Batu Khan
Báduˉ hán ᢨ䛑∫
c. 1205–1255—Conqueror of much of Eurasia;
Great Khan of the Golden Horde
Summary
Batu Khan, a grandson of Chinggis
(Genghis) Khan, led ruthless conquests
across Eurasia that allowed him to
•ᢨ䛑∫•
control a vast territory stretching from
present-day Kazakhstan to the Danube.
Batu’s army, “the Golden Horde,”
crushed resistance so thoroughly that
“No eye remained open to weep for the
dead.” Their use of fire-belching war
machines was the first recorded use of
gunpowder in Europe. Only the news of
the Great Khan Ögödei’s death in far-
away Karakorum saved Western Europe
from further destruction. Although his
joint reign (with Möngke) of the Mon-
gol Empire was without question brutal,
the empire connected East and West
through commerce, setting the stage for
China’s Yuan dynasty, which saw the
development of rich cultural diversity
and was a relatively peaceful period.
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Batu Khan on the throne, from
Rashid-al-Din’s History of the
World.
he Mongol ruler Batu (Báduˉ ᢨ䛑,
T sometimes given as Báduˉhán ᢨ䛑∫,
or Báduˉ kèhán ᢨ䛑ৃ∫), whose name
literally means “firm” in Mongolian,
was born circa 1205 and died in 1255.
He was the second son of Jochi (Zhúchì
ᴂ䌸) (1185–1225), himself the eldest
son of *Chinggis Khan ៤ঢ়ᗱ∫(1162–
1227; and often spelled Genghis Khan).
When Jochi died in 1227, Chinggis
made Batu, the younger of his grand-
sons, his successor, to inherit the lands
to the west, “as far in that direction as
the hoof of the Tartar horse had
penetrated.”
Batu was a major figure in the Mongol
world. He ruled the empire jointly with
Möngke (Měnggeˉ 㩭હ) (1209–1259), the
fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire,
from 1 July 1251 to 11 August 1259. In
*People marked with an asterisk have entries in this
dictionary.
 • Jurchen Jin Dynasty • 1115–1234 ce •
fact, at the time of Möngke’s accession to
the Great Khanate, Batu was a virtual
kingmaker.
Batu founded the Golden Horde
(Jıˉ nzhàng Hánguó 䞥Ꮴ∫೑) (1227–1255),
a sub-khanate and one of the successor
states of the Mongol Empire; the name
comes from the Mongolian word ordon
(palace). Under its auspices Batu launched
numerous campaigns against the medi-
eval powers of Poland, Kiev, Hungary,
and miscellaneous tribes of more loosely
organized peoples. As a result, he came to
rule over a vast territory which at its apex
stretched from today’s Kazakhstan to the
Danube. Batu’s rule corresponded with
the westernmost extension of the Mongol
Empire, which in 1242 reached the out-
skirts of Vienna.
Extremely violent and merciless,
Batu’s assault on Europe was unani-
mously described by the peoples con-
quered as an absolute disaster. In retro-
pect, however, scholars acknowledge
that the Mongol Empire at the time of his
rule connected East and West, facilitat-
ing commerce and administration across
Eurasia, and bringing a period of relat-
ive peace.
Background
After the collapse of the Táng ૤dynasty
(618–907 ce), anarchy was prevalent in
China. A number of ephemeral imperial
dynasties succeeded one another in
northern China, while southern China
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was broken up into several provincial
ruling houses. Eventually a great
national dynasty, the Sòng ᅟ dynasty
(960–1279  ce), ascended the imperial
throne. Batu lived during the Song, which
was later followed by the Yuán ‫ ܗ‬dynasty
(1271–1368 ce), the only dynasty estab-
lished by the Mongols and considered
both as a division of the Mongol Empire
and as an imperial dynasty of China.
During the twelfth century, after
fighting a long war against the Song
dynasty, a group called the Jurchens
(Nǚ zhwn ཇⳳ) captured Kaifeng from
the Song. From this time on, Song hege-
mony was confined to the area south
of the Yangzi (Chang) River, and the
dynasty became known as Southern
• Batu Khan •
Song. North of the river, the Jurchens
founded a new dynasty, the Jıˉ n 䞥
(1115–1234 ce). In northwest China,
however, there was another state called
the Western Xia, or Xıˉ Xià 㽓໣, ruled
by the Tangut (Dǎngxiàng ‫ܮ‬乍), a
north  Asian ethnic group most likely
related to Tibetans. Chinggis Khan
understood that Xi Xia had to be his
first objective because the Tangut could
threaten his flank when he moved
against the Jin. The battle against them
was the Mongols’ first victory against a
sedentary state.
