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

BEGINNING OF THE HISTORY OF MONGKE QA AN
KuregenI03 of the Qpnqirat; Derekei Kiiregen of the Ikires people;
Kehetei and Bujir104 of the Uru'ut; [and] Mongke-Qalja and Chaghan
Noyan of the Mangqut.
All these tribes, [which made up] the Mongol army, now set out
upon the campaign. Those who belonged to the right hand, along
with the Jauqut, accompanied Mongke Qa'an. The sum total of those
two bodies was 60 lumens. The Jauqut consist of [the people of] Khitai,
Tangqut, Jiirche, and Solangqa, which regions are called Jauqut
by the Mongols.105 The armies of the left hand he dispatched, under
the aforementioned Taghachar, by another route. Their sum total
was 30 lumens, and their leader [was] the aforesaid Taghachar. In
that council Bilgiitei Noyan said: "Qubilai Qa'an has already carried
out one campaign and performed his task. Now he is suffering from
gout.106 If it be so ordered, let him go home." Mongke Qa'an approved
of this. Bilgiitei Noyan was a hundred and ten years old, and he died
that year.107
In the luyil,s corresponding to Muharram of the year 654 [January
-February, 1256], they set out, Mongke Qa'an and Kokechii, the son of
Siibetei Bahadur, being of the right flank, with 10 lumens. That summer
Mongke Qa'an arrived on the frontiers of Tangqut and Nangiyas and
he passed the summer in a place called Liu Pan Shan.109 It was in
this place that Chingiz-Khan was taken ill and died when he arrived
there upon his way to Khitai. In the autumn he set out for Yesiin
Qahalqa,110 which is on the frontier of Nangiyas, and captured twenty
103 He was the son of Alchi Noyan. Neither he nor Derekei is mentioned in Verkhovsky's
text.
104 On Bujir, see Campagnes, pp. 5—7.
105 On the term Jauqut, see Polo I, pp. 227-29.
106 Dard-ipdi.
107 Belgiitei, Genghis Khan's half brother, born ca. i: 72, would, in fact, have been
only eighty-six years old in 1258. See Campagnes, p. 186.
108 The Year of the Dragon: T. lu, "dragon." Apparently 1258 (a Year of the Horse)
is meant.
109 The Liupan or Lung Shan mountains in Kansu.
110 In Mongol, "Nine Gates (Passes)." In a letter dated the igth April, 1968,
Dr. Igor de Rachewiltz writes: "This name is briefly mentioned by Pelliot, Motes on
Marco Polo, I, 327, but no identification is suggested. We know that Mongke, after
spending most of the month of May 1258 at Liu-p'an shan in Kansu, divided his
forces into three armies which invaded Szechwan from different directions. The army
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