Tribe in a Jin quarrel · Mongolia and the Steppe · as at first light, 1 January 1200

The Onggirat

The Onggirat are the great marriage partners of the steppe.

The Secret History puts in Dei Sechen's mouth the idea that his people have never fought for land but give beautiful daughters as queens. Borte, Temujin's wife, is the daughter of Dei Sechen; Hoelun, his mother, was of the Olqunut, which Rashid makes an Onggirat branch but whose camp circles the Secret History (Kahn/Cleaves, p. 47) puts with Temujin from the parting from Jamuqa.

They live on the lower Khalkha, the Ergune and the foot of the Khingan, close to the Jin boundary trench, and have had ties to the Jin court. In 1195 the Jin allied with the Tatars to attack them and the operation succeeded (English Wikipedia, Rise of Genghis Khan and Jin dynasty; Medievalists.net speaks of Jin punitive raids the same year). But on 4 February 1196 the conflict 'reignited' when they invaded Jin territory and defeated a Jin detachment (same pages), and no peace or submission is recorded for them since.

On 1 January 1200 they are Temujin's in-laws and friends but not his followers, and, as far as the sources go, still at odds with the Jin and the Tatars.

Who rules

Name
Dei Sechen
Title
Chief (sechen, 'the wise') of the Onggirat
Since
not pinned
Born
not known; an old man in 1200
Family
Wife Chotan; sons Anchen (Anchar) and Qogu; daughter Borte (wife of Temujin).
Confidence
medium

Wikipedia's Dei Sechen article and the Secret History; dates not known.

Overlord

None. Wardens or allies of the Jin at different times.

What the realm holds

  • Pastures on the lower Khalkha, the Ergune and the Hulun Buir steppe
  • Fishing and the Jin trade road
  • The prestige of the daughters they have given

How it was acquired

By descent.

Allies and rivals

Friends: Temujin (marriage). Enemies: the Jin (their attack of 1195 and the Onggirat victory of 4 February 1196) and, by the same war, the Tatars; no settlement is recorded. Neighbours: Ikires. They did not join Temujin at the election.

The realm that morning

At odds with the Jin and the Tatars since 1195: they beat a Jin detachment on 4 February 1196 and no reconciliation is recorded. No other fighting is recorded for them since Dalan Balzhut (where, if we remember the Secret History rightly, the Onggirat and Ikires are named on Jamuqa's side; not checked in this session).

Military

Clan levies; no numbers.

Threats

  • A new Jin punitive raid
  • Tatar quarrels
  • Being drawn into Jamuqa's coalition

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. 1201 (one line)The Onggirat swear to Jamuqa at the Ergune and are beaten at Koyiten.Depends on: A coalition forms. Stopped by: Temujin's earlier victory over the Tayichi'ut.

Where the sources disagree

  • Wikipedia places them near Lake Hulun and the Khalkha, as we do; Rashid's later accounts put them further east on the Jin frontier; the winter camp is not pinned.
  • Wikipedia's Khongirad article gives the origin myth in which the Ikires, Olkhonud (Olqunut), Karanut, Gorlos (Qorulas) and Qongliyut split off from the Onggirat; the Secret History (Kahn/Cleaves, p. 47) lists the Olqunut and Qorulas camp circles among those that followed Temujin, so the kin are divided in allegiance.
  • The Jin attack on the Onggirat in 1195 is in English Wikipedia (Rise of Genghis Khan) and, as punitive raids, in Medievalists.net; the Onggirat victory over a Jin detachment on 4 February 1196 is in the Wikipedia page only (it does not state the calendar). We could not see the Jin sources. Common accounts show the Onggirat as quiet in-laws of the Mongols and say nothing of this.

Evidence: Marriage links are well attested; places are inferred.

On the map: The south-east edge is cut by the Jin trench line; the north-east is open forest.

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

Sources and studies

  1. Khongirad (Wikipedia)
  2. Dei Sechen (Wikipedia)
  3. The Secret History of the Mongols, transl. and commentary Igor de Rachewiltz (Brill 2004; shorter edition ed. J. C. Street, Western Washington University 2015)
  4. The Secret History of the Mongols, adapted by Paul Kahn from the Cleaves translation (names and place names of the early chapters)
  5. Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), transl. W. M. Thackston
  6. Rise of Genghis Khan (Wikipedia)
  7. Chinggis Khan's missing ten years, 1186 to 1196 (Medievalists.net, 2022; summarises Ratchnevsky, the Servan Khaalga inscription and the Jin evidence)
  8. Jin dynasty, 1115 to 1234 (Wikipedia)

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