The Mongol invasion of China lasted
over six decades and particularly involved
the defeat of the Jin dynasty, Western Xia,
the Dali Kingdom, and the Southern Song,
which finally fell in 1276. The Mongol-Jin
 • Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography • Volume 2 •
Dynasty War (Měng-Jıˉn zhànzheˉ ng 㩭䞥៬
ѝ) lasted over twenty-three years and the
Jin dynasty fell in the year 1234.
The Jin Empire had its capital at
Zhongdu, the site of present-day Beijing.
Previously named Yanjing, the town had
been a secondary capital of the Liáo 䖑
dynasty 916–1125) founded by the
Inner Mongolian Khitan (Qìdaˉ n༥Ѝ).
In 1153 the Jurchens renamed the city
Zhongdu, or “Central Capital.” In 1215
the Mongols besieged, sacked, and burnt
the city to the ground. An eyewitness
reported several months later that the
bones of the slaughtered formed white
mountains and that the soil was still
greasy with human fat. Later, in 1264, in
preparation for the conquest of all of
China to establish the Yuan dynasty,
•ᢨ䛑∫•
*Khubilai (Qubilai) Khan ᗑᖙ⚜∫ de-
cided to rebuild the city slightly north to
the center of the Jin capital, and in 1272,
he made it his capital, renaming it Dadu.
For the Mongols, this city was known
as Khanbalik (spelled as Cambaluc in
Marco Polo’s accounts). Prior to that date,
Karakorum (Kharkhorin in Mongolian),
had served as the capital of the empire.
When Dadu became the new capital,
Karakorum remained the administrative
center for Mongolia for a further hun-
dred years.
The Song was the first government
in world history to issue paper money,
and the first Chinese government to
establish a permanent standing navy.
Social life during the Song was vibrant
and cities had lively entertainment
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quarters. The spread of literature and
knowledge was enhanced by the earlier
invention of woodblock printing and the
eleventh-century invention of movable-
type printing. Premodern technology,
science, philosophy, mathematics, engi-
neering, and other intellectual pursuits
flourished over the course of the Song.
Philosophers such as Chéng Yí ⿟乤 and
*Zhuˉ Xıˉ ᴅ➍ reinvigorated Confucian-
ism (rúxué ‫ۦ‬ᄺ) with new commentary
infused with Buddhist ideals, and they
emphasized a new organization of clas-
sic texts that brought out the core doc-
trine of Neo-Confucianism.
The later part of the Song dynasty,
however, was dominated by war against
northern nomadic tribes. To repel the
Jurchens, and later the Mongols (Měnggǔ
㩭স), the Song developed revolutionary
new military technology supplemented
by the use of gunpowder. Gunpowder
would later be used by Batu’s army in
his campaigns against Europe.
The legacy of Chinggis Khan, partic-
ularly with regard to military organiza-
tion, had turned the Mongols from a
group of warring tribes into a successful
war machine. The army was organized
into arvans (interethnic groups of ten),
and the members of an arvan were loyal
to one another regardless of ethnic origin.
Ten arvans made a zuun, or a company;
ten zuuns made a myangan, or a battal-
ion; and ten myangans formed a tümen
(wànhùzhì ϛ᠋ࠊ), or an army of ten
thousand. Tümens were considered a
practical size, neither too small for an
 • Jurchen Jin Dynasty • 1115–1234 ce •
effective campaign nor too big for effi-
cient transport and supply. Indeed, this
decimal-system organization of Chinggis
Khan’s military would prove very effec-
tive in conquering, by persuasion or
force, the many tribes of the central
Asian steppe.
These troops were made especially
effective by a large supply of sturdy and
robust horses. Of smaller stature than
European horses, the Mongolian horses
were able to cover vast distances in dif-
ficult conditions and with very little
food. Such an advantage, combined with
expert archers capable of shooting
arrows while galloping at full speed,
meant that the Mongols were capable of
crushing the enemy despite being fre-
quently outnumbered.
