The Mongols and the Yuan

1
The Mongols and the Yuan

• Barfield, Thomas, The Perilous Frontier,, Ch. 6,
  "The Mongol Empire, pp 164-222 OR
• Observations on Marriage and Inheritance
  Practices in Early Mongol and Yuan Society with
  particular reference to the Levirate in
  Holmgren, Jennifer, Marriage, Kinship and Power
  in Northern China, Part III, pp 127-192.
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_empire

2
The Mongols and the Yuan

• The Mongols
• Mongol Practices
• The Rise of Genghis Khan
• The Mongol Empire
• Mongols and the Jin (Gold) Dynasty
• Mongols and Xi Xia (Western Xia)
• Political Succession in the Mongol Empire
• Conquest of China
• The Yuan Dynasty
• Mongolorization of China
• The End of the Yuan
• Powerful Mongolian Women

3
The Mongols

• The Mongols were first mentioned by the Chinese
  during the Tang dynasty.
• At first it was applied to a small and still
  insignificant tribe in the area of the Onon
  River.
• They had little independent power as their
  confederation had been destroyed by the Jurchen
  and other nomadic attacks.
• After a civil war the Mongols became so
  fragmented that they no longer had a khan.
• In the 13th century it grew into an umbrella term
  for a large group of tribes united under the rule
  of Genghis Khan.
• After the fall of the empire, the Mongols were
  assimilated into local populations and many of
  their descendants adopted local religions for
  example, the western Khanates adopted Islam.

4
Mongol Practices

• Mongols usually herded horses, cattle, camels,
  sheep, and goats.
• Milk was taken from all of these animals,
• Sheep and goats were killed for meat.
• The sheep and camels were the main producers
  fiber for clothing and shelter, but hair from all
  the animals was used in different ways.
• Horses were ridden and the cattle and camels were
  used for transportation.
• When lineages became large they would be divided
  and become smaller ones.
• The system of inheritance gave each son a portion
  as he married but the youngest son did not
  receive his share until after the mothers death.

5
Mongol Practices (2)

• The womens ties with her natal/birth family was
  weakened by the payment of bride-price through
  years of labour or goods.
• Cross-generational marriages were permitted.
• Levirate was the preferred form of marriage for
  all classes of Mongol society.
• Wealthy women did not need levirate remarriage
  as she can support herself and her children
  without the help of a new husband.
• Remarriage of the widow may mean more children
  and so her first husbands inheritance might have
  to be shared with the other children and the
  inheritance of the youngest son of the first
  husband would be less.
• Senior wives of men of influence tended to remain
  in the husbands family as unmarried heads of
  independent units.

6
The Rise of Genghis Khan

• Genghis Khan (Temüjin) (1167-1227) was born at a
  time when the steppe was in chaos.
• Genghis used his dowry of his principal wife,
  Borte, to get started.
• She later gave birth to four sons.
• He entered tribal politics at the age of 16.
• In 1190, the leaders of his tribe elected him
  khan of the Mongols.
• At the age of 40, he was the master of all the
  tribes of Mongolia (about the size of Alaska).
• He molded the different tribes into a single
  people building an army, imposing uniform laws,
  and establishing a written language.
• He set out to conquer the world and built an
  empire of 13.8 million square miles with more
  than 100 million people.

7
The Rise of Genghis Khan (2)

• He created an empire by organizing a personal
  following rather than depend on tribal loyalties
  -- his army was commanded by men who owed
  personal loyalty to him while members of his
  lineage were excluded from major positions.
• He distrusted his patrilineal relatives and put
  about a dozen of them to death almost anyone
  who had a claim to the throne.
• This distrust was based on
• The desertion of his family at the death of his
  father
• The desertion of those who had elected him khan.
• Disputes with his relatives after he became
  supreme leader.
• When he became master of Mongolia the highest
  positions in his army went to his most loyal
  commanders.

