#ogedei

[fierce-little-miana]

Genghis Khan and his children according to Jack Weatherford

Genghis Khan: I am entrusting this vital part of my empire to my daughters/grand-daughters because I know they are capable to administrate it and I can rely on them while I am conquering the rest of the world... You see the women in my family are RELIABLE not like some OTHER persons!

Jochi, Chagadai, Ogedei, and Tolui: Can you be something else than passive agressive for two minutes please? 

[historic-mysteries]

The Battle of Mohi: When the Mongols Invaded Europe - Historic Mysteries

The Mongol invasion under Genghis Khan’s son reached as far as Hungary. What happened at the Battle of Mohi, and why did the Mongols not swe

The Mongol invasion in the time of Genghis Khan’s son reached as far as Hungary. What happened at the Battle of Mohi, and why did the Mongols not sweep through Europe?

[thejackmeister-mongolhistory]

Ogedai's Edict to the Koreans, 1232

The most famous Mongol diplomatic missives of the 13th century are, of course, the demands for submission sent to many a rule across Eurasia. Below, we'll share one of the less commonly seen letters of this time, sent from Ogedai Khaan to the Koreans in 1232, while Mongols armies had surrounded their capital Songdo (modern Kaesong). This letter was originally a very stilted and grammatically poor Chinese: likely, it was copied down hastily directly from someone translating Ogedai's dictated orders out of Mongolian. This particular letter was preserved in the Koryo-sa, a dynastic history printed in the 1450s (but initially compiled in the 1390s before extensive editing and formatting).

EDICT FROM OGEDEI QA’AN TO KORYO

“Strength of Heaven! Words spoken from Heaven: [1] those people we get who do not braid their hair [2] will have their eyes blinded, their hands removed, their legs crippled!

Edict.

We send off the army of Sarta the Quiver-Bearer to ask whether you are awaiting submission or awaiting battle.

In the year of the Rat,[1216] when the Black Khitan [3] raided your state of Kao-li, you were not able properly to get rid of them. We sent the two people, Jala and Qačin [4]. They came leading the army, took the Black Khitan and killed them all. You they did not kill. We came, for if we had not dealt with the Black Khitan, you would not have been soon [in doing it]. Isn’t it so?

You did not give a salute to the envoy… isn’t it so? [corruption in text?]

When you submitted, we sent the envoy Ja’uyu [5]. He did not administer beatings among you. Isn’t it so?

Ja’uyu disappeared. An envoy came searching for Ja’uyu. You used bow and arrow, shot the man who came searing, and chased him back. For that reason, we are sure it was you who took Ja’uyu and killed him.

We have now come to search and inquire into this business. The edict of the Qa’an says: If you are awaiting battle, we are in one action to kill you, one after the other, to the end. If, on the other hand, you want to submit, you are to go and submit all at once, as before. If you have love for your people, come and submit all at once, as before.

You are quickly to have the envoy who has been sent down sent back.

If you want to do battle, you shall know this: in the great nation of the Qa’an, we Tatars have gathered all of the nations surrounding us in the four directions. We have also gathered in the nations which did not submit.

If you do not heed this, we will administer beatings to all of those who have gone into submission. If you do not heed this, we will rob and plunder your residences and will soon pacify them.

Listen! Bring the King of Kao-li with you. Those among your people who have submitted will remain in their residences as of old. People who do not submit will be killed.

In the Year of the Tiger [1218], you submitted. We together were no less than one house. Isn’t it so?

The envoy who has been sent is Ortu.”

From Ledyard, Gari. “Two Mongol Documents from the Koryo sa.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 83 no. 2 (1963): pg 228.

[1] a rare shorting of the more famous "by the will of Eternal Blue Heaven," which normally opened Mongol demands.

[2] braided hair was associated with Mongols and Turkic peoples: for the Mongols, this is of course their famous hair cut wherein the top of the head is shaved, leaving the sides to grow long and be braided into loops behind the ears. The Chinese (and to my understanding, the Koreans, but I could be wrong and welcome correction) were quite the opposite, leaving the hair uncut and putting it into buns or knots. The Chines associated braids and long unkempt hair with 'barbarians.'

[3] ‘Black Khitan,’ seemingly how the Mongols distinguished between ethnic Khitans (calling them Black Khitans) and northern Chinese (calling them just Khitans). The likely origin of Khitai → Cathay → China in English. In 1216 this Khitan army fled Mongol rule into Korea, where the Koreans were unable to expel them for two years.

[4] Jala and Qacin lead the army in 1218 to defeat the Khitans in Korea. Upon entering Korea in 1218, the Mongols considered Korea to have submitted to them

[5] Ja’uyu was the Mongol envoy to Korea 1220-1225. His ‘disappearance’ in 1225 served as pretext for the Mongol invasion in 1231.

