The Merkit of Toqto'a Beki

Who rules

Name

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

Title

Beki (chief) of the Uduyit Merkit, first among three Merkit chiefs

Since

Not known; he led the Merkit three decades or so before 1200 on the Secret History's account of the abduction of Borte, and is the only Merkit leader still named in the 1204-1209 fighting

Born

Not known

Family

Brothers Yehe Chiledu (Hoelun's first husband) and Chilger Boko (who took Borte) in the older generation; sons Qudu, Chilaun, Qal (Qaltoqan) and Majar. Dayir Usun (Uwas) and Qa'atai-darmala (Qa'at) lead the other two divisions.

Confidence

medium for the names and divisions; low for where each chief sat on 1 January 1200

The Merkit are known from the Secret History, Rashid al-Din and the Chinese annals, and not from any source of their own. Their three divisions and the placing of each (Buura steppe on the lower Orkhon, Tar between the Orkhon and the Selenga, Qaraji steppe on the Selenga) are those given in the English Wikipedia article; the order of the raids on them in the 1190s follows the same chronology as the Kereyit record.

Overlord

None known. The Merkit are enemies of the Kereyit and of Temujin; their ties to the Naiman are later and, in the winter of 1199-1200, likely but not pinned.

What the realm holds

• Buura steppe on the lower Orkhon (Uduyit, Toqto'a Beki)
• Tar steppe between the Orkhon and the Selenga (Uwas Merkit, Dayir Usun)
• Qaraji steppe and the Selenga river (Qa'at Merkit, Qa'atai-darmala)
• Hunting grounds and fisheries in the Selenga forests and on its tributaries, among them the Khilok (the Secret History's Qilqo, so identified by some)
• A refuge to the east in the Barguzin valley (Bargujin-Tokum), where Toqto'a fled in the 1180s

How it was acquired

Not known; the Merkit are old residents of the Selenga. The Tomsk article of Ushnitsky has them come to the Selenga from the Khovsgol region about the tenth century (a hypothesis).

Allies and rivals

Enemies: Toghrul, Temujin (the Borte feud, the raids of 1198 and 1199), Jamuqa in the 1180s. Later allies (1201-1204): the Naiman of Tayang and Buyiruq, Jamuqa and the Oirat; in winter 1199-1200 an understanding with Tayang is likely, not pinned. The Merkit are related to or neighbours of the Khori and Bargut of Baikal, who took them in as refugees.

The realm that morning

After the raids of 1198 and 1199 by Toghrul and Temujin, which the Wikipedia chronology of Temujin's rise says drove the Merkit further north, the three divisions are shaken but not broken. The English Wikipedia article on Toghrul adds that in the third Kereyit raid two sons of Toqto'a were taken and another killed. Toqto'a Beki is on the lower Orkhon or the lower Selenga with his sons (the OMNIA board pins his orda at 50.3N 106.2E, Suhbaatar and Kyakhta), or has drawn east to the Khilok and Barguzin; this is not pinned.

Dayir Usun and Qa'atai-darmala are on the Tar and Qaraji steppes. Expect them to look for help from Tayang and to raid the Kereyit north march when the herds come back in spring.

Wealth

Furs, fish, game and herds of the Selenga forest-steppe; trade with the Baikal peoples and the Kyrgyz (inference); booty. No figures.

Military

Horse raiders and hunters who can ride a long way to strike a camp (the Burqan Qaldun raid); they lose when caught in the open by the combined Kereyit and Mongol forces. Fortifications: none known; their refuge is the forest and the Barguzin.

Threats

• A third Kereyit and Mongol raid after the spring thaw
• Loss of herds to a dzud
• Quarrels among the three 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. 1201The Merkit join the coalition around Jamuqa (one line; after the opening date).Depends on: Jamuqa's coalition forming and the Naiman agreeing to lead. Stopped by: Another defeat by Toghrul and Temujin in 1200.
2. 1204-1205The Naiman defeat at Chakirmaut (1204) and the Merkit defeat at Qaradal Huja'ar (1205) break the Merkit; Dayir Usun gives his daughter Qulan to Temujin (one line; after the opening date).Depends on: The Naiman war. Stopped by: A Merkit settlement with the Mongols earlier.

Places of note

• Toqto'a Beki's winter camp (Buura steppe, lower Orkhon), approximate: Winter camp of the Uduyit Merkit in the sheltered Orkhon valley, near its meeting with the Selenga; approximate.

Where the sources disagree

• The English Wikipedia article on the Merkit says Toqto'a Beki 'ruled until 1200' and that Temujin defeated them in 1200 after a twenty-year struggle. That is a summary, not a dated event: the Secret History and Rashid have Toqto'a alive and fighting until 1208 or 1209.
• The Wikipedia article and Rashid spell the third division 'Khaad' or 'Qa'at' and the second 'Uvas' or 'Uwas' (Qo'as); the assignment follows the usual Secret History forms.
• The campaign board entry merkit-orda (50.3N 106.2E) is the right neighbourhood for the lower Selenga; no source fixes a camp to the kilometre.
• The English Wikipedia article on Toghrul puts the Merkit under Toqto'a Beki beside the Tayichi'ut against Temujin and Toghrul on the Onon in 1200. The Secret History and the other chronologies bring the Merkit into the coalition only in 1201. Treated here as one account, not a fact.

Evidence: Names and the divisions are in the sources; no source says where the Merkit chiefs sat in the winter of 1199-1200. The Merkit are one of the least documented powers of the sheet.

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

On the map: The three divisions are drawn in their own records; the outer line follows the Selenga basin and is rough. The Barguzin refuge and the Khilok camps lie outside the line.

Primary sources for this realm

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