish; booty from raids; no figures.

Military

Raiders and hunters; the force that took Borte rode a long way and returned by night. No numbers. No fort.

Threats

• A third raid in spring by the Kereyit and the Mongols
• A dzud
• Quarrels with the other two chiefs

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. 1201Joins the coalition round Jamuqa (one line; after the opening date).Depends on: The coalition forming. Stopped by: Another defeat in 1200.
2. 1204 to 1209Fights with the Naiman at Chakirmaut (1204), is beaten at Qaradal Huja'ar (1205), and is killed at the Irtysh in late 1208 or early 1209 (one line; after the opening date).Depends on: The Naiman war. Stopped by: A settlement with the Mongols earlier.

Places of note

• Toqto'a's winter camp (approximate): Winter camp of the Uduyit on the lower Orkhon; approximate.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry merkit-orda gives 50.3N 106.2E for the Merkit orda; this record keeps that neighbourhood as the likely one and adds the lower Orkhon and the Barguzin as alternatives.
• The English Wikipedia article on Toghrul says that in his third plunder of the Merkit, after 1198, two sons of Toqto'a were captured and another killed. It does not name them. Which sons, and whether they are still prisoners on 1 January 1200, is not pinned; the same article says Toqto'a had recently recovered a son by the Onon fight of 1200. The same article has Toqto'a with the Tayichi'ut on the Onon in 1200; the Secret History and the other chronologies bring the Merkit into the coalition only in 1201.

Evidence: Named; no camp or date for the winter of 1199-1200.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: A people's range, drawn from the English Wikipedia article's placing of the Uduyit on the lower Orkhon.

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