5
The House of Chinggis Khan’s second son, Chaghadai (1183–1241/2), never achieved the position of power or the prestige enjoyed by the other royal houses of the Chinggisid Empire. After the death of Chinggis Khan in 1227, the Ogodaids and Toluids both occupied the imperial throne, while the Jochids became king makers and at times enjoyed status and prestige equal to or at times greater than that of the Great Khan. Questions concerning Jochi’s paternity were the sole reason for the Jochid khans’ exclusion from the ultimate seat of power, a situation which was recognised and had been accepted by his descendants. Chaghadai Khan and his successors, ruling over a vast but variable swathe of Central Asia concentrated on Turkestan, accepted their role as providing support and muscle to the Qa’an and they remained very formidable enemies and dependable allies. The Chaghadaid khanate was an integral though fluid component of the Empire, originally defined by the peoples of whom it was composed as an autonomous imperial limb. The Great Khan described his second son as ‘a martial man who loves war. But he is proud by nature, more than he should be,’1 adding that ‘any who had a desire to know the yasa and yosun of the kingdom should follow Chaghadai’.2
In the Secret History it is claimed that when Chinggis intimated that his first-born, Jochi, was higher in rank than his brothers and therefore might be most suitable as his successor, Chaghadai rose in anger and grabbed his brother by the neck, deriding him as a ‘bastard offspring of a Merkit’.3 After an impassioned speech from their father, the brothers calmed down and, humbled, pledged their future cooperation and loyalty and agreed instead that Ogodai (d.1241) should be instructed in the ‘teachings of the hat’ (kingship). Chinggis chose Ogodai over his older brother, Chaghadai, because the younger son had a reputation for geniality, generosity and compromise, whereas the older son had a fearsome reputation for cruelty and arrogance even though he was loyal. Chinggis, ever the realist, even questioned the need for their cooperation with each other declaring that ‘Mother Earth is wide: its rivers and waters are many […] We shall make each of you rule over a domain and We shall separate you.’4 Even so, the analogy of the vulnerable single arrow-shaft and the unbreakable clutch of bound arrow-shafts told in the opening chapter of the Secret History would have been ingrained in the minds of all four brothers.5
Fig. 6: Paizas, awarded to envoys, elchis, ortaqs and diplomats to ensure secure travel and privileges; made from iron and nickel
Once the succession had been decided and accepted, Chaghadai became a fanatically loyal subject, and Rashid al-Din recalls a telling anecdote about the prince demonstrating his loyalty and sometimes obsessional observance of the yasa. One day, out riding with his brother, both extremely drunk, Chaghadai challenged Ogodai to a race and proceeded to win the wager and the heat by a head. That same night Chaghadai was gripped with anguish and convinced he had set a dangerous precedent. ‘This was an act of great impropriety. If this keeps up, we and the others will become brazen, and it will result in weakening the kingdom.’6 He then demanded to be hauled before the courts and publically punished. However, on Ogodai’s insistence he was formally pardoned and a gift of nine horses was accepted in lieu of a fine. As a further sign of Ogodai’s trust in and love for his brother, the Qa’an Ogodai placed his son and named successor, Guyuk Khan, in Chaghadai’s retinue as a guard and ‘Chaghadai’s status reached a magnificence beyond description.’7 Though none doubted his respect and loyalty, it was thought that unconsciously or otherwise, Chaghadai was able to intimidate his brother. Secure in his ordu in the vicinity of Almaliq, Chaghadai provided Ogodai with unwavering support and provided advice on matters of law and tradition recalling the Great Khan’s advice that ‘any who desire to know customs and wisdom well, go to Chaghadai’.8 He was severe in his judgements and harsh in his application of the law and in its infringement, attributes which cost him any hope of the qa’anship. He died seven months before his brother, the Qa’an, in 1241.9
The four sons of Borte, Chinggis Khan’s first and chief wife, were his kulugs and therefore the chief heirs to the Empire. The youngest, Tolui, was bequeathed the otchigin, the heartlands of Mongolia along the Tola, Onon and Kerulen rivers. Ogodai received the lands west from Lake Balkhash along the Imil and Irtysh rivers. Jochi’s ulus was divided between his 14 surviving heirs, supervised by Batu and Orda, and comprised the lands of the west from the Altai mountains, or as Juwayni famously recorded, the lands to the west as far as ‘Tatar hoof has trod’.10 Chaghadai assumed control of Uyghuria and the lands formerly administered by the Khitans (Liao), known locally as the Qara Khitai, and he established a capital in Almaliq, modern-day Yining, on the River Ili. He was declared the guardian of the Great Yasa.
