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88-624: This dry steppe area, west of the lower Volga River, known among the nomads as Itil/Idjil, a basin on the northwest shore of the Caspian Sea, was the most suitable land for nomadic pastures. Itil or Idjil, the ancient name of the Volga River, written in the archaic Oirat script, means exactly that: the "pastures". The ancestors of Kalmyks were nomadic groups of Oirat -speaking Mongols , who migrated from Western Mongolia to Eastern Europe three times: in early medieval times, establishing in

176-702: A Cyrillic-based script system has been implemented. It does not represent epenthetic vowels , and thus doesn't show syllabification. In Mongolia, Central Mongolian minority varieties have no status, so Oirats are supposed to use Mongolian Cyrillic which de facto only represents Khalkha Mongolian . The Secret History of the Mongols The Secret History of the Mongols ( Mongolian : ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠤᠨ ᠨᠢᠭᠤᠴᠠ ᠲᠣᠪᠴᠢᠶᠠᠨ [ˌmɔɴɢɜˈɮʲiːɴ ˈnuːt͡sʰ ˌtʰɞɸˈt͡ɕʰɔː] , Khalkha Mongolian : Монголын нууц товчоо , Mongoliin nuuc tobhchoo )

264-399: A blue-grey wolf and a fallow doe begat the first Mongol , named Batachiqan. Eleven generations after Batachiqan, a widow named Alan Gua was abandoned by her in-laws and left with her two boys Bügünütei and Belgünütei. She then bore three more sons with a supernatural glowing man who came in through the smoke-hole at the top of the ger . The youngest of Alan Gua's three divinely-born children

352-751: A copy of The Secret History of the Mongols covered with golden plates was to be located to the rear part of the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar . The Secret History ends with a colophon stating its original date of completion at Khodoe Aral : The writing of this book was completed at the time when the Great Assembly convened and when, in the Year of the Rat , in the month of the Roebuck,

440-743: A deliberate policy by the Qing to enfeeble them. After the 1771 exodus, the Kalmyks that remained part of the Russian Empire continued their nomadic pastoral lifestyle, ranging the pastures between the Don and the Volga Rivers, wintering in the lowlands along the shores of the Caspian Sea as far as Sarpa Lake to the northwest and Lake Manych-Gudilo to the west. In the spring, they moved along

528-528: A foothold amongst the Mongols, and an increase in literacy resulted in a new Altan Tobchi being created by an unknown author in the 1620s. This Altan Tobchi included the earlier parts of the Secret History and combines it with the earlier apocryphal legend cycle. In 1651, the monk Lubsang-Danzin expanded this narrative (now usually called the Lu Altan Tobchi after the author) and included

616-578: A full two-thirds of the Secret History . This was discovered in 1926 by Duke Jamiyan  [ mn ] from Dornod , as part of the academic and cultural revival in the Mongolian People's Republic . The Secret History has been translated into over 40 languages. In foreign scholarship, Russian monk and sinologist Palladius was the first to offer a translation of the abridged Chinese running translation in 1866 while serving as

704-484: A historically accurate source is more controversial: whereas some experts, such as René Grousset , assess it positively in this regard as well, others, such as Igor de Rachewiltz , believe that the value of the source lies primarily in its "faithful description of Mongol tribal life", and Arthur Waley considered the Secret History's "historical value almost nil". In 2004 the Government of Mongolia decreed that

792-516: A running, often abridged translation into Chinese. Due to this work's compilation almost a century after the original, it has been noted that the Mongolian transcriptions would likely reflect the pronunciation of the then-Mongols in Beijing, rather than the original Middle Mongol of Genghis Khan's era. This text, divided according to length into 12 parts and 282 sections, was eventually folded into

880-399: A separate reconstruction and translation in 1941, while French scholar Paul Pelliot worked on a full reconstruction and translation into French that was published posthumously in 1949. The latter two scholars had access to the Lu Altan Tobchi as a contributing source. B. I. Pankratov published a translation into Russian in 1962. Duke Tsengde  [ mn ; zh ] (1875–1932) was

968-658: A small stroke on the right to indicate vowel length. It was retained longest in China where it can still be found in an occasional journal article. However, in China, Buryat and Oirat are considered non-standard compared to Southern Mongolian and are therefore supposed to use the Mongolian script and Southern Mongolian grammar for writing. In practice the people use neither and resort to learning Mandarin Chinese and using hànzì to communicate with others in China. In Kalmykia,

