#ogodei khan

[tenth-sentence]

"Just as God gave different fingers to the hand," Ögödei's successor told a Christian, "so He has given different ways to men."

"Why the West Rules – For Now: The patterns of history and what they reveal about the future" - Ian Morris

[whencyclopedia]

Ögedei Khan

Ogedei Khan (aka Ogodei) ruled the Mongol Empire from 1229 to 1241. He was the third son of Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227), the empire's founder. Ogedei's accomplishments included creating a new capital at Karakorum, establishing a system of regional governance and taxation, and defeating the long-time enemy of the Mongols, the Jin state of northern China.

Ogedei Khan enjoyed many other military victories in Western Asia from Afghanistan to Georgia, and the great cities of the Bulgars and Rus were sacked as his armies swept ever further west and attacked Poland and Hungary. Just as the Mongols seemed about to sweep through Europe, the invaders returned home following news of the Great Khan's death of either a stroke or organ failure in December 1241, most likely brought on by one of the heavy drinking bouts for which he was infamous.

Early Life & Succession

Ogedei was born, c. 1186, the third son of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire. He had three brothers: Jochi, Chagatai (Chaghadai) and Tolui (Tului). Like them, Ogedei assisted his father on several military campaigns, notably against the Khwarazm Empire from 1219 to 1225. Before he died of natural causes in 1227, Genghis Khan had instructed that his empire be divided into four khanates with each of his sons ruling one of them (although Jochi would predecease his father in 1227). Ogedei was selected to rule above his siblings as the Great Khan or 'universal ruler', a position he was formally awarded in 1228 at the kurultai conference of Mongol tribal chiefs (which Ogedei at first refused but then accepted in 1229). Genghis, meanwhile, was buried in secret in the vicinity of the sacred mountain Burkan Kuldun, and Ogedei sacrificed 40 slave girls and 40 horses to accompany his father into the next life.

Ogedei was a surprising choice for khan because he already had a reputation for often being drunk. He was chastised for his drinking by his brother Chagatai but, not being unaware of the problem, Ogedei did offer to have a supervisor check how much alcohol he drank and to limit the number of cups per day to a specified number. Ogedei then made sure he was always served his favourite tipple in very large cups. Neither had Ogedei shown any great particular promise as a military commander. He was, however, likeable and willing to take the advice of his more senior ministers and commanders, essential qualities in the complex web of Mongol clan politics. Most importantly of all, he was his father's choice and Genghis Khan was now already seen as a deified spirit whose word was law. Thus, Tolui, who had been acting as regent, handed over the reins of government to Ogedei and a new era of Mongol rule began.

Continue reading...

[caesarsaladinn]

I have a hangover worthy of a Mongol Khan right now. please send thoughts and prayers. side note how much airag could Ogodei possibly have consumed to get the distinction of being “the alcoholic one,” didn’t like three of Chinggis’s successors die of alcohol poisoning?

[eruverse]

If Mongol Empire is like a manga and its people are the characters, these are my fave, neutrals and dislikes:

Fave:

Chinggis Khan (but of course omg the best)

Ogodei, the calmest of Chinggis Khan’s son and is like the most reasonable

Jochi (the king of Golden Horde. If not for him Golden Horde wouldn’t exist)

Orda Ichen, the Khan of White (Blue) Horde who decided that Batu, his younger brother ruled the whole Golden Horde and not cause civil war with him lmao. Also the ancestor of Kazakhs

Börte, because what’s not to love from her

Neutrals:

Everyone who’s not my faves and dislikes

Dislikes:

Kublai (the biggest diva of Chinggis Khan’s descendants ever)

Hulagu (I basically don’t like the Toluids like wtf man)

Chagatai (for his enforcement of yassa and because of his prejudice toward Jochi, but Uzbekistan is his legacy so I guess I don’t hate him that much)

Yes, Golden Horde is my bias

[peysk]