By the time of his death, Chinggis’s
armies had conquered northern China,
part of Siberia, and Central Asia. His
successors were to continue his cam-
paigns, notably to Europe. Before he
died, Chinggis Khan prepared his suc-
cession and divided his patrimony
between the four sons borne to him by
his principal wife Börte Üjin (Bèi’értieˉ ᄯ
‫ܦ‬Ꮺ, c. 1162–1230): Jochi (Zhúchì ᴂ䌸,
c. 1180–1227), Chagatai (Chágětái ᆳড়ৄ,
c. 1185–1241/42), *Ögödei (Woˉkuòtái
ぱ䯨ৄ, c. 1186–1241), and Tolui (Tuoˉléi
ᢪ䳋, 1192–1232).
An assembly, or quriltai (kùlìtái dàhuì
ᑧ࡯ৄ໻Ӯ), was convened for the most
prominent Mongol nobles to elect the
new khan on the basis of collective judg-
ment that the candidate was the most
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talented or competent. Although Chinggis
Khan had designated Ögödei as his suc-
cessor and left him the territory of cen-
tral Siberia and eastern Xinjiang, it took
two years after the death of Chinggis
Khan before Ögödei assumed power as
new khan. In 1229, a compromise was
reached, which eventually resulted in
the first territorial division of the Mongol
domains. Following nomadic Mongolian
tradition, the youngest son, Tolui,
received northern China as well as the
home territory of Mongolia as ochigin,
“prince of the hearth,” while Chagatai
received Central Asia. The eldest son,
Jochi, was given the lands furthest away
from the homeland, in accordance with
nomadic Mongol tradition.
• Batu Khan •
Chinggis’s wife Börte had been
abducted by the Merged (Miè’érqı̌ 㫥‫ܓ‬
в) tribe and liberated shortly before giv-
ing birth to Jochi, a situation that caused
lingering uncertainty about whether
Chinggis was his real father. Nonethe-
less, Chinggis always accepted Jochi as
his first-born son. Jochi was thus favored
as rightful heir to the Mongolian empire,
but when Chinggis named Ögödei as his
rightful successor, Jochi rebelled against
his father. Chagatai and Ögödei were
sent against Jochi, who died in February
1227 before any physical hostilities
occurred, and only several months
before Chinggis died.
Because Jochi had passed away
before the death of his father, his appa-
nage was transmitted to his two sons,
Orda (Wò’érdaˉ ᭵‫ܓ‬ㄨ, c. 1204–1280) and
 • Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography • Volume 2 •
Batu. The traditional steppe nomad
practice of granting the grazing lands
furthest away from the home camp to
the eldest son was thus upheld, though
in this instance the pastures available
would prove to be unusually extensive.
Orda, the eldest, received western Siberia
from the River Irtysh to the River Ural,
and Batu, the second, was given the
territories west of there. The fact that the
territories given to Batu still remained to
be conquered reveals the supreme confi-
dence of the Mongols that he and his
generals and troops would prove equal
to the task.
The territories in question, geo-
graphically corresponding to western
Kazakhstan, southern Russia, and south-
ern Ukraine, had already been reconnoi-
•ᢨ䛑∫•
tered by the Mongols in 1223. But it was
not until 1238–1240 that Batu carried out
the real conquest, valiantly supported by
such commanders as *Subatai Ba’adur
(Sùbùtái 䗳ϡৄ; in Mongolian, Sübedei,
1176–1248). If Batu was nominally in
charge of the westward conquest, the
actual leader was in fact Subatai, then
around sixty years old. Subatai had been
the primary military strategist and gen-
eral of Chinggis Khan and Ögödei Khan.
He had directed more than twenty cam-
paigns in which he conquered thirty-two
nations and won sixty-five battles, and
during which he conquered or overran
more territory than any other com-
mander in history. He gained victory by
means of imaginative and sophisticated
strategies and routinely coordinated
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movements of armies that were hundreds
of kilometers away from each other. The
campaigns against Russia were extremely
successful, despite dissension and hos-
tilities between Batu and Tolui’s son
Möngke, on the one hand, and Ögödei’s
son Güyüg (Guìyóu 䌉⬅) (c. 1206–1248)
and Chagatai’s son Büri (Bùlı̌ ϡ䞠)
(d. 1252), on the other.