Chaghadai’s respect for the yasa translated as respect for Ogodai and unquestioning respect for his position as Qa’an, which did not prevent Ogodai continuing to be slightly intimidated by his elder brother. Chaghadai felt compelled to admonish the excessive consumption of alcohol indulged in by the Qa’an, and Ogodai in turn felt compelled to respond with his brother’s concern and ‘could not disobey his brother’s order’.11 Ogodai followed his brother’s wishes and restricted himself to one bowl of ‘wine’ per day, but in order to comply with Chaghadai’s directives, he had had an enormous bowl especially constructed to meet his excessive alcoholic requirements. The wily but widely respected Mahmud Yalavach and his son Masʿud Beg administered Ogodai’s lands while the Qa’an concerned himself with imperial matters in his new capital, Qaraqorum, which he ordered constructed in 1235, the year the Jurchens finally surrendered.
On Chaghadai Khan’s death in 1241, his position as Chaghadaid khan was filled by his grandson Qara Hulegu, whose father, Mo’etuken, a favourite of Chinggis Khan, had died in the battle for Bamiyan in 1221. Mo’etuken was Chaghadai’s first born, and his early death greatly grieved his father,12 and though ‘consumed by an inner fire’ he refrained from publicly grieving in recognition of a pledge to his father, Chinggis Khan, not to ‘cry or bemoan’ his favourite son’s demise.13 However, Qa’an Guyuk (r.1246–8), not trusting Qara Hulegu, awarded the powerful position to Chaghadai’s fifth and oldest-living son, Yesu Mongke, who was also a close drinking buddy, a nadim, of Guyuk. Yesu Mongke’s reign did not long survive that of his mentor, and with the rise of the Toluids and Mongke Khan, he was quickly deposed in favour of Qara Hulegu whose earlier support for Mongke had now worked to his advantage. However, it was Qara Hulegu’s Muslim wife, Orghina Khatun, who had to carry out Mongke Qa’an’s yasa against Yesu Mongke after her husband’s sudden, untimely death, and who then claimed Qara Hulegu’s throne for herself.
The bloody establishment of the House of Tolui at the heart of the Chinggisid Empire had dire repercussions on the houses of the Ogodaids and Chaghadaids. With accusations of rebellion and plots levied against the leading Ogodaid princes and what were perceived as their Chaghadaid supporters, Mongke Khan instigated a limited but cautionary blood bath against the opposition, tempered by the wise words of the minister Mahmud Yalavach. The minister had intimated that it would be better to maintain a cowed but obedient ulus than an exiled, disenfranchised body of potential rebels, and therefore the lands and appanages of his executed enemies were granted to those sons and grandsons not directly implicated in sedition.14 Orghina Khatun, a granddaughter of Chinggis, was confirmed in office as regent for her infant son, Mubarakshah, and head of the Ulus of Chaghadai. A layer of power and potential rebellion had been removed, but the Ogodaids and Chaghadaids had in no way been cauterised.
The subsequent history of the House of Chaghadai is dominated by its khans’ relationships with other Chinggisid khanates, either as allies or as rivals and enemies, and in particular with the Ogodaids. The Jochid khans occasionally dominated but were usually content to partner their cousins in the east with whom they shared an antipathy with the Toluids of Iran and China. The Chaghadaids had a more complex relationship with the Ogodaids, who dominated their partners under the imposing rule of the charismatic Qaidu Khan (1230–1301). The history of the Chaghadaids until their effective dissolution with the appearance of Timur Khan and the appropriation of their name by the tyrant, is of various rulers struggling to retain power and occasionally rising above the common fray to leave their mark on the development of the Chinggisid Empire.
