Öljei Temür Khan
Encyclopedia
Öljei Temür Khan was the Mongol khan
Khan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...

 of the Northern Yuan Dynasty in Mongolia. He was a son of Elbeg Nigülesügchi Khan and younger brother of Gün Temür Khan. He was one of the Borjigin
Borjigin
Borjigin , also known as the Altan urug , were the imperial clan of Genghis Khan and his successors....

 princes, such as Tokhtamysh
Tokhtamysh
Tokhtamysh was the prominent khan of the White Horde, who briefly unified the White Horde and Blue Horde subdivisions of the Golden Horde into a single state. He was a descendant of Genghis Khan's eldest grandson, Orda Khan or his brother Tuqa-Timur...

 and Temur Qutlugh
Temur Qutlugh
Temür Qutlugh was a khan of Golden Horde in 1397–1399. He was a son of Timur-Malik, khan of the White Horde, who struggled against Toqtamysh. After the death of Temur Malik in 1379 Qutlugh was reared at Toqtamysh's court. After an unsuccessful revolt against Toqtamysh in 1388, he, along with...

, backed by Tamerlane to seize the throne.

Early life

Tsagaan Sechen tells that Bunyashiri (Buyanshir) was born in 1379. Twenty years after his birth, his father, Elbeg,
was murdered by the Oirats
Oirats
Oirats are the westernmost group of the Mongols who unified several tribes origin whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of western Mongolia. Although the Oirats originated in the eastern parts of Central Asia, the most prominent group today is located in the Republic of Kalmykia, a federal...

 led by Bahamu and Guilichi. In 1402, his older brother, Gün Temür Khan was killed by Örüg Temür Khan
Örüg Temür Khan
Örüg Temür or Gulichi was a Mongol leader who temporarily throned himself Khan of the Mongols in the early 15th century. He might be the same person, Ugechi Khashikha who appeared in Mongolian history. Khashikha means prince or duke in Tungusic languages...

 Guilichi in the struggle for the crown. Due to internal struggles of the Mongols, the infant prince, Bunyashiri, fled to Beshbalik where Timur
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...

's governor stationed. Timur ordered his governor to receive him kindly. Bunyashiri converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 while he stayed at the court of Timur in Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...

.

However, Örüg Temür Khan Guilichi’s victory was short lived when he made several grave miscalculation. The first was when he replaced Mongol Khan with Tatar Khan, alienating many other Mongol clans that were not Tatar. The second one was that Örüg Temür Khan
Örüg Temür Khan
Örüg Temür or Gulichi was a Mongol leader who temporarily throned himself Khan of the Mongols in the early 15th century. He might be the same person, Ugechi Khashikha who appeared in Mongolian history. Khashikha means prince or duke in Tungusic languages...

 Guilichi abolished the name Yuan
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...

, because he needed to show Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

 friendly gesture as Ming’s subordinate so that he could consolidate his power and conquer other Mongol clans. This move was totally unacceptable to most if not all Mongols who wanted to recover their former glory and retake China proper by defeating Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

, which originally begun as rebellions
Red Turban Rebellion
The Red Turban Rebellion was an uprising much influenced by the White Lotus Society members that targeted the ruling Yuan Dynasty.- Causes :...

 against the Yuan Dynasty
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...

.

Reign and success

Taking the opportunity, Bunyashiri declared himself as the new Khan with the title of Öljei Temür (Өлзий төмөр) at Beshbalik in 1403 and most Mongol clans soon rallied on his side. Arughtai
Arughtai
Arughtai, also known as Alutai , was a chingsang of the Mongol Dynasty, who fought against the Yongle Emperor of Ming Dynasty China and the Four Oirats....

 of the Asud
Asud
Asud were a guard and military group of Alani origin. The Mongol clan Asud is the plural of As, the Arabic name for the Alans.After the Mongol invasion of Rus, many Alans submitted to the Mongol Empire. Some of them resisted the Golden Horde longer. Many warriors moved from Northern Caucasia to...

 acknowledged his suzerainty and was made chingsang (grand chancellor) of him. Oljei Temür Khan Bunyashiri's direct linkage of Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....

 line only further strengthened his position: though Örüg Temür Khan
Örüg Temür Khan
Örüg Temür or Gulichi was a Mongol leader who temporarily throned himself Khan of the Mongols in the early 15th century. He might be the same person, Ugechi Khashikha who appeared in Mongolian history. Khashikha means prince or duke in Tungusic languages...

 declared himself as Khan, his claim was not recognized by most Mongol clans. The Ming court stepped up its divide and rule
Divide and rule
In politics and sociology, divide and rule is a combination of political, military and economic strategy of gaining and maintaining power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into chunks that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy...

 tactics on Northern Yuan Mongols by dispatching a eunuch
Eunuch
A eunuch is a person born male most commonly castrated, typically early enough in his life for this change to have major hormonal consequences...