Moving Westward
As early as 1223, Subatai had led a recon-
naissance force of three tümens through
Qipchaq (Q ˉı nchá ℑᆳ) territory, a con-
federation of pastoralists and warriors
who occupied a vast territory in the
Eurasian steppe, stretching from north
of the Aral Sea westward to the region
north of the Black Sea (now in Ukraine
and southwestern Russia). The election
of Ögödei as Great Khan in 1235 led to
the decision to renew the war against
them and against the Russian principali-
ties that lay beyond. The year 1236 saw a
successful attack against the Volga
Bulghars (Fúěrjiaˉ Bǎojiaˉlìyà ӣᇨࡴֱࡴ
߽Ѯ), a historic Bulgar state that existed
between the seventh and thirteenth cen-
turies around the confluence of the Volga
and Kama rivers in today’s southern
Russia. The following year, the Qipchaqs
were conquered.
Crossing the Urals, Batu’s army
swept over the plains of southern Russia,
crushing resistance so mercilessly that,
as a Russian chronicler put it, “No eye
remained open to weep for the dead.” In
 • Jurchen Jin Dynasty • 1115–1234 ce •
November of the same year, the Mongols
launched an attack against the Russian
principalities. The fact that these territo-
ries were parceled into small principali-
ties and dukedoms made it easier for
Mongols to conquer them. Furthermore,
throughout the campaign Russians
princes showed neither unity of purpose
nor any sense of the enemy they were
facing. None of them surrendered to the
Mongols, and they frequently fled when
it became clear resistance was futile. The
main Mongol force, headed by the Jochid
princes Batu and Hordu—the future
great khans Güyüg and Möngke—and
several others, arrived at Ryazan’ in
December 1237. Once Ryazan’ refused to
surrender, the Mongols sacked it and
massacred the whole population. In Feb-
ruary 1238, Moscow, then a small town,
was sacked. Suzdal and Vladimir were
next. Vladimir in particular was the
scene of terrible events. The population
was massacred in the churches where
they had sought refuge. Other Mongo-
lian detachments attacked and sacked
Yaroslav and Tver’. It was only thanks to
the spring thaws that Novgorod man-
aged to escape the same fate.
The siege of Kiev, in December 1240,
represented the final blow in the Mongol
conquest of Russia. The entire Mongol
army camped outside the city, under
Batu’s command. Catapults were used
against the city and after eight days of
relentless bombardment the walls were
finally breached. The whole city was
destroyed and the population butchered.
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John of Plano Carpini (Bóláng jiaˉbıˉn ᶣ
䚢௝ᆒ) (1180–1252), one of the first
Europeans to enter the court of the
Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, vis-
ited the town in 1246. He described how
the entire countryside around the city
was littered with skulls and bones,
while the whole town was reduced to
rubble with scarcely two hundred
houses left standing.
Encounter with Europe
In 1241 the Mongols launched attacks
on both Poland and Hungary. A detach-
ment of Mongolian troops, under the
commandment of Baidar (Bàidaˉ’ér ᢰㄨ
‫ )ܓ‬and Qaidu (Hǎiduˉ ⍋䛑) (1230–1301)
• Batu Khan •
attacked Poland. In March, Krakow was
attacked and burnt. On 9 April, the town
of Legnica, in Silesia, southern Poland,
was raided. The town was the scene of
untold massacres: European chroniclers
recorded that the Mongols cut off an ear
from each slain soldier and sent them to
Batu Khan, filling nine sacks with the
grisly proof of victory. After Moravia,
that part of the troops joined the rest of
the Mongolian army, under Batu’s
command and Ögödei’s directions,
which gathered in Pest on 2–5 April.
On  7 April, greatly outnumbered, the
Mongolian troops feigned retreat,
thereby luring the Hungarian troops out
of the city. This was a common tactic of
the Mongols to achieve decisive victory:
they would lure the enemy away from
their base by a brief attack, followed by
 • Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography • Volume 2 •
a feigned retreat of several days’ dura-
tion. If the enemy followed, the Mongols,
after giving battle at a place of their own
choosing, were then able to wipe out the
defeated soldiers as they fled back to
their base. After two days of such pre-
tense, the Mongols camped at Muhi,
downstream from today’s Miskolc. The
battle that took place there on 11 April
1241 ended in total victory for the
Mongols over the Hungarian army, led
by King Béla IV (1235–1270). As the
Hungarian troops crowded together at
night in a laager (an encampment circled
by wagons), Batu and Subatai, Batu’s
primary military strategist and general,
encircled them.
