Mongolian General Zelme

 

Thanks, then, I like to name my article successors of Urianghai General Zelme.

 

There were two branches of Urianghai tribe during the time of Chinggis Khan, steppe Urianghai was categorized as one of the Darligin Mongols, General Zelme and General Subedei were from the steppe Urianghai; Forest Urianghai was the Siberian hunters, their leader Udachi was famous for that he was appointed to guard Chinggis Khan's mausoleum.

 

General Zelme was the leader of the imperial kesig(bodyguard), he was dead before Chinggis Khan, his son Yisun-Te'e was appointed to be leader of the Horchin(archer) kesig by Chinggis Khan who appraised that "he can fight without rest, food and water for several days"(History of Yuan Dynasty). However, Yisun-Te'e was finally excuted for his rebellion against Mengke Khan, we got no clues about his reasons of rebellion, it's probably that he was loyal to Ogedei Khan and his family and was not satisfied with that Tolui's successor Mengke ascended the throng.

 

Another son of General Zelme was Yisu-Buqa-Tayisi who was successor of his father, leader of Urianghai people and an important old minister of Ogedei's court. Ogedei Khan admired him and gave him the title of Tayisi, emperor's teacher in Chinese, of course, Tayisi was not so important official title during that time although Tayisi was even more powerful than Khan himself in the northern Yuan dynasty. Yisu-Buqa should be dead during the time of Ogedei Khan, and his desendants succeeded to be the leaders of Urianghai tribe in homeland of Mongolia.

 

General Zelme had a younger brother Chaurkhan who could also be considered one of successors of General Zelme. Chaurkhan was appointed to be assistant of King Eljitai(son of Chinggis Khan's Younger brother Khajiun) with his 2000 Oirad troop. King Eljitai's successors were executed for rebellion against Khubilai Khan, and Chaurkhan's successors probably joined the rebellion and were punished by Khubilai Khan or they became the new leaders of the Uljitai kingdom.

 

There were at least two tribes who claimed to descend from General Zelme's Urianghai in the later history of the Mongols. One was Doyan Urianghai, whose Urianghai nobles claims their ancestor was Gibog, an unknown son of General Zelme, it's said that he ever married a daughter of Chinggis Khan and got the title Tabunang(Golden family's son in law), however there's no any famous princess ever married Urianghai nobles according to chronicles, so we cannot get more clues about this son of General Zelme. Doyan Urianghai was people of Uljitai Kingdom, if Doyan Urianghai's leaders were not Chaurkhan's successors but Zelme's, that means Chaurkhan's successors should join rebellion against Khubilai Khan and were punished with Eljitai family, while Gibog's family didn't join them and became the new leader of this kingdom later. Some presumes that Gibog was Yisun-Te'e, which apparently isn't reasonable because Yisun-Te'e was famous general, if he married a princess of the golden family, we should find out the evidences from chronicles and, there's no possibility for a downfallen family to immigrate from Beijing to North-eastern Mongolia and become the leaders of Uljitai kingdom.  

 

Another tribe's nobels who claimed they were descendants of General Zelme, were the Choros, the most powerful one of west Mongols, the Oirad tribal alliance. Esen Tayisi, who ever ascended to throng of Mongolia during the northern Yuan dynasty, claimed he was the 9th generation successor of General Zelme according to Mongolian chronicle, and Chinese chronicle also recorded that Dzungaria(Choros) nobles were descendants of Yisu Taiwei, who should be Yisu-Buqa Tayisi recorded by Persian historian, there's no or less records about him in Mongolian and Chinese chronicles, so it's possible that Persian or Chinese historians got a wrong information about Yisu-Buqa's title. For rebellion of Yisun-te'e against Mengke Khan and rebellion of Uljitai Kingdom against Khubilai Khan, we can presume that the Urianghai in homeland led by Yisu-Buqa's successors probably couldn't maintain a better relationship with Yuan court, so they probably led Urianghai to join the Oriad alliance under the rule of Arik-boke's successors and got the new names Choros, Dzungar and others later. During the northern Yuan dynasty, Esen Tayisi's grandfather rised to be the most powerful leader among the Oirad, west Mongols, and his father defeated east Mongol's Arugtai tayisi and lead the Oirad to the power against east Mongol, Esen tayisi united all Mongols and claimed himself the great Khan of Mongol Khanate, however his empire was collapsed for faction soon.