In 1259 Mongke Khan’s death saw the political, cultural and ideological split that had been undermining Chinggisid unity for decades openly proclaimed as the imperial princes revealed their true convictions in their choice of successor to the Qa’anate. The progressive Toluids, who had embraced the sedentary cultures of Persia and China, flocked to Qubilai Khan’s flag which fluttered high above China and even received the tacit support of the Song emperors, while the disgruntled traditionalists who hankered after the glory days when the steppe ruled supreme found their champion in Qubilai’s youngest brother, Ariq Buqa, who had raised the flag of the Yasa-ites above the ramparts of the steppe capital of Qaraqorum. Each brother now courted all who might provide support, whether financial, political or martial, and as Great Khan they bestowed titles and prestigious positions on those who believed them.
In 1261, Ariq Buqa appointed Alghu Khan (son of Baidar, grandson of Chaghadai) to head the Ulus of Chaghadaid, and Qubilai’s appointee, Abishqa, was dismissively murdered. However, as Ariq Buqa’s resistance began to crumble, Alghu (d.1266) re-aligned his loyalties and in 1263 he formally switched his allegiance to Qubilai Khan, hastening the inevitable victory. As a reward Qubilai confirmed him as overlord of the territory stretching from the Altai to the Oxus, including all the former Ogodaid lands as well. To cement his position, he had won the support and the hand of Oirat Princess Orghina, a Muslim, and crucially he also had the active support of the veteran administrator, Mas’ud Beg. If Alghu had been able to solidify these gains and achieve wider recognition, history might have been very different and the final endgame of the Chinggisid Empire unrecognisable.
However, Alghu’s death in 1266 shortly after Hulegu Khan’s demise in 1265 and just prior to the Golden Horde’s Berke Khan’s death in 1267, left a dangerous political vacuum which Orghina Khatun attempted to fill by appointing her own son Mubarakshah to the Chaghadaid leadership without first seeking the approval of the new Great Khan Qubilai. Qubilai’s disastrous support for Baraq Khan as ruler of the Chaghadaid khanate to counter Mubarakshah’s appointment led to a period of great instability, and eventually the final glorious swan song of the House of Ogodai. Baraq switched allegiance from Qubilai to the ambitious Ogodaid prince, Qaidu. Khwandamir spoke for many when he declared:
As is agreed upon by all historians, Baraq Khan was a harsh, tyrannical ruler who was over fond of confiscating his subjects’ goods, known for his bravery and courage, and renowned for his over-bearing pride and conceit.15
Baraq was cleverly manipulated by Qaidu, the son of Ogodai’s son, Kashi,16 who used the Chaghadaid khan’s predictable fall to assume power for himself and to dominate Turkestan and beyond until his death in 1301. Though few outside his political neighbourhood credited his aspirations, Qaidu aspired to the Chinggisid throne. He adopted the title Qa’an and had his tamgha embossed alongside the insignia of his Chaghadaid subordinate, Du’a Khan, on specially minted coins. He adopted the trappings of imperial power and exercised authority over his neighbours and received recognition as the dominant ruler over the lands of Transoxiana and Moghulistan. Though he never made any serious attempts to invade either Iran or China, his raids and incursions had powerful symbolic value. His first concern was to restore the honour due to the House of Ogodai and restore the regional domination that his forefathers had enjoyed. His ambitions did not seem to encompass Iran or China. His short-lived occupation of the first imperial capital, Qaraqorum, in 1289 and his capture of the old Chaghadaid capital, Almaliq, however, were enough to assure him the allegiance of the Chaghadaid prince, Du’a.
