The Oirat of Qutuqa Beki

Who rules

Name

Qutuqa Beki (Khudukha, Quduqa)

Title

Beki (chief with a shaman's standing) of the Oirat

Since

not known; a chief already in 1201, perhaps long before

Born

not known

Family

Oirat; later marriage ties to the Chinggisids (his sons Inalchi and Toralchi are named in the sources)

Confidence

medium for the person, low for his winter camp

Secret History 141-144 (Koyiten, flight to the Shisgis forest), Wikipedia on Qutuqa Beki and the Oirats, Zoriktuev on sections 239-240 (Shikshit valley, 1207).

Overlord

None shown. Not a vassal of the Naiman or of the Kereyit on any evidence seen.

What the realm holds

• The Oirat clans of the Shishged and Bii-Khem forests and the Eastern Sayan foothills
• Hunting grounds for sable, squirrel and other furs; summer pastures on the high valleys and winter shelter in the sheltered river valleys
• Qutuqa's own camp (site not known)
• The forest paths towards Lake Khovsgol, the Tannu-Ola and the Kyrgyz country

How it was acquired

Inherited chiefship; the Oirat are named as a people long before 1200 (the Secret History places them in the forest).

Allies and rivals

Allied with Buyiruq of the Naiman and Jamuqa in 1201; neighbours of the Kyrgyz and of the forest peoples (Tubas, Telengit, Uriangkhai); no feud with the Kereyit shown before 1201.

The realm that morning

At peace in the winter of 1199-1200 so far as the sources show. Qutuqa sits in the forest valleys, probably the Shishged (the Shikshit of section 239) or the Bii-Khem; his exact winter camp is not pinned. He has not yet had to choose between Temujin and Jamuqa; that comes in 1201.

Wealth

Furs, game, forest products, horses on the high pastures, iron work (the regional brief names Oirat smiths; we found no source that dates it).

Military

Foot and mounted hunters who fight from the woods; no castles; their weapon is the forest. No numbers from the sources apply to 1200.

Threats

• The Naiman if the brothers want tribute
• Temujin after 1201
• Winter disaster in the high valleys

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.

In 1200

1. 1200 (nothing dated)No act of Qutuqa or the Oirat is dated to 1200 in the sources read.Depends on: Nothing in play reaches the forest. Stopped by: Not applicable.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201Qutuqa joins Jamuqa's oath and the storm-stone fails at Koyiten; he withdraws to the Shisgis forest.Depends on: Jamuqa's election. Stopped by: Jamuqa's failure to rally the clans.
2. 1207Qutuqa meets Jochi, submits and guides him against the Kyrgyz; marriages with the Chinggisids follow.Depends on: Temujin as the sole master of Mongolia. Stopped by: A Naiman or Merkit recovery.

Places of note

• Toora-Khem and the Bii-Khem valley (centre of the Oirat polygon): A modern Tuvan village used only to locate the Todzha valley, where the Shishged joins the Bii-Khem; not a 1200 site.

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment places the Oirat 'between the Khovsgol and the Sayans'; Wikipedia's article on the Oirats says they lived in Tuva and the Mongolian Khovsgol province. The Secret History's Shishged forest and Zoriktuev's reading of the Shikshit valley fit the Tuva side: Todzha and the Darkhad edge. The Darkhad depression (99 to 100 E) is on the border with the central sheet: we draw nothing beyond 99 E and anchor only its west side (Tsagaannuur, Dzoolon) to the Oirat.

Evidence: One chief and one forest, from three lines of the Secret History and a later submission; everything else is inference from where the 1207 campaign went.

On the map: A rough outline from the 1207 route and the Shishged forest; the Oirat may have ranged further east into the Darkhad or north into the Sayan taiga.

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