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1056-757: A third theory suggests that the Torghuts grew weary of the militant struggle between the Oirats and the Altan Khanate. Upon arrival to the lower Volga region in 1630, the Oirats encamped on land that was once part of the Astrakhan Khanate but was now claimed by the Tsardom of Russia . The region was lightly populated, from south of Saratov to the Russian garrison at Astrakhan and on both the east and

1144-759: A wide geographical area of Uvs and Khovd provinces (aimags) of Western Mongolia ( N  = 209,412), and in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China ( N  = 194,891). Ethnic groups of Oirat speakers in the Republic of Kalmykia, Russia ( N  = 162,740) include Torguts, Derbets and Buzavas, together with a smaller group called Khoshuts, who live in just two villages of Kalmykia. Up until today the Kalmyks have retained their distinguished sub-ethnic groups, being quite separated from their geographical neighbours in Russia and northeast Caucasus. The Kalmyks are

1232-544: Is endangered in all areas where it is spoken. In Russia, the killing of a large fraction of the Kalmyk population and the destruction of their society as consequences of the Kalmyk deportations of 1943 , along with the subsequent imposition among them of Russian as the sole official language have rendered the language obsolescent: it is almost exclusively the elderly who have a fluent command of Kalmyk. In China, while Oirat

1320-416: Is a Mongolic language spoken by the descendants of Oirat Mongols , now forming parts of Mongols in China , Kalmyks in Russia and Mongolians. Largely mutually intelligible to other core Central Mongolic languages, scholars differ as to whether they regard Oirat as a distinct language or a major dialect of the Mongolian language . Oirat-speaking areas are scattered across the far west of Mongolia ,

1408-730: Is not included in the Chinese-transcribed titles of the copies known today, but that may be the result of a corruption ). This title was altered to Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty ( 元朝秘史 ; Yuáncháo bìshǐ ) when it was included as part of the Yongle Encyclopedia . While modern definitive versions are all based on these Ming-era copies, various partial copies of the text have been found in Mongolia and Tibet ( Tholing Monastery ). The most notable of these

1496-450: Is regarded as the single most significant native Mongolian account of Genghis Khan. Linguistically, it provides the richest source of pre- Classical Mongol and Middle Mongol . The Secret History is regarded as a piece of classic literature in both Mongolia and the rest of the world, and has been translated into more than 40 languages. The work begins with a semi-mythical genealogy of Genghis Khan , born Temüjin. According to legend,

1584-880: Is spoken in all of these nations, is Torgut . The term Oirat or more precisely, Written Oirat is sometimes also used to refer to the language of historical documents written in the Clear script . In Mongolia, there are seven historical Oirat dialects, each corresponding to a different tribe: There are some varieties of Oirat that are difficult to classify. The Alasha dialect in Alxa League , Inner Mongolia , originally belonged to Oirat and has been classified as such by some because of its phonology . However, it has been classified by others as Mongolian proper because of its morphology . The Darkhad dialect in Mongolia's Khövsgöl Province has variously been classified as Oirat, Mongolian proper, or (less often) Buryat . Oirat

1672-558: Is still quite widely used in its traditional ranges and there are many monolingual speakers, a combination of government policies and social realities has created an environment deleterious to the use of this language: the Chinese authorities' adoption of Southern Mongolian as the normative Mongolian language, new educational policies which have led to the virtual elimination of Mongolian schools in Xinjiang (there were just two left as of 2009), policies aiming to curtail nomadism , and

1760-577: Is the Altan Tobchi ( Mongolian : ᠯᠤ᠋ ᠠᠯᠲᠠᠨ ᠲᠣᠪᠴᠢ ), an expanded Mongolian Buddhist-influenced narrative written in 1651 and discovered in 1926 that contains two-thirds of the Secret History verbatim. The Ming-era text was compiled at the Hanlin Academy as an aid to help interpreters learn Mongolian , consisting of three parts: a transcription of the Mongolian pronunciation in Chinese characters; an interlinear gloss in Chinese; and

1848-530: Is the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language . Written for the Mongol royal family some time after the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, it recounts his life and conquests, and partially the reign of his successor Ögedei Khan . The author is unknown and wrote in the Middle Mongol language using Mongolian script . The date of the text is uncertain, as the colophon to the text describes

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1936-705: The Yongle Encyclopedia as a 15-part work in 1408. The original 12-part work was also published around 1410 in Beijing . After the fall of the Ming and rise of the Qing dynasty these texts began to be copied and disseminated. The oldest dated full copy is of the 12-part version in 1805 by Gu Guangqi  [ zh ] (1766–1835), kept in the National Library of China . A copy of the 15-part version

