Episode 10 Mongol Queens and the Contest for Empire

The Mongol Empire

Dr Craig Benjamin (2020)

Film Review

Following Ogedei’s death in 1241, all Mongol military commanders were expected to withdraw from their campaigns in Eastern Europe and China to attend the kuritai to appoint his successor. As those from the western front passed through the Venetian and Genoese colonies on the Black Sea, they exchanged their prisoners (who the Venetians and Genoese sold into slavery) for commercial goods. Many prisoners were sold as slave-soldiers (Mamaluks) to the Sultan who ruled Egypt.

According to Benjamin, Ogedei’s major achievements were

• establishing an empire-wide communication system
• establishing a magnificent capitol that became a major trade, cultural and religious center for Muslim, Buddhists, Daoists and Christians
• reestablishing the Silk Road linking Asia to Europe, enabling the transmission of new knowledge (most importantly of gunpowder, printing and paper) from China to Europe

Because the alcoholic Ogedei was often too drunk to conduct state affairs, he gave his wife Touragine immense administrative authority. Other Mongol military commanders also left their wives in charge of their minqans while they were away at battle. This meant, in effect, that women ruled the largest empire in history for approximately 10 years during the Khwarazmian campaign.

Following Ogedei’s death, Touragene became regent pending a new kuritai. She promptly dismissed the Persian administrators responsible for Ogedei’s new tax system, reappropriating tax revenues to support her campaign (via bribes) for her son Kuyuk to become Great Khan

The kuritai was delayed for five years because Batu, who opposed Kuyuk’s election as Great Khan, refused to return from the Kipchak Steppes. Prior to his death, Ogedei stripped his oldest son Kuyuk of his rank and exiled him to China for insulting his cousin Batu’s parentage.*

Batu eventually sent his two sons in his place, and in 1246 the kuritai elected Kuyuk the third Great Khan. Following the latter’s sudden death in 1248, his chief wife Oghue Qaimesh became regent.

Equally powerful was Chinggis Khan’s daughter-in-law Sorkaktani, who became the wife of Chinggis Khan’s youngest son Tolui when he was 13. Following Tolui’s death, Chinggis Khan gave her an estate in Zehngdinng in the former Jin empire. Her son would become Qubilai Khan, founder of the Yuan Dynasty. She helped the former Jim empire recover from the ravages of war by setting up a farming estate system, reforming the tax system and creating numerous commercial ventures.

*His father Jochi, conceived his mother’s kidnapping, was only a stepson of Chinggis Khan.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/12373094/12373114