Comparing the Hungarian troops to
sheep in a pen, Batu and Subatai attacked
•ᢨ䛑∫•
with giant catapults and fire-belching
war machines. It was the first recorded
use of gunpowder in Europe, and this
new weaponry contributed significantly
to the Mongols’ shock tactics and psy-
chological warfare. Eventually, the Mon-
golian army deliberately left their circle
open to allow Béla’s soldiers to escape.
As the whole Hungarian troops fled
westward, Mongolian soldiers hunted
them down as they ran. Despite some
heavy losses, the Mongols emerged suc-
cessful and crushed the Hungarian
armies. Batu’s share of the booty included
Béla’s magnificent golden tent. It became
the symbol of Batu’s prowess, and when
he eventually settled down in southern
Russia at Sarai, on the Caspian Sea, his
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Qipchaq-Mongol state was named the
Golden Horde after Béla’s golden tent.
If Batu went down in history as vic-
tor of the battle of Muhi, the real cham-
pion was his commander Subatai. In
fact, Batu was later criticized for the
irresolution he showed at Muhi, and he
also had to live down the embarrass-
ment of having struggled for two months
against the Russian town of Kozel’sk
which his cousins Qadan (Haˉdaˉn જЍ)
and Büri stormed in merely three days.
After the battle of Muhi, the Mongo-
lian troops continued their assault on
Hungary. They burnt Pest, where in
order to frighten into submission the
people living on the other side of
the  Danube, they heaped the bodies of
the butchered multitudes on the embank-
ment while others skewered little chil-
dren on their lances and carried them
along the dykes. In Esztergom, the
Mongols bombarded the city’s wooden
fortifications with thirty catapults to
make a breach, and filled in the ditch
using sacks of earth. When the city was
entered on Christmas Day 1241 the
inhabitants set fire to their own homes
and buried their valuables so that the
Mongols would not have them. Many
people were roasted over slow fires to
make them disclose where they had hid-
den their treasures.
In the ensuing months the whole
Hungarian population was subjected to
extreme violence. When a few months
later King Béla succeeded in returning to
 • Jurchen Jin Dynasty • 1115–1234 ce •
A fourteenth-century image of a young Batu Khan.
his country, he was met by scenes of
death and destruction of such vast pro-
portions that he despaired of his country.
In regions which previously had been
densely populated, he rode for days on
end without seeing a living soul. Every-
where he saw hideously mutilated and
half-decomposed bodies lying by the
thousands, slowly disposed of by packs
of wolves and other wild animals.
After Hungarian cities all fell one by
one, there were no more barriers
between the Mongols and Western
Europe. Batu’s army was poised to con-
tinue its assault on Europe when news
arrived of Ögödei’s death.
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Death of Ögödei and Return
to Mongolia
The news of Ögödei’s death reached
Batu at the end of June 1241. As Batu was
literally about to unleash his horsemen
for the final assault on Western Europe,
an imperial messenger arrived from
Karakorum, bringing the news from far
away that the Great Khan Ögödei had
died in December. Eager to compete for
the throne, he knew that his presence in
Karakorum was vital but, with the entire
European continent virtually within his
grasp, he hesitated. Having quarreled
with his cousins Güyüg and Büri during
the European campaign, he knew that he
could not afford to be away from Kara-
• Batu Khan •
korum if he was to stand a chance.
Güyüg and Möngke had already gone
back to Mongolia. The Yasaq, the body of
laws and practices decreed by Chinggis
Khan and his successors, which gradu-
ally came to form a sort of constitution of
the Mongol Empire, required that every
member of Chinggis’s clan must attend
the quriltai that elected the new Khan.
The importance of the quriltai unequivo-
cally trumped his quest for glory, and
Batu decided to interrupt his campaign.
The campaigns of 1236–1242 in-
creased significantly the territories of
the House of Jochi. As commander of
these campaigns, at least nominally, Batu
was the legitimate ruler of this vast
domain. Nevertheless, important tensions
between Güyüg and Batu had emerged
 • Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography • Volume 2 •
during the conquest of the Russian
principalities. Güyüg, the eldest son of
Ögödei, and Büri, Chagatai’s grandson,
were jealous of Batu’s prominence and
dissension rose in the Mongolian army.
