The Mongols did not immediately settle and dominate the territory now known as the Mongolian Plateau. Their historical predecessors, the Xianbei and Rouran, lived to the east and south of it, closer to China, the Manchus, and the Tibetans. At that time, the region was almost entirely occupied by the Turks, whose khaganates replaced one another: the Turkic, Second Turkic, Uyghur, Kyrgyz…
But in 839, a harsh winter struck the highlands, and famine began. The Kyrgyz, who had been waging a difficult twenty-year war against the Uyghurs, were able to deal a decisive blow to their enemy. The defeated were forced to flee and went to the Tarim Basin. For a number of reasons, the victors did not settle in the deserted area.
Then Mongol clans began to migrate here, acting under the leadership of the Khitan Liao Empire, which arose in the north of China. The northernmost regions of Mongolia enjoyed relative freedom. And on the basis of the Shivei Mongols, who had previously lived on the borders of Manchuria, new political alliances began to form.
At first, these people called themselves Tatars, after the name of the largest and most powerful tribal confederation. But then the Borjigin clan emerged among the Shivei, which, according to legend, descended from the divine union of a gray wolf and a beautiful doe. At the end of the 11th century, it was led by a man named Haidu, the great-great-grandfather of Genghis Khan. He was the first person to lead all (or most) of the indigenous Mongolian clans.
His story begins like this. Haidu was born between 1025 and 1040 into a noble family, but his father died early. Then the Borjigin clan was headed by Munolun, the mother of our hero. All eight of her sons were married to girls from noble clans. Seven of the older sons lived with her, while the youngest, Haidu, lived with the family of his future wife. This was an ancient Mongol custom, and the ten-year-old Temujin would also be left with his father-in-law’s family in due course.
The Mongolian steppes were then under the suzerainty of the Khitan kingdom of Liao. But it was not easy to control the northernmost territories. And when the Jurchen, ancestors of the Manchus, attacked the Mongolian tribe of the Jalairs in 1050, their supreme rulers ignored it.
During the raid, the Jalairs lost their livestock and were forced to flee to Northern Mongolia, to the upper reaches of the Onon River, where the Borjigin clan’s nomadic camps were located. They suffered terrible hunger and were forced to dig up the roots of the sudu plant (medicinal bloodroot), which until recently was sometimes eaten in Mongolia and Siberia.
As a result, the family pastures of Munolun’s sons were dug up and full of holes. When the woman began to reproach them for this, they sent her to the other world, and then, fearing revenge, got rid of all her sons. Only the young Haidu was hidden by relatives, and then his uncle took him in and raised him.
When the young man came of age, the Borjigins recognized him as their leader, since no other members of the ruling clan were left alive. His first act was to defeat the foreigners, and the Jalairi received the status of otagimi—that is, they became vassals, formally even slaves.
Despite being a strong and large clan, they subsequently remained submissive and stood by their suzerains. This tribe submitted to Genghis Khan even before he founded the Mongol Empire, and its representative, Mukhali, became one of his comrades-in-arms and commander of the conquest of Northern China.
After this resounding victory, other tribes followed Haidu, with the exception of his own clan. At the end of his life, in addition to the Borjigit and Jala’ir tribes, four other large Mongol clans were subordinate to him. Thus, he is rightly considered the first Khan of the Mongols, who laid the foundation for the creation of a unified empire. He is remembered by his people precisely in this capacity.
After the khan’s death in 1100, the subordinate tribes were divided among his sons. A few decades later, his eldest grandson, Tumbinai, was the supreme leader of 29 large and small tribes. Despite this, Mongolia still submitted to the Liao state and paid tribute to its emperor.