Subodai Bahadur (1176-1248) was the son of a blacksmith of the Uriangqa-dai clan and had joined Temujin as a youth in 1190. By the age of 25 this large and imposing man had been appointed commander of cavalry. He was so large that the slight Mongol horses sometimes had problems carrying him, and he is recorded as being transported to battle in various forms of carriage. Subodai was utterly loyal to his master, and in mopping up operations before the great quriltai (assembly of leaders) of 1206, it was Subodai who pursued and terminally disposed of Kutu and Chila’un, sons of Chinggis’s archenemy, the defeated Merkit leader, Tokhto. Such service and loyalty was rewarded. Subodai was made commander of a tumen (10,000) in the devastating wars against Hsi Hsia in 1209.
Subodai’s most enduring claim to fame arose from his legendary reconnaissance trip around the Caspian Sea with his fellow general, Jebe Noyen. This trip, which ensured the pair’s place securely in the annals of military history, commenced when Jebe and Subodai abandoned the search for the dying Khwtirazmshiih in western Iran in 1221. On the island of Abaskun in the southeast corner of the Caspian Sea, Mohammad Khwarazmshiih was left to slowly die from his ills. He had brought terrible tragedy to his divided people and the people of western Asia, and he had opened the legendary gates of Iriinzamin (“the land of Iran”: “Greater Iran,” referring to those regions subject to Iranian cultural influence) to the mythical hordes of Tiiriin (“the land of the Tur”: “Central Asia,” the homeland of fierce rivals to the Iranians). Chinggis Khan had unleashed his armies to wreak vengeance-fed death and destruction on an unprecedented scale because the Khwarazmshtih had allowed, if not ordered, the unprovoked murder of a trade delegation composed mainly of Muslim merchants. In Bokhara, Chinggis Khan had addressed the assembled citizens to explain his presence: “I am the Punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you” (Juwayni 105). If this had been the verdict on the people of
Bokhara, there must have been countless other people in the environs of the Caspian Sea and the Qipchaq Steppes who thought those words should apply equally to them after being visited by the two noyens Subodai and Jebe.
Having given up the hunt for the Khwtirazmshiih, the two Mongol generals, with their armies, began their devastating journey, and their brief, bloody visits to the surrounding regions enshrine the reputation of the Mongols for barbarity and bloodletting for all time. Though the city of Tabriz managed to bribe the approaching army in time to avert catastrophe, other towns were not so fortunate, and the human wave of destruction engulfed them before they knew what was upon them. The Mongols swept through so quickly that the Georgian army under George IV was able to claim victory from their total defeat: After engaging the Mongol forces of 20,000 men and suffering calamitous defeat, the Caucasians fled in terror back to their capital, Tiflis, to await the inevitable siege. However, that siege never came; the Mongols merely continued on their way northward, the encounter being merely another skirmish for them on their circumnavigation of the Caspian. George IV, seeing the Mongols apparently in retreat, was able to convince himself that his decimated forces had in fact so impressed the invaders that they had fled rather than risk another encounter. There were few who believed his boasts.
The generals continued their unstoppable march north through the rugged Caucasus, cleaving asunder at Derbent the biblical barrier restraining Gog and Magog,30 and into the open plains beyond encountering and defeating Cuman Turks from the Qipchaq steppe lands and Rus armies from what is today Russia. In the Chronicle of Novgorod the impact of their coming in 1224 is poignantly expressed in the few startling words of an observer.
The same year, for our sins, an unknown tribe came, whom no one exactly knows, who they are, nor whence they came out, nor what their language is, nor of what race they are, nor what their faith is; but they call them Tartars. . . . God alone knows who they are and whence they came out.31
Their army was to meet up with the main Mongol armies in Khwarazm and leave it to others to consolidate their gains. In these two short years they had expanded the reach of the great khan’s writ as far as the borders of Eastern Europe and the heartlands of the Islamic world. The tales of horror, heroism, cunning, blood and gore, desperation, and bravery that have filled the pages of many chronicles in almost as many languages associated with this epic journey are too numerous to recount here. However, the famous battle of Kalka,32 fought on the river of the same name in the Crimea in 1223, deserves special mention. It was carried out with great tactical skill and classic Mongol cunning, and it left the alliance between the Qipchaq/Cuman/Polovtsian Turks and the Rus princes shattered and their armies routed. The victory feast was celebrated literally on top of the still-living bodies of the vanquished foes. After the remnants of the defeated Kievan army surrendered to the Mongols, a heavy wooden platform was placed on top of the bodies of the tightly bound Russian generals. As the joyful Mongol leaders celebrated their hard-won victory, their helpless foes slowly suffocated in a horrible death.
The Story of the coming of Jebe and Subeda’i to the province of Iraq and Azerbaijan and Aran and the killing and pillage in this land, and the passing from the road to Darband, Qipchag to Moghulistan.