2024-631: The Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism . Locked in between both tribes were the Choros, Dörbet Oirat and Khoid , collectively known as the " Dzungar people ", who were slowly rebuilding the base of power they enjoyed under the Four Oirat. The Choros were the dominant Oirat tribe of that era. Their leader, Erdeni Batur, attempted to follow Esen Khan in unifying the Oirats to challenge the Khalkha. Under

2112-646: The Karakalpaks . The Mangyshlak Peninsula was overtaken in 1639 by Kalmyks. At first, an uneasy relationship existed between the Russians and the Oirats. Mutual raiding by the Oirats of Russian settlements and by the Cossacks and the Bashkirs , Muslim vassals of the Russians, of Oirat encampments was commonplace. Numerous oaths and treaties were signed to ensure Oirat loyalty and military assistance. Although

2200-692: The Khovd region in northwest Mongolia, reuniting most of Mongolia in the process . The Oirats would later regroup south of the Altai Mountains in Dzungaria. But Geresenz's grandson, Sholoi Ubashi Khuntaiji, pushed the Oirats further northwest, along the steppes of the Ob and Irtysh Rivers. Afterwards, he established a Khalkha Khanate under the name, Altan Khan, in the Oirat heartland of Dzungaria. In spite of

2288-656: The North Caucasus . These campaigns highlighted the strategic importance of the Kalmyk Khanate which functioned as a buffer zone, separating Russia and the Muslim world, as Russia fought wars in Europe to establish itself as a European power. To encourage the release of Oirat cavalrymen in support of its military campaigns, the Russian Empire increasingly relied on the provision of monetary payments and dry goods to

2376-630: The Northern Yuan , and a cult of worship formed around the image of Genghis Khan as a supernatural being amidst a decline in literacy. This resulted in works such as the Chinggis Qaan-u Altan Tobchi ( lit.   ' Golden Chronicle of Genghis Khan ' ) containing an apocryphal image of the Khan that replaced the semi-historical narrative of the Secret History . Starting in the late 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism gained

2464-696: The Qing Empire , in the Dzungar–Qing Wars ; they were the last of the Mongol groups to resist vassalage to Qing. At the start of this 400-year era, the Western Mongols designated themselves as the Four Oirat . The alliance comprised four major Western Mongol tribes: Khoshut , Choros , Torghut and Dörbet . Collectively, the Four Oirat sought power as an alternative to the Mongols, who were

2552-567: The Semey region along the lower portions of the Irtysh River, where they built several steppe monasteries . The Khoshut were adjacent to the Khalkha khanates of Altan Khan and Dzasagtu Khan. Both khanates prevented the Khoshut and the other Oirat from trading with Chinese border towns. The Khoshut were ruled by Baibagas Khan and then Güshi Khan , who were the first Oirat leaders to convert to

2640-716: The Tibetan Plateau , where he formed the Khoshut Khanate to protect Tibet and the Gelug from both internal and external enemies. Erdeni Batur and his descendants, by contrast, formed the Dzungar Khanate and came to dominate Central Eurasia. In 1618, the Torghut and a small contingent of Dörbet Oirats (200,000–250,000 people) chose to migrate from the upper Irtysh River region to the grazing pastures of

2728-423: The "Frontier Period", lasting from the advent of the Torghut under Kho Orluk in 1630 to the end of the great khanate of Kho Orluk 's descendant, Ayuka Khan , in 1724, a phase accompanied by little discernible acculturative change: There were few sustained interrelations between Kalmyks and Russians in the frontier period. Routine contacts consisted in the main of seasonal commodity exchanges of Kalmyk livestock and

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2816-539: The 1400s at the start of the Ming dynasty , where the pronunciation was transcribed into Chinese characters as a tool to help interpreters under the title The Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty ( Chinese : 元朝秘史 ; pinyin : Yuáncháo Mìshǐ ). About two-thirds of the Secret History also appear in slightly different versions in the 17th-century Mongolian chronicle Altan Tobchi ( lit.   ' Golden Chronicle ' ) by Lubsang-Danzin . The Secret History

2904-773: The 15th century, the three major groups of Oirat formed an alliance, adopting "Dörben Oirat" as their collective name. In the early 17th century, a second great Oirat Confederation emerged, which later became the Dzungar Empire. While the Dzungars (initially Choros, Dörbet and Khoit tribes) were establishing their empire in Central Eurasia, the Khoshuts were establishing the Khoshut Khanate in Tibet, protecting

