Historical Dictionary of the Mongol World Empire Paul D. Buell The Scarecrow Press Historical Dictionaries of Ancient Civilizations and Historical Eras Series editor: Jon Woronoff 1. Ancient Egypt, Morris L. Bierbrier, 1999. 2. Ancient Mesoamerica, Joel W.Palka, 2000. 3. Pre-Colonial Africa, Robert 0.Collins, 2001. 4. Byzantium, John H. Rosser, 2001. 5. Medieval Russia, Lawrence N. Langer, 2001. 6. Napoleonic Era, George F. Nafziger, 2001. 7. Ottoman Empire, Selcuk Aksin Somel, 2003. 8. Mongol World Empire, Paul D. Buell, 2003. 9. Mesopotamia, Gwendolyn Leick, 2003. Historical Dictionary of the Mongol World Empire Paul D. Buell Historical Dictionaries of Ancient Civilizations and Historical Eras, No. 8 The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham, Maryland, and Oxford 2003 SCARECROW PRESS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A Member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Lanham, Maryland 20706 w~~.~carecr~wpre~~.com POBox 317 Oxford OX2 9RU, UK Copyright O 2003 by Paul D. Buell All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Buell, Paul D. Historical dictionary of the Mongol world empire / Paul D. Buell. p. cm. - (Historical dictionaries of ancient civilizations and historical eras ; no. 8) ISBN 0-8108-4571-7 (Cloth : alk, paper) 1. Mongols-History-To 1500-Dictionaries, 2. Mongols-History-To 1500. I. Title. 11. Series. DS19 .B84 2003 909'.04942O 1'03--dc2 1 2002152655 ern~hepaper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO 239.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America. I respectfully dedicate this book to the memory of Lynn White, who first opened my eyes to a wider perspective beyond Europe. He also said: "My bowmen and warriors loom like thick forests: their wives, sweethearts and maidens shine like red flames. My task and in- tention is to sweeten their mouths with gifts of sweet sugar, to decorate their breasts, backs and shoulders with garments of brocade, to seat them on good geldings, give them to drink from pure and sweet rivers, provide their beasts with good and abundant pastures, and to order that the great roads and highways that serve as ways for the people be cleared of garbage, tree-stumps and all bad things; and not to allow dirt and thorns in the tents." The Maxims of Cinggis-qan as quoted by Val- entine A. Riasanovsky, Fundamental Princi- ples of Mongol Law, Bloomington: Indiana University (Uralic and Altaic Series, Vol. 43), 1965,89 Contents Editor's Foreword (Jon Woronoff) ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xvi Reader's Notes xvii A-To-Z List of Dictionary Entries xxi Maps xxxiii Dates of Chinese Dynasties and States xxxvii Chronology xxxviii Introduction xlii Essay 1. Mongolia before Empire (To 1206) 1 Essay 2. Mongol Empire (1206-1260) 17 Essay 3. Qanate China (1260-1368) 5 3 Essay 4. Golden Horde (1 235-1 502) 7 1 Essay 5. Chagatay Qanate and Qaydu (1260-1338) 79 Essay 6. Ilqanate (1260-1 356) 89 THE DICTIONARY 10 1 Appendix A: Mongolian Scripts 293 vii viii Contents Appendix B: Glossary of Mongolian Words Appendix C: Eating at the Qan's Table, Selected Recipes from the Yinshan zhengyao %Bf!%iEg(1 330) Bibliography About the Author Editor's Foreword By all criteria the Mongol World Empire was one of the most extraordinary empires that ever existed. It was certainly one of the most extensive, stretching far into China, across Central Asia and deep into the Middle East, covering much of Russia and skirting Eastern Europe. It was put together in record time, indeed, so fast that contemporary observers could barely keep up with it. It also declined and fell apart in an unusually short period. Probably what was most exceptional was that this em- pire was put together, and then ruled, by a Mongolian people who were surprisingly few, albeit led by remarkable chiefs some of whose names still resonate. Yet, for all this, little is known about the Mongol Empire and there is not even a healthy curiosity to know more outside of the countries it once embraced. That, certainly regrettable, gap is filled somewhat by this Historical Dictionary of the Mongol World Empire. This volume is similar to others in the series on ancient civili- zations and historical eras in most ways. It has a chronology which shows the compressed time scale. It has several useful maps. It has a dictionary which provides brief entries on impor- tant persons, places and events (many of them battles) as well as the components of the empire and even something about the form of warfare and economic, social and demographic condi- tions. The bibliography presents the, once again regrettably small literature on