West Expedition of Chinggis Khan
6 min readIn the latter half of the 12 century, the Mongols gradually prospered on the steppe north of the desert. By early 13 century, Chinggis Khan(Timujin) gradually unified all tribes on the steppe and held a Great Kuriltai (assembly) in 1206(the 2 year of Kaixi reign of Song Dynasty) at the source of the Onon River to the north of the desert, which was called the”land of root”of the mongols, where he succeeded to the great Khanship and established a strong Mongol regime. Chinggis Khan marched south, fighting Jin (also known as Jurchen, 1115-1234) and perishing Xia (also known as Dangxiang), and went north, waging a war on Jiljis(Kirgiz) north of the steppe and”tribes in the woods”. All these moves overwhelmed people in the surrounding areas .
When Chinggis Khan emerged, there were Gaochang Uighur living in the east of the Tianshan Mountains, who were called”Uigur “in Chinese-language documents during of the Yuan Dynasty. Their chief was called”Idikut”, meaning”His Sacred Majasty”To the east of the Uygur(Uigur), up to Shazhou, today’s Hami region, lived the Hamili people, whose chief was called”Djindelin”. The two chiefs were often mentioned in parallel in the Chinese documents in the Yuan Dynasty. However, it is not clear what ethnic group the Hamili people belonged to. To the west of the Uygur, there were different Karlalu tribes(that is, the Karluk in the Tang Dynasty ) One chief of Karlalu, Arslan Khan and his subjects lived in Haiyali(today’s Kepal in Kazakhstan), while another chief Ozar lived in Almalik(today’s Huocheng County in Yining). To the west of the Karlalu were the Western Liao (referred to as Kara-Khitan in Muslim records) and Khwarozm in Transoxiana Following the rise of the Mongols, the Nayman division roaming around the gold Mountains(today’s Altay Mountains) was defeated, and its prince Qochlu moved westward and got the throne of Western Liao Therefore. the Western regions were under the rule of Western Liao in name. At that time, Uygur had the area around the five cities of Karaho ja Beshbalik, Changbalik(today’s Changji), Yanjibalik(today’s Manas) and Solimi(todays Yanqi), but their affairs were overseen by the Supervisor of Western Liao stationed in Gaochang. The Idikut of Uygur, by name of Barshu Altategin, was outraged by the arrogance and extravagance of the Supervisor of Western Liao, so he killed the Supervisor in 1209(the 2 year of Jiading reign of Song Dynasty) and turned to the mongols, who had already become strong and prosperous by then, In 1211(the 4 year of Jiading reign of Song Dynasty ), Barshu Altategin was instructed by Chinggis Khan to take local products and treasures to travel to Mongolia himself, where he was graciously received by chinggis Khan Barshu Altategin became “the fifth son”of Chinggis Khan and brothers of other princes, and granted”favors exceeding chiefs from all other states”. Despite the fact that during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, the ldikuts of Uygur remained subject to the Mongol Great Khans and emperors, they still had certain autonomy over their land and people, which was different from other regions and tribes conquered by the Mongols. Such relationship with the Mongols was an important factor contributing to the active presence of the Uygur people all over China during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty At that time, the chief of Karlalu in Haiyali, Arslan Khan also had grievances against the Supervisor of Western Liao, But that discontent was found out by the emperor of Western Liao and arslan Khan was forced to take poison and kill himself. His son succeeded and became the new Arslan Khan. Soon afterwards, Chinggis Khan sent troops over to wipe out the remnants of the Nayman division, so the new Arslan Khan also killed the Supervisor of Western Liao and pledged allegiance to Chinggis Khan, who returned him with big favor The Karlalu tribe in Almalik headed by Ozar was under constant attacks from Qochlu after the latter took the throne of Western Liao. Before long, Ozar was asked by Chinggis Khan to go to the north of the desert and when he did, he was accorded courtesy by chinggis Khan However, he was captured and murdered by Qochlu upon returning to Almalik. The son of Ozar shehanah then succeeded as the chief while chinggis khan marched to the west to fight Khwarozm. both chiefs of the two Karlalu divisions used to join the mongols militarily .
