Toqto'a's sons

Who he is

Name

Qudu, Chilaun (Cila'un), Qal (Qaltoqan), Majar

Title

Sons of the Merkit chief

Since

Not known

Born

Not known; grown men by 1204

Family

Sons of Toqto'a Beki

Confidence

medium for the names, low for anything else

The names are those of the English Wikipedia article on the Irtysh battle; Rashid and the Secret History give Qudu and Chilaun the most prominent place. Ages and the order of birth are not known.

Overlord

Toqto'a Beki.

What it holds

• Followings of horsemen in their father's camp (no numbers)

How it was acquired

By birth.

Allies and rivals

Their father; the Naiman (later ally).

How things stand that morning

With Toqto'a on the lower Orkhon or the Selenga; not pinned. One account (English Wikipedia, Toghrul) says that two of Toqto'a's sons were captured and another killed in the Kereyit raid after 1198, without naming them, so one or more of the sons may be a prisoner of Toghrul on 1 January 1200.

Military

Commanders of Merkit bands; no numbers.

Threats

• The Kereyit and Mongol raids

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. 1208 to 1217After their father's death at the Irtysh the surviving sons flee to the Qipchaqs and are hunted by Subedei (one line; after the opening date).Depends on: The Naiman and Merkit defeats. Stopped by: A Merkit settlement.

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment names 'Qudu, Chilaun, Qalqa?': the Wikipedia article names the third son Qal or Qaltoqan, and a fourth, Majar.

Evidence: Names only.

On the map: No ground; not drawn.

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