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Mongolia
Index
It was not until the summer of 1246 that a kuriltai
assembled at Karakorum to select a successor to Ogedei. This was
mainly because of political maneuvering by Batu and other royal
princes who had hopes of being elected. While deliberately
stalling in Bulghar in 1241, Batu founded Sarai (near modern
Leninsk, Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic) on the
lower Volga River, as the capital of his Khanate of Kipchak, best
known to history as the
Golden Horde (see Glossary;
The Golden Horde
, this ch.).
Between 1242 and 1246, Ogedei's widow, Teregene, held power
as regent in preparation for the selection of her son, Kuyuk, as
the new khan. Present during the kuriltai was the
Franciscan friar, John of Plano Carpini, a papal envoy sent to
ascertain the intentions of the Mongols. He recognized that the
Mongols planned the conquest of Europe, and he belatedly urged
Europe's monarchs to adopt Mongol strategy and tactics to oppose
the coming onslaught.
Kuyuk apparently was torn between completing the conquest of
China and continuing the conquest of Europe. The latter project
was complicated, however, by Kuyuk's continuing rivalry with
Batu. Just as civil war seemed imminent in 1249, Kuyuk died.
Data as of June 1989
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