8
The Rise of Genghis Khan (3)

• Genghis wanted to control the steppes and allied
  with his neighbors.
• When the leader of the Uighur joined the Mongols
  he was welcomed as a 5th son and promised a
  daughter in marriage.
• The Uighur oases remained autonomous throughout
  his reign.
• The Mongols had tried to exploit China but the
  Jurchen Jin ? refused to pay instead they fought
  the Mongols until the Jin was destroyed.
• The conquest of China was not a goal but a result
  of their having completely destroyed the Jin
  which they wanted to extort.
• Invasions of the Tangut state of Xi Xia in 1207
  and 1209 were also aimed at gaining loot.
• The Tangut king provided the Mongols with camels,
  woolen cloth and hunting falcons he also pledged
  to send troops in future wars.
• He married a daughter to Genghis.
• Xi Xia was destroyed as it did not honor its
  commitments.

9
Map of Asia and Europe c. 1200Eve of Mongol
Expansion
10
Map of Europe and Asia, 1206, 1294
11
The Mongol Empire Under Khubilai
12
The Mongol Empire

• The Mongol military strategy, included the
  killing of the entire population unless they
  surrendered.
• The Mongol Empire (1206-1405) that they built was
  the largest land empire in history, covering over
  33 million km² (12 million square miles) with an
  estimated population of over 100 million people.
• It covered most of the territories from East Asia
  to Central Europe including Central Asia, parts
  of North Asia, Eastern Asia, Southeast Asia, the
  Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Europe.
• It established commercial and political
  connections between the East and the West
  before the Mongol Empire people in China had
  never heard of Europe and the people of Europe
  had never heard of China.

13
The Mongol Empire (2)

• After the death of Genghis Khan, the empire was
  divided among his four sons, with his third son
  as the supreme Khan.
• By the 1350s, the separate khanates drifted away
  from each other, becoming the Il-Khans Dynasty
  based in Iran, the Chagatai Khanate in Central
  Asia, the Yuan Dynasty in China, and what would
  become the Golden Horde in present day Russia,
  Ukraine, Kazakhstan and most of European Russia.
• The last Khan, the ruler of India, was killed by
  the British in the early 20th century.

14
The Mongols and the Jin (1115-1234)

• Between 1135 and 1147, the Mongols continuously
  harassed the Jin (Gold) ? northern frontiers.
• The Jin had a large and effective army but they
  were in a border war with the Western Xia (Xi
  Xia) and with the Song.
• In 1210, Genghis Khan broke off tributary
  relations with the Jin (Gold) that had been in
  existence for 5 years.
• In 1214, he attacked the Jin who then offered
  gold, silver, horses, slaves, and a princess and
  the Mongols left.
• During the third invasion, in the fall of 1213,
  the Mongols surrounded the Jin capital but could
  not take it so the Mongols turned south raiding
  all over the north China plain -- eastward
  through Shandong, south to the Yellow River and
  west through Shansi.

15
The Mongols and the Jin (2)

• The Mongols surrounded Zhongdu in 1214 and in
  1215 the city was deserted by its commanders and
  fell to the Mongols.
• The Jin negotiated a peace settlement and the
  emperor gave the daughter of his predecessor in
  marriage to Genghis together with horses, gold
  and silk.
• The Mongol army again withdrew from China.
• The Jurchen emperor felt vulnerable to Mongol
  pressure in Zhongdu and decided to move to
  Kaifeng, the former Song capital.
• When the Jin court fled southward to Kaifeng,
  Genghis thought that they were regrouping so he
  attacked again.
• Jin had no choice but to surrender.

16
The Mongols and the Jin (3)

• Although it had surrendered, the city was sacked
  with great loss of life and whole sections were
  reduced to ash.
• Large numbers of Chinese, Qidan and Jurchen
  troops fell into Mongol hands and many became
  important as military leaders and administrators
  for the Mongols.
• Under their influence, the Mongols began to be
  responsible for governing China.
• But, Genghis himself was no longer interested in
  China and the Mongol army returned to the steppe
  to campaign against other nomads.
• It left an occupying force of 20,000 Mongols
  together with a larger army of Chinese, Jurchen
  and Qidan in China.

17
The Mongols and Xi Xia

• Genghis died in 1227 while battling against the
  Xi Xia for breaking treaty agreements.
• Unfortunately, he was dying but he ordered that
  Xi Xia be wiped from the face of the earth for
  having insulted him.
• The Mongol soldiers diverted water from a nearby
  canal to create a flood that forced the city to
  surrender.
• Obedient to the dying wish of Genghis, the
  Mongols leveled whole towns in Xi Xia, killing or
  enslaving the inhabitants.

