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By Root 1805 0

Many scholars assume that the adopted Kokochu was placed in charge of Mother Hoelun’s people, but a case can be made that since Kokochu Teb Tengeri took over Mother Hoelun’s people after her death, he was the Kokochu named as an administrator. While the issue of precise identity is perplexing, it is probably not particularly important.

“Have you seen these?”: Secret History, § 244.

the Uighur khan: In the Secret History (§ 238), the Uighur leader is referred to as the Idu’ut, which means something like king, prince, or khan.

II. The Mongol World War: 1211–1261

“By the arms of Zingis”: Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London, J. M. Dent, 1910), vol. 5, p. 76.

4. Spitting on the Golden Khan

“The hooves of our Mongol horses”: Quoted by a Sung representative in “Meng-Ta Peu-Lu Ausführliche Aufzeichnungen über die Mongolischen Tatan von Chao Hung, 1221,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh: Chinesische Gesandtenberichte über die frühen Mongolen 1221 und 1237 (Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1980), p. 210.

their capital city of Zhongdu: The same place had many names at different times. Under the Jurched, it was Zhongdu. When Khubilai Khan created his capital here it became known as Khanbalik (the khan’s city) to Mongolians and other foreigners; the Chinese called it Dadu (or Ta-tu). Later, it was named Peking, and now Beijing.

“reverently upon the ground”: Peking Gazette, June 30, 1878, quoted in C. W. Campbell’s Travels in Mongolia: 1902 (reprint, London: Stationery Office, 2000), p. 74.

the full commitment of every warrior: see Sechen Jagchid and Paul Hyer, Mongolia’s Culture and Society (Boulder: Westview, 1979), p. 370.

“Our empire is like the sea”: “Meng-Ta Peu-Lu Ausführliche Aufzeichnungen über die Mongolischen Tatan von Chao Hung, 1221,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh, p. 61.

Mongol military: Thomas J. Barfield, The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 B.C. to A.D. 1757 (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1992).

Mongol warriors could travel ten days: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, trans. Teresa Waugh (New York: Facts on File, 1984), p. 57.

needed no fires to cook: See “Meng-Ta Peu-Lu Ausführliche Aufzeichnungen über die Mongolischen Tatan von Chao Hung, 1221,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh, p. 58.

the central camp for each unit: See “Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh Kurzer Bericht über die schwarzen Tatan von P’eng Ta-Ya und Sü T’ing, 1237,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh: Chinesische Gesandtenberichte über die frühen Mongolen 1221 und 1237 (Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1980), p. 187.

communications became more important: Walther Heissig, A Lost Civilization: The Mongols Rediscovered, trans. D. J. S. Thompson (London: Thames & Hudson, 1966), p. 35.

The Mongols referred to these grass-eating people: For more on the Mongol terminology for settled people, see Uradyn E. Bulag, Nationality and Hybridity in Mongolia (Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1998), p. 213.

“they come as though the sky were falling”: See “Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh Kurzer Bericht über die schwarzen Tatan von P’eng Ta-Ya und Sü T’ing, 1237,” in Peter Olbricht and Elisabeth Pinks, Meng-Ta Pei-Lu und Hei-Ta Shih-Lüeh, p. 187.

In 1219, the Year of the Hare: There is debate about whether some of these events occurred in 1207 or 1219, since both were the Year of the Hare.

“red bull”: Secret History, § 240.

Kashgar, a trading city: Regarding the events in Kashgar, the Secret History placed this invasion in the Year of the Ox, 1205, but almost all other sources show that it occurred in the Year of the Ox, 1217.

Jebe’s army defeated the army of Guchlug: For more information on the Mongol campaign against Guchlug, see René Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia, trans. Naomi Walford (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 234.

“to be one of the mercies of the Lord”: Ata-Malik Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History of the World