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

THE SUCCESSORS OF GENGHIS KHAN
Ibaqa Beki used every year, on the advice of Sorqoqtani Beki, to
come from Khitai, where her yurt was, to attend [on Qa'an], and
arrange a banquet in which she would hold his cup. In the thirteenth
year from his accession she came as usual and, together with her
son, who was the ba'urchi, she acted as his cupbearer. In the night
Qa'an died in his sleep from excess of drink, and in the morning the
princesses and the emirs raised an accusation against Ibaqa and her
son saying that they had been the cupbearers and so must have poisoned
Qa'an. But Elchidei Noyan, who was a foster brother [of Qa'an]
and an important emir of the Jalayir tribe, said: "What foolish words
are these ? Ibaqa Beki's son was the ba'urchi who always held the cup,
and Qa'an was constantly drinking to excess. Why should we slander
Qa'an by saying that he died at the hands of others ? His appointed
time had come. No one must repeat these words." Being a sensible
man he realized that the cause of his death was excessive and habitual
drinking; he realized also that excessive drinking has such injurious
consequences.293
According to the Mongols, Qa'an ascended the throne in a huker
jyz/294 and died in the next huker y'il, corresponding to the months of
the year 638/1240-1241, being the thirteenth year [of his reign].29*
But in the history of Master 'Ala ad-Din Sahib,296 it is stated that he
died in the Year of the Leopard, corresponding to the 5th Jumada
I, 639/nth December, i24i.297 Ogetei Qa'an had a physician called
293 Some garbled version of this story must be the basis of Carpini's statement (Rockhill,
p. 25, and Becquet-Hambis, p. 122) that Ogedei was poisoned by his "paternal
aunt."
«•* Year of the Ox.
295 The two years correspond in effect to 1229 and 1241, respectively.
296 Thatis,Juvaim.
297 There is some confusion here. Juvaini never makes use of the Animal Cycle,
and the year 639 A.H., which began on the I2th July, 1241, and ended on the 3Oth
June, 1242, fell half in the Year of the Ox (1241) and half in the Year of the Leopard
(1242). There follows, in Verkhovsky's version, an account of Ogedei's place of burial
that is absent from the MSS. used by Blochet. According to this passage, the Great
Khan was buried at a distance of 2 days' journey from the Irtysh, on a high mountain,
covered with eternal snow, from which two of the tributaries of that river take their
source. See Boyle 1968, where it is suggested that the tombs of Ogedei and his son
Giiyiik are situated somewhere on the southern slopes of the Saur mountains, which
separate northern Sinkiang from the basin of the Upper Irtysh.
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