18
Political succession in the Mongol Empire

• The Mongols did not have a firm fraternal/lateral
  succession it was both a legal and political
  struggle.
• Each faction would present a case for itself and
  point up the defects in their rivals.
• The right to rule also had to be maintained by
  military power to defeat any rivals.
• Military success always justified irregular
  successions.
• Therefore, the Mongols had problems in passing a
  united empire to the grandsons of the founder.

19
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (2)

• Genghis did not name a successor until 1218 when
  he was reminded that even great conquerors die.
• He was going to name his eldest son, Jochi ??
  (c.1185-1227), as his successor but his second
  son (Chaghadai) objected as their mother, Borte,
  had been kidnapped and had returned pregnant so
  Jochis paternity was in doubt.
• Genghis made it clear at a tribal meeting that
  Jochi was his legitimate first born son but in
  order not to split the empire he would not name
  either of the first two sons as successor but
  would name his third son, Ögedei as his
  successor.
• Genghis gave Jochi the westernmost part of the
  empire, then lying between Ural and Irtish rivers
  -- the lands in the west up to as far as the
  hooves of Mongol horses had trodden'.
• Following the Mongol custom, Genghis Khan
  bequeathed only four thousand original Mongol
  troops to each of his three elder sons and
  101,000 to Tolui, his youngest son.

20
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (3)

• Jochi left his descendants with the least
  territory but after the defeat of the Jin, his
  brother, Ögedei, sent the Mongol army west to
  help Jochis heir, Batu, to conquer a huge area
  of the Russian steppe and establish a khanate
  equal to any in the empire.
• Jochis descendants extended their empire mostly
  with the help of troops from the defeated
  populations which happened to be Turkish.
• This was the chief reason why the Golden Horde
  acquired a Turkish identity.
• Jochi's inheritance was divided among his sons
  Orda and Batu, who founded the White Horde and
  the Blue Horde.
• Chaghadai, the second son, was given Central Asia
  and Iran.
• Toloui, the youngest son, got the Mongol
  heartland.

21
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (4)

• Ögedeis election as Khan raised him and his line
  to a position of superiority but Toloui had
  inherited his fathers personal forces which made
  him very powerful.
• Ögedei was the last of the brothers to die in
  1241 opening the succession of the Great Khan to
  contenders.
• The problems were that
• His successors had not been given dynastic
  succession rights by Genghis khan.
• Should succession remain in in Ögedeis line if
  it did, should Ögedeis choice of successor be
  respected?
• According to fraternal succession, the throne
  should go to Jochis sons, who were the most
  senior heirs of the next generation.
• If there was a problem about Jochis legitimacy,
  then it should go to Chaghadais sons.
• After which, Tolouis sons should be considered.

22
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (5)

• Ögedeis sons pushed for their rights but if they
  got them then the pattern would remain within
  their line and it would exclude everyone
  descended from the other three sons of Genghis
  Khan.
• Ögedei had initially chosen his third son as
  successor but when the latter died he had named
  the heirs son, his grandson Shiremun. By doing
  so, he disinherited his eldest son, Guyuk.
• After his death, his principal wife, Toregene,
  became regent for five years while the succession
  was being decided.
• Guyuk rushed to the capital when he heard of his
  fathers death.

23
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (6)

• Toregene wanted her son, Guyuk, to succeed and as
  regent she had access to the treasury.
• She distributed gifts to influential people to
  buy support for Guyuk.
• She issued decrees that deprived her opponents of
  office enabling her to rule directly.
• By the time the council was convened, Guyuk was
  preeminent and was enthroned.
• He accepted and said that in the future
  succession would be limited to Ögedeis
  descendants.
• Batu, heir to Jochis line, refused to attend the
  council though he did send his brothers.

