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Naiman Khanate

The most powerful and most literate of the plateau khanates, straddling the Altai, Turkic-speaking despite its Mongolic name ('eight'). Unlike its neighbours it had a single ruling dynasty, frontier guards, a throne and a seal kept by a Uighur scribe — the state whose captured scribe Tatar-Tonga gave the Mongols their alphabet.

Destroyed by Chinggis Khan in May 1204 on the southern slopes of the Altai, where Tayang Khan fell; his son Kuchlug fled to the Qara Khitai, usurped its throne in 1211 and was killed by the Mongols in 1218.

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Further reading

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

  The fullest short account of Naiman territory, the divided kingship, the literate chancery, and the 1204 destruction.

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

  Dates the campaigns precisely (1199 joint attack on Buyruq; May 1204 final battle) and follows Kuchlug into the Qara Khitai.

Sources

• Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire (2004), s.v. 'Naiman', pp. 397-98 (full text)
• Cambridge History of China vol. 6, Allsen 'The rise of the Mongolian empire' pp. 338-42, 354 (full text)
• Wikipedia, 'Naimans' (index/QID only; no infobox dates present)