Sorghaghtani Beki

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Sorghaghtani Beki
Queen

The Christian queen Sorghaghtani with her husband, Tolui. Rashid al-Din, early 14th century.
Reign 1227 - 1232
Died 1252
Consort Tolui
Father Jagambu, brother of Wang Khan

Sorghaghtani Beki or Sorkhokhtani or Sorkhogtani bekhi (bekhi is a title) (c. 1198[1] - 1252), a Kereyid princess of the Nestorian Christian faith and daughter-in-law of Genghis Khan, was one of the most powerful and competent women in the Mongol Empire. Married to Tolui, Genghis' youngest son, she raised her sons to be leaders, and maneuvered the family politics so that all four of her sons, Mongke Khan, Hulagu Khan, Ariq Boke, and most notably Kublai Khan, were to inherit the legacy of their grandfather. As a moving spirit behind the Mongol Empire, Sorghaghtani is responsible for much of the trade openings and intellectual exchange made possible by this, the largest contiguous empire in world history. As such, she may count among the most influential women in world history.[2]

Contents

[edit] Life

Sorghaghtani was the niece (some say daughter) of the powerful Kerait leader Wang Khan "Toghrul". According to The Secret History of the Mongols, around 1203, when Toghrul was a more powerful leader than Temüjin (name at birth of the man later to be known as Genghis Khan), Temüjin proposed to Toghrul that Temujin's eldest son Jochi might marry Toghrul's relative Sorghaghtani, thus binding the two groups. However, Toghrul refused this alliance, and later attempted to kill the increasingly powerful Temüjin through an invitation to discuss this proposal. However, Temüjin discovered this plan and they escaped at the last moment. Eventually, the Kereits were routed in the ensuing war and Toghrul was killed, possibly by the Naimans.

After the Kereit defeat, Genghis himself married one of Toghrul's elder daughters (later handed over to another general), and gave Sorghaghtani to his teenage son Tolui,[3] with whom she eventually had five children, four sons and a daughter.

Like most Mongol women of the time, Sorghaghtani wielded great authority at home. Women had far more rights in Mongolia than in China, Europe, or other cultures at the time, especially since the men were often away and they were the ones responsible for the home.[4] Although she herself was illiterate, she recognized the value of literacy in running such a far-flung empire. Each of her sons learned a different language for different regions. Also, Sorghaghtani, though a Nestorian Christian, respected other religions. Her sons, like Genghis, were all very liberal minded in matters of religion, and the Mongol empire promulgated the notion of state above religion, while supporting all major religions of the time.[2]

After Ogedei became the Khan, the Secret History suggests that he may have consulted Sorghaghtani on various matters, and he always held her in high regard.[5]

Her husband Tolui, whose kingdom included eastern Mongolia and Northern China, died after a drinking binge at the age of 40,[2] and Sorghaghtani became the regent. Ogodei sought to link her realm to his and proposed that she marry his son Güyük (widows often married again within the family among Mongols), but she refused, claiming that her four sons needed her attention. This decision later turned out to be one of the most important ones in the formation of the Mongol Empire, as all four of Sorghatani's sons, grandsons of Genghis, became leaders in their own right.[6]

After Ogedei Khan's death in 1241, his wife Töregene Khatun ruled as regent until 1246, when she managed to get her son Güyük elected as the Great Khan at a small kurultai (Mongol congress). However, he immediately set out to undermine his mother's power, as well as that of Sorghaghtani and Ebuskun (the wife of Chaghatai Khan, regent for the Central Asian Empire).

Meanwhile, these machinations had alienated the rest of the family and Sorghaghtani had secretly teamed up with Guyuk's cousin Batu Khan, the senior male in the family and ruler of the Golden Horde (north of Caspian Sea to Kiev). In 1248, when Güyük was setting out on a campaign to Europe (ostensibly for conquest, but possibly to defeat Batu Khan), he died under somewhat suspicious circumstances; some have speculated that Sorghaghtani may have taken "direct action against Guyuk"[2].

After Güyük's death, Batu and Sorkhokhtani championed the name of Möngke, who had fought along with Batu in the European campaign, Sorkhokhtani's eldest son, as Great Khan. Mongke was named Great Khan at a kurultai organized by Batu in Siberia in 1250, but this was protested as not being in Mongolia proper. However, the ancient Mongol homeland of where Genghis had been born was in her regency, so she organized a kurultai here which was attended by Batu's brother Berke, where Mongke was formally named the Great Khan. The Ogedei and Guyuk families attempted to assassinate him, but failed, and Mongke arrested and drowned Guyuk's widow Oghul Ghaimish, and many other members of Ogedei's family.

Sorkhokhtani died in February 1252 around the Mongol New Year festival, a few months after Mongke's accession ceremony, and was buried in a Christian church in Kan-su.[7]

[edit] Legacy

In 1310, she was given the title of “empress” in a ceremony that included a Nestorian mass.[citation needed]

She is spoken of very highly both in the Secret History, as well as by Muslim, Chinese and Christian historians.

If I were to see among the race of women another woman like this, I should say that the race of women was far superior to that of men

—Syriac scholar Bar Hebraeus (1226-1286)[2][4]

[edit] Prester John

Sorghaghtani was the niece of the powerful Kerait leader Wang Khan "Toghrul". To Europeans, Toghrul was one of the distant Eastern rulers who was sometimes associated with the legend of "Prester John".[8] During Mongol-European diplomacy, the Mongols sometimes played upon this perception by the Europeans, describing Mongol princesses such as Sorghaghtani and Doquz Khatun as being "daughters of Prester John".[9]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Khan genealogy
  2. ^ a b c d e Jack Weatherford (2004). Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-609-61062-6 (0-609-61062-7). 
  3. ^ John Man (2006). Kublai Khan. Bantam Press. 
  4. ^ a b Morris Rossabi. Women of the Mongol Court.Edited notes taken from a lecture by Morris Rossabi, presented as part of the lecture series in conjunction with Mongolia: The Legacy of Chinggis Khan, an exhibition at the Denver Art Museum.
  5. ^ Per Inge Oestmoen (January 2001). Women in Mongol society: The characteristics and roles of females among the Mongols.
  6. ^ Weatherford, p. 143
  7. ^ Jackson, p. 101
  8. ^ Rachewiltz , p. 114.
  9. ^ Jackson, p. 175

[edit] References

  • Davis-Kimball, Jeannine.(2002) Warrior Women, An Archealogist's Search for History's Hidden Heroines. Warner Books, Inc. Page 223-226. ISBN 0-446-52546-4
  • Peter Jackson, Mongols and the West (Longman, 2005).
  • Igor de Rachewiltz, Papal Envoys to the Great Khans (Stanford University Press, 1971).
  • Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World