Khamag Mongol

Khamag Mongol
Хамаг Монголын ханлиг
khanate
←
 
←
900s–1206 →
Capital centered camp near Kherlen river
Languages Middle Mongolian
Religion Tengriism (Shamanism)
Government Elective monarchy
Khan
 -  10th century Khaidu
 - 1120–1148 Khabul Khan (1st recorded khan)
 - 1148–1156 Ambaghai Khan (2nd)
 - 1156–1160 Hotula Khan (3rd)
 - 1189–1206 Genghis Khan (last)
Legislature Khurultai
Historical era High Middle Ages
 -  Established 900s
 - First Khan recorded in history is Khabul Khan. 1130
 - Temujin become Khan of Khamag Mongol and he was given the honorary name of Genghis Khan. 1189
 -  Genghis Khan unified the tribes in Mongolia and established the Great Mongol State. 1206
Today part of  Mongolia
 Russia
 China

Khamag Mongol (Mongolian: Хамаг монгол, lit. "Whole Mongol") was a major Mongolic tribal confederation (khanlig) on the Mongolian plateau in the 12th century. It is sometimes also considered a predecessor state[1] to the Mongol Empire.[2]

After the fall of Khitan Liao Dynasty in North China and eastern Mongolia in 1125, the Khamag Mongols began to play an important role on the Mongolian plains.[3] They occupied one of the most fertile lands of the country, the basins of the river Onon, Kherlen and Tuul in the Khentii mountains. The Tayichiud (Cyrillic: Тайчууд) was one of the three core tribes in the Khamag Mongol Khanate of Mongolia during the 12th century and whose people lived in the southern part of Russian Zabaykalsky Krai. Zabaykalsky Krai and the Mongolian Khentii Province were core regions of the Khamag Mongol Khanate.[4] Khamag Mongol consisted of the four core clans Khiyad, Taichuud, Jalayir and Jirukhen.

The first khan of Khamag Mongol recorded in history is Khabul Khan from the Borjigin clan. Khabul Khan successfully repelled the invasions of the Jin Dynasty armies. Khabul Khan was succeeded by Ambaghai Khan from the Taichuud clan. Ambagai was captured by the Tatars while delivering his daughter for marriage into the Tatar confederacy. He was handed over to the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty, who cruelly executed him. Ambaghai was succeeded by Hotula Khan, a son of Khabul Khan. Hotula Khan engaged the Tatars in 13 battles in an effort to obtain vengeance for the death of Ambagai Khan.

Khamag Mongol was unable to elect a khan after Hotula died. However, Khabul's grandson Yesukhei, who was a chief of the Khiyad tribe, was an effective and preeminent leader of Khamag Mongol. Temujin, the future Genghis Khan, was born into Yesukhei's family as the first son in Deluun Boldog on the upper reaches of the Onon river in 1162.

When young Toghoril asked for help from Yesukhei, the ruler of the Khamag Mongol,[5] to dethrone his brothers of the Kereit tribe, the Mongols helped him defeat the Kereit leaders and put him on the throne in the early 12th century.

Yesukhei was poisoned by the Tatars in 1170 and shortly after Yesukhei died. The Khamag Mongol began to disintegrate after Yesugei's death in 1171. Political anarchy and a power vacuum lasted until 1189 when Temujin became the Khan of the Khamag Mongol. War broke soon out between other Mongol tribes. Temujin's friend Jamukha was recognized by the rival tribes as Gur-Khan (the universal ruler) in 1201 but he was defeated by the alliance of Khamag Mongol and Kereit.

When Wang Khan refused to cement the alliance with the Khamag Mongols, Temujin's wars with the clans nearly destroyed him. Temujin united all clans on the Mongolian plateau at last in 1206 when he was given the title Genghis Khan.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Bat-Ocher Bold (2001), Mongolian nomadic society: a reconstruction of the "medieval" history of Mongolia, Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, p. 176, ISBN 0-7007-1158-9
  2. ↑ History of the Mongolian People's Republic By Akademii︠a︡ nauk SSSR, p.99
  3. ↑ Histoire de la Mongolie By László Lőrincz, p.43
  4. ↑ History of Mongolia, Volume II, 2003
  5. ↑ He never assumed the title the Khan of the Khamag Mongol but baghatur (hero)

References