Mongol-speaking clans · Mongolia and the Steppe · as at first light, 1 January 1200

The other Mongol clans

A small residual class.

The Secret History (Kahn's adaptation of the Cleaves translation, pp. 44 to 49) says that when Temujin left Jamuqa about 1189 camp circles from nearly all the old clans followed him, so the Jalair, Mangqut, Besud, Suldus, Qongqotan, Olqunut, Qorulas, Dorben, Barulas and the rest are shown as his (record Temujin's sworn clans), not as unaligned. What is left with no lord above is the Qatagin and Saljiut and the part of the Dorben that did not follow him, whom English Wikipedia (Rise of Genghis Khan) shows first courted by Temujin and Jamuqa as allies against the Tayichi'ut and later, with the Tatars and Onggirat, in a coalition against Temujin and Toghrul (see the likely course); they are drawn by guess on the Dauria steppe north of the Tatar lakes; and the empty steppe and Gobi edge south of the Kherlen, from Sukhbaatar and Dariganga to Xilingol and the Jin trench, which is drawn to this realm because no one else is known to hold it and herders of these clans, the Tatars or Jin-tolerated wanderers may use it.

The Jurkin remnant, the Ikires and the forest Uriangkhai have their own records (Temujin's, the Onggirat's and the peoples'). These clans are governed by elders and meet only in feuds, hunts and the gatherings that Jamuqa and Temujin call. In 1200 they are neutral and watching.

Who rules

Name
not known as a single ruler
Title
Clan elders (no common leader)
Confidence
low

The clans are named in the Secret History and Rashid al-Din; their winter camps on 1 January 1200 are mostly not known.

Overlord

None; the Jin treat the nearest of them as border tribes.

What the realm holds

  • Pastures along the Ulz and the Kherlen, the Dauria steppe and the steppe south of the Kherlen
  • Herds and hunting grounds

How it was acquired

By descent and use.

Allies and rivals

Each clan has its own ties; see Qatagin, Saljiut, Dorben (east) and Temujin's sworn clans.

The realm that morning

Neutral and unaligned. The eastern clans (Qatagin, Saljiut, part of the Dorben) are neutral and watching, and their later alignment is in the likely course; the rest of the realm is empty steppe.

Military

Clan levies; no numbers.

Threats

  • Temujin's war on the Tayichi'ut
  • Jin pressure on the Tatars
  • Dzud

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. 1200 to 1201The Qatagin (Khadagin), Saljiut and Dorben join the Tatars and Onggirat in a coalition against Temujin and Toghrul, and are drawn into Jamuqa's following; English Wikipedia has the first battle end in the retreat of Toghrul and Temujin.Depends on: Temujin's victory over the Tayichi'ut frightening his neighbours. Stopped by: A Jin move or a Tatar defeat that breaks the eastern clans first.

Where the sources disagree

  • Clan locations are the least certain part of the sheet: Rashid al-Din describes where the clans lived in the next century, not in 1200.
  • The regional brief expects the Jalair, Besut, Ikires, Dorben, Saljiut and the rest here. The excerpt of the Secret History I could read puts most of them with Temujin from about 1189; we keep this realm for the clans that no source we could read puts with him, and say so.
  • English Wikipedia (Rise of Genghis Khan) says Temujin and Jamukha, while still together, sent an embassy to the Khadagin and Salji'ut to win them against the Taichiud; no answer is recorded.

Evidence: Names are certain; positions in 1200 are inferred.

On the map: Broad ranges with no fixed edges.

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
  • Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
  • Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. 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
  • Brief Account of the Black Tatars, Peng Daya (彭大雅) with notes by Xu Ting (徐霆) (1237 (Peng Daya's text from a 1232 to 1233 embassy, Xu Ting's notes from a 1235 to 1236 embassy)). Two Song envoys' notes on the Mongols under Ogodei: the steppe, climate, herds, hunting, the ruler's tent and court, the army, taxes, trade, the postal relay, the Uyghur and Khitan clerks, and the subject peoples. Read online
  • Full Record of the Mongol Tatars, Zhao Gong (趙珙), formerly attributed to Meng Gong (孟珙) (1221). The earliest outside description of the Mongols, by a Song envoy sent to the Mongol commander Muqali at Yanjing (Beijing) in 1221. 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

  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. Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), transl. W. M. Thackston
  3. Christopher P. Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire (2004)
  4. Tatar confederation (Wikipedia)
  5. Rise of Genghis Khan (Wikipedia)

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