Ögedei Khan (also Ögedei Khagan or Ogodei; c. 1186 – 11 December 1241) was the second khan of the Mongol Empire. The third son of Genghis Khan, he continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun.
Born in c. 1186 AD, Ögedei fought in numerous battles during his father's rise to power. After being granted a large appanage and taking a number of wives, including Töregene, he played a prominent role in the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire. When his older brothers Jochi and Chagatai quarrelled over strategies when besieging Gurganj, Genghis appointed Ögedei sole commander; his successful capture of the city in 1221 ensured his military reputation. He was confirmed as heir after further infighting between his elder brothers led to both being excluded from succession plans. Genghis died in 1227, and Ögedei was elected as khan in 1229, after a two-year regency led by his younger brother Tolui.
As khan, Ögedei pursued the expansionist policies of his father. He launched a second invasion of Persia led by Chormaqan Noyan in 1230, which subdued the Khwarazmian prince Jalal al-Din Mangburni and began to subjugate Georgia. He initiated the Mongol invasions of Korea in 1231 and completed the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty in 1234, and his armies skirmished with the Song dynasty and in India. By the time of his death in 1241, large armies under the command of his nephew Batu Khan and the great general Subutai had subdued the steppes and penetrated deep into Europe. These armies defeated Poland at Legnica and Hungary at Mohi before retreating. It is likely that this retreat was caused by the need to find a successor after Ögedei's death, although some scholars have speculated that the Mongols were simply unable to invade further because of logistical difficulties.
As an administrator, Ögedei continued to develop the fast-growing Mongol state. Working with officials such as Yelü Chucai, he developed ortogh trading systems, instituted methods of tax collection, and established regional bureaucracies which controlled legal and economic affairs. He also founded the Mongol capital city, Karakorum, in the 1230s. Although historically disregarded in comparison to his father, especially on account of his alcoholism, he was known to be charismatic, good-natured, and intelligent. He was succeeded by his son Güyük.
Ögedei was the third son of Temüjin and Börte Ujin. He participated in the turbulent events of his father's rise. When Ögedei was 17 years old, Temüjin experienced the disastrous defeat of Khalakhaljid Sands against the army of Jamukha. Ögedei was heavily wounded and lost on the battlefield. His father's adopted brother and companion Borokhula rescued him. Although he was already married, in 1204 his father gave him Töregene, the wife of a defeated Merkit chief. The addition of such a wife was not uncommon in steppe culture.
After Temüjin was proclaimed Genghis Khan in 1206, myangans (thousands) of the Jalayir, Besud, Suldus, and Khongqatan clans were given to him as his appanage. Ögedei's territory occupied the Emil and Hobok rivers. According to his father's wish, Ilugei, the commander of the Jalayir, became Ögedei's tutor.
Ögedei, along with his brothers, campaigned independently for the first time in November 1211 against the Jin dynasty. He was sent to ravage the land south through Hebei and then north through Shanxi in 1213. Ögedei's force drove the Jin garrison out of the Ordos, and he rode to the juncture of the Xi Xia, Jin, and Song domains.
During the Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia, Ögedei and Chagatai massacred the residents of Otrar after a five-month siege in 1219–20 and joined Jochi who was outside the walls of Urganch. Because Jochi and Chagatai were quarreling over the military strategy, Ögedei was appointed by Genghis Khan to oversee the siege of Urganch. They captured the city in 1221. When the rebellion broke out in southeast Persia and Afghanistan, Ögedei also pacified Ghazni.
The Empress Yisui insisted that Genghis Khan designate an heir before the invasion of the Khwarezmid Empire in 1219. After the terrible brawl between two elder sons Jochi and Chagatai, they agreed that Ögedei was to be chosen as heir. Genghis confirmed their decision.
Genghis Khan died in 1227, and Jochi had died a year or two earlier. Ögedei's younger brother Tolui held the regency until 1229. Ögedei was elected supreme khan in 1229, according to the kurultai held at Kodoe Aral on the Kherlen River after Genghis' death, although this was never really in doubt as it was Genghis' clear wish that he be succeeded by Ögedei. After ritually declining three times, Ögedei was proclaimed Khan of the Mongols on 13 September 1229 at the Kurultai of the Kherlen's Khödöö Aral. Chagatai continued to support his younger brother's claim.