As Batu and his commanders sat down
to enjoy a banquet after a victory against
a Russian principality, Batu took a drink
before the others. Güyüg and Büri
begrudged this and left the feast without
sharing it. As Büri rode away he is
reported to have said: “Batu is our equal,
how dared he drink first? He is just like
an old woman with a beard.” Möngke,
Tolui’s son, also left Batu’s army but he
remained in good terms with Batu, and
this friendship was to have significant
consequences for the history of the
Mongols.
•ᢨ䛑∫•
After Ögödei’s death in 1241, the
regency was entrusted to his widow,
Töregene Khatun (Zhaˉocí huánghòu
ᰁ᜜ⱛৢ), who ruled as regent until the
succession was settled in 1246. Eager to
have her son Güyüg elected as Great
Khan, she extended the regency period
for several years. Güyüg was elected
Khan in August 1246, but his reign was
to be short-lived. Early in 1248, Güyüg
started to move west, allegedly for
health reasons. But Sorghaghtani
(Suoˉlǔhétiění ૚剕⾒Ꮺሐ), Tolui’s wi-
dow, suspected his real intention was to
attack Batu, and she sent him a warn-
ing. This cemented the Jochid-Toluid
alliance against the Ögödei and Chagatai
lines. The showdown never happened,
since Güyüg died en route suddenly,
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possibly of poisoning. A number of his-
torians have disputed this, however,
some believing he died of natural
causes, and others believing he died a
result of a violent brawl. His widow
Oghul Qaimish (Qıˉnshuˉ huánghòu
ℑ⎥ⱛৢ) took over as regent but was
ultimately unable to keep the succes-
sion within her branch of the family.
After Güyüg’s death in April 1248, Batu
became the clear leader among the
Mongol princes, despite the gout that
kept him bedridden.
Möngke’s Reign
In July 1251 Batu called a quriltai in his
own territory in a place called Ala-
Qamaq, in the mountains south of the
Ili River. Sorghaghtani sent Möngke,
while other attendees included leaders
of the families of Chinggis Khan’s
brothers as well as several important
generals. Güyüg’s sons attended briefly
but then left, and the only remaining
representatives of the Ögödei and
Chagatai families were outsiders with
little influence in their families. The
quriltai rejected the idea that only des-
cendants of Ögödei could be khan and
first offered the throne to Batu. Reject-
ing it, Batu instead nominated Möngke.
Despite vehement objections from Oghul
Qaimish’s delegate, a Uygur scribe called
Bala, the quriltai approved Möngke.
One supporter of Möngke even threat-
ened to execute anyone who opposed
Batu’s choice.
 • Jurchen Jin Dynasty • 1115–1234 ce •
Undoubtedly this was nothing less
than a coup d’état, organized by Batu
(who himself declined election) in col-
laboration with the Toluids. An exten-
sive purge of the families of Ögödei and
Chagatai ensued, and from that date the
Great Khanate remained a perquisite of
the house of Tolui. All of Batu’s surviv-
ing tormentors, such as Yesü Möngke
(Yěsù Ménggeˉ г䗳㩭હ), son and first
successor of Chagatai, who had publicly
ridiculed his battlefield ineptitude, were
executed.
In return for his support of Möngke,
Batu was conceded virtual autonomy in
his own territory of the Golden Horde.
Möngke became Great Khan but Batu
remained in charge of the Golden Horde.
Moreover, as kingmaker and supporter
of Möngke, Batu enjoyed great prestige.
As quoted by William of Rubruck
(Lǔbùlǔqı̌ 剕ϡ剕в) (c. 1220–c. 1293), a
Flemish Franciscan missionary and
explorer, Möngke is reported saying,
“As the sun sends its rays everywhere,
likewise my sway and that of Batu reach
everywhere.”
