Muqali

Muqali, third son of Gü'ün U'a, was born into the 'White' clan of the Jalair tribe, who had been the hereditary serfs of the Borjigin Mongols. Originally associated with the Jurkin branch of the Borjigin, Muqali's father and uncles pledged allegiance to Temujin (Genghis Khan's original name) when he defeated the Jurkin in 1197. Gü'ün U'a offered his son Muqali to Temujin as a personal slave (emčü bo'ol).de Rachewiltz, I. (ed.) (1993) In the Service of the Khan, Harrassowitz Verlag, Weisbaden Several servants of Genghis Khan would be later appointed to prominent positions in his army, such as Jelme, who was promised as a slave to Genghis as an infant, and later rose to the position of captain of a Mingghan. During his time spent as Genghis Khan's servant, he and Genghis Khan presumably became very close.{{cite book|last=Hope|first=Michael|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vuIoDQAAQBAJ|title=Power, Politics, and Tradition in the Mongol Empire and the Īlkhānate of Iran|page=36|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=9780191081071}} This intimacy would result in him becoming one of Genghis' closest advisors.

During the coronation of Genghis Khan in 1206, the latter recalled Muqali's support, and he was rewarded with the command of the third tumen and control over the eastern mingghans. He played a prominent role in the following campaign against Jin, including in the 1211 Battle of Yehuling, the decisive battle in the first stage of the Mongol conquest of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in northern China.

After Genghis Khan decided to go to war with the Khwarazmian Empire, he left Muqali in control of Northern China as viceroy, and gave him the title of gui ong or kuo-wang,{{cite book|last=Broadbridge|first=Anne F.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vuIoDQAAQBAJ|title=Women and the Making of the Mongol Empire|page=153|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2018|isbn=9781108636629}} a title not given to any other in Genghis Khan's army,{{cite web|title=Muqali - Mongolian general|last=|first=|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muqali|publisher=Britannica|access-date=17 May 2021|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210517202815/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muqali|archive-date=17 May 2021}} and the title of taishi, a Chinese title also used by the Mongols.{{cite book|last=Buell|first=Paul D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4gB9DQAAQBAJ|title=Women and the Making of the Mongol Empire|pages=8–9|publisher=ABC-Clio|year=2016|isbn=9781610693400}} Muqali also set up a Chinese-style court protocol and wore Chinese-style imperial robes.{{cite book |last1=Denis C. Twitchett, Herbert Franke, John King Fairbank |title=The Cambridge History of China: Volume 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368 |date=1978 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521243315 |page=362}} Despite Genghis Khan having taken most of the main Mongol forces away and being sent to the West, Muqali was able to subdue most of northern China with his small force of around 20,000 Mongols, although some historians give figures of between 40,000 and 70,000{{cite book|last=McLynn|first=Frank|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1yv3BgAAQBAJ|title=Genghis Khan The Man Who Conquered the World|page=|publisher=Random House|year=2015|isbn=9781446449295}} men to account for his foreign auxiliaries.

In 1217, Muqali attacked modern-day Hebei Province, northern Shandong Province, and northern Shaanxi Province, controlled by the Jin dynasty. This was an important agricultural area, which Muqali had largely subdued by 1219. In 1220, Muqali turned his attention to the rest of Shandong Province, conquering part of it;{{cite book |editor=John Gillingham, John Lazenby |editor2=Peter Connolly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLYoDAAAQBAJ|title=The Hutchinson Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Warfare|page=222|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2016|isbn=9781135936747}} four towns were captured, but the hard-pressed Jin forces managed to hold on elsewhere in the province. After suffering a number of devastating defeats by Muqali in the field, the Jin learned that they could only hope to resist him by holding their cities and outlasting Muqali's staying power.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

Muqali's last campaign was in the 1220s. He crossed the Ordos in mid-1221, spending the rest of the year conquering major cities in northern and central Shaanxi.{{cite book |editor=Herbert Franke |editor2=Denis C. Twitchett |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iN9Tdfdap5MC|title=The Cambridge History of China: Volume 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368|page=36|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1978|isbn=9780521243315}} He crossed the Yellow River into Shaanxi, first conquering, in November 1221, the strategic Jiazhou.{{cite book|last1=de Rachewiltz|first1=Igor|last2=Wang|first2=May|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kG45gi7E3hsC|title=In the Service of the Khan Eminent Personalities of the Early Mongol-Yüan Period (1200-1300)|page=7|publisher=Harrassowitz|year=1993|isbn=}} Then, in the following months, he conquered the major Jin strongholds in northern and western Shaanxi. Crossing again the Yellow river on ice from the operational area near the Luo River in the Spring of 1222, he recaptured many towns in Shanxi, including Xizhou and Daizhou. He then left Mönggü Buqa (Bukha) in charge in Shaanxi and Gansu, and moved with the main army to Yuzhou, from thence to Jizhou, conquering all the Jin strongholds in the valley of the Fen River. He then took the strategic Hezhong at the end of 1222, conquering the major cities along the river. However, the cities of Jingzhao and Fengxiang resisted.