Fucked up how chingis khan is the only popularly known mongolian person connected to the mongolian empire at least in the west. ppl talk as if he is synonymous with the ruthlessness of the mongols when in reality what drove him Vs what drove his successors were very different things. Temujin was born in a miserable world, the peoples of the steppe all fighting for scraps while the jin jurchen to the south play political games to make sure no one population becomes too strong. everything Temujin did, really, was either in retaliaton or in anticipation of foreign attacks. The guy had already united basically all of the nomadic tribes of the steppe at one point and still he spent all of his life and indeed died fighting to make sure the world would never have to return to the miserable state it was in when he was born. Of course he did this by waging war and using immense violence himself i don't mean to paint him as a saint but what im trying to get at is that he wasn't a megalomaniac. His successors, Ogodei Khan and so on weren't like Temujin at all. They felt their mission was to unite all the world under the dominion of the mongols. many of the khans truly had never even known a world different from the one temujin built for them. Guyuk literally answered the letter the pope sent to him asking him to stop attacking christian kingdoms lest the lord punish him and all he had to say is "if your lord hates me winning then our current track record is proof that he can't do jack shit to stop me. worry about your own shit".

[annachum]

Khiimori Khan of the Jogos Nghai

In ASOMAM, Leiko's father is Great Khan of the Jogos Nghai. Staunch and a valiant warrior and conqueror, Khiimori sired many children with his numerous wives, and also had an on and off rivalry with Kahl Drogo. Despite being a conqueror, Khiimori is also a man of honor to his affiliations, and even he agreed Wenwu is horrible even by conqueror ruler standards ( similarly with Khal Drogo )

Khiimori means ' wind horse ' in Mongolian and he is also inspired by Genghis Khan, Ogodei Khan and Kublai Khan

Sarangerel Khatun

The biological mother of Princess Leiko. She sired 10 children ( 4 sons and 6 daughters ) with her husband Khiimori. Originally from a feudal herding tribe in Western Jogos Nghai, Her marriage to Khiimori also help unite many Jogs Nghai tribal Realms. Seemingly gentle and decorous, she is usually soft spoken yet is more cunning than one may meet the eye

Sarangerel means ' moon beam ' in Mongolian, and Leiko has 2 older brothers, 2 younger brothers and 5 younger sisters in ASOMAM ( making her thr third of 10 full siblings ).

Sarangerel is also inspired by Empress Borte

Empress Ying Nan of Yi Ti

In ASOMAM, Ying Nan's marriage to her husband, the seemingly merry and valiant Langgan Emperor of Yi Ti, helped unite many city states in Yi Ti. She and her younger sister Ying Li ( biological mother of Shang Chi and Xialing ) originally came from a powerful feudal clan in the Jade Hills of Yi Ti.

Decorous and diplomatic, Ying Nan becomes a mentor to Shang Chi and Katy Chen in teaching them the ropes of Yi Tish court matters. She also has 7 children ( 4 sons and 3 daughters ) with the Langgan Emperor

[ilearnedthistodaysblog]

#1188 Why was Genghis Khan so effective?