When Sultan Jalal al-Din fled from Nishapur and turned his thoughts to for Ghaznin, Jebe and Subeda’i sent a messenger to Chinggis Khan to say, that Sultan Muhammad no no more and his son Jaldl al-Din had fled and was coming in that direction. “We are no longer worried about him, and in accordance with your command we will spend a year or two conquering as many lands that lie before us as we can and then we will be able to return via Derband, the Qipchaq Gates to the rendezvous point as commanded in Mongolia, God willing and through Chinggis Khan’s fortune. The authority of the Great God and the fortune of Chinggis Khan know that.” Thereafter he dispatched envoys for the purpose of taking care of necessary business, and since provinces had still not been secured, no fewer than three or four hundred envoys went. In short, when they began the conquest of Iraq (Persia), they first took Khwar and Simnan. From there they came to the city of Ray, where they killed and plundered. Then they went to Qum, the people of which were all killed and the children of which they took away into captivity. And from there they went to Hamadan. Sayyid Majd al-Din Ala’ al-dawla surrendered, sending tribute in steeds and garments and accepting to have a shahna. When they had heard that there was a large number of soldiers from the sultan’s army assembled in Sanjas under the leadership of Beg-Tegin Silahi and Kuch Buqa Khan, they headed for them and “nothinged” (nist gardanldan) or annihilated them. From there they came to Zanjan, where they massacred many times more than they had done in other regions. They returned to Qazwin where they engaged in a fierce battle with the Qazwinis and took the city by force. The Qazwinis, as was their wont, fought inside the city with knives until nearly fifty thousand men had been killed on both sides. They massacred and plundered throughout the land of Iraq [i. e., Persia].
When winter set in, they engaged in a great battle in the vicinity of Ray. At that time Chinggis Khan was in the Nakhshab and Termez area. That year the cold was extreme. They headed for Azerbaijan, any place they encountered a hindrance [godaz ‘gorge, ford’], they indulged in killing and looting in the customary manner, everywhere along the way. When they reached Tabriz, the governor, who was Atabeg Ozbeg, son of Jahan Pahl-avan, hid himself and sent someone to ask for a truce. He also sent much tribute and many animals. They turned back to spend the winter there under the truce before setting out for Arran on the road to Georgia.
Ten thousand Georgians faced them and engaged them in battle. The Georgians were defeated, and most were killed. Since most of the roads in Georgia were narrow and they foresaw difficulties in the hills, they turned back and headed for Maragheh. When they returned to Tabriz, the governor, Shams al-Din Tughra’i, sent out enough tribute to satisfy them, and they passed on. They laid siege to the city of Maragheh, and because at that time the ruler was a woman who ruled from Royin[diz], there was no one in the city who could offer resistance or think up a strategy. They therefore turned their hands to war. The Mongols put the Muslim prisoners out in front to attack the walls, and they killed anyone who turned back. They fought in this fashion for several days. In the end, they seized the city by force and put [both] high and low to death. Anything that could be easily carried they took away, and the rest they burned and smashed. Then they set out for Diyarbakr and Arbela, but when they heard the great fame of Muzaffar al-Din Kok-Bori’s army, they turned back. Because Jamiil al-Din Aybeh, one of the Khwtirazmshiih’s slaves, had stirred up sedition again with a group of people, killed the shahna of Hamadan, seized Ala’al-Dawla for having submitted, and imprisoned him in the castle of Girit, a dependency of Lur, they went again toward Hamadan. Although Jamiil al-Din Aybeh came forth to surrender, it did him no good. He and his nokers [‘vassals, lieutenants’] were martyred and the Mongols laid siege to the city and carried out a general massacre in Rajab 618 [August-September 1221].
After devastating Hamadan, they set out for Nakhichevan, which they captured and [in which] they massacred and looted. In the end Atabeg Khiimtish surrendered and they gave him a royal seal [“ al-tamqa ”] and a wooden paiza. From there they went to Arran. First they took Saraw [Saritb] and massacred and looted and [then] Ardabil in the same way. From there they went to the city of Baylaghan, which they took by storm, killing old and young [alike]. After that, they attacked Ganja, which was the greatest of the cities of Arran. They seized it and destroyed it too. From there they headed for Georgia, where the people had gathered an army and had prepared for battle. While they were facing off against each other, Jebe hid himself with five thousand soldiers in a secret recess, and Subeda’i advanced with the army. At the very beginning of the battle the Mongols retreated with the Georgians in pursuit. Jebe leapt from ambush and caught [the Georgians] in a trap. In an instant thirty thousand Georgians were killed. From there they headed for Derbent and Shirvan. Along the way they took the city of Shemakhi by siege, massacring the people and taking many captives. Since it was impossible to pass through Derbent, they sent a message to the Shirvanshah telling him to send representatives for peace talks. He dispatched ten of his nobles. The Mongols killed one of them and seized the others, saying, “If you show us the way through Der-bent, we will spare your lives; otherwise we will kill you too.” They guided them out of fear for their lives and [the Mongols] passed through.
