The Successors of Genghis Khan - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian ...

BEGINNING OF THE HISTORY OF MONGKE Q
should be present, and set him upon the throne of kingship.28 They
set out from Batu—
Glory and fortune on the right and victory and triumph on the left
—and encamped in jerge29 formation.
Sorqoqtani Beki began to win over kinsmen and relations with acts
of courtesy and attention and to invite them to the quriltai. Certain
princes of the family of Qa'an and Giiyiik Khan as well as Yesii-
Mongke and Biiri, the descendants of Chaghatai, spoke evasively and
postponed [a decision] on this matter on the pretext that the Khanate
ought to remain in the family of Qa'an and Giiyiik Khan. And again
and again they sent messengers to Batu to say: "We dissent from this
agreement and do not acquiesce in this covenant. The kingship belongs
to us. How canst thou give it to another?" Batu replied: "We
have planned this with the agreement of aqa and ini, and this matter
is now completed in such a manner that it is impossible to abrogate
it. And if the matter were not feasible in this way and if another than
Mongke Qa'an were to be nominated, the affairs of the Empire would
suffer harm to such an extent that it would be impossible to set things
to rights. If the princes ponder over this business and look at it with the
glance of farsightedness it will be clear to them that the interests of the
sons and grandsons of Qa'an have been respected, for the administration
of so vast an empire, which stretches from the East to the West, is
beyond the strength of children's arms." Amid such exchanges, the appointed
year came to an end and the next year was half over. With each
year, affairs of the world and the Empire became more desperate, and
because of the great distance between them there was no possibility of
mutual consultation. Mongke Qa'an and Sorqoqtani Beki continued
to send messages to each of [those princes] and to tread the pathway
of consideration and friendliness. But since their admonishments
and exhortations produced no effect upon them, they sent message
after message to them, now cajoling and now threatening them. They
continued to make excuses, [and they] repeated their arguments on
every occasion hoping that they might be restrained by kindness and
conciliation and aroused from the slumber of pride and negligence.
28Juvaini (HWC, p. 563) speaks of Berke and Toqa-Temiir only as representing
Batu at the quriltai, not as accompanying Mongke on his return journey.
29 See above, Section i, p. 36 and note 117.
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