A vast territory, the Golden Horde
stretched from the Irtysh in the east to
the Danube in the west. Jochi’s fourteen
sons divided the steppe into longitudi-
nal strips, nomadizing north to south
along the main rivers. Of all the succes-
sor states of the Mongol Empire, the
Golden Horde was the first territory to
emerge as a separate entity. The family’s
early separatist tendency reflected
Jochi’s alienation from his father,
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Chinggis Khan. Furthermore, Jochi’s son
and successor, Batu, was an immense
distance from Mongolia and his suffer-
ing from gout reinforced his reputation
as a coward. As a result, he preferred to
defend his autonomy rather than com-
pete for rule in Mongolia.
Batu is said to have had twenty-six
wives and four sons. Of the latter, two
were to play a historic role: Sartaq (Sǎlı̌daˉ
ᩦ䞠ㄨ) (d. 1256), who succeeded Batu as
Khan of the Golden Horde, and Toqoqan
(Tuˉhǎn ⾗㔩) (c. 1220–c. 1256), whose
son Möngke Timur (Mánggeˉ Tieˉ mù’ér
ᖭહᏪ᳼‫( )ܓ‬d. 1280), was khan of the
Golden Horde from 1267 to 1280. Both
Sartaq and his son Ulaghchi (Wuˉláheˉ ichì
Рࠠ咥䌸) (died 1257), Batu’s successors,
• Batu Khan •
died in quick succession, possibly
through poisoning, and were succeeded
by Batu’s brother Berke (Bié’érgeˉ ߿‫ܓ‬હ)
(d. 1266).
Batu is also credited with the founda-
tion of the town of Sarai (Sàlái 㧼㦅), on
the Volga, near today’s village of Selitren-
noye in Russia, about 120 kilometers
north of Astrakhan. Its construction did
not, however, imply that he took to a
settled existence or abandoned the char-
acteristic Mongol preference for living in
tents, or ger (sometimes called yurts; in
Chinese, měnggǔbaˉo 㩭সࣙ). Sarai was
the capital of the Golden Horde and was
a prosperous and cosmopolitan city. When
Ibn Batutta (Yıˉ běn Báitútài Ӟᴀⱑ೒⋄)
(1304–1368 or 1369), an Islamic scholar
and traveler, visited in 1323, numerous
ethnic groups resided in Sarai: Mongols,
 • Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography • Volume 2 •
Russians, Qipchaqs, Circassians, and
Greeks, as well as Egyptian, Iraqi,
Iranian, and Italian merchants. He noted
in particular the peaceful coexistence of
various religious practices. The capital
was later relocated to a second town of
Sarai, New Sarai (Xıˉn Sàlái ᮄ㧼㦅),
65 kilometers east of today’s Volgograd,
which flourished until 1395 when it was
sacked and effectively disappeared.
Batu’s Influence
Batu’s Mongol contemporaries praised
him as a just and sagacious ruler, bestow-
ing upon him the posthumous title of
Sayin Khan (i.e., the Good Khan).
According to Ala ad-Din Ata-Malik
Juvayni (1226–1283), a Persian historian
•ᢨ䛑∫•
who wrote an account of the Mongol
Empire, Batu did not subscribe to a par-
ticular faith or religion, but he recog-
nized a belief in God, namely Tengriism
(ténggélı̌ 㝒Ḑ䞠), the worship of the sky
traditionally practiced by Mongols. Not
all his contemporaries, however, saw
him in such a positive way, and because
of his performance at the Battle of Muhi
and especially at Kozel’sk, he earned the
reputation of coward among some of the
Mongol army commanders.
This contrasted drastically with the
perception Russians and other van-
quished peoples had of him. They unani-
mously viewed him as a cruel and
ruthless conqueror. In fact, because of his
campaigns, the Mongols were destined to
be a synonym of terror to most of the
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inhabitants of Eurasia for hundreds of
years. In Europe, they were also com-
monly known as Tartar, which was a
deformation of the ethnonym “Tatar,” a
group of Mongolized Turks, which re-
called for Europeans the name “Tartarus”
(i.e., the “hell” in Greek mythology).
Undoubtedly, the European experi-
ence of the Mongol army was traumatic.
In battles, Mongols showed no mercy,
massacring the whole population of any
town that had refused to submit to the
khan. Even after a victory, the Mongolian
army would frequently carry out whole-
sale massacre and indiscriminate destruc-
tion in order to ensure complete security.