, Wan An, to help Bunyashiri. Örüg Temür Khan
Örüg Temür Khan
Örüg Temür or Gulichi was a Mongol leader who temporarily throned himself Khan of the Mongols in the early 15th century. He might be the same person, Ugechi Khashikha who appeared in Mongolian history. Khashikha means prince or duke in Tungusic languages...

 Guilichi was soon defeated and although Guilichi’s son continued to carry on the struggle for the position of the khan all the way till his death in 1425, they were never be able to pose any serious threat to Bunyashiri’s force, whose main enemy was the Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

.

In 1409, the Chinese court bestowed upon the Oirat leaders the title of wang
Chinese nobility
Chinese sovereignty and peerage, the nobility of China, were an important feature of traditional social and political organization of Imperial China. While the concepts of hereditary sovereign and peerage titles and noble families were featured as early as the semi-mythical, early historical...

, exacerbating the Mongol-Oirat conflict. Öljei Temür Khan attacked the Four Oirats
Four Oirats
The Four Oirats or the Alliance of the Four Oirat tribes was the confederation of the Oirat tribes, which marked the rise of the Western Mongols in Mongolian history.Despite the universal currency of the term Four Oirats among Eastern Mongols and Oirats and numerous explanations by...

 and failed to subjugate his stubborn subjects.

After hearing of a new Borjigin
Borjigin
Borjigin , also known as the Altan urug , were the imperial clan of Genghis Khan and his successors....

 Emperor consolidating his power over the Mongols, the Ming king, Yongle, demanded Öljei Temür Khan to submit. The Mongolian court decided to decline it and detained the Chinese envoy. Arughtai executed another Ming envoy in 1409. A punitive expedition
Punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...

 of the Ming led by Ch'iu Fu was crushed and the general and several other commanders lost their lives
Battle of Kherlen
The battle of Kherlen was a battle between Borjigin Mongolia and Ming China that took place at the banks of Kherlen River in Mongolia on 23 September 1409....

 at the hand of Arughtai on September 23, 1409.

Last stand

After decisively defeating the Ming army, the enraged Yongle Emperor gathered a half a million strong force to launch a decisive campaign against Öljei Temür Khan Bunyashiri. Before the battle, Öljei Temür Khan and Arughtai could not agree on a plan of action and simply moved in different directions. Arughtai decided to withdraw to the east of Mongolia while Öljei Temür Khan Bunyashiri headed west and set up his ordo (palace) on the banks of the Onon River
Onon River
The Onon is a river in Mongolia and Russia of length 818 km and watershed 94,010 km². It originates at the eastern slope of the Khentii Mountains. For 298 km it flows within Mongolia...

. He was suddenly forced to accept a battle in which Ming army won a sounding victory by nearly completely wiping out the entire Mongol force that numbered more than a hundred thousands in 15 June 1410. Öljei Temür Khan Bunyashiri was barely able to escape with his life with only seven cavalries and his son while all the rest were lost. He was trying to reach the Chagatai Khanate
Chagatai Khanate
The Chagatai Khanate was a Turko-Mongol khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan , second son of the Great Khan Genghis Khan, and his descendents and successors...

 where he was grown up. Capitalizing on the Khan’s mistake, the Oirat
Oirats
Oirats are the westernmost group of the Mongols who unified several tribes origin whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of western Mongolia. Although the Oirats originated in the eastern parts of Central Asia, the most prominent group today is located in the Republic of Kalmykia, a federal...

 leader, Mahamud, killed him in 1412 and installed his own puppet khan, Delbeg (or Dalbag)
Delbeg Khan
Delbeg was the Mongol Khan of the Northern Yuan Dynasty in Mongolia. The Oirats finally installed the young Delbeg in 1412 as their puppet Mongol Khan, but this was not recognized by most of Mongol clans in the central and eastern Mongol territories.According to Saghan Secen, Delbeg was a son of...

, on the throne in 1413. The death of Öljei Temür Khan Bunyashiri marked the temporary decline of Borjigin
Borjigin
Borjigin , also known as the Altan urug , were the imperial clan of Genghis Khan and his successors....

 line, and different Mongol clans fought each other for dominance.
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