THE SUMMER AND WINTER CAMPING GROUNDS OF THE KEREIT

Author(s): J. A. BOYLE
Source: Central Asiatic Journal, Vol. 17, No. 2/4, Proceedings of the 15th Meeting of the
Permanent International Altaistic Conference 7.-12. August 1972 (1973), pp. 108-110
Published by: Harrassowitz Verlag
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41927021
Accessed: 30-11-2015 19:40 UTC

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 THE SUMMER AND WINTER CAMPING GROUNDS
OF THE KEREIT

h
J. A. BOYLE
Manchester

The new Russian edition of Vol. 1, Part 1 ("The Turkish and Mon-
gol Tribes") of the Jāmi' àl-Tawãríkh of Rashīd ai-Din1 contains a
passage, absent from the earlier edition of Berezin, on the sum-
mer and winter encampments of the Kereit.2 The passage was al-
8
ready known fromKhetagurov's translationof 1952, but it is only
since the publication of the Persian text that it has become possible
to detect certain misunderstandingson the part of the Soviet
scholar and to suggest emendations in the spelling of some of the
names.
The summer encampments of the Kereit ruler Ong Khan were,
according to Khetagurov,4 at three places: Talan-Guseur, Daban
and Naur. A glance at the Persian text will show how Khetagurov's
mistake arose. The words should be read, not horizontally,but
vertically. There are in fact not three places but only two : Dalan
Daban and Güse'ür Na'ur. Of these the former,the "Seventy
Passes", is a mountain mentionedelsewhereby Rashīd al-Dīn: the
Great Khan ögedei held a quriltai there in 1234 upon his return
from China.6 As for Güse'ür Na'ur it is mentioned in the Secret
6
Historyof theMongols as a marsh to which Ong Khan came after
passing by the towns of the Uighur and the Tangut on his return
fromhis sojourn amongst the Qara-Khitai. I have suggested else-
1 Dzhãmi' cU-Tavârïkh, tekstA. A. Romaske
I, 1, kriticheskii vicha, A. A.
Khetagurova, A. A. Ali-zade(Moscow,1965).
« Pp. 251-2.
• Sborníkletopisei, I, 1, perevods persidskogo L».A. Khetagurova,
redakt-
siya i primechaniya Prof.A. A. Semenova(Moscow-Leningrad, 1952),pp.
126-7.
4 P. 126.
8 See TheSuccessors ofGenghis Khan, transi.J. A. Boyle(NewYork,1971),
p. 54 and note208.
6 §§ 151and 177.

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 THE SUMMER
ANDWINTERCAMPING OFTHE KEREIT 109
GROUNDS

where7 that Rashīd al-Dīn's jjjli the autumn residence of

ögedei, and I
j jjU fļf,where the princes met to elect Güyük to the
Khanate, are corruptions of jjjU or jjjU i.e. his
spellings of Güse'ür Na'ur. If the identificationis correctthe lake or
marsh is to be looked forsomewherein the aimak of Övör Hangai,
between Qara-Qorum and the modern town of Arbai Heere. The
Mongol archaeologistKh. Perlee locates it furthereast in the aimak
of Dornogov'8 - I do not know on what evidence.
The summerencampmentsof the rightwing of Ong Khan's army
are given as Tulsutan and Dzhalsutan - to follow Khetagurov's
transcription:9I can make nothing of them. Those of his army of
the leftwing are eight according to Khetagurov's translation: Hat,
Tarat, Aidzhie, Kutuken, Urut, Ukrut, Yilet( ?) and Tertit( ?).10I
suspect that there are in fact only four, each name consistingof
two elements.This is certainlytrue of Aidzhie and Kutuken, which
are to be taken togetheras a corruptionof Abji'a Köteger, where
Genghis Khan passed the winter followinghis destruction of the
Kereit.11 It is located by Perlee12 to the S. E. of Choibalsan in
Eastern Mongolia.
The winter encampments are apparently likewise arranged in
three columns according as they relate to Ong Khan or the right
and leftwings of his army; but this is not quite clear. They appear
in Khetagurov's translationas follows:13Utekin-muren,Oron-Kur-
kin, Tosh, Barau, Shire, Kulusun, Otku-Kulan, Dzhelaur-Kulan.
Here Khetagurov has read the firsttwo names correctlydownwards.
In a footnoteProfessorSemenov takes Utekin, the firstelement of
Utekin-muren (the second element is of course Mongol moren
"river") to be the well-knownTurkish name (Otiiken) for a moun-
tain or mountainsin the Khangai range. He suggeststhat the name
Utekin-murenmay have been applied to some small river in that
region.The termmorenis, however,normallyapplied to largerivers14
and, by an easy amendment, the of the Persian text can be
7 "TheSeasonalResidencesoftheGreatKhan Ögedei",GAJ,XVI/2,p. 129.
8 JSfuuts Tovchoond gardaggazarusni zarimneriigkhaizhoisonn (Ulan
Bator,1958),p. 8.
9 P. 126.
10 Ibid.
11 SecretHistory,§§ 187 and 191; The SuccessorsofGenghis Khan, p. 156
and note49.
12 Op. cit.p. 4.
18 P. 127.
14 See JohannesSchubert,Paralvpomena Mongolica(Berlin,1971),p. 41.

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110 J.A.BOYLE

restored to an original ¿¿ojl i.e. Ongin. It was in fact at some

point along the course of the River Ongin that the Great Khan
ögedei had his winterquarters.15Of the next name - Oron Kurkin
I can make nothing except that the firstelement appears to be
Mongol oron "place". Tosh and Barau are the two elements of a
name, the second being apparently Mongol barayun "right-hand
side; west". Shire and Kulusun clearly belong together: they form
the name of an unidentifiedplace called "Yellow Reed" fromMon-
gol sira and qulusun. There remain the two names Otku-Kulan and
Dzhelaur-Kulan. Of these the formeris known from the Chinese
sources: it is the mountain called ötegü Qulan ("Old Wild Ass")
where ögedei died on the 11th December, 1241, and where his
grandson Möngke passed the winter of 1252-316.We may assume
that it is to be sought for somewhere along the Ongin, on or near
the northernfringesof the Gobi. As for Dzhelaur-Kulan, the first
element is to be correctedto jj i.e. Mongol Jalayu"young".
The "Young Wild Ass" was presumablythe name given to another,
perhaps smaller, mountain at no great distance from ötegü Qu-
lan.17

16 The Successorsof GenghisKhan, p. 64 and note 281; "The Seasonal

ResidencesoftheGreatKhan ögedei",p. 129-30.
16 See J. A. Boyle,"The significance oftheJāmi''ál-Tawãrlkh as a source
on Mongolhistory Irãn-Shinãsl , II/l (1970),pp. 1-8 (p. 6); "The Seasonal
ResidencesoftheGreatKhan Ögedei",p. 130,note49.
17 Whenreadingthis paper at Strebersdorf I had not had access to the
Arabicversionof1/1,ofwhichtheMS. (AyaSofya3034)is nowhousedin the
Süleymaniye Library,Istanbul.I hopethattheconsultation ofthattext,in
whichthe orthography of propernamesis probablybetterpreserved, will
enableme to solvesomeoftheoutstanding onomasticproblems.

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