«Тахиййат»: Сборник статей в честь Н. Н. Дьякова

Mongol Warfare and the Creation of the Mongol Empire m 159 n anda, sworn brothers 1 , and they now renewed their oaths and friendship 2 . It was an arrangement fortunate for Temüchin, and eventually disastrous for Jamuqa and Toghrul Qan. In Jamuqa’s entourage, Temüchin met Mongols drawn from many clan and tribal backgrounds. During the year and a half that Temüchin camped and traveled with Jamuqa, he impressed them as a potential leader of consequence 3 , so much so that when a cryptic comment by Jamuqa alarmed Börte and persuaded Temüchin to leave Jamuqa in camp and march on through the night, the next morning Temüchin found that many from Jamuqa’s following had followed him 4 . He now led a tribe that was to turn him into Chinggis Qan 5 . The Mongols, internally divided, externally threatened, and poorly led, badly needed a “real” qan. Their recent chiefs had been failures. The unlucky Ambaghai was captured by Tatars, “renditioned” to, and executed by, the Jin/ Jurchens. The Mongols then elected the incompetent Qutula, who lost thir- teen battles against the Tatars 6 . Jamuqa appears to have had pretensions, but Temüchin offered what the Mongols decided, after long struggles, was be a better choice. The horse felt the rider’s thigh. When, by dint of personality, hard fighting, and luck, Temüchin was poised to unify (outer) Mongolia, he tried to co-opt the remaining independent chiefs, of the Naimans and Merkits — and, abroad, to attract the “Muslims” (not fur- ther specified: the Mongols were not yet in close touch with Muslim pow- ers) — with an offer, which begins: In Heaven there is only one eternal God; On earth there is only one lord, Chingis Chan. This is the word of the son of God 1 SH, § 116. 2 SH, § 117. 3 Barth, 82–4: 4 SH, § 118–120. See also Barth 45–46. 5 SH, § 118–120. Barth, 83–84: “Almost at every point of succession, and occasionally in between, there appear among the Basseri to have been periods of confusion, when several “chiefs” have ruled simultaneously and vied for control of the tribe ... the several chiefs with their entourages move independently in the tribe, and each assert their authority, without building up a following of supporters in the tribe proper. The tribesmen respect all members of the dynasty, and ... [i]n periods of rivalry, they merely obey the orders last received, or from whichever pretender is present. ... Through his stronger and more effective exercise of authority, one of the pretenders increasingly points himself out as the natural leader. In the words of the Basseri themselves, ‘the horse feels the rider’s thigh’...” See also Barth, 45–46. 6 In default of an effective chief’s designation of a successor, or the availability of a prom- ising rival candidate, nomad tribesmen tend to accept scions of proven past leaders. Descen- dant of the highest-value chief of all time, Chinggis Qan, ruled the Crimean fragment of his empire into the late eighteenth century.