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_ Al-Altan _
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Introduction
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Al-Altan ( - 1246), also known as Altalun and Altaluqan, was the
youngest child and favourite daughter of Genghis Khan, the founder
of the Mongol Empire, and Börte, his primary wife. As part of
Genghis's policy of marrying his daughters to powerful rulers in
exchange for their submission to him, she married Barchuq Art
Tegin, the ruler of the wealthy Uyghur people to the southwest,
around 1211.
After Genghis died in 1227 and Ögedei Khan, his third son by Börte,
ascended to the Mongol throne, it is likely that the Mongol
imperial government began to appropriate the territory and taxes of
the Uyghurs for themselves. When Ögedei died after an extended
drinking binge in 1241, Al-Altan was present--she had probably
travelled to her brother's court to defend her Uyghur subjects
against the encroachment. She was rumoured to have poisoned Ögedei
and remained under suspicion until the accession of her nephew,
Güyük Khan, five years later. Shortly afterwards, Al-Altan was put
on trial and executed by the general Eljigidei. Accounts of
Al-Altan's life and death were heavily suppressed, with official
chronicles compelled to excise or obscure potentially troublesome
details. The injustice of her death became a major contention
during the Toluid Revolution in 1251, during which Eljigidei was
executed by Al-Altan's sympathisers in revenge.
Early life and marriage
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Al-Altan's mother, Börte, was born into the Onggirat tribe, who
lived along the Greater Khingan mountain range south of the Ergüne
river, in modern-day Inner Mongolia. She married a Mongol leader
named Temüjin after a seven-year betrothal. Over the next twenty
or so years, Börte gave birth to nine children: four sons named
Jochi, Chagatai, Ögedei, and Tolui, and five daughters named Qojin,
Checheyigen, Alaqa, Tümelün, and Al-Altan, the youngest. After this
last birth , Temüjin continued to father offspring with other women
whom he had married, but they always remained inferior in status to
Börte and her children.
In the decade after Al-Altan's birth, Temüjin steadily increased
his power and subjugated rival tribes, a process which culminated
in his coronation as Genghis Khan, ruler of the newly-founded
Mongol Empire, in 1206. Before and after this acclamation, Genghis
employed his daughters with Börte in a crucial role: they were
married to important male rulers, who would then submit to Genghis
in exchange for rank and power in the new empire. On the other
side, Genghis gained the loyalties of large steppe populations
without unnecessary bloodshed, and Al-Altan and her sisters took
important administrative roles in large tribes. In addition, they
served as the link between their father and his new son-in-law
vassals. Al-Altan's eldest sister Qojin married Butu of the Ikires
tribe, Checheyigen and Alaqa married into the ruling families of
the Oirats and Ongud respectively, and Tümelün married back into
Börte's Onggirat tribe.
In 1209, Barchuq Art Tegin, the ruler or 'idiqut' () of the wealthy
Uyghur people to the southwest of the Mongol heartland, rejected
the authority of his suzerain, the Qara Khitai state in Central
Asia. Barchuq thereafter sought the friendship and protection of
Genghis Khan by sending gifts of gold and jewellery and helping the
Mongols pursue some of their Merkit enemies. In 1211, his efforts
were rewarded when Genghis named him a "fifth son" and betrothed
Al-Altan, then around fifteen, to him. This was a high honour, as
Al-Altan was considered Genghis's favourite daughter. In the years
thereafter, Barchuq and his 18,000 warriors campaigned as
auxiliaries to the main Mongol military in various campaigns, most
notably the invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire between 1218 and
1223, where the Uyghurs took part in the sieges of Otrar, Taliqan,
and Nishapur. It is unknown if Al-Altan joined the expedition. They
also participated in the conquest of the Western Xia state in
1226-27 and in the invasion of Europe in 1236-42. Barchuq died
before 1241.