24
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (7)

• Guyuk wanted to increase his personal powers and
  executed his mothers advisors after her death.
• He interfered in the succession politics of the
  Chaghadai line by annulling the wishes of his
  uncle to name the grandson as successor.
• Instead, Guyuk named Chaghadais surviving son
  who was not popular.
• He tried to reduce the power of the Toloui line
  by reducing the number of imperial troops under
  its command.
• Under the leadership of Tolouis widow, Beki, the
  family had outwardly given complete support to
  Guyuk and made no protest over losing their
  military units.
• Behind the scenes, Beki quietly befriended many
  of Guyuks opponents, building political support
  for her sons.

25
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (8)

• Guyuks greatest problem was in dealing with Batu
  who commanded a powerful army in the west.
• Guyuk organized the armies of the east and
  planned to attack Batu -- Beki warned Batu.
• Civil war might have started but Guyuk died in
  1248 after ruling for only two years.
• There was now another succession struggle.
• Guyuks widow became regent but she was unable to
  maintain authority as Guyuk had power for only
  two years.
• Guyuks two sons were both young and were
  competing with their cousin Shiremun grandson
  of Ögedei.
• Batu called for a Council in the west as he had
  gout and could not travel but the sons of Ögedei,
  Guyuk, and Chaghadai refused to participate
  arguing that a legal one could only be held in
  the Mongol heartland.

26
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (9)

• Beki, widow of Touloui, saw her opportunity to
  gain the throne for sons.
• She told them to travel to Batus camp where he
  declared her son, Mongke, his choice for Great
  khan.
• Batu said that Guyuks succession was a
  usurpation as Ögedei had named his grandson,
  Shiremun, as his choice for the Great Khan.
• Batu said that the throne could not be left to
  Ögedeis descendants because they were too young.
• Batus support of Mongke was critical as Batu had
  more of a right to the throne than Mongke as he
  was the senior descendant of Genghis.
• Batu renounced his rights and in exchange he got
  full autonomy in the west.

27
Political succession in the Mongol Empire (10)

• Mongke succeeded as Khan and had the regent,
  Guyuks widow, placed in a sack and drowned.
• He also had supporters of the Ögedei line put to
  death.
• Political succession problems continued during
  the Yuan dynasty although the new khan must be a
  male member of the house of Genghis Khan, meaning
  his four sons by his principal wife and their
  descendants.
• Nine khans ascended the throne after Khubilai
  Khan resulting in bureaucratic turnover and
  reversals of state policies.

28
Conquest of China

• After Ögedei, (1186-1241), the third son of
  Genghis Khan, succeeded his father he continued
  the expansion of the empire that Genghis had
  begun.
• During his reign, the Mongols attacked Europe,
  completed the destruction of the Jurchen Jin
  empire and began to war against the Southern
  Song.
• After the fall of the Jin, Ögedei appointed a
  Yelu to set up proper administration.
• At first, Ögedei wanted to eliminate all the
  farmers whom he thought were useless as soldiers.

29
Conquest of China (2)

• Yelu convinced him that if the farmers were
  allowed to farm they would produce annual
  revenues of a half million ounces of silver,
  400,000 bags of grain, and 80,000 pieces of silk.
• Under Ögedeis leadership, the Mongols also
• controlled Persia, almost all of Russia, Hungary
  and Poland.
• Stabilized and re-established the Silk Road.
• His death in 1241 ended the Mongol invasion of
  Europe as the commanders returned to Mongolia for
  election of the new Khan.
• After a five-year regency of his widow, Toregene,
  his son Guyuk, succeeded him but only ruled for
  two years.
• Möngke (1208-1259), his nephew, succeeded Guyuk
  as the fourth great Khan.
• Möngke had participated in the campaigns against
  Europe and Russia.

30
Conquest of China (3)

• He was the civil administrator for Ogodei.
• In 1254, Mongke increased raids on the Song
  northern border and Song frontier officials were
  invited to defect.
• In 1256, he used the excuse that the Song had
  imprisoned Mongol envoys and took personal
  command of the invasion of Southern Song.
• While conducting the war in Sichuan, he had
  dysentery and died this stopped the war against
  the Song for 20 years as the Mongols had to
  return to the homeland to elect the Great Khan.

31
Conquest of China (4)

• Möngke had not provided for his succession and
  his brothers were split.
• Eventually, his brother Khubilai was elected to
  succeed him (r.1260-1294).
• He had been assigned to conquer China.
• He conquered the Southern Song and established
  the Yuan Dynasty in 1271.
• The Yuan was the first dynasty of non-Han origin
  to rule all of China.