As Chinggis Khan had warned, “when
the enemy is vanquished, it does not
mean that he is pacified.” Characteristi-
cally, the Mongols systematically devas-
tated vast tracts of land on the Hungarian
plains following their victory in Muhi
and Esztergom. China narrowly escaped
the same fate. When Chinggis’s gener-
als, not knowing what to do with the
vast urban population of conquered
China, decided to massacre them all,
obliterate their towns, and turn their
well-tended fields into grazing land for
the Mongol horses right down to the
Huang (Yellow) River, Yeˉlǜ Chǔcái 㘊ᕟ
Ἦᴤ, advisor and administrator during
the reign of Chinggis Khan and that of
his successor Ögödei, successfully con-
vinced the Khan that it was in his own
interest to use the industrious Chinese
as a source of regular tax revenue rather
than as fertilizer.
 • Jurchen Jin Dynasty • 1115–1234 ce •

Pax Mongolica persecution, complete freedom of reli-

gion reigned in the Golden Horde and
If, undeniably, the Mongol assaults on
the rest of the Mongol Empire.
Eurasia were extremely destructive, later
In China as well, initial negative
generations of historians have sought to
evaluations were later reassessed. Genghis
highlight its more beneficial outcomes.
Khan and his successors are recognized
The conquests of Chinggis Khan and his
by a number of twenty-first century
successors effectively connected the East-
scholars as Chinese heroes who con-
ern world with the Western world, ruling
quered Europe and unified China by
a territory from Korea to Eastern Europe
founding a new dynasty In 1272 Khubilai
and Siberia to Southeast Asia. The Silk
Khan (23 September 1215—18 February
Roads, linking trade centers across Asia
1294), the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol
and Europe, came under the sole rule of
Empire from 1260 to 1294, issued an
the Mongol Empire. That “a maiden
edict posthumously pronouncing his
bearing a nugget of gold on her head
grandfather Chinggis Khan founder, or
could wander safely throughout the
Tàizǔ ໾⼪, of the new dynasty which he
realm” was a common aphorism of the
called “Yuán” ‫( ܗ‬i.e., “the origin”). The
time. In fact, the phrase “Pax Mongolica”
title is said to have been suggested to

• Batu Khan •
was coined by Western scholars to
Khubilai by his Chinese advisor Liú
describe the stabilizing effects of the con-
Bıı̆ ngzhoˉng ߬⾝ᖴ (1216–1274), and it
quests of the Mongol Empire on the
marked a departure from Chinese prec-
social, cultural, and economic life of the
edent in that previous dynastic titles had
inhabitants of the vast Eurasian territory
tended to have a geographical deriva-
that the Mongols conquered in the thir-
tion, referring to the dynasty’s own place
teenth and fourteenth centuries. The
of origin. As in the rest of the Eurasian
term is used to describe the eased com-
landmass, the process of unification ini-
munication and commerce the unified
tiated by the Mongols brought peace in
administration helped to create, and the
China, and led to the fostering of com-
period of relative peace that followed
mercial and cultural contacts with
the Mongol’s vast conquests. The Mon-
Europe and the Islamic world. As a
gols are also credited with setting up a
result, the Yuan dynasty witnessed the
postal system and stimulating cultural
development of a rich cultural diversity,
exchanges throughout Eurasia and
notably the development of drama and
beyond. Furthermore, if the period of the
the novel, as well as an increased use of
Mongol conquests had been merciless
the written vernacular.
and brutal, the Mongol Empire itself was
comparatively tolerant and liberal. While Franck BILLÉ
Europe was in the throes of religious University of Cambridge

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 • Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography • Volume 2 •

Further Reading Khrustalëv, D. G. (2008). Rus’ ot nashestvia do “iga”

Allsen, Thomas T. (2001). Culture and conquest in
Mongol Eurasia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.
[Rus’ from the invasion to the “yoke”]. Saint
Petersburg: Evrazia.
Morgan, David. (1986). The Mongols. Oxford, UK:
Blackwell.

Atwood, Christopher P. (2004). Encyclopedia of Ronay, Gabriel. (2000). The Tartar Khan’s
Mongolia and the Mongol Empire. New York: Facts Englishman. London: Phoenix Press.
On File, Inc. Soucek, Svatopluk. (2000). A history of Inner Asia.
Grousset, René. (1941). Histoire de l’Asie. Que Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
sais-je? Série [Asian history. What do I know?
Series]. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
•ᢨ䛑∫•

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