As he was consolidating his position on both sides of the Yellow River, he became seriously ill and died in the Spring on 1223, at 53 years of age. On his deathbed, Muqali declared with pride that he had never been defeated. By the time of Ogedei's ascension in 1229, however, the Mongol detachments in China had suffered numerous setbacks, which led to a mini-revival of Jin fortunes until Subutai and Tolui were dispatched with the main Mongol army in 1232.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

He was described by Chao Hang as a very tall man with a dark complexion and wavy whiskers, who was "generous and fond of conviviality, and amusing episodes about him have been preserved in the Sung envoy's account".

His chief wife's name was Lai-am (Naiman/Buqalun). He had eight other wives, four Mongols and four Jurchen. After his death, Genghis Khan gave command to Muqali's son, {{ill|Bo’ol|zh|孛鲁|ja|ボオル}}, who had seven sons: {{ill|Taš of Jalair|zh|塔思|ja|タシュ}}, {{ill|Süγunčaq|zh|速渾察|ja|スグンチャク}}, {{ill|Ba’atul noyan|ja|バアトル (ジャライル部)}}, Bai Inal, Emegen, Ebügen, and Arkis. Tas (also called Čalawun) was Muqali's favorite grandson, and the title of gui ong passed to him. Like Muqali, Bo'ol also recommended or appointed Chinese officials to high posts; these officials continued Chinese cultural, bureaucratic or ritual practices, employed former Jin officials and provided traditional Confucian education.{{cite book |last1=John D. Langlois Jr |title=China Under Mongol Rule |date=2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9781400854097 |page=458}} Although the gui ong title passed to his descendants, his autonomous command and civil authority in North China was broken up. Subsequently the gui ong and his family (Qurumchi and Nayan) became increasingly "civil" (as opposed to martial) or Confucianised in their behaviour and were sidelined during the reign of Mongke Khan; later the family joined the Confucianizing party of Kublai Khan.{{cite journal |last1=Christopher P. Atwood |title=The Date of the ‘Secret History of the Mongols’ Reconsidered |journal=Journal of Song-Yuan Studies |date=2007 |volume=37 |pages=7–8, 16–17}}

He received many posthumous honours, since as early as the 1320s. After his death, descendants of Muqali served the Great Khan of the Mongols, especially those of the Toluid lineage: prominent among these were Dorjeban and {{ill|Dorǰi|zh|朵儿只 (札剌亦儿人)|ja|ドルジ (ジャライル部)}}. A few of his descendants, such as Antong and {{ill|Baiǰu|zh|拜住 (元英宗)|ja|バイジュ (ジャライル部)}}, later became prominent officials in the Confucian fashion of the Yuan dynasty founded by Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan. Members of Muqali's Jalair tribe, as retainers of the Toluid Hulagu, participated in the conquest of Persia, then called Mollai, and later founded the Jalayirid Dynasty which ruled from Baghdad after the collapse of the Hulaguid Ilkhanate. Another descendant, Naγaču, survived the collapse of the Yuan and maintained his power under the Ming dynasty.Louis Hambis (1954). Le chapitre CVIII du Yuan che : les fiefs attribués aux membres de la famille impériale et aux ministres de la cour mongole d'après l'histoire chinoise officielle de la dynastie mongole. Monographies du Tʿoung pao, v. 3. Tableau5,généalogie de muqali

Muqali is considered a superb leader, and one of the "very few men who could exert a real influence on Genghis Khan's decisions". In seven years of campaigning in northern China, he had reduced the Jin dynasty's territories to only Henan Province. A statue of Muqali, together with Bo'orchu, flanks the statue of Genghis Khan in Sükhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar.{{cite book |last=May |first=Timothy |date=2008 |title=Culture and Customs of Mongolia |series=Culture and Customs of Asia |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=978-0-3133-3983-7 |location=Westport, Connecticut |page=137}}

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Category:1170 births

Category:1223 deaths

Category:13th-century monarchs in Asia

Category:Generals of the Mongol Empire