Chinggisid Fault Lines

Herat became a prize in Chinggisid internecine struggles for supremacy. Chingiz Khan had designated Ögödei as political heir. There were other legitimate contenders: Chingiz’s brother, Temüge Otchigin, “on the basis of the seniority principle was best qualified to succeed” him. Another was Chingiz’s oldest son, Jochi, albeit of dubious birth: he was conceived around when his mother, Börte, was held captive by Chingiz Khan’s enemies. Chaghatai disrespected Jochi as a “bastard”; they even “engaged in fisticuffs.” Tolui’s and Ögödei’s views of Jochi are less certain. Chingiz accepted Jochi as his son and bequeathed to him a proportionate inheritance. But Jochi pre-deceased him (d.c. 1225).

In Chingiz Khan’s bequests, Jochi was appointed chief of the hunt, a pastime and training regimen for steppe warriors. Chaghatai was designated the keeper of Mongol laws (yasa); Tolui, “the command and organization of troops and the equipment of armies”; and Ögödei, administrator of empire. To each according to his talents was their father’s logic. Chaghatai accepted the selection of Ögödei but not Tolui. Consequent to his father’s death, Tolui, the youngest, and therefore the “hearth-prince” (otchigin)—guardian of the ancestral heartlands—ruled as regent.

Tolui convened the congress (quriltai) that confirmed Ögödei. Despite any private objections held by Tolui, since Ögödei had been designated by Chingiz, Mongol notables would have not permitted deviation. When Ögödei died (1241), Temüge Otchigin tried to seize the throne but failed. Ögödei’s empress, Töregene (r. 1242–46; d. 1246) ruled as regent during the interregnum. Töregene’s and Ögödei’s son, Güyük (r. 1246–48) was enthroned after more political theater. He and Jochi’s son, Batu (d. 654/1256), were estranged. Batu exercised dilatory tactics to prevent the quriltai that would elect Güyük. Toluids bided. Their opportunity emerged with Güyük’s death in 1248. Möngke (r. 1251–58), Tolui’s son, was crowned at the 1251 quriltai, following a two-year interregnum in which Güyük’s wife, Oghul-Qaimish, ruled.

Chinggisid fault lines outlined above were exacerbated by the senior Chinggisids’ interpretations of their patrimony’s relationship to the Mongol Empire. Each of Chingiz Khan’s sons had received a territorial appanage (yurt) with an accompanying ulus (specified tribes and peoples).