Ultimately, Sangdo submitted, but the harsh treatment by Sarta Qorci and the difficultly in meeting his demands led a revolt a few months later, moving the capital from Sangdo to Kanghwa Island. There, the Korean court ruled in near exile for 27 years after the Mongols invaded and raided the Korean peninsula. Final submission only occurred in 1259, and further onerous demands to supply the invasions of Japan in the following decades.

[terence-t-park]

Shortfall

I’m used to the concept of shortfall. For many years I monitored daily efficiencies (among other things) for a business. Efficiency was calculated from comparing actual output against maximum attainable output. Differences were due to down time. How does that apply to writing? Each writer has a unique formula for writing. Some ingredients we take for granted; i.e. you write, you have pen and…

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[unhistorical]

September 13, 1229: Ögedei succeeds Genghis Khan as Khagan of the Mongol Empire.

Upon his death in 1227, Genghis Khan, founder and first ruler of the Mongol Empire, passed his title and his lands - which at the time of his death spanned an area twice the size of the Roman Empire - to his third son, Ögedei. As famous as Genghis Khan was as a conqueror, the Mongol Empire expanded even further during Ögedei's twelve year reign, stretching into Central Europe and Russia. 

Ögedei was formally elected to succeed his father by a kurultai (a kind of military-political decision-making assembly), and by their decree he was proclaimed Khagan - emperor, king of kings. His mostly stable reign was marked by a continuation of Genghis Khan's legacy; it was also marked by a series of military exploits and conquest. In 1231, the Mongol Empire launched an invasion of the Korean Peninsula that was to last until after Ögedei's own death, ending in Goryeo's surrender. In 1237 an invasion of Russia led by the Great Khan's nephew Batu was launched, resulting in the disintegration of Kievan Rus', and enormous repercussions (both short- and long-term) for the development of the region and its inhabitants. 

[lascelleshistory]

The Terrible Terrible Mongols

An obscure pastoral and tribal people who lived in what is now Outer Mongolia – the Mongols had been gradually united towards the end of the 12th century. One of their leaders, Timuchin, so impressed them with his military abilities that in 1206, at the age of 42, they named him Genghis Khan or ‘Universal Ruler’.

Under his leadership, the Mongols exploded out of the Steppe and terrorised much of Asia. Reasons for their westerly march are unclear; it may have occurred due to changes in the climate that forced them to seek out new pastures for their animals, or it could have been as simple as having more time and energy to focus on adventures other than internecine warfare now that they were unified. 

Their success is perhaps slightly easier to understand. Up against them was a divided China, no single leader to rally the armies of central Asia, a declining Abbasid Caliphate and a series of fragmented city-states that would eventually become Russia. In essence, the world was open for the taking. With the help of their lightning mobility, their spectacular horsemanship, and the discipline of their military machine, the Mongols were hugely successful. By the time of Kublai Khan, half a century or so later, they had managed to bring almost the entire Asian landmass under their control.

Genghis Khan died in 1227 around the age of 65. Under the rule of his descendants, the Mongols occupied all of northern China and overran much of Kievan Rus, destroying most of the major cities, in the process. They then overcame the Seljuk Turks before heading westwards into Poland and Hungary.

As the Mongols were crossing the Danube and approaching Vienna in December 1241, they quite mysteriously retreated. To the Europeans this was a miracle, but the Mongol withdrawal did not come about as a result of divine intervention. Rather they retreated in response to the death of Genghis Khan’s son, Ogedei, who had taken over from Genghis Khan upon his death. It was required of Mongol nobles that they return home in the case of the death of their ruler to confirm their leader’s successor. Following a short reign by one of Ogedei’s sons in 1251, the position of Great Khan went to Mongke, another of Genghis Khan’s grandsons. Mongke continued the invasion of China while simultaneously sending his brother, Hulegu, westwards to bring the Abbasid Caliphate into submission.

In 1258, Hulegu rode into Baghdad, until then dominated by the Seljuk Turks, and unleashed his hordes on the city. According to some estimates, up to 800,000 Muslims were massacred, including the last reigning Abbasid caliph – albeit one of vastly reduced power – who was rolled up in a carpet and trampled to death by horses. In an orgy of destruction, all the intellectual and literary treasures accumulated by the Muslims throughout the centuries were burnt or thrown into the river Tigris. The time of Iraq as a centre of power and culture was finally over and Cairo would now become the centre of the Islamic world until Christian Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453.

Miraculously, the West was once again saved from assured destruction, this time by the death of the Great Khan Mongke, who died invading a Chinese province in 1259. Hulegu was forced to retreat home to take part in the leadership struggle and what remained of his forces in the west was decisively beaten by the Mamluks.

For more information on world history, visit www.lascelleshistory.com.