Later life and death
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Genghis died in August 1227 and was succeeded by his chosen heir,
Al-Altan's brother Ögedei, after a two-year interregnum. A generous
ruler, Ögedei became increasingly addicted to alcohol and died in
December 1241 after a wine-fuelled binge resulted in alcohol
poisoning or organ failure. Rumours that he had been poisoned began
to circulate, directed at two important women who had attended the
fatal party. One of them, Ibaqa Beki, a former wife of Genghis, had
served as a cupbearer and was immediately under suspicion; she was,
however, cleared after being defended by the prominent general
Eljigidei. The other was Al-Altan.
Al-Altan must have attended the party to be accused of the crime,
but why she was present there and not in the Uyghur lands is not
certain. One theory, favoured by historians such as Thomas T.
Allsen and Anne F. Broadbridge, hypothesizes that under Ögedei, the
Mongols began to interfere with the administration and taxation of
the previously semi-autonomous Uyghur state. This process would
have increased imperial control at the expense of Al-Altan and her
family. Broadbridge argues that Al-Altan may have travelled to
Ögedei's court to argue against the imperial encroachment;
following her brother's death, his wife Töregene accused Al-Altan
of poisoning him in retribution.
Unlike Ibaqa Beki, Al-Altan was never cleared of suspicion. Having
survived Töregene's regency between 1241 and 1246, Al-Altan was
probably present when her nephew Güyük Khan, son of Ögedei and
Töregene, was crowned in the latter year. After his coronation, she
was put on trial and executed; all details were heavily suppressed
due to the taboo against killing a member of the royal family. An
oversight in a medieval chronicle reveals that her executioner was
Eljigidei, who had decisively exonerated Ibaqa Beki five years
earlier. In return for committing this taboo act, Güyük rewarded
Eljigidei with a senior military position in West Asia, distant
from any enemies he gained through killing Al-Altan.
Aftermath
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In 1251, Möngke Khan acceded to the throne as part of the Toluid
Revolution, in which the family of Genghis's youngest son Tolui
seized power from the descendants of Ögedei. Möngke's faction put
forward numerous arguments that the house of Ögedei had contravened
Mongol law and custom and were thus unfit to rule. The most
provocative of these allegations was that they had unlawfully
executed Al-Altan, Genghis's favourite daughter, without consulting
the wider family. In the purges that began after Möngke foiled an
Ögedeyid coup attempt, Eljigidei was singled out as a target,
accused of murder by prominent figures such as Batu Khan and
Möngke's brother Kublai Khan. He attempted to escape capture but
was caught near the city of Herat and soon executed, allegedly
being boiled alive on Batu's orders.
During Töregene's regency, Barchuq's successor , who was either a
son or stepson of Al-Altan, had died of unknown causes. He was
replaced with a brother named , who was personally selected by
Töregene and remained extremely loyal to her and Güyük. Salindi
remained loyal to the Ögedeyids after the Toluid Revolution but was
eventually captured, tortured for a confession, and executed by his
brother , who replaced him as 'idiqut'.
Because of the taboo nature of her death and the possibility that
the Ögedeyids unlawfully interfered in the Uyghur administration,
numerous aspects of Al-Altan's life were censored in official
chronicles, such as the 'Secret History of the Mongols'. One
passage which described the inheritances of Genghis Khan's
daughters was excised from the 'Secret History'. This was likely
intended to obscure the injustice of the Ögedeyid actions in
encroaching on Uyghur territory. Persian sources such as the 'Jami
al-tawarikh', by the 14th-century historian Rashid al-Din, go
further by denying that she married Barchuq at all; they instead
provide contradictory statements. Suggestions that she married a
member of another tribe and then a Uyghur are unlikely, as if a
widow remarried, it was normally within her dead husband's tribe.
In other places, the Persian sources state that Barchuq and
Al-Altan were betrothed but did not marry before Genghis's death
because Barchuq had a cherished wife at home--Broadbridge notes
that the Mongols would have been deeply insulted. Rashid al-Din
then says that Al-Altan died when travelling to marry Barchuq
during Ögedei's reign, but later contradicts himself by
unintentionally revealing that Eljigidei killed her. Because of
these contradictions and improbabilities, Broadbridge considers the
Persian narratives untrustworthy.
See also
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*Women in the Mongol Empire
License
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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Altan
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