Why was Genghis Khan so effective? Genghis Khan was effective because of his military strategy, but also because he could take advantage of the natural abilities of the Mongols he commanded and of the weaknesses of the enemies he faced. Genghis Khan was born in 1162. His birth name was Temūjin, and he was the eldest child of the tribal chief of the Brojigin clan, a not overly important clan until Genghis Khan brought them to the forefront of Mongolia. His father died when Genghis was 8 and he and his family were abandoned by the clan. After a lot of setbacks and a pretty hard life, he emerged as a military leader and began to take over all of the other Mongolian clans. By 1206, he was the undisputed leader of the Mongolian steppe, and he officially changed his name to Genghis Khan. Once he had control of all the Mongolian clans, he turned his attention to China. China was divided into three parts at the time and Genghis Khan started with the part closest to the Mongolian steppe, the Western Xia. He had conquered the whole area by 1215 and headed on. He died in 1227, possibly from an illness, and by his death he had created an empire that stretched from the Caspian Sea in the west to the edge of China above the Korean peninsula. He was succeeded by his son, Ogodei Khan, but it was his grandson Kublai Khan who pushed the Mongolian Empire to its greatest limits. His empire reached from the middle of Europe, through the Middle East, into lower Russia, and down to the bottom of modern China. At its peak, the Mongol Empire was the second largest empire in history, behind only the British Empire. Still, it is undeniable that Kublai Khan wouldn’t have been able to do so much if Genghis Khan hadn’t created an army and a system that Kublai Khan could use. So, why was Genghis Khan so effective? Genghis Khan was an excellent military tactician. He was able to use his armies very effectively through several methods. The first was strict discipline. This was vital because the nomadic people that lived on the steppe were not used to fighting together. They were more used to roaming in small bands. Genghis Khan had to train them how to fight together and discipline was vital. He also introduced a system that no other army in the world was using. His system was freedom of action. He would outline the overall goal and would then leave it up to the individual commanders to work out how to accomplish it. That sounds obvious by today’s standards, but at the time, commanders controlled every movement that their armies made. The third thing he did was organizing supply lines. A lot of battles are lost because the army takes a town, but then can’t feed itself and has to retreat. Genghis Khan didn’t have this problem. Genghis Khan was also able to take advantage of the tremendous strengths of the steppe people. The first was that they were extremely hardy. They were used to living outdoors and travelling a lot. They could survive on little food and they knew how to find food when they didn’t have any. They were excellent horsemen and the horses they bred were extremely fast and had a lot of stamina. They were excellent bowmen and the Mongols used a special bow that was short and had a tremendous pull. They could fire a lot of arrows very quickly and very far. They were also adept at firing from the saddle. Also, because they were nomads, they were used to moving from place to place and a military campaign was no different to regular life. Genghis Khan was also able to use the weaknesses of the people he was attacking against them. The Chinese were divided into different empires and they wouldn’t help each other. They also thought that they were safe behind their city walls and didn’t prepare as much as they should have done. They were also not as skilled on horseback as the Mongols were. Genghis Khan invented a system to psychological warfare that helped him out. He gave all of the cities he attacked a chance to surrender. If they did, straightaway, they would pay him tribute and become vassal states. If they refused, when he breached their walls, as he inevitably did, he would slaughter or take slave every single man, woman, and child in the city. That way, the next city he approached would be far more amenable to surrendering. Genghis Khan was very interested in conquering and enlarging his empire, but he wasn’t so interested in religion or race. This went strongly in his favor because it meant the peoples he conquered were far more likely to fight for him. He was an equal opportunities employer. And this is what I learned today. Try these: - #656 Are Inner and Outer Mongolia separate countries? - #773 What are totem poles for? - #160 What is West Point? - #164 Why did Russia sell Alaska to the United States? - #692 How thick is tank armor? Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan https://pressbooks.pub/abriefhistory1/chapter/song-china-and-the-steppe-peoples/ https://www.iflscience.com/what-made-genghis-khan-so-successful-75126 https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistory/comments/1babwp7/how_were_the_mongols_so_successful_despite_having/ https://www.thecollector.com/top-mongol-leaders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kublai_Khan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_bow https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/the-brutal-brilliance-of-genghis-khan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires Photo by MBVisign: https://www.pexels.com/photo/genghis-khan-statue-in-close-up-photography-6466768/ Read the full article

[lightdancer1]

Toregene Khatun may have been the most powerful woman in world history:

The most powerful of the Mongolian Khatuns was Toregene, the wife of Ogodei Khagan, Genghis Khan's son and successor under whom the Mongol Empire conquered more than they did with him. It was her successes and her skills that kept the Empire united and paved the way for Guyuk Khagan, the last of the rulers of the united empire.