After destroying the Khwarazmian empire, Genghis Khan was free to move against Western Xia. In 1226, however, Jalal al-Din Mangburni, the last of the Khwarezm monarchs, returned to Persia to revive the empire lost by his father, Muhammad ‘Ala al-Din II. The Mongol forces sent against him in 1227 were defeated at Dameghan. Another army that marched against Jalal al-Din scored a pyrrhic victory in the vicinity of Isfahan but was unable to follow up that success.
With Ögedei's consent to launch a campaign, Chormaqan Noyan left Bukhara at the head of 30,000 to 50,000 Mongol soldiers. He occupied Persia and Khorasan, two long-standing bases of Khwarazmian support. Crossing the Amu Darya River in 1230 and entering Khorasan without encountering any opposition, Chormaqan passed through quickly. He left a sizable contingent behind under the command of Dayir Baghatur, who had further instructions to invade western Afghanistan. Chormaqan and the majority of his army then entered Tabaristan (modern-day Mazandaran), a region between the Caspian Sea and Alborz mountains, in the autumn of 1230, thus avoiding the mountainous area to the south, which was controlled by the Nizari Ismailis (the Assassins).
Upon reaching the city of Rey, Chormaqan made his winter camp there and dispatched his armies to pacify the rest of northern Persia. In 1231, he led his army southward and quickly captured the cities of Qum and Hamadan. From there, he sent armies into the regions of Fars and Kirman, whose rulers quickly submitted, preferring to pay tribute to Mongol overlords rather than having their states ravaged. Meanwhile, further east, Dayir Baghatur steadily achieved his goals in capturing Kabul, Ghazni, and Zabulistan. With the Mongols already in control of Persia, Jalal al-Din was isolated in Transcaucasia where he was banished. Thus all of Persia was added to the Mongol Empire.
At the end of 1230, responding to the Jins' unexpected defeat of Doqolqu Cherbi (Mongol general), Ögedei went south to Shanxi with Tolui, clearing the area of the Jin forces and taking the city of Fengxiang. After passing the summer in the north, they again campaigned against the Jin in Henan, cutting through territory of South China to assault the Jin's rear. By 1232 the Jin Emperor was besieged in his capital of Kaifeng. Ögedei soon departed, leaving the final conquest to his generals. After taking several cities, the Mongols, with the belated assistance of the Song dynasty, destroyed the Jin with the fall of Caizhou in February 1234. However, a viceroy of the Song murdered a Mongol ambassador, and the Song armies recaptured the former imperial capitals of Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Chang'an, which were now ruled by the Mongols.
In addition to the war with the Jin dynasty, Ögedei crushed the Eastern Xia founded by Puxian Wannu in 1233, pacifying southern Manchuria. Ögedei subdued the Water Tatars in the northern part of the region and suppressed their rebellion in 1237.
Conquest of Georgia and Armenia
The Mongols under Chormaqan returned to the Caucasus in 1232. The walls of Ganja were breached by catapult and battering ram in 1235. The Mongols eventually withdrew after the citizens of Irbil agreed to send a yearly tribute to Ögedei's court. Chormaqan waited until 1238, when the force of Möngke Khan was also active in the north Caucasus. After subduing Armenia, Chormaqan took Tiflis. In 1238, the Mongols captured Lorhe whose ruler, Shahanshah, fled with his family before the Mongols arrived, leaving the rich city to its fate. After putting up a spirited defense at Hohanaberd, the city's ruler, Hasan Jalal, submitted to the Mongols. Another column then advanced against Gaian, ruled by Prince Avak. The Mongol commander Tokhta ruled out a direct assault and had his men construct a wall around the city, and Avak soon surrendered. By 1240, Chormaqan had completed the conquest of Transcaucasia, forcing the Georgian nobles to surrender.