Qaidu and the Rise of the Independent Mongal State in Central Asia.

• Author: KARA, GYORGY
• Position: Review

Qaidu and the Rise of the Independent Mongal State in Central Asia. By MICHAL BIRAN. Richmond, Surrey: CURZON PRESS, 1997. Pp. x + 198. [pounds] 40.

Stacks of books and piles of studies, some wise, some less, have been written about the Mongol Conquest, about how Chinggis Qan and his successors connected East and West with sword and arrow. In this handy little book Ms. Biran of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem offers something new: a lucid and thorough account of the great deeds and eventful life of Qaidu (1236-1301), grandson of [ddot{O}]g[ddot{o}]dei, the first Great Khan ([Qa.sup.[contains]]an) of Chinggis Qan's house, a hitherto less-recognized personality, father of two daughters (of whom Qutulun was one, a valiant damsel), a sober, and what is even rarer, an abstinent man, a skillful political and military leader, who played an important role in the shift of power centers and in the formation of states within and outside the medieval Mongol Empire. Exploring the relevant Muslim and Chinese sources (these are more numerous and more significant than those available in Mongolian), the author offers the first modern biography of Qaidu. A contemporary of emperor Qubilai, the second all-Mongolian ruler after the Toluid take-over in the Golden Clan who had moved his capital from Qaraqorum to the southeast, that is, shifted the center to the Chinese part of the Mongol Empire, Qaidu was keen to exploit the resulting vacuum of power. Now far away from both the eastern and southwestern Toluid and the western Jochid centers of power, he endeavored to reassert the [ddot{O}]g[ddot{o}]deids' control over their old territories in Jungaria, eastern Turkestan, and over the [Cha.sup.[contains]]adaid princes' dominion and succeeded in building his own, more or less independent state between the Golden Horde and Qubilai's Empire. Elected in the Talas assembly or diet (quriltay/*[qurilda.sup.[contains]]an) (1269) he was enthroned as [Qa.sup.[contains]]an (1271). Though extending and enhancing his authority in the [Cha.sup.[contains]]adaid princes' domain, his rule, weakening or blocking the eastern Toluids' influence in the west, turned out to be beneficial for the [Cha.sup.[contains]]adaid state after the fall of his own khanate that followed his death.

This is related and analyzed in the book's introduction (the historical situation, the ways of succession, seniority and nomination; evaluation of the...