2992-542: The 15–17th centuries, they established under the name "10 tumen Mongols", a cavalry unit of 10,000 horsemen, including four Oirat tumen and six tumen composed of other Mongols. They reestablished their traditional pastoral nomadic lifestyle during the end of the Yuan dynasty. The Oirats formed this alliance to defend themselves against the Khalkha Mongols and to pursue the greater objective of reunifying Mongolia. Until

3080-751: The 17th century, the First Altan Khan drove the Oirats westward to present-day eastern Kazakhstan . The Torghuts became the westernmost Oirat tribe, encamped in the Tarbagatai Mountains region and along the northern stretches of the Irtysh , Ishim and Tobol Rivers . Further west, the Kazakhs – a Turco-Mongol people – prevented the Torghuts from sending its trading caravans to

3168-464: The 6th–8th centuries the Avar Khanate ; in medieval times, establishing the Ulus of Juchi and Il-Kanate as Khuda-in-laws of Genghis Khan ; and finally, in early modern times, establishing the Kalmyk Khanate in the 17th century. The Oirat language belongs to the western branch of the Mongolic language family, whose speakers include numerous sub-ethnic groups (Derbet, Torgut, Khoshut, Olot, Dzungar (Zunghar), Bayad, Zakhchin, Khoton, Myangad, Buzava) across

3256-400: The Don Cossack region, Orenburg, Stavropol, the Terek and the Ural Mountains. Another generally accepted name is Ulan Zalata or the "red-buttoned ones" . In January 1771 the oppression of Tsarist administration forced the larger part of Kalmyks (33 thousand households, or approximately 170,000–200,000 people) to migrate to Dzungaria. Ubashi Khan , the great-grandson of Ayuka Khan and

3344-432: The Don River and the Sarpa lake system, attaining the higher grounds along the Don in the summer, passing the autumn in the Sarpa and Volga lowlands. In October and November they returned to their winter camps and pastures . Oirat language Oirat ( Clear script : ᡆᡕᡅᠷᠠᡑ ᡍᡄᠯᡄᠨ , Oirad kelen ; Kalmyk : Өөрд , Öörd [øːˈrət] ; Khalkha Mongolian : Ойрад , Oirad [ˈœe̯rət] )

3432-423: The Dzungars, to centralize political and military control over the tribes under his leadership. Some scholars, however, believe that the Torghuts sought uncontested pastures as their territory was being encroached upon by the Russians from the north, the Kazakhs from the south and the Dzungars from the east. The encroachments resulted in overcrowding of people and livestock, thereby diminishing the food supply. Lastly,

3520-496: The Four Oirat unified Mongolia for a short period. After Esen's death in 1455, the political union of the Dörben Oirat dissolved quickly, resulting in two decades of Oirat-Eastern Mongol conflict. The deadlock ended during the reign of Batmunkh Dayan Khan , a five-year-old boy in whose name the loyal Eastern Mongol forces rallied. Mandukhai Khatun and Dayan Khan took advantage of Oirat disunity and weakness and brought Oirats back under Mongolian rule. In doing so, he regained control of

3608-556: The Gelugpa sect from its enemies, and the Torghuts formed the Kalmyk Khanate in the lower Volga region. After encamping, the Oirats began to identify themselves as "Kalmyk." This named was supposedly given to them by their Muslim neighbors and later used by the Russians to describe them. The Oirats used this name in their dealings with outsiders, viz., their Russian and Muslim neighbors. But they continued to refer to themselves by their tribal, clan, or other internal affiliations. The name Kalmyk, however, wasn't immediately accepted by all of

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3696-504: The Great executed influential nobles from among them. Approximately five-sixths of the Torghut followed Ubashi Khan. Most of the Khoshut, Choros, and Khoid also accompanied the Torghut on their journey to Dzungaria. The Dörbet Oirat, in contrast, elected not to go at all. Catherine the Great asked the Russian army, Bashkirs, and Kazakh Khanate to stop all migrants. Beset by Kazakh raids, thirst and starvation, approximately 85,000 Kalmyks died on their way to Dzungaria. After failing to stop

3784-525: The Mongol homeland and restored the hegemony of the Eastern Mongols. After the death of Dayan in 1543, the Oirats and the Khalkhas resumed their conflict. The Oirat forces thrust eastward, but Dayan's youngest son, Geresenz, was given command of the Khalkha forces and drove the Oirats to Uvs Lake in northwest Mongolia. In 1552, after the Oirats once again challenged the Khalkha, Altan Khan swept up from Inner Mongolia with Tümed and Ordos cavalry units, pushing elements of various Oirat tribes from Karakorum to