32
Conquest of China (5)

• During the invasions, Khubilai made a silk banner
  with a message telling the people that their
  lives would be spared if they surrendered.
• When Kublai Khan (r.1260-94) succeeded as great
  Khan, he brought an end to misrule in China.
• His wife, Chabi, was his adviser and prevented
  him from converting farmland to grazing land so
  as not to alienate his Chinese subjects.
• She was a fervent Buddhist, preferring Tibetan
  Buddhism.
• He wanted to expand into Japan but he was twice
  defeated.
• His chosen successor died early and he was
  succeeded by his grandson.

33
The Yuan dynasty

• Kublai saw himself as a Chinese emperor as well
  as a kaghan (supreme khan) of the steppe.
• Politically, the system created by Khubilai was a
  compromise between Mongolian and the Chinese
  system.
• There was a large gap between the Mongolian
  elites and the Chinese.
• All Mongolian imperial relatives and meritorious
  retainers enjoyed hereditary, political, economic
  and military privileges.
• The Mongolian elite found little incentive to
  learn Chinese.
• The Mongols, at first, ignored the Chinese
  administrators and instead hired foreigners from
  western and central Asia to serve as officials.
• In place of a dual organization, the Mongols
  employed a single system of government with a
  hierarchy of ranked ethnic preference groups to
  maintain their control.

34
The Yuan Dynasty (2)

• There were four categories
• Mongols,
• se-mu (western and central Asians)
• Hanren ?? (northern Chinese, Manchurians and
  Koreans)
• Nanren ?? (southern Chinese)
• Population according to the 1290 census was
• Mongols 1 million
• Se-mu Same
• Hanren 10 million
• Nanren 60 million

35
The Yuan dynasty (3)

• The Mongols and their se-mu allies held about 30
  of all official positions, including most of the
  top military and civilian offices.
• They also had a virtual monopoly on positions in
  the Imperial Guard from which officials are
  promoted.
• Even when the civil examination was revived, the
  percentages of degrees awarded remained the same
  as the Mongols and the se-mu got easier tests.
• Chinese dynasties believed in a self-sufficient
  state and placed the farmer on a higher plane
  than that of the merchant.
• Merchants were usually forbidden from taking
  imperial examinations to enter the government.
• A powerful class was thus excluded from political
  power and lived under the threat of confiscation
  of their assets by the state.

36
The Yuan Dynasty (4)

• The Mongols and other nomads of the steppe held
  the opposite view as they profited by the
  exchange of products.
• They encouraged merchants to visit their
  territories and provided protection for their
  caravans.
• While Chinese governments saw international trade
  as a drain on resources, the nomads saw it as a
  way to create wealth.
• The safe transit of goods throughout Mongol
  territory was a major stimulation to new trade
  and the development of communications.
• Roads were built so that news and important
  people could travel rapidly across the vast
  empire using a system of post stations with fresh
  horses and relays of riders.
• The Mongols thought of these as the most
  important elements in holding their empire
  together.

37
Mongolorization of China

• The Mongols were concerned that their tribal
  people would be sinified as they were a small
  minority and no longer nomadic.
• They passed laws to force the Chinese population
  to adopt Mongol practices.
• In 1272, levirate practice was made mandatory for
  the Chinese unless there was one of the following
  conditions
• If the widow and her dependents could form a tax
  unit
• If she and her dependents had lived with her own
  parents that is, if the husband had joined her
  family to continue her family line.
• If she made a public vow not to remarry if she
  broke that law, her marriage was dissolved and
  she was given to a relative of her husband.
• Application of the law was later restricted to
  the marriage of the widow to an unmarried brother.

38
Mongolorization of China (2)

• In 1303, it was decided that the assets of a
  widow or divorcee be controlled by the family of
  her late husband.
• But, she could not be divorced without cause.
• Widow remarriage was difficult as she no longer
  had a dowry.
• She could not return to her family as they might
  not be able to support her and her dependents.
• Therefore, she had to either practice levirate or
  remain a widow within her husbands family this
  would be in line with Mongol practice.
• Filial piety therefore changed from daughters
  taking care of their own parents to
  daughters-in-law remaining to care for their
  in-laws.

