Manduhai the Wise. How Manduhai Khatun restored the fallen Mongol nation. Tammy Davies HIS162

Transcription

1 Manduhai the Wise How Manduhai Khatun restored the fallen Mongol nation Tammy Davies HIS162

2 1 The Secret History of the Mongols, a document written by Mongolian chroniclers, had a large section missing or omitted. 1 The history was hidden or ignored by the chroniclers, but dozens of records from various nations begin to put the history back together again. 2 By 1368 the Mongols had dispersed and separated by tribe, becoming independent of each other and thus the Mongol Nation that Genghis Khan built unraveled. 3 In 1448 while the nation consisted of various tribes fighting each other for power, Manduhai (also known as Mandukhai) was born. 4 Her father resisted Esen s policy of exterminating the Borijin who were considered the descendants of Genghis Khan. This resistance left no one in charge and everything remaining collapsed. 5 Manduhai came forward almost 100 years after the Mongol nation fell apart and pulled it back together, then disappeared in history. 6 In 1464 Manduul Khan married his second wife, Manduhai (she was 16), possibly because of her beauty and possibly because their names had the same meaning so it was considered fated. This union also served political purposes as she was not of foreign blood like his first wife was so an heir with her would have a pure Mongol bloodline. 7 There were two viable rivals to the heir title of khan once Manduul died: Une-Bolod, a warlord and descendant of Khasar, brother of Genghis Khan, and Bayan Mongke, a Borijin rescued from death during Esen s reign. 8 Manduul Khan took a liking to young Bayan and named him Bolkhu Jinong or 1 Jack Weatherford. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire. (New York : Crown Publishers, 2010), p. xi. 2 Weatherford, p. xvi. 3 Weatherford, p. xv. 4 Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p. xvi. 7 Weatherford, p Weatherford, p

3 2 Rising Up Golden Prince. 9 Knowing that once the aging Manduul passed away whoever had favor of the wives would become khan, Une-Bolod befriended Manduhai and they formed a relationship that some records suggest was more than just friendship though it is likely it was simply political favor. Bayan showed no interest in such favor. 10 After Manduul died Bayan was killed in the desert by a group of Mongol men looking to rob him. With the first queen disappeared and the khan dead, Manduhai was left alone with no heir to marry. She was left with a few choices: Une-Bolod was blood from the same line as Genghis Khan, making him a favored choice by the Mongols around her, Ismayil was a wellknown warlord who had control over the wealth and resources from the Silk Route, and the Chinese would offer her a lifetime of comfort and anything she could desire in exchange for the subjugation of her and her people. Not pleased with the choices, she rejected them all. 11 Before his death Bayan fathered a son, Batu. When Manduul died Batu was sickly. Manduhai rescued him from certain death, healed him, and took him in. Her plan was to install him as Great Khan as the only living descendant of the line of Genghis Khan. 12 He was renamed Dayan Khan, meaning Whole Khan in Mongolian and Great Yuan in Chinese. 13 During Dayan s installation at the Shrine of the First Queen, Manduhai told the First Queen that she refused to wed Une-Bolod and vowed to protect her people upon pain of dismemberment should she fail. This was the most heinous and dishonorable way to die and solidified the respect and loyalty of her tribe. 14 At this time Dayan was only about 6 or 7 years old and became Great Khan 9 Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p

4 3 under Manduhai s control. 15 Both Manduhai and Dayan were orphaned and had no one else in the world but each other. They ruled together with patience, intelligence, and cunning but together had no real physical strength. 16 After Dayan s installation, Une-Bolod was loyal to Manduhai and Dayan because he knew that if the queen died he would be regent to the young khan, and if the khan died he would be next in line to rule. Manduhai s own words when she installed Dayan as khan made certain of that. He would be the next khan without question. 17 His alignment with her and the khan brought to them the eastern lands of Mongolia. 18 Manduhai s first act in trying to re-unite the Mongol nation was to reclaim the Oirat. Manduhai took off her boqta and put on a helmet, took the bow and arrow off the wall, and by doing so made clear to the people fighting for the khan that she was declaring war and would assume command. 19 They fought mostly skirmishes since she had an inadequate army for large scale battle. Some of the Oirat quickly accepted Dayan as Great Khan and sided with the royal couple. 20 During one of the skirmishes against the Oirat, Manduhai s helmet fell off. This could prove a tragic event because it gave her enemies a clear shot to kill. One of the men on the field saw this and gave her his helmet. Seeing that her enemies were put off by the loss of her helmet she used the advantage to charge forward and win the battle. Her men took prisoners and she killed the leaders. After reclaiming the Oirat, Manduhai and Dayan instituted new laws to 15 Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p. 219.