3872-409: The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China in 1368, the Oirats emerged as a formidable foe against the Khalkha Mongols , the Han -led Ming dynasty and the Manchu -led Qing dynasty . For 400 years, the Oirats conducted a military struggle for domination and control over both Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia . The struggle ended in 1757 with the defeat of the Oirats of the Dzungar Khanate against

3960-407: The Muslim towns and villages located along the Syr Darya river. As a result, the Torghuts established a trading relationship with the newly established outposts of the Tsarist government whose expansion into and exploration of Siberia was motivated mostly by the desire to profit from trade with Asia . The Khoshut , by contrast, were the easternmost Oirat, encamped near the Lake Zaysan area and

4048-420: The Oirat Khan and the Oirat nobility. In that respect, the Russian Empire treated the Oirats as it did the Cossacks. The provision of monetary payments and dry goods, however, did not stop the mutual raiding, and, in some instances, both sides failed to fulfill its promises . Another significant incentive the Russian Empire provided to the Oirats was tariff-free access to the markets of Russian border towns, where

4136-413: The Oirat caused dissension among the tribes and their Chief Tayishis who were independent minded but also highly regarded leaders themselves. This dissension reputedly caused Kho Orluk to move the Torghut tribe and elements of the Dörbet tribe westward to the Volga region where his descendants formed the Kalmyk Khanate. In the east, Güshi Khan took part of the Khoshut to the Tsaidam and Qinghai regions in

4224-526: The Oirat tribes in the lower Volga region. As late as 1761, the Khoshut and Dzungars (refugees from the Manchu Empire) referred to themselves and the Torghuts exclusively as Oirats. The Torghuts, by contrast, used the name Kalmyk for themselves as well as the Khoshut and Dzungars. Generally, European scholars have identified all western Mongolians collectively as Kalmyks, regardless of their location ( Ramstedt , 1935: v–vi). Such scholars (e.g. Sebastian Muenster) have relied on Muslim sources who traditionally used

4312-431: The Oirats became subjects of the Tsar, such allegiance by the Oirats was deemed to be nominal. In reality, the Oirats governed themselves pursuant to a document known as the "Great Code of the Nomads" ( Iki Tsaadzhin Bichig ). The Code was promulgated in 1640 by them, their brethren in Dzungaria and some of the Khalkha who all gathered near the Tarbagatai Mountains in Dzungaria to resolve their differences and to unite under

4400-461: The Oirats were permitted to barter their herds and the items they obtained from Asia and their Muslim neighbors in exchange for Russian goods. Trade also occurred with neighboring Turkic tribes under Russian control, such as the Tatars and the Bashkirs. Intermarriage became common with such tribes. This trading arrangement provided substantial benefits, monetary and otherwise, to the Oirat tayishis, noyons and zaisangs. Fred Adelman described this era as

4488-430: The Palaces were established at Dolo’an Boldaq of Köde'e Aral on the Kelüren River , between Šilginček and [...] The original text corresponding to this date has not survived to the present day. The Year of the Rat in question has been conjectured to be 1228 ( Cleaves , Onon ), 1229 (Rachewiltz), 1240, 1252 (Atwood), and 1264 ( Hung ). Proponents of the earlier dates argue that portions of the work whose events post-date

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4576-406: The Russian Empire sought the increased use of Oirat cavalry in support of its military campaigns against the Muslim powers in the south, such as Safavid Iran , the Ottoman Empire, the Nogais, the Tatars of Kuban and the Crimean Khanate . Ayuka Khan also waged wars against the Kazakhs, subjugated the Turkmens of the Mangyshlak Peninsula , and made multiple expeditions against the highlanders of

4664-406: The Western Mongols' self-designation as the Four Oirat, the Eastern Mongols began to refer to themselves as the "Forty Mongols", or the "Forty and Four". This means that the Khalkha Mongols claimed to have forty tümen to the four tümen maintained by the Four Oirat. The Oirat alliance was decentralized, informal and unstable. For instance, the Four Oirat did not have a central location from which it

4752-433: The Year of the Rat were added at a later date. This is however disputed by some including Atwood, arguing that thematic elements and chronology posits that the text was always intended to lead up to, and including, the reign of Ögedei Khan. The month of the Roebuck corresponds to the seventh lunar month, i.e. middle of summer. Some scholars beginning with Naka Michiyo  [ ja ] have argued that this original work