39
Mongolorization of China (3)

• The Yuan legacy of widow chastity, living with
  the in-laws, self-mutilation, and immolation
  influenced the Ming.
• The Ming dynasty abolished the law on the
  enforced practice of levirate but retained the
  law that allowed the late husbands family to
  control the widows assets.
• The economic situation continued to discourage
  widow remarriage.
• Yuan and Ming law forbade anyone but the widows
  parents to command her to remarry.
• This was done to protect the widow who no longer
  had any assets and could be forced by the in-laws
  into an unacceptable remarriage.
• Her in-laws could still make her life miserable
  so she would willingly leave her assets and
  remarry.
• Ming society, saw widow suicide as the highest
  form of virtue.

40
The End of the Yuan Dynasty

• The Mongols were the elite group of the empire
  but the condition of ordinary Mongols declined.
• The Mongols also had financial problems due to
  its military expenditures, large imperial grants
  and other court expenses.
• Nine khans ascended the throne after Khubilai
  Khan resulting in bureaucratic turnover and
  reversals of state policies.
• Large Mongol garrisons were established within
  China, and it became difficult for the Mongol
  troops to be self-sustaining as they did not have
  loot as an additional economic benefit.
• The government initially granted land and slaves
  to work it so that the Mongols could devote
  themselves to their military obligations.
• But the allotments were inadequate to support the
  Mongols and pay the expense of military duty.
• By the middle of the 14th century, the Mongol
  troops could not suppress the rebellions that had
  broken out.

41
The End of the Yuan (2)

• As the Mongols in China became sinicized, they
  lost influence among the Mongols in the rest of
  the Mongol Empire within China, the people were
  bitter about the problems of succession and
  famine.
• The Mongols saw the Yuan rulers as too Chinese
  and the Chinese saw them as Mongols.
• Bandits roamed the country without interference
  from the weak Yuan armies and rebellions arose.
• After the reign of Kubilai khan, there was
  factionalism at court, coups, murders, poisonings
  and purges.
• By the 1320s imperial politics revolved around a
  series of strongmen who seized power and
  controlled the government until they were
  suddenly replaced by rivals.

42
The End of the Yuan (3)

• Short-term conflicts in court diverted the
  governments attention from problems in the
  province such as misrule, famine, and peasant
  discontent.
• In the 1330s rebellions erupted in several
  regions in south and central China.
• In 1344 the yellow River flooded and altered its
  course to the north, bringing immediate ruin to
  6,000 square miles of agricultural land and
  putting the Grand Canal out of action.
• In 1351, a major rebellion broke out by a group
  known as the Red Turbans but they were suppressed
  by 1354.
• Out of the chaos rose Hongwu Emperor (1368-98),
  founder of the Ming dynasty.

43
The End of the Yuan (4)

• Based in the south, the Ming forces moved against
  rival warlords and in 1368 seized Beijing and the
  Yuan court fled and returned to Mongolia.
• The Ming emperor encouraged the surrender of
  Mongol military units left in China and
  incorporated them into his army.
• He also encouraged the assimilation of large
  numbers of foreigners.
• Much of the Ming state structure was inherited
  from Manchurian and Mongol models.
• Finally the Mongols were driven back to Mongolia
  by the founder of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
• In the 17th century, the Mongols were attacked by
  the Manchu and surrendered.

44
The Manchus and the Qing Dynasty

• Barfield, Thomas, The Perilous Frontier, Ch. 7,
  "Steppe Wolves and Forest Tigers," pp.  250-294
  OR
• Pamela Crossley, Thinking about Ethnicity in
  Early Modern China, Late Imperial China 11.1
  (1990)
• Rawski, Evelyn S., Imperial Women in The Last
  Emperors, pp. 127-159 OR
• Lee, Lily Xiao and Stefanowska, A.D.,
  Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women The
  Qing Period, 1644-1911

45
Powerful Mongolian Women Borte

• Borte, was married to Genghis Khan at the age of
  14 and gave birth to four sons and five
  daughters.
• She received a sable coat for her dowry and
  Genghis gave it away to gain an ally.
• She had been abducted by Merkits and held captive
  for several months, returning pregnant.
• She gave birth to the eldest son, Jochi (d.1227),
  whom Genghis treated as his own son but there was
  always a question as to whether he was the son of
  Genghis.
• She was named empress of the Mongolian Empire and
  was often shown as a beautiful woman dressed in a
  white silken gown, with gold coins in her hair,
  holding a white lamb, and riding a white horse.

