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Keraite Khanate (Kereyid)

The wealthiest and best-organised of the twelfth-century plateau khanates, centred on the Tuul River, with a Church-of-the-East Christian ruling house and a gold palace-tent court whose day guard and ba'atur corps Chinggis Khan later copied. Its khan Toghril, titled Ong Khan by the Jin in 1196, was Temujin's patron and then his rival.

Defeated by Temujin in 1203 after the Kereyid victory at Qalaqaljid Sands; Ong Khan fled and was killed by the Naiman, and the Kereyid people were distributed among the victorious Mongol units.

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Further reading

• Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire Christopher P. Atwood · 2004

  The standard reference entry on the Kereyid: territory, Christian ruling house, court organisation, and the fall to Temujin in 1203.

• The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368 Herbert Franke & Denis Twitchett (eds.) · 1994

  Allsen's chapter narrates the 1199-1203 campaigns that destroyed the Kereyid khanate step by step.

Sources

• Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire (2004), s.v. 'Kereyid', pp. 295-96 (full text)
• Cambridge History of China vol. 6, Allsen 'The rise of the Mongolian empire' pp. 338-42 and Dunnell 'The Hsi Hsia' p. 206 (full text)
• Wikipedia, 'Keraites' (index/QID only)