Kashkar(Kashgar) and Hutan(Khotan) to the south of the Tianshan Mountains also suffered brutal rule of Qochlu after he took the throne of Western Liao, In 1218(the 11th year of Jiading reign of Song Dynasty), Chinggis Khan sent Jebe to the south of the Tianshan Mountains to fight Qochlu Jebe only pursued Qochlu, without harassing local people. He even declared that local people were allowed to keep their own religious belief Therefore, he won support from people in Kashgar and Khotan In 1219(the 12 year of Jiading reign of Song dynasty), Chinggis Khan started his westexpedition to revenge Khwarozm for killing Mongol envoy In the fall of that year, the Mongol troops arrived at Otrar at lower Syr River. Divided into several groups, the Mongol troops took all the cities along the Huzhang River and then the capital city of Khwarozm Chinggis Khan and his youngest son Tolui headed the main forces and captured Bukhara and Samarkand. Early in 1221(the 14 year of Jiading reign of Song Dynasty), they crossed the amu river and occupied balkh and taliban in the meantime. Chinggis Khan sent troops to pursue the last monarch of Khwarozm Jebe and his troops fought all the way to the west along the Khurasan Road in Central Asia, crossed the Caucasus, defeated Kepqak on the steppe in South Russia, and arrived Bolga near Kasan in today’s Russia before setting out for the return journey. The Mongol troops military operations in Central Asia, Iran, Russia and East Europe were extremely merciless as they leveled cities and killed people wantonly which led to huge human casualty and colossal property losses on the part of the invaded areas. However in both the northern and southern pans of the Tianshan Mountains. the Mongol troops were restrained since local chiefs took the initiative to pledge allegiance On the eve of the west expedition, Chinggis Khan divided the areas in the Western Regions that had been and would be occupied among his three elder sons, Jochi, Chagatai and Ogedei. Based on History of Conquerors in the World by jeffney, Collection of History by Lashet (pronunciation) and records by Omar(pronunciation), contemporary scholars believe that”roughly speaking, the area west of Shi River in Yer, north of today’s Aral Sea and Caspian Sea belonged to Jochi; the former territory of Western Liao, between Uygur and Transoxiana, belonged to Chagatai; and from Yemili to the north, the area offormer Nayman tribe that included part of today’s Kara-Ertix River and Altay Mountains belonged to ogedei “e The land division made by Chinggis Khan laid down the groundwork for the regime pattern in the Western Regions during the Mongol period After Chinggis Khan’s death, Ogedei, Queen Toregene Khatu, Guyuk, Queen Oghul Ghaymish and Mongke took power one after another. During that period, in 1236(the 3ear of Duanping reign of Song Dynasty), Ogedei sent his”eldest son for west expeditionand perished Kepgak and bolga, conquered Russia, and swept Eastern European areas such as Poland and hungary, shaking the Christian world. After succeeding to the great Khanship, Mongke sent Hulegu onto a”west expedition”, who wiped out the Assasins(the extremist division of Islamic Ismailis advocating assassination) in today’s Iran and the Abbasid Empire in West Asia, then marched further to Syria, and finally returned home after being frustrated at Ain Jalut in today’s Palestine The post-Chinggis Khan expeditions to the west greatly expanded the Mongol scope of influence in the Western Regions. However, in that period, what impacted today’s Xinjiang area most was the fight for power between the Ogedei-Guyuk group and the Tolui-Mongkegroup. In 1251(the 11 year of Chunyou reign of Song Dynasty), Mongke became the Great Khan with staunch support from Batu, but he was opposed by royal princes of the Oged and Chagatai families, who once attempted on Mongke’s life. After that, Mongke began to suppress forcefully the two families, and all the nobles within Chinggis Khan’s”Golden Clan”started to focus on their”ulus”(distributed land). Batu and his offspring founded Kepqak Khanate on the Kepgak steppe, and Hulegu set up Il-Khanate in Persia and Arabia The majority of top nobles in these two khanates later became Muslims. The ChagataiKhanate mainly controlled today’s Xinjiang and Central Asia to the west of Xinjiang.