When they reached the province of the Alans, there was a multitude of people there, and together with the Qipchaqs they engaged the Mongol army in battle and not one [managed to] escape. Afterwards the Mongols sent a message to the Qipchaqs, saying, “We and you are one tribe and of one sort. The Alans are aliens to us. We have made a pact with you not to harm one another. We will give you whatever gold and vestments you want. Leave them with us.” And they dispatched a large quantity of goods.
The Qipchaqs turned back, and the Mongols achieved victory over the Alans, exerting themselves as much as they could in massacring and looting. The Qipchaqs, in hopes of peace, dispersed in safety in their own territory. Suddenly without warning the Mongols attacked them and killed everyone they found, taking double that which they had given [the Qipchaqs] before turning back. Some of the Qipchaqs who remained fled to the lands of the Rus. The Mongols wintered in that area, which was all pasture lands.
From there they went to the city of Sudaq on the coast of the sea that is connected to the Gulf of Constantinople. They took that city, and the people scattered. After that, they resolved to attack the towns of the Rus and the Qipchaqs who had gone there. They [the Rus and Qipchaqs] got ready and assembled a large army, and when the Mongols saw the formidable size they retreated.
The Qipchaqs and Rus thought they were retreating out of fear and pursued them at a distance of twelve-days. Then, without warning, the Mongols turned around and attacked them, and before they could regroup many were killed. They fought for a week, and in the end the Qip-chaqs and Rus were routed. The Mongols went in pursuit and destroyed their towns. A great deal of their province was emptied of human beings. From there they traveled until they rejoined Chinggis Khan, who had returned from the province of the Tajiks.33
Subodai continued a celebrated military career, and his descendants added to his illustrious legacy. His last campaign was in Hungary, where he decimated the Hungarian troops after luring the already-defeated army into a trap that enabled the Mongol archers to pick off the fleeing enemy one by one. Reports claim that bodies littered the region for a distance of two days’ march. By late 1241, Subodai was discussing plans with his generals for the invasion of Austria, Italy, and Germany. It was the death of the Great Khan Ogodei and the subsequent recall of all the leaders of the clans to Qaraqorum that saved Europe from the “Tatar yoke.”
Subodai was dead by 1248, but his progeny continued in his military footsteps. His son, Uriyangkhadai, led Mongol armies into the jungles of what is today north Vietnam, while his grandson Bayan earned a reputation of which his grandfather would have been proud. He is credited with finally defeating the Sung armies of southern China in 1276.
A record exists of Chinggis Khan’s last years due to his insistence on finding the elixir of life. He had heard tell of a certain holy man from the east who possessed the secret of eternal life, and the great khan duly summoned the great man, Ch’ang Ch’un, a Taoist sage. Ch’ang Ch’un explained that he knew the secret of eternal spiritual life but not of eternal earthly life, and Chinggis eventually became reconciled to that. A disciple of Ch’ang Ch’un recorded a diary of their journey across Asia and Turkestan to meet Chinggis Khan and has left a chronicle of life in those lands recently conquered by the Mongols and accounts of their meetings with the great khan.
Chinggis was determined he would return to Mongolia before meeting his fate, but before his end he wished to take final revenge upon the Tanguts of Hsi Hsia, the first people outside of the steppe that he had conquered 20 years previously. The Tanguts had failed to send him reinforcements to help him with his campaigns in the west, and for this perceived treachery he was determined to exterminate them. It has been said that the Mongols’ actions were the first recorded act of deliberate genocide in recorded history; there no longer remains any trace of Tangut history in the region today. Chinggis Khan died in 1227 after a fall from a horse before he was actually able to personally kill the ruler of the Tanguts, though someone else murdered him shortly after. Chinggis Khan’s burial site was a closely guarded secret, and it has never been found. Rashid al-Din claims that all those involved in the actual burial were subsequently killed to preserve the secrecy of the site, but this story is not repeated elsewhere.
There may be another explanation for the disappearance of the Tanguts. Many of the peoples of the steppe gladly joined the Mongol army, and just as the various Turco-Mongol tribes were absorbed into the Mongol supra-tribe, so too were these other ethnic groups absorbed into those people who went under the banner of the Mongols.
Now it has come about that the people of the Khitfii, Jurchen, Nankiyas (S. China), Uyghur, Qipchaq, Turkoman, Qarluq, Qalaj, and all the prisoners and Tajik races that have been brought up among the Mongols, are also called Mongols. All the assemblage takes pride in calling itself Mongol.34
World History
