Great Khan

(noun)

A Mongolian title equal to the status of an emperor and used to refer to someone who rules a khanate, or empire.

Related Terms

Examples of Great Khan in the following topics:

  • The Mongol Invasions

    • In addition to Emperor of China, Kublai Khan also claimed the title of Great Khan, supreme over the other successor khanates: the Chagatai, the Golden Horde, and the Ilkhanate.
    • As such, the Yuan was also sometimes referred to as the Empire of the Great Khan.
    • Genghis Khan united the Mongol and Turkic tribes of the steppes and became Great Khan in 1206.
    • Möngke Khan succeeded Ögedei's son Güyük as Great Khan in 1251, and he granted his brother Kublai control over Mongol-held territories in China.
    • Kublai convened a kurultai in Kaiping that elected him Great Khan, but a rival kurultai in Mongolia proclaimed Ariq Böke Great Khan, beginning a civil war.

  • Genghis Khan

    • Before Genghis Khan became the leader of Mongolia, he was known as Temujin.
    • In 1206, Temujin was crowned as the leader of the Great Mongol Nation.
    • The first great khan was able to grasp power over such varied populations through bloody siege warfare and elaborate spy systems, which allowed him to better understand his enemy.
    • Many local populations in what is now India, Pakistan, and Iran considered the great khan to be a blood-thirsty warlord set on destruction.
    • Genghis Khan as portrayed in a 14th-century Yuan-era album.

  • Administrative Reform in the Mongol Empire

    • She set the stage for the ascension of her son, Güyük, as Great Khan, and he would take control in 1246.
    • He and Ögedei's nephew Batu Khan (both grandsons of Genghis Khan) fought bitterly for power; Güyük died in 1248 on the way to confront Batu.
    • Another nephew of Ögedei's (and so a third grandson of Genghis Khan's), Möngke, then took the throne in 1251 with Batu's approval.
    • In 1255, well into Möngke's reign, Batu had repaired his relationship with the Great Khan and so finally felt secure enough to prepare invasions westward into Europe.
    • Möngke's rule established some of the most consistent monetary and administrative policies since Genghis Khan.

  • Kublai Khan

    • Kublai Khan came to power in 1260.
    • After the death of Möngke in that same year, and the following civil war, Kublai was named the Great Khan and successor of Möngke.
    • They met Kublai Khan and lived amongst his court to establish trade relations.
    • Polo generally praised the wealth and extravagance of Khan and the Mongol Empire.
    • A portrait of a young Kublai Khan by Anige, a Nepali artist in Kublai's court.

  • Influence of the Mongols

    • A result of the unification of Mongol and Turkic tribes, the empire took form under the leadership of the legendary Genghis Khan, also known as the Great Khan, meaning emperor.
    • After Genghis Khan's death, the empire began to split as a result of wars between succession heirs.
    • Genghis Khan encouraged trade during his reign as merchants provided both information about neighboring cultures and necessary goods that the Mongols didn't produce.
    • The oldest surviving Mongolian work is "The Secret History of the Mongols," which was written for the royal family sometime after Genghis Khan's death in 1227.
    • They include the proverbs attributed to Genghis Khan and the epics around the Khan's life.

  • The Southern Song Era

    • Under the leadership of Ögedei Khan (r.1229–1241), Mongol forces conquered both the Jin dynasty and Western Xia dynasty.
    • The Mongol leader Möngke Khan led a campaign against the Song in 1259, but died on August 11 during the Battle of Diaoyu Fortress in Chongqing.
    • Although Hulagu was allied with Kublai Khan, his forces were unable to help in the assault against the Song due to Hulagu's war with the Golden Horde.
    • Kublai Khan officially declared the creation of the Yuan dynasty in 1271.
    • The former emperor would eventually be forced to commit suicide under the orders of Kublai's great-great grandson Gegeen Khan, who feared that Emperor Gong would stage a coup to restore his reign.

  • Expansion Throughout Eastern Asia

    • Under Genghis Khan and his son Ögedei, the Mongol Empire conquered both the Western Xia Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty to the west.
    • At the time of the political rise of Genghis Khan in 1206 CE, the Mongol Empire shared its western borders with the Western Xia Dynasty of the Tanguts.
    • Genghis's relentless battle tactics showed to great effect in the Xia territory.
    • Between 1232 CE and 1233 CE, Kaifeng fell to the Mongols under the reign of Genghis' third son, Ögedei Khan.
    • These two regions were directly adjacent to Genghis Khan's newly unified Mongol territories in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.

  • The Mongol Threat

    • The great ruler’s death in 1054 brought about major power struggles between his sons and princes in outlying provinces.
    • These invaders originated on the steppes of central Asia and were unified under the infamous warrior and leader Genghis Khan.
    • Over the course of the years 1237 and 1238, the Mongol leader, Batu Khan, led his 35,000 mounted archers to burn down Moscow and Kolomna.
    • The final victory for Batu Khan came in December 1240 when he stormed the great capital of Kiev and prevailed.
    • The Tatars followed in the footsteps of Genghis Khan and refrained from settling the entire region or forcing local populations to adopt specific religious or cultural traditions.

  • The Mongols in Eastern Europe

    • Ögedei, Genghis Khan's third son, took over from his father and ruled the Mongol Empire from 1227 CE-1241 CE.
    • The operations were masterminded by General Subutai and commanded by Batu Khan and Kadan, both grandsons of Genghis Khan.
    • The Mongols had acquired Chinese gunpowder, which they deployed in battle during the invasion of Europe to great success, in the form of bombs hurled via catapults.
    • Ögedei Khan ordered his nephew (and grandson of Genghis Khan) Batu Khan to conquer Russia in 1235.

  • Overview of the Mongol Empire

    • The empire unified the nomadic Mongol and Turkic tribes of historical Mongolia under the leadership of Genghis Khan, who was proclaimed ruler of all Mongols in 1206.
    • However, they still enforced a legal code known as the Yassa (Great Law), which stopped feudal disagreements at local levels and made outright disobedience a dubious prospect.
    • It also ensured that it was easy to create an army in short time and gave the khans access to the daughters of local leaders.
    • The grandchildren of Genghis Khan disputed whether the royal line should follow from his son and initial heir Ögedei or one of his other sons.
    • After long rivalries and civil war, Kublai Khan took power in 1271 when he established the Yuan Dynasty, but civil war ensued again as he sought unsuccessfully to regain control of the followers of Genghis Khan's other descendants.