46
Powerful Mongolian Women Borte (2)

• Jochi was given lands in the Siberian steppes and
  never expanded his empire he was always
  respectful to Genghis.
• His descendants later ruled the area called the
  Golden Horde (1378-1440s) in present day Russia.
• When Genghis died, his empire was divided among
  his other three sons
• Chagatai (d.1241) was considered a hothead and
  was given Central Asia and northern Iran.
• Ogodei, the third eldest was made Great Khan and
  was elected supreme Khan and given command over
  his brothers.
• Toloui, the youngest was given the Mongol
  homeland.

47
Powerful Mongolian Women Toregene

• According to Mongol custom, when a male head of
  household died, his widow would administer his
  estate and assume his authority until the eldest
  son came of age.
• She would act as regent of the empire until a new
  male head of the imperial family could be
  officially confirmed.
• No one challenged her powers as they were seen as
  transitory in nature and her more unpalatable
  policies could be changed at a future date.
• She engineered the enthronement of her son Guyuk
  (r.1246-8) and had to overcome a lot of
  opposition as
• Ogodei had already named his grandson, born of
  his third son.
• Guyuk had made powerful enemies among his fellow
  princes.
• The decision was not reached for 4.5 years but
  Guyuk was finally named ruler in 1246 and ruled
  for 2 years until his death.

48
Powerful Mongolian Women Toregene (2)

• While regent for five years, she was known as
  ruthless but effective in the exercise of power.
• Ögedei Khan's favorite son was from another wife,
  and he had nominated this sons son to succeed
  him.
• Töregene opposed the choice in favor of her
  eldest son, Güyük, but was unable to persuade
  Ögedei to change his selection.
• Some say that encouraged she Ögedei to drink to
  hasten his death and when this plan was taking
  too much time she or her sisters eventually used
  poison.
• Immediately upon her ascension as regent, she
  appointed her favorites to high positions in the
  imperial household but it took her over four
  years to ensure the succession of her son, Güyük.

49
Powerful Mongolian Women Sorghaghtani Beki

• Sorghaghtani Beki (d.1252), was a daughter-in-law
  of Genghis Khan and mother of his grown
  grandsons.
• She presided over her familys fortunes and
  raised four sons Mongke, Khubilai , Huglegu,
  and Arigh Boke all became kings.
• She made sure that her sons were literate and
  taught them basic political principles
• She did not exploit her Chinese subjects nor
  plunder the region.
• She recognized that tax revenues would increase
  if she promoted, instead of interfered, with the
  native agrarian economy.
• She had a policy of religious toleration which
  influenced her sons.
• She was a Nestorian Christian but contributed
  funds and other support to Buddhist, Daoist, and
  Islamic religions.
• She recruited several Chinese advisers to come up
  with suitable methods to regulate her Chinese
  subjects.

50
Powerful Mongolian WomenSorghaghtani Beki (2)

• She created an image of loyal and unselfish
  service to the empire for her husbands line
• Her family remained officially neutral in all
  disputes and accepted the decisions.
• They always cooperated with the reigning khans
  and supported their campaigns of conquest.
• This reputation for loyalty was later used as to
  show their qualifications for, and moral right,
  to the empires highest office.
• She first led the fight for her son, Mongke (r.
  1251-1259), to succeed.
• Without her, the sons would not have replaced the
  house of Ogodei as the main Mongolian royal line.

51
Powerful Mongolian WomenSorghaghtani Beki (3)

• She was given the title of empress in 1310
  (d.1252) and both Muslim and Christian historians
  speak highly of her
• 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
• Among the Tartars this lady is... more powerful
  than anyone else except the khan of the Golden
  Horde
• She was extremely intelligent and able and
  towered above all the women in the world.