Fig. 7: Mongol siege engines
The charismatic Qaidu had captured the imagination of the steppe-based khanates, though without the premature death of Alghu in 1266 he might have been a mere footnote in the history books. Baraq had been flexing his political and military muscles, inflicting a decisive victory over Qaidu on the Jaxartes, and it was to curb his disruption that the 1269 quriltai was announced in Talas to bring about an agreement between the three regional powers, Mongke-Temur of the Golden Horde (r.1267–81), Baraq of the Chaghadaids and Qaidu representing the Ogodaids. Qubilai and Abaqa were noticeably absent, not having been invited. The Talas quriltai formally divided the Chinggisid Empire and set out to meet the aspirations of the three khanates, particularly the troublesome Baraq: ‘I too am a fruit of this tree. I too should have an assigned yurt and livelihood’.17 Two-thirds of the revenue of Turkestan would be assigned to Baraq, while the remaining third would be shared by Qaidu and Mongke-Temur. They would safeguard the interests of the urban population under the administration of Mas’ud Beg. Crucially, however, Baraq’s nomadic tribesmen and his armies would be excluded from the region’s cities and he would not be allowed to enter or even approach any urbanised area. Qaidu retained full control of the regional centres of Samarqand, Bokhara, Khwarazm and the other great cultural and commercial centres. When Baraq realised the implications, the documents had been signed and sealed. Disgruntled, he resumed his traditional form of income generation, raiding. His ill-fated campaign in 1270 into Khorasan and his attack on Herat, a venture fully encouraged by Qaidu, ended in disaster and his humiliating retreat and death, possibly at the hands of Qaidu’s agents who he had presumed to be the promised military relief. Rashid al-Din claims that the despised Baraq died of fright when he realised that he was trapped.18
With Baraq no longer on the political chequerboard, Qaidu consolidated power, absorbing the remnants of Baraq’s armies, executing those who opposed him, like the sons of Baraq and Alghu, and the newly installed khan of the Chaghadaids, Neguberi (son of Sarban, grandson of Chaghadai; r.1271–2). Henceforth Qaidu appointed the Chaghadaid khans himself, and he started with the enthronement of Boqa-Temur (r.1272–82), a grandson of Mo’etuken’s son Buri.
Qaidu’s independent Ogodaid state enjoyed its apogee during the 1280s and 90s when it continued to be a painful thorn in the side of Qubilai’s Yuan Empire and made repeated inroads into Uyghuria and the Tarim basin area while encouraging other rebellions against Khanbaliq. In 1285 assistance was extended to the Bry-Gung rebels in Tibet, while in 129519 an insurrection by Nayan, a descendant of Chinggis Khan’s brother Otchigin, pinned Qubilai Khan down in Manchuria allowing Qaidu and Du’a to launch a raid on Mongolia, cumulating in 1289 in the occupation of Qaraqorum. Even though Yuan troops were able to expel the invaders in a short while, large areas of the Mongol homeland remained in rebel hands until 1293, and despite Qubilai’s garrisons regaining control of the Yenisey region, resources and revenue continued to be adversely affected.
Qaidu was never an existential or serious threat to either Yuan China or Ilkhanid Iran but he became a magnet for moral dissidents who felt that the Toluid regimes had betrayed the ideals of Chinggis Khan. Qaidu was the model Chinggisid steppe ruler and some believed his daughter Qutulun Chaghan (1260–1306) encompassed the essence of steppe womanhood. So famous was Qaidu’s daughter that even Marco Polo felt drawn to record her life and times for his European audience. She was her father’s favourite and his chosen successor, though that was never allowed. Rashid al-Din claims their relationship was too intimate and that this was the reason she delayed marriage for so long. ‘She was listened to by her father, and she handled the administration for him’ and they rode to battle together.20 Her military and athletic prowess was legendary, and it is claimed that she insisted that any would-be suitor for her hand in marriage must first defeat her in a wrestling bout forfeiting the dowry of horses should the suit prove unsuccessful. Her private stables is said to have amounted to 100,000 stallions. Certainly, in comparison with their Chinese and Persian sisters, Mongol women enjoyed far more influence and power, and it is revealing that Qutulun Khatun, however exaggerated her image might have become, epitomised the ideal woman.
Qaidu entrusted his loyal subordinate Du’a Khan (r.1282–1307) with ensuring a smooth transition of power to his capable son Orus on the Ogodaid throne when he died. Though Du’a had generally been content to defer to Qaidu in political matters, he had always strongly resisted any attempts by Qaidu to merge their two armies. Upon Qaidu’s death, Du’a used the power invested in him by Qaidu to cynically place not Qaidu’s choice, Orus, but his frail sibling Chapar on the throne, despite Chapar being ‘weak in opinion and weak in understanding’21 and ‘extremely thin and contemptible’.22 Qaidu had instructed his sons to heed the advice of Du’a, and within a few years Chapar’s rule was in disarray and Qaidu’s sons had fled seeking asylum in both the Yuan court and the Ilkhanate.
