Genghis Khan and the Mongol War Machine by Chris Peers

Genghis Khan and the Mongol War Machine by Chris Peers

Author:Chris Peers
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: Bisac Code 2: HIS003000 Bisac Code 3: HIS027000, Bisac Code 1: HIS002000, HISTORY / Ancient / General / HISTORY / Asia / General
ISBN: 9781473853928
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-03-30T21:00:00+00:00


Chapter 5

War in the West

The Conquest of Qara-Khitai

Genghis’ unification of Mongolia in 1206 had brought him into contact with the kingdom of Qara-Khitai, a Khitan successor state which had been established west of the Altai Mountains after the Jurchen conquest of north China in 1125. It had been founded by a prince of the Liao royal house named Yeh-lu Ta-shih, who managed to lead a Khitan army across Mongolia and defeat the Seljuq and Qarakhanid Turks who controlled the region between the Tien Shan Mountains in the south and Lake Balkhash in the north, in what is now eastern Kazakhstan. Eventually the Qara-Khitai rulers, who came to be known by the grandiose title of ‘Gur-khans’ or ‘Universal Rulers’, extended their power as far south as the Silk Road cities of Khotan and Kashgar, in the Tarim Basin south of the Tien Shan, though their capital remained at Balasaghun, on the north side of the range. They were Buddhists, which made their rule unpopular with the Muslim majority in the region, and so their military power remained based on the dwindling descendants of the Khitan troops who had accompanied Yeh-lu Ta-shih. Further weakened by wars with their Khwarizmian and Ghurid neighbours in the first decade of the thirteenth century, the Qara-Khitai were prepared to welcome what at first seemed like a timely reinforcement from the east. As related in Chapter 2, Kuchluq, the son of the Naiman Tayang Khan, had escaped from the disaster which he had helped to bring on his people in 1205, and had taken refuge beyond the Altai Mountains in the west. In 1208, following another defeat by a Mongol expedition, he sought refuge with the reigning Gur-khan, Chiluku.

Kuchluq, like many of the Naimans, was a Nestorian Christian, but the Gur-khan probably thought of him as a useful ally against the Muslims, so he gave him his daughter’s hand in marriage and allowed him to organise the Naiman and Merkit refugees in the country, numbering around 8,000 fighting men, into a private army. In 1209 Barchuk, the ‘Idi-kut’ or ruler of the Uighur Turks in the Tarim Basin, who had until then been a vassal of Qara-Khitai, revolted and transferred his allegiance voluntarily to Genghis Khan. At the same time war broke out between Chiluku and Shah Muhammad of Khwarizmia, his neighbour to the west. While dealing with these threats, the Gur-khan learned that Kuchluq had taken advantage of the chaos to loot the imperial treasury. He returned and defeated the rebellious Naimans on the River Chinbuje near Balasaghun, but was himself defeated by a Khwarizmian army before he had a chance to follow up his victory. What was worse, the Gur-khan’s own troops had kept for themselves the booty which they had taken from the Naimans at the Chinbuje, which comprised most of the imperial treasure. When Chiluku ordered them to give it up so that he could continue to finance the war, they mutinied and handed him over to Kuchluq, who had by then been allowed to rally his troops.



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