The Tayichi'ut of Tarqutai

Who rules

Name

Tarqutai Kiriltuq (Targutai Kiriltuk)

Title

Senior noyan of the Tayichi'ut (they have no khan)

Since

not pinned; leader of the house from the 1160s or 1170s

Born

not known; an old man in 1200 by the Secret History's telling

Family

Of the line of Ambaghai Khan; his kinsman Todo'en Girte shares the leadership; Qudu'udar is named among his people.

Confidence

medium

Only the Secret History and Rashid al-Din name him; no Chinese source we know.

Overlord

None. Named among Jamuqa's helpers at Dalan Balzhut; no tie to the Jin known.

What the realm holds

• Winter and summer pastures on the middle and lower Onon
• Serf and dependent families (Suldus and others)
• The old royal prestige of Ambaghai Khan's house

How it was acquired

By descent from the house of Ambaghai Khan; leadership of the house after Qutula Khan's death (no khan since).

Allies and rivals

Enemies: Temujin (since c. 1170), Toghrul by extension. Friends: Jamuqa (English Wikipedia, Rise of Genghis Khan: the Taichiud, frightened by Temujin's power, joined Jamukha; by our memory of the Secret History they also stood with him at Dalan Balzhut) and dependants such as Jirqo'adai of the Besut. Their grievance against the Tatars (Ambaghai's betrayal) is old but not a quarrel of 1200.

The realm that morning

Winter camps on the lower Onon, not pinned. They have not yet been attacked; a war on them is likely in spring or summer 1200 (see the likely course). Whether Jamuqa shares their camps that winter is not known.

Military

Clan levies and followers. Their dependants include good archers such as Jirqo'adai of the Besut. No numbers.

Threats

• Temujin's growing following upstream
• Toghrul's help to Temujin
• Defection of their own serf families

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. Spring and summer 1200Temujin and Toghrul attack; the Tayichi'ut are broken on the Onon; Tarqutai flees and is taken (the Secret History has Shirgu'etu ebugen and his sons Alaq and Naya'a seize him; he is killed).Depends on: Toghrul's help; the Tayichi'ut standing on the Onon. Stopped by: Withdrawal beyond the Onon; Jamuqa or the Merkit coming to their aid early.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201 (one line)Survivors join Jamuqa's coalition at the Ergune.Depends on: Escape of Tayichi'ut groups after 1200. Stopped by: Their destruction in 1200.

Where the sources disagree

• Wikipedia names the Besud (Jebe's clan) and the Suldus (Chila'un's clan) as Tayichi'ut sub-clans and says they share the ancestor Bodonchar with the Qiyat-Borjigin; the Kahn/Cleaves excerpt has camp circles of the Besud and Suldus following Temujin at the parting from Jamuqa, so the sub-clans were split between the two houses.
• The Wikipedia Taichiud article places them in southern Zabaykalsky Krai and Dornod and does not mention the lower Onon; the regional brief and the Secret History's route descriptions put them on the Onon, and we keep that. Their exact camps are not pinned.

Evidence: Narrative sources only; locations inferred from route descriptions.

On the map: A broad range; the western edge against Temujin (near Dadal) is a guess.

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