As the spokesman for the whole region, Du’a abandoned Qaidu’s hostile foreign policies and sought to establish a regional and lasting peace. In 1303 Du’a proposed a peace treaty binding on all the Chinggisid Khanates that recognised the Yuan Qa’an in Khanbaliq as the titular head of the Empire, and he accordingly agreed to pay tribute. Subsequently, in 1304 Du’a, for the Chaghadaids, and Chapar Khan, for the House of Ogodai, formally surrendered to the Yuan court and had their respective leaderships recognised. This was beneficial to Du’a Khan in two ways. Firstly, his highly profitable military raids into India could continue unhindered and, secondly, his domination of the unruly though militarily useful Qaraʿunas of Eastern Afghanistan could be strengthened.
Du’a Khan’s final act of treachery to the memory of Qaidu was a staged showdown between his forces and Chapar, his brother Sarban, and their supporter, Baba. Baba was routed and Talas destroyed, Sarban fled south to the Ilkhanate and surrendered. In 1306 Du’a, allied with the Yuan commander and future Qa’an, Qaishan (r.1307–11), moved against Chapar’s brother Orus, whose crack troops were stationed on the Yuan frontier. The Ogodaid princes were crushed and their ulus dissolved. They were all forced into exile in the neighbouring states, never to re-group again, leaving Du’a free to consolidate his gains and strengthen his rule. Chapar lived in Khanbaliq and was granted the revenue from Chinese appanages, frozen since Qaidu’s hostilities, and he was awarded the title Prince of Runing, Henan Province, Northern China, which was passed on to his son and his grandson.
The one weakness in Du’a Khan’s plans was the numerous sons that he left and the succession battles that gripped the region following his death. Konchek ruled for a year before his death, followed by Taliqu, who was a grandson of Buri and a princess from Kirman. In 1309 Taliqu was challenged and defeated by Du’a’s son, Kobek. Kobek then stood down in favour of his brother, Esen Buqa, only to return to the throne again in 1318. Though Du’a lay claim to the whole region of Turkestan, this region divided naturally into western Transoxiana, containing some of Islam’s greatest urban jewels like Bokhara and Samarqand, and eastern Moghulistan, which lay firmly in the hands of the nomadic tribes. The conflict between these two regions and the resistance of the east to domination by the west defined Chaghadaid politics until the rise of the monstrous Timurlane and beyond.
Among the many claimants to the Chaghadaid throne and to leadership of the tribes a few names stand out: Esen Buqa I, Kobek, Tarmashirin and Tughluq Temur defined and shaped the last decades of the Chaghadaid Ulus and deserve recognition.
Esen Buqa I (r.1310–20) ruled for a decade, struggling to gain back territory both in the east, over which he felt that Yuan forces were encroaching, and also in the south-west, where his attempts at inciting rebellion in Khorasan backfired. He had sent his brother and successor, Kobek, to invade Khorasan in 1314 along with the armies of the Qaraʿunas to neutralise any threat to his activities in Afghanistan. However, when he recalled Kobek and sent him to bolster the campaign on the eastern front, Yara’ur, a rebel commander, at the instigation of the Ilkhan Uljaytu, devastated an exposed Transoxiana in retaliation before seeking asylum in the Ilkhanate.
On his death, Esen Buqa I’s brother Kobek (r.1318–26) assumed control again, and with stability as his priority he re-established peace with the Yuan Qa’an, though such a move angered the tribal leaders in Moghulistan since they considered the Chinese foreign invaders. In 1323 he struck a deal which satisfied his amirs and pleased the Chinese. In return for a formal submission and the establishment of a tribute relationship, authority over Uyghuria was returned to Kobek. The Chaghadaid khan could now concentrate on ruling and uniting the state with a return to economic prosperity and political stability. However, it was his internal affairs and reforms for which he is remembered rather than his foreign policies and adventures. He built a new residential palace in the capital, Qarshi, and he strove to restore the economy through the encouragement of agriculture, trade and urban renewal, despite generations of war and depredation. Coins were minted in his name (kebeks/kopeika) and a new decimal-based administration was formed with attempts to limit the powers of his amirs, all moves which earned him the reputation of being a just ruler.