And this is that gap between the women at the highest echelons of the first world empire and those at the lowest. Toregene also had a power granted to almost no women in world history, stood against a pattern deeply interwoven into nomadic societies, and like Ogodei, her husband, successfully and deliberately defied it. By all accounts she is another in the string of extraordinary women that made the Mongol Empire unique.

[fierce-little-miana]

[The] account gives us an accurate depiction of the division of the territorial spoils made, apparently, in the last years of Chinggis Qan's lifetime. The Jochids in fact received and subsequently occupied what is now the Kazakh steppe, southern Siberia, the lower Volga, the Qipchaq steppe, Noth Caucasia, and the Rus principalities. Chaghadai, his second son, obtained West Turkestan; Ögödei, his third son and political heir, had his personal territory in Jungharia and later moved to central Mongolia, the site of the imperial capital, Qara Qorum; and, finally, Tolui, the youngest, received eastern Mongolia, the urheimat of the Mongolian tribes. [...] This meant, it must be reemphasized, that there was no direct princely control over China and Iran, as there was in central Asia and the steppe.

Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia - Thomas T. Allsen

[maglor-still-lives]

Favorite fantasy tropes?

In no particular order and with no particular rigor...

1) immortal wanderer: it gives you so many options for settings and character traits and I will never stop laughing at shit like “austria won the world cup” “you mean the austro-hungarian empire?” or at people having very strong opinions about things that are barely a distant memory (ogodei khan can catch these hands). Would I like it as much if I hadn’t originally staked my whole blog around it? Unclear! But they’re great.

2) Big Fucking Mountains: this is a simple one. I like big fucking mountains.

3) Based On Real Life: this one’s dicey. I firmly believe that fantasy should not be expected to conform to history or science, as long as it sets some internal rules and sticks by them. So it is not necessary and I’m tired of seeing people rag on perfectly good stories just because none of the characters got cholera.

THAT SAID! I’m a nerd and I go apeshit for proto-Mongols and pseudo-Byzantines and real technology and whatnot. Truth is stranger than fiction, and provided it’s handled well, it can add a lot of depth to a setting, and maybe even teach your audience some cool new facts.

4) the wise old sarcastic wizard mentor: delightful. Gandalf, Ben Kenobi, Morgan of Shadows, also includes Hundred Eyes from Marco Polo.

5) wacky animals: Star Wars stands out as the example par excellence, but I just love big blobbery guys or little puffballs or Things With Too Many Teeth.

[247reader]

Day 29… has been a pretty rough day, so I bring you a simpler drawing of: Altani!

Altani was among the children fostered by Hoelun, the mother of Temujin, Genghis Khan, who took in relatives and war orphans to raise. Hoelun was also one of her son’s must trusted advisors, one of the women who governed his empire while he was away on campaign. 

Altani shared a tent with Hoelun and her young grandson, Tolui.  As the youngest son of Temujin and his Grand Empress, Börte, Tolui was an important child - and soon the target of an attack.  A Tartar warrior took advantage of the tradition of sacred hospitality among the Mongols to seize the boy.  He’d slipped past the guards… but he hadn’t reckoned on Altani. She dashed after him, grabbing his braids in one hand and his knife in the other, and kept her grip until help could arrive.  For her deed, Genghis Khan himself gave her the title of Bataar, or hero. In 1260, he announced her wedding to another young Bataar, Boroghul, a soldier who had saved the life of the Khan’s son Ogodei. He also gave a speech at the wedding, in which he emphasized that the husband and wife must rely on each other equally: they were two wheels pulling one cart. 

[atlaculture]

What’s in a Name: Rough Rhinos

The mercenaries of the Fire Nation.

Mongke - Eternal, ᠮᠥᠩᠬᠡ (Mongolian). He’s named after the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.

Kahchi - From “kachi-kachi”, the Japanese onomatopoeia for a crackling fire, かち (Japanese).

Ogodei - The third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, ᠥᠭᠡᠳᠡᠢ  (Mongolian).

