The Secret History of the Mongol Queens

“It is told” W. M. Thackson, trans., Mirza Haydar Dughlat’s Tarikh-I-Rashide: A History of the Khans of Moghulistan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1996).

important titles Frederick W. Mote, “The T’u-mu Incident of 1449,” Chinese Ways in Warfare, edited by Frank A. Kierman Jr. and John K. Fairbank (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974).

“If it is a girl… It is a girl.” Altan Tobŭi § 95.

“Do you already begin to fear” Henry H. Howorth, History of the Mongols from the 9th to the 19th Century (London: Longmans, Green, 1876).

“dragged his body up into a tree” Ibid. The killing of Esen was placed in the year 1452 in Erdeni-yin Tobŭi, but in 1454 in the Ming records.

CHAPTER 8

Beg-Arslan was also known as Begerisün, Birirsen, Begersen, Begersün, Bigirsen, and Pai-chia-ssu-lan.

He “stayed absent from” her Charles Bawden, trans., The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobŭi (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1955), § 93.

“elder brother” Altan Tobŭi, § 85.

deel embroidered with gold Ibid., § 100.

“If I receive” Igor de Rachewiltz, trans., The Secret History of the Mongols (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2004), § 238.

“In the blue sky” Quote adapted from the translation of Gombojab Hangin, “The Mongolian Titles Jinong and Sigejin,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 100 (1980): 256.

“in peace and harmony” Erdeni-yin Tobci as compiled by Isaac Jacob Schmidt in Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen und ihres Fürstenhauses, verfasst von Ssanang Ssetsen Chungtaidschi der Ordus (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1829).

“They declared themselves sworn friends and loved each other” Secret History, § 117.

disguised as Mongol bandits Frederick W. Mote, “The Ch’eng-hua and Hung-chih Reigns, 1465–1505,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 7, The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part I, edited by Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

CHAPTER 9

“They marry by succession their stepmothers” Henry Serruys, The Mongols and Ming China: Customs and History (London: Variourum Reprints, 1987).

“The houses of the Tartars” Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1910).

female in-law had a senior position Lawrence Krader, Social Organization of the Mongol-Turkic Pastoral Nomads (Blooming-ton: Indiana University Press, 1963).

Ismayil confronted the Great Khan Erdeni-yin Tobci.

“I myself am not in good health … the khan becameenraged” Charles Bawden, trans., The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobŭi (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1955), § 98.

Jamuka Igor de Rachewiltz, trans., The Secret History of the Mongols (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2004), § 201.

“Have I enmity towards your kin?” Altan Tobŭi, § 98.

the prince began to style himself as the Great Khan Chinese reports assert that Bayan Mongke claimed the title of Bayan Mongke Khan this time rather than Bolkhu Jinong, but few people recognized the young man’s change of title. According to the Erdeni-yin Tobci, he held the title for two years, but Mongolian lists of Great Khans rarely include his name.

that he might escape Altan Tobŭi, §§ 99–100.

“I will not go to you” … “the right to speak to me this way” Altan Tobŭi, § 102.

PART III

CHAPTER 10

sickness Charles Bawden, trans., The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobŭi (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1955), § 101; hunchback-like growth: Erdeni-yin Tobci.