Kobek’s reign is sometimes portrayed as the zenith of the Chaghadaid Khanate. With a semblance of stability returning to Transoxiana and with his authority re-established over the Qaraʿunas, wealth-generating raids and campaigns into India resumed. As a sign of his military confidence, Kobek, the ‘champion of justice’,23 mounted a raid on Khorasan with his ally Ozbeg Khan of the Golden Horde, led by his brother and commander in Afghanistan, Tarmashirin. However, the overly ambitious raid was repelled by Abu Saʿid’s troops and Tarmashirin’s forces were routed. Ghazni stayed firmly in Chaghadaid hands, however, and therefore Kobek’s ability to campaign in India was not stalled. Tarmashirin led a very successful raid there, sacking Delhi and Gujarat before returning to Ghazni with vast amounts of plunder.
Eljigidei Khan (1327–30) continued the policies of his brother, which included a highly lucrative campaign against Delhi and Gujarat. He moved the capital to Almaliq and repaired relations with Khanbaliq, which had been damaged after his apparent involvement in a failed coup d’état in 1328–9 involving Qoshila, the exiled son of Qaishan.
Tarmashirin (r.1331–4), known also as Sultan ʿAla al-Din after his conversion, returned the capital to Transoxiana when he ascended the throne, and like Kobek he encouraged trade and agriculture. Ibn Battuta described the Sultan as ‘a man of great distinction, possessed of numerous troops and regiments of calvary, a vast kingdom, and immense power, and just in his government’.24 Tarmashirin also promoted Islam and actually encouraged his soldiers and courtiers to convert, though many were already converts at this time.25 Being a devout Muslim, he used his faith to promote diplomatic and mercantile ties with other Muslim nations, including Mamluk Egypt and the Delhi Sultanate but not Muslim Iran. In fact he led an attack on Khorasan c.1326 which was not only repulsed but led to a counter-raid on Ghazni by the Ilkhan Abu Saʿid’s chief commander, Amir Chopan.
Though Tarmashirin maintained warm relations with Yuan China, he avoided travelling to the east of his lands where many of his policies were not only disliked but were considered ‘blasphemous’, breaking with the yasa of Chinggis Khan.26 His promotion of trade and agriculture alienated him from the khans of Moghulistan and Uyghuria, where Nestorian Christians continued to flourish and European missionaries were generally welcomed. His death was followed by a confused period where power bounced between khans and amirs and east and west Turkestan.
Tughluq Temur (r.1347–63), who eventually succeeded Qazan Sultan (r.1343–7), ‘the last bad ruler’ of the Chaghadaid Ulus, was a Muslim convert who ‘circumcised himself’ and ‘that day 120,000 people shaved their heads and became Muslim’.27 Tughluq Temur is said to have introduced Islam to Moghulistan, as the eastern provinces became known after invading and holding Transoxiana, and so for a short period from 1361 until his death in 1363, he united the Khanate. He was politically astute and it is debateable whether his conversion to Islam was from conviction or from his political judgement and his interpretation of the relentless spread of Islam from western Turkestan. He was appointed by a tribal confederacy led by the Dughlats and his acceptance by the peoples of the west of the khanate meant that the Ulus enjoyed a short period of unity before the devastation of Timurlane descended on the region.
Though in some histories the story of the Chaghadaid Khanate is continued until well into the seventeenth century, and some breakaway khanates such as the Dzungars until the early twentieth century, Tughluq Temur is a worthy figure with which to end the classical period of the Ulus. His history and the history of the khans of Moghulistan is recorded in the Tarikh-i-Rashidi. Though the infamous Timur Khan (Timurlane) (1336–1405) sought legitimacy through his ties with the Chaghadaid khans, in fact the actual khan who acted as his puppet head of state and resided securely in the tyrant’s pocket belonged to the Ogodaid Ulus.