the subject not only in English but other lan- guages. But the real innovation is an introduction far larger than usual, nearly a hundred pages, which is necessary to follow the endless and extremely complicated cycle of warfare, expansion, consolidation, disruption and decline. This volume was written not by a specialist but a generalist. In fact, it almost had to be, or it would not have been able to cover the myriad facets of the Mongol Empire. Paul D. Buell, however, is not just any author, he has a comprehensive knowl- edge of the region, past and present. He is familiar with most of the essential languages needed for research. And he is keenly aware of much of the research that has been done. More than x Editor's Foreword that, he is very good at extracting conclusions from limited evi- dence, interpreting the facts as they are currently know, and then drawing a picture that is amazingly realistic and arouses one's interest and curiosity. While this is only one of many books written by Dr. Buell, it is certainly a welcome contribu- tion for general readers who want to know something about this most extraordinary empire and even specialists who want to see further. Jon Woronoff Series Editor Mongolia today is a small, poverty-stricken country, but Mon- gols once created the greatest empire that has ever been seen, before or since, and inaugurated an era of intense international interchange. It, in many ways, persists to the present, since the explorers whose voyages gave rise to our modern era originally went looking for the realm of the "Great Khan" (q.v.) of the Mongols. Doing full justice to such a vast empire in a few hun- dred pages is, of course, impossible. This is true even if the existing scholarship would allow such a full treatment, which it certainly does not. I have thus not attempted to provide anything even moder- ately comprehensive, but have instead tried to offer a maximum amount of useful information for the nonspecialist, one needing to know about the Mongols. To this end, and because even the most knowledgeable reader cannot reasonably be expected to have a basic understanding of the history of the Mongol con- quests and their aftermath, due to a highly technical secondary literature in too many languages, I have departed somewhat from the usual exclusively dictionary format of this series. The dictionary entries are there, but I have also provided major nar- ratives as well to integrate the dictionary as a whole. I have done so not only because of problems of access to the specialist literature, but also because no such narratives exist in an accu- rate and up-to-date form in one place elsewhere. A number of scholars have written general books about the Mongols. Some are quite good, but none covers the history of the Mongolian Empire as a whole and of its various successor states in sufficient detail and balance to provide a true overview. There is also the problem that most of the general accounts are now out of date. Many also contain numerous inaccuracies, since nearly all of their authors come from specialties outside Mongolian studies. Another problem is created by overly popu- lar presentations that provide at best a distorted image of the Mongols and their states. A new overview with the latest schol- arship in mind is thus urgently required. I have attempted to provide it. xii Preface The overview below is divided into an introduction and six essays. Essay One narrates the rise of Cinggis-qan (q.v.) down to his formal establishment as universal steppe ruler in 1206. Since there is much dispute about the events of his early life and career, and much is pure hagiography, or political propa- ganda, I have kept this section short. It is focused upon what we do know, with reasonable certainty. The next essay covers the real history of the Mongol Em- pire, from 1206 down to the death of Mongke (q.v.), the grand- son, and the last ruler of a unified state, in 1259. The focus is on institutions rather than events, since I feel that such a focus tells us more about the Mongols than a simple chronicle, but major events are narrated too. There follow four essays devoted to each of the four suc- cessor qanates. The first is on China (q.v.), mostly because Qubilai (q.v.), its founder, maintained, until his death, the fic- tion that he was qan Mongke's true successor. This claim was recognized by Mongol Iran, more briefly by the Central Asian Ca'adai ulus (q.v.), the "Patrimony of Ca'adai." The pretense was even maintained by Qubilai's successors, with less and less effect as the Mongol world changed and as once close relatives became more distant from one another.