Vachir - Thunderbolt, ᠣᠴᠢᠷ (Sanskrit / Mongolian). Vajra (वज्र) is a Sanskrit word meaning “thunderbolt”. The name “Vachir” is likely the Mongolian pronunciation of the word.

Yeh-Lu - Blazing Furnace, 烨炉 (Mandarin). It’s a fitting name for his design. Also, the family name of Yelü Chucai, an adviser of Ogodei Khan. His name is also a common surname for people of Khitan descent, a Mongolic people.

[magnaioronir]

The life of a Khan is a busy one, but that does not mean I don't make time to swap hunting stories with my best men. Baatu, a loyal Xaela who has always stood by The Sun's side. And Ogodei, the tribes Triple Triad Champion. The bitter nights made less so by Nhaama's beautiful stars and the warmth of fire given to us.

[eruverse]

Horde is a Total Hater and I’m living for it. Also Ogodei is the best, and wtf it is with Kublai and Hulagu srsly (they’re not my personal faves)

Speaking about it, I hc that Horde himself isn’t an actual Muslim, but many Jochids converted to Islam under Berke Khan in order to accumulate powers with the Islamic world/forging alliances etc, and I guess in doing so they could further separate themselves from the influences of core Mongol Empire… so Horde would say, yes why not, anything that could make my father got off my back (tho it was only under Uzbek Khan, like many years after that, that Islam became official state religion)

[towritecomicsonherarms]

Ögedei (also Ogodei; Mongolian: Өгэдэй, romanized: Ögedei, Mongolian: ᠥᠭᠡᠳᠡᠢ Ögedei,[2][3] ᠥᠭᠦᠳᠡᠢ Ögüdei;[4] Chinese: 窩闊台; c. 1186 – 11 December 1241) was the third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, succeeding his father. He continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun, and was a world figure when the Mongol Empire reached its farthest extent west and south during the Mongol invasions of Europe and East Asia.[5] Like all of Genghis' primary sons, he participated extensively in conquests in China, Iran, and Central Asia.

[thejackmeister-mongolhistory]

Here is an answer I put on Reddit in response to the question on what Kublai Khan thought of Chinggis Khan. If you've ever read anything I put up on Kublai, you'll probably find some of it familiar.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/df01nd/what_does_kublai_khan_think_of_his_grandfather/

"Chinggis Khan (the Mongolian pronunciation of Genghis), despite his rather negative portrayal in most western literature from the 13th century to present, has quite a different reputation among the Mongols and many inner Asian peoples, dating right back to his final years. By the time of his death in August 1227, Chinggis Khan had brought the Mongol tribes from near total disunity, to near total domination of much of Asia. To quote Timothy May:

"Chinggis Khan may have died a man, but he entered the spirit world as a powerful demi-god... he not only unified Mongolia, but also rendered all potential enemies impotent. He avenged the massacre at Otrar, the death of Yesugei, the insult to Ambaghai - he was an avatar of vengeance, a god of war, and a creator hero who brought writing and stability to the Mongols. His sulde, a part of his soul or genius, took residence in the tuq or standard of the Mongols and offered protection to the ruler and to the Mongols in general. As a result, his words were sacred and became bileg, or 'wisdom', and proper behaviour for Mongols (yosun); the words, deeds and wisdom of Chinggis Khan became analogous to the sunna of the Prophet Muhammad in Islam. Since Chinggis Khan had decreed his son Ogodei his heir, this could not be disputed." (May, the Mongol Empire, 2018, pg. 70-71).

It is hard to overstate Chinggis Khan's image among the Mongols following his death. He was not just an ideal ruler, he was the ideal ruler, the bar by which nearly every would-be Khan, warlord and conqueror between the Caspian Sea and China would be compared to for the next six centuries. So strong was his legacy that it kept cousins living across the span of the Eurasian landmass working towards a common goal for decades. A unique combination of personal charisma, political, organizational and military skill, an utterly indomitable character and excellent timing lead him to unify and forge the tribes under his command into Asia's fiercest weapon.