5 4 subjugate them. Now, with the east already aligned with them, Manduhai had seized control of the western Mongolians north of the Gobi as well. 21 In order to keep her forces from infighting Manduhai turned their attention and aggression on the Muslims and Mings. The land south of the Gobi was controlled by the Muslim warlords Beg-Arslan and Ismayil. Manduhai needed control of the trade caravans from their source instead of raiding them on route. So instead of conquering all of the land south of the Gobi, she fought for and took over control spots so she would gain control over the caravan. 22 While Manduhai was taking over control spots for the caravan Beg-Arslan was fighting his way slowly into Chinese territory. Wang Yue saw that he couldn t defeat Beg-Arslan head on in battle so he went around the army and attacked the civilian camp. After this attack Beg-Arslan and his troops were forced to retreat out of the Great Loop. In response, with the land there reclaimed for China, the Mings began building a wall. Manduhai knew this meant she couldn t use the Chinese to defeat Beg-Arslan so she had to find a new way to deal with his control in the south. 23 The Three Guards Mongols were sort of like a southern Mongolian mercenary tribe. They worked for whatever side would benefit them, whether it be the Mongols, Muslims, or Chinese. One of the leaders of this group was married to Manduul s niece. Manduhai used the alliance she had with that leader s wife to gather the support of the Three Guards in the east. 24 Generally the Three Guards worked for Beg-Arslan, but one of the Three Guard leaders (who was not named) was previously insulted by Beg-Arslan so he used that anger as an excuse to attack Beg-Arslan with Dayan Khan. Manduhai sent a spy to find Beg-Arslan and determine his exact location. After the spy left the warlord s tent he tried to mount forces in response to the perceived coming 21 Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p. 241.

6 5 attack but his men were too far spread out to arrive in time. Beg-Arslan fled and Dayan Khan and his men pursued but the warlord put his helmet on one of his men as a decoy and went another way. The man wearing the helmet was caught and betrayed Beg-Arslan. The warlord was soon after found and killed. 25 With Beg-Arslan dealt with and most of his holdings now hers, Manduhai had only to deal with Muslim warlord Ismayil in the far west near Hami. By this time he was left with only a rag-tag group of fighters but no real army. There were two motives in advancing on him. It gave them complete control of the Mongol Nation, and Dayan Khan s mother had been taken by Ismayil as a wife after Manduul Khan s death. The terrain between Manduhai s army and Hami was too rough for the army to pass so instead she selected a small group of men to capture or kill Ismayil and bring Dayan s mother back. 26 Ismayil went to meet Manduhai s men, thinking them traders. One of the men shot an arrow at him and killed him in the desert. 27 Dayan s mother gave no response to her rescue and made no move to leave. The men had to force her on a horse to bring her back to him. There was no reconciliation between mother and son and she made clear without saying as much that she didn t want to see him. This rejection left him once again with only his wife. 28 After uniting all of Mongolia for the first time as a strong nation since the rule of Genghis Khan, Manduhai and Dayan traveled along the borders to fight skirmishes and raid into China and along the Silk Route. In 1482 Manduhai gave birth to twin boys. Over the next twelve years she had a total of eight children, including three sets of twins. 29 Having heirs to the khan name 25 Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p. 245.

7 6 gave Dayan and Manduhai right to split or for him to have her killed. Despite this, their affection for each other kept them together. 30 At age 40 Manduhai would have her last set of twins. In a skirmish along the border she fell from her horse. The fall could have allowed another to take control, as it was considered a bad omen to fall off a horse in combat, but instead her men surrounded her, pulled her to a horse, and escorted her to safety. The men who rescued her were each from different tribes, showing that the people all around Mongolia were loyal to her. Despite the bad omen and the fall of their leader her army was victorious in battle that day. 31 The fall from her horse was the end of Manduhai s fighting career and she instead turned her attention to securing a sustainable government, something she felt Genghis Khan failed at before his death. 32 In 1487 the Ming emperor died. Seeing opportunity, Dayan sent a letter to the Chinese court for trade. The letter re-established trade between Mongolia and China. 33 During the new unity Manduhai sent her sons to other tribes so they could become more knowledgeable about their people and used them as spies to make sure the tribes remained loyal to her. 34 With the Mongol nation now strong and re-united, in the 1490 s Manduhai and Dayan set to work establishing a sustainable nation. They re-organized the clans, put their sons in ruling offices, and declared Dayan official ruler of all the tribes. They abolished old titles that gave power to those outside the royal family, gave new titles to people who were loyal to them, and introduced a new tax system. They also created law so that only the Great Khan could use the title of khan, the first prince was the only jinong, other sons were taiji (meaning royal lord ), and the daughter was gunj. Their only daughter was set up in an arranged marriage with the 30 Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p. 252.

8 7 leader of the Khalkh tribe. 35 The nation was divided in Left and Right wings, each of which had three tumen (tribes) of about 10,000 people. Mongols called this new organization the Six Tumen. People were to forget old tribal affiliations and embrace everyone equally. Manduhai and Dayan s seven sons were all given a second name of Bolod, meaning steel. Each took over rule of one of the tumens along the Chinese border. They were known as the 7 Steels and their united front was called the Steel Wall. 36 The strength of the Steel Wall encouraged China to expand on their Great Wall. 37 Manduhai retired from rule and named her son Ulus Bolod as jinong. During his crowning ceremony in the south he was killed in a revolt. Dayan and his sons rode off to get revenge while she stayed behind. The couple never saw each other again. 38 Over the age of sixty, she died in the north. Dayan Khan retired from rule in 1517 while still living in the south. 39 In 1578 their descendants gave a monk title of dalai, and his reincarnations were all called Dalai Lama. One of their descendants was Dalai Lama IV, the only Mongol to ever have the title. The nation remained independent until the Manchu conquest in the 17 th century, and even then they remained in office. All known descendants were either killed or murdered during World War II. 40 Scattered documents and sparse mention of Manduhai the Wise were systematically omitted from written history, and so the great queen of Mongolia was lost in the annuls of history, but oral tradition kept her memory alive in her people. Centuries after Manduhai the Wise pulled her nation back together, historian Jack Weatherford collected records of her epic quest and brought her story back to life. 35 Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p Weatherford, p

9 8 Bibliography Weatherford, Jack. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire. New York : Crown Publishers, 2010.