A wooded valley of the Tula (Tuul) river, sheltered from the winter wind, where the Kereyit khan keeps his winter ordu: a camp of tents (very likely a tent church, inferred; the golden tent for audiences that the Secret History shows in 1203; the households of the khan and Senggum) among the larches and pines of the slopes, with the river for water and the forest for fuel and game.
It is a camp and a refuge, not a town and not a fort. The old Uyghur and Khitan ruins on the Orkhon lie a long ride to the west.
Who holds it
- Name
- Toghrul
- Title
- Toghrul, Ong Khan, camps here in winter
- Since
- Since the 1160s or 1170s: Yesugei brought him back to the Black Forest after his uncle's coup
- Born
- about 1140
- Family
- see Toghrul (Ong Khan)
- Confidence
- medium
The Black Forest of the Tula is named in the Secret History as the ground where Toghrul was restored by Yesugei and where his ordu stands. Its exact place is located by convention on the Tuul near modern Ulaanbaatar.
Lord in 1200
Toghrul, Ong Khan
Overlord
Toghrul.
How things stand that morning
Toghrul's winter camp. The valley is not pinned; the campaign board dot (47.9N 106.9E) is the centre of modern Ulaanbaatar and the Black Forest is placed on the river nearby.
Wealth
Herds, hunting, gifts, booty; no figures.
Military
The khan's guard; no numbers.
Council
none; no town
Communities
The Kereyit court; Church of the East priests and a tent church (both inferred); herdsmen and hunters; visiting traders.
Walls and castle
None. Refuge in the forest and the hills.
Trade and crafts
Felt, leatherwork, saddlery, carpentry in the forest; a halting place for caravans from the Gobi roads (inferred).
Places of note
- Black Forest winter ordu: Winter ordu; approximate.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry kereit-orda (47.9N 106.9E) is accepted as the right neighbourhood; the real camp moves from year to year.
Evidence: The Black Forest is named in the Secret History and Rashid; its place is a convention.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
Primary sources for Kereyit
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
- History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
- Journey to the West of the Perfected Changchun (Qiu Chuji), Li Zhichang (李志常) (about 1228, from the journey of 1220 to 1224). A dated eyewitness itinerary across the steppe and the Tarim twenty years after 1200: the Kereyit country and the Ongud frontier, the Naiman mountains, the Uyghur towns of Beshbaliq and the Tarim with their Buddhist and Christian communities, Almaliq of the Qarluq, and Samarkand. Read online
Sources and studies
- Igor de Rachewiltz, The Secret History of the Mongols (Brill 2004; abridged ed. ANU/CEDAR 2015). Section numbers quoted from memory of the text; not re-read this session
- Rashid al-Din, Jami al-tawarikh (Thackston translation, 1998-99), Keraites and Merkits chapters. Quoted from memory; not re-read this session
- Christopher Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire (2004), entries Keraits, Ong Khan, Merkits. From memory; not re-read this session
- OMNIA project doc claude/asia-plan.md (the campaign working picture of 1 January 1200: Toghrul on the Tula, Naiman fight of 1199)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.