Chinggis' shadow hung over all of his successors, who had to try to live up to him Chinggis was being mythologized before he was even dead: how could any man compare to that? Kublai had met Chinggis when he was a boy -there exists an anecdote of Chinggis rubbing animal fat on to the fingers of Kublai and his older brother Mongke after their first hunt- but was quite young when Chinggis died (Kublai was born in 1215, Chinggis died in 1227). Chinggis had many, many grandchildren, and Kublai would have been but one among them. Kublai never knew Chinggis as anything other than a immense, heroic figure, an impossible standard to live up to. That wasn't so much as issue for Kublai for the first half of his life, as there was little chance of him ever becoming Great Khan, and under the guidance of his mother Sorqaqtani Beki, took an interest in Chinese culture and took little for military roles. But when the position of Qa'an was taken by his brother Mongke in 1251 (the Toluid Revolution), Kublai was thrust into leading campaigns against the Kingdom of Dali in modern Yunnan, and then against the Song Dynasty of southern China, before ultimately becoming Qa'an after Mongke's death in 1259.

For control of this position, Kublai fought his brother Ariq Boke in a four year civil war, the first in the Empire's history. Even by then Kublai was associated with Chinese culture by more conservative Mongols, with Ariq the standard bearer of 'traditional values.' This would be an issue which haunted Kublai over the rest of his long life, and that of his successors in the Yuan Dynasty. While Kublai ultimately defeated Ariq Boke and was proclaimed Great Khan in 1264, his election was never fully recognized by the other newly emerging Khanates. Kublai is the most famous Qa'an after Chinggis, but his reign oversaw the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire into independent Khanates and difficulties portraying himself as an Emperor of China to his Chinese subjects, and as a Great Khan to his Mongol followers and the military, never fully succeeding as either. He completed the conquest of China begun by Chinggis in 1211, (1209 if we want to count the Tangut campaigns!) but his continued foreign ventures -Japan, Vietnam, Burma, Indonesia- were all failures, and he saw rebellion in Mongolia and Central Asia, his cousins Qaidu and Nayan (and others) forming barriers to Kublai's influence outside of China, even threatening the original Mongol capital of Karakorum at times.

As Kublai's life drew to a close, he was predeceased by his closest confident, his beloved wife Chabi, his chosen heir Jingim, most of his friends and skilled advisers from earlier in his life. His final years were marked by isolation and removing himself from political affairs, depressed, suffering from gout, obesity and alcoholism. Military defeats, political corruption, economic trouble and the irreversible fragmentation of the empire haunted him. The specter of Chinggis Khan's success, I feel, must have weighed him down above all. Compared to the accolades the Mongols laid upon Chinggis, I believe Kublai must have come to see himself as a failure in comparison to his illustrious grandfather. Of course, Kublai made no such public statement: it would be today like an American politician saying they though George Washington wasn't all that great. In general, little of Kublai's personal thoughts come down to us. Chinggis Khan's final years saw the utter defeat of Khwarezm and the Tangut, laying the groundwork for further expansion: while Kublai saw the Mongols pushed back and the empire fall apart.

For this reason, Kublai almost certainly held Chinggis Khan in the highest regard. Certainly, he put many a posthumous title and ceremony upon his honoured grandfather and his loyal compatriots. He ordered portraits and historical works to celebrate him, and publicly showed nothing but devotion and respect. Yet, he could very well have come to hate the comparisons to him. Chinggis was an ideal Kublai could never live up to, and try as he might, the same glory only eluded him. Had he died in 1280, we might have spoken on his successes and his what his potential could have been had he lived longer: dying in 1294 as he did, we can only imagine how Kublai suffered a sense of the empire slipping from out of his grasp, and how it was his own fault.

Sources:

Timothy May, the Mongol Empire (2018)

Morris Rossabi, Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times (1988). Still the most concise, readable and detailed single biography on Kublai, though it is obviously missing newer historiography."