4840-412: The banner of the Gelug school. Although the goal of unification was not met, the summit leaders did ratify the Code, which regulated all aspects of nomadic life. In securing their position, the Oirats became a borderland power, often allying themselves with the Russian Empire against the neighboring Muslim population. During the era of Ayuka Khan , the Oirats rose to political and military prominence as

4928-407: The book as having been finished in the Year of the Mouse , on the banks of the Kherlen River at Khodoe Aral , corresponding to an earliest possible figure of 1228. While the Secret History was preserved in part as the basis for a number of chronicles such as the Jami' al-tawarikh , Shengwu qinzheng lu , and Altan Tobchi , the full Mongolian body only survived from a version made around

5016-586: The dynamic leadership of Erdeni Batur, the Dzungars stopped the expansion of the first Altan Khan and began planning the resurrection of the Four Oirat under the Dzungar banner. In furtherance of such plans, Erdeni Batur designed and built a capital city called Kubak-sari on the Emil River near the modern city of Tacheng . During his attempt to build a nation, Erdeni Batur encouraged diplomacy, commerce and farming. He also sought to acquire modern weaponry and build small industry, such as metal works, to supply his military with weapons. The attempted unification of

5104-434: The era of Ayuka Khan, the Kalmyk Khanate reached its peak of military and political power. The Khanate experienced economic prosperity from free trade with Russian border towns, China, Tibet and with their Muslim neighbors. During this era, Ayuka Khan also kept close contacts with his Oirat kinsmen in Dzungaria, as well as the Dalai Lama in Tibet. Historically, Oirat identified themselves by their respective sub-group names. In

5192-417: The field of linguistic studies, it is considered unique among the Mongol texts as an example free from the influence of Buddhism prevalent in later texts. It is especially valued for its vivid and realistic depictions of daily tribal life and organization of Mongol civilization in the 12th and 13th centuries, complementing other primary sources available in the Persian and Chinese languages. Its value as

5280-400: The first full translation into English was in 1982 by Francis Woodman Cleaves , titled The Secret History of the Mongols: For the First Time Done into English out of the Original Tongue and Provided with an Exegetical Commentary . The archaic language adopted by Cleaves was not satisfying to all and, between 1972 and 1985, Igor de Rachewiltz published a fresh translation in eleven volumes of

5368-404: The first native Mongolian scholar to attempt a reconstruction of The Secret History , in 1915–17, though it was only published posthumously in 1996. Tsengde's son Eldengtei and grandson Ardajab continued this work and published a translation in 1980 in Hohhot . The Inner Mongolian authors Altan-Ochir and Bokekeshig independently published reconstructions of the text in Kailu in 1941 as part of

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5456-478: The flight, Catherine abolished the Kalmyk Khanate, transferring all governmental powers to the governor of Astrakhan. The title of Khan was abolished. The highest native governing office remaining was the Vice- Khan , who also was recognized by the government as the highest ranking Kalmyk prince. By appointing the Vice-Khan, the Russian Empire was now permanently the decisive force in Kalmyk government and affairs. After seven months of travel, only one-third (66,073) of

5544-442: The head of the Russian Orthodox mission in Beijing. Using Bao Tingbo's copy, he also attempted an unpublished transcription of the phonetic Mongolian in 1872–78. Japanese historian Naka Michiyo published a translation in 1907. The first reconstructions of the Mongolian text were done by the German sinologist Erich Haenisch in 1937, with a translation published in 1941 (second edition 1948). Russian scholar Sergei Kozin published

5632-422: The last Kalmyk Khan, decided to return his people to their ancestral homeland, Dzungaria, and restore the Dzungar Khanate and Mongolian independence. As C.D Barkman notes, "It is quite clear that the Torghuts had not intended to surrender the Chinese, but had hoped to lead an independent existence in Dzungaria." Ubashi sent 30,000 cavalry in the first year of the Russo-Turkish War (1768–74) to gain weaponry before

5720-498: The limited occupational prospects in Chinese society for graduates of Mongolian schools. As for Mongolia, the predominance of Khalkha Mongolian is bringing about the Khalkhaization of all other varieties of Mongolian. Oirat has been written in two script systems: the Mongolian scripts and Cyrillic. Historically, the Clear script , which originated from the Mongolian script , was used. It uses modified letters shapes e.g. to differentiate between different rounded vowels, and it uses

