Kaidu or Qaidu, (1230 - 1301) was the leader of the House of Ogedei and the de facto khan of the Chagatai Khanate. Kaidu opposed the Great Khan Kublai until his death in 1301.
Kaidu was the son of Kashin[1] a grandson of Ögedei Khan and a great-grandson of Genghis Khan and Börte. He ruled part of Eastern Turkestan (modern Xinjiang) and Central Asia during the 13th century, and actively opposed his uncle, Kublai Khan, who established the Yuan Dynasty in China.
In 1260, Marco Polo described Yarkand, part of the area under Kaidu as "five days' journey in extent"; that its inhabitants were mostly Muslim although there were also some Nestorian and Jacobite Assyrians; and that it had plenty of food and other necessities, "especially cotton."[2]
Kaidu controlled most of Central Asia and, for a time, much of present-day Mongolia, including Karakorum, the former capital of the Mongol Empire. Since about 1263, when Kublai Khan was warring with his own brother Ariq Böke, who was proclaimed Great Khan at Karakorum, Kaidu began to have major conflicts with Kublai and his ally, the Ilkhanate. By 1269 he had obtained support from the Chagatai Khanate and the Golden Horde, and held an assembly to oppose Kublai and the Ilkhanate in Persia. Kaidu had waged almost continuous warfare for more than 30 years against Kublai and his successor Temür, though he eventually fell in 1301, when he was defeated and wounded during a battle near Karakorum and died shortly afterwards.
Medieval chroniclers often mistranslated Kadan as Kaidu, mistakenly placing Kaidu at the Battle of Legnica. Kadan was the brother of Güyük, and Kaidu's uncle.[3]
References
- ^ Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa. The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2, Book 4, Chapter 1. Edited and annotated by Henry Yule and revised by Henri Cordier, 3rd Ed. 1903.
- ^ Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa. The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 35. Edited and annotated by Henry Yule and revised by Henri Cordier, 3rd Ed. 1903.
- ^ Chambers, James. The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe. Atheneum. New York. 1979. ISBN 0-689-10942-3
External links
- Hill, John E. The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu, Second Edition, 2003. (Based on 2004 edition, not yet online)
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