5808-421: The lower Volga region south of Saratov and north of the Caspian Sea on both banks of the Volga River . The Torghut were led by their taishi, Kho Orluk . They were the largest Oirat tribe to migrate, bringing along nearly the entire tribe. The second-largest group was the Dörbet Oirats under their taishi, Dalai Batur. Together they moved west through southern Siberia and the southern Ural Mountains , avoiding

5896-421: The majority of the native inhabitants, the Nogai Horde . Large groups of Nogais fled southeast to the northern Caucasian plain and west to the Black Sea steppe, lands claimed by the Crimean Khanate , itself a vassal or ally of the Ottoman Empire . Smaller groups of Nogais sought the protection of the Russian garrison at Astrakhan . The remaining nomadic tribes became vassals of the Oirats. The Kalmyks battled

5984-428: The mid-17th century, when bestowal of the title of Khan was transferred to the Dalai Lama , all Mongol tribes recognized this claim and the political prestige attached to it. Although the Oirats could not assert this claim prior to the mid-17th century, they did in fact have a close connection to Genghis Khan by virtue of the fact that Genghis Khan 's brother, Qasar , was in command of the Khoshut tribe. In response to

6072-419: The migration. The 8th Dalai Lama was contacted to request his blessing and to set the date of departure. After consulting the astrological chart, he set a return date, but at the moment of departure, the weakening of the ice on the Volga River permitted only those Kalmyks (about 200,000 people) on the eastern bank to leave. Those 100,000–150,000 people on the western bank were forced to stay behind and Catherine

6160-414: The more direct route that would have taken them through the heart of the territory of their enemy, the Kazakhs. En route, they raided Russian settlements and Kazakh and Bashkir encampments. Many theories have been advanced to explain the reasons for the migration. One generally accepted theory is that there may have been discontent among the Oirat tribes, which arose from the attempt by Kharkhul, taishi of

6248-407: The name "Torghut" as garde de jour . He wrote that the Torghuts owed their name either to the memory of the guard of Genghis Khan or, as descendants of the Keraites , to the old garde de jour . This was documented among the Keraites in The Secret History of the Mongols before Genghis Khan took over the region. The Four Oirat was a political entity formed by the four major Oirat tribes. During

6336-674: The national revival in Mengjiang . The most influential adaptation of the work into modern Mongolian was completed by Tsendiin Damdinsüren in 1947 using Mongolian script , a subsequent version in Mongolian Cyrillic was published in 1957 and is considered a classic of modern Mongolian literature . In the English language Arthur Waley was the first to publish a translation of the Secret History 's running Chinese, while

6424-604: The northwest of China and Russia 's Caspian coast, where its major variety is Kalmyk . In China, it is spoken mainly in Xinjiang , but also among the Deed Mongol of Qinghai and Subei County in Gansu . In all three countries, Oirat has become variously endangered or even obsolescent as a direct result of government actions or as a consequence of social and economic policies. Its most widespread tribal dialect, which

6512-426: The one hand and Cossacks and Bashkirs on the other. A few Kalmyk nobles became russified and nominally Christian who went to Moscow in hope of securing Russian help for their political ambitions on the Kalmyk steppe. Russian subsidies to Kalmyk nobles, however, became an effective means of political control only later. Yet gradually the Kalmyk princes came to require Russian support and to abide in Russian policy. During

6600-596: The only traditionally Buddhist ethnic group who are located inside Europe . Through emigration, small Kalmyk communities have been established in the United States, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic. The contemporary Kalmyks are a branch of the Mongolian Oirats , whose ancient grazing-lands spanned present-day parts of Kazakhstan , Russia , Mongolia and China . After the fall of

6688-601: The original group reached Balkhash Lake , the western border of Qing China . This migration became the topic of The Revolt of the Tartars , by Thomas De Quincey . The Qing shifted the Kalmyks to five different areas to prevent their revolt and influential leaders of the Kalmyks soon died. The migrant Kalmyks became known as Torghut in Qing China. The Torghut were coerced by the Qing into giving up their nomadic lifestyle and to take up sedentary agriculture instead as part of

6776-738: The patrilineal heirs to Genghis Khan . The Four Oirat incorporated neighboring tribes or splinter groups at times, so there was a great deal of fluctuation in the composition of the alliance, with larger tribes dominating or absorbing the smaller ones. Smaller tribes belonging to the confederation included the Khoits, Zakhchin, Bayids and Khangal. Together, these nomadic tribes roamed the grassy plains of western Inner Asia, between Lake Balkhash in present-day eastern Kazakhstan and Lake Baikal in present-day Russia north of central Mongolia. They pitched their yurts and kept herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, horses, donkeys and camels. Paul Pelliot translated

6864-501: The products thereof for such nomad necessities as brick tea, grain, textiles and metal articles, at Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn and Saratov. This was the kind of exchange relationship between nomads and urban craftsmen and traders in which the Kalmyks traditionally engaged. Political contacts consisted of a series of treaty arrangements for the nominal allegiance of the Kalmyk Khans to Russia, and the cessation of mutual raiding by Kalmyks on

6952-407: The series Papers on Far Eastern History accompanied by extensive footnotes commenting not only on the translation but also various aspects of Mongolian culture, which was published as a two-volume set in 2003. In 2015 this was republished as an open access version omitting the extensive footnotes of the original. The Daur Mongol scholar Urgunge Onon published the first translation into English by

7040-460: The setbacks, the Oirats would continue their campaigns against the Altan Khanate, trying to unseat Sholoi Ubashi Khuntaiji from Dzungaria. The continuous, back-and-forth nature of the struggle, which defined this period, is captured in the Oirat epic song "The Rout of Mongolian Sholoi Ubashi Khuntaiji", recounting the Oirat victory over the Altan Khan of the Khalkha in 1587. At the beginning of

7128-403: The support of lesser noyons, who were also called taishi. These minor noyons controlled divisions of the tribe ( ulus ) and were politically and economically independent of the chief tayishi. Chief taishis sought to influence and dominate the chief taishis of the other tribes, causing intertribal rivalry, dissension and periodic skirmishes. Under the leadership of Esen, Chief Taishi of the Choros,

7216-491: The west banks of the Volga River. The Tsardom of Russia was not ready to colonize the area and was in no position to prevent the Oirats from encamping in the region, but it had a direct political interest in ensuring that the Oirats would not become allied with its Turkic-speaking neighbors. The Kalmyks became Russian allies and a treaty to protect the southern Russian border was signed between the Kalmyk Khanate and Russia. The Oirats quickly consolidated their position by expelling

7304-463: The word "Kalmyk" to describe western Mongolians in a derogatory manner and the western Mongols of China and Mongolia have regarded that name as a term of abuse . Instead, they use the name Oirat or they go by their respective tribal names, e.g., Khoshut, Dörbet, Choros, Torghut, Khoit, Bayid, Mingat, etc. . Over time, the descendants of the Oirat migrants in the lower Volga region embraced the name "Kalmyk" irrespective of their locations, viz., Astrakhan,

7392-406: The work deal with the campaigns of conquest of Genghis and his third son Ögedei throughout Eurasia; the text ends with Ögedei's reflections on what he did well and what he did wrong. Scholars of Mongolian history consider the text hugely important for the wealth of information it contains on the ethnography , language, literature and varied aspects of the Mongol culture. In terms of its value to

7480-458: Was Bodonchar , founder of the Borjigin . The description of Temüjin's life begins with the kidnapping of his mother , Hoelun , by his father Yesügei . It then covers Temüjin's early life following his birth around 1160; the difficult times after the murder of his father; and the many conflicts against him, wars, and plots before he gains the title of Genghis Khan in 1206. The latter parts of

7568-456: Was governed, and it was not governed by a central figure for most of its existence. The four Oirats did not establish a single military or a unified monastic system. Lastly, it was not until 1640 that the Four Oirat adopted uniform customary laws. As pastoralist nomads, the Oirats were organized at the tribal level, where each tribe was ruled by a noyon or prince who also functioned as the chief taishi "chieftain". The chief taishi governed with

7656-487: Was made by Bao Tingbozh  [ zh ] (1728–1814) around the same time, and this copy is kept by Saint Petersburg State University . A version based on the 1805 text was published in 1908 by Ye Dehui , with subsequent scholarship collating this and other partial copies of the Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty to high accuracy. After the disintegration of the Mongol Empire, the Mongols retreated to form

7744-506: Was shorter and titled The Origin of Chinggis Khan ( Chinggis Qan-u ujaγur ) – corresponding to the first words of the text. The common name of the work as it is referred to today is The Secret History of the Mongols , corresponding to the edited work compiled in the late 1300s with the Chinese title Secret History of the Yuan ( 元秘史 ; Yuán mìshǐ ) and the Mongolian title Mongγol-un niγuča tobčiyan , re-transcribed from Chinese ( 忙中豁侖紐察脫卜察安 ; Mánghuòlún Niǔchá Tuōbǔchá'ān —the 卜

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