Since international Women’s day approaches, I thought I’d do a quick piece on one of
the most common questions regarding women in the Mongol Empire- that is, were there
female Mongolian warriors? The answer is no, but also, yes! Allow me to explain.
In Mongol society, men needed to be freed up to be called for war. Due to the small
population of Mongols, every possible man counted for battle. Due to this, and the existing
difficulties of the steppe lifestyle, Mongolian and nomadic women in general enjoyed greater
economic, domestic, and socio-political freedom than women in contemporary, sedentary societies.
Every Mongol girl, as well as the boys, learned to ride a horse and shoot a bow, the building
blocks of the Mongol military. But did they fight in the actual conquests of the Mongols?
By and large, no. Normal Mongol women would not be called up for battle: no one would
be left to maintain the herds. As we will see, the only exceptions were upper-class
women,often in cases of revenge.
We’ll look at the most notable examples chronologically. The Persian historian and
Ilkhanid vizier Rashid al-Din, a generally well informed individual, describes Chinggis
Khan’s own mother Hoelun battling part of the tribe when they tried to abandon her family
after her husband Yesugei’s death- but this is unsupported in the Secret History of the
Mongols, and if Hoelun was being abandoned by the whole tribe, where did she find the
numbers for battle? This could just be Rashid playing up the episode where she waves her
husband’s horsetail standard before the departing tribe, but we’ll include the mention
anyways.
Juvaini describes how, in revenge for the death of her husband Toquchar, a daughter
of Chinggis Khan [Tumelun] and her bodyguard entered the city of Nishapur in 1221 and took
part in the slaughter- but it is unclear if she fought in the actual siege and battle,
which was led by her brother Tolui, or just the ensuing sacking of the city once the armed
resistance had broken. The brutality, and need to avenge her husband, is made clear
by the sources.
Also in 1221, we have a case recorded by ibn al-Athir. After Jebe and Subutai’s pursuit
of the Khwarezm-shah Muhammad II, they spent some time hopping across Northwestern Iran
and the Caucasus, sacking and taking cities. One of these was Maragha, falling to them
in March 1221. In al-Athir’s account, he describes an armoured women entering a house,
killing several people and taking the remainder prisoner. Only when she put her weapons and
armour down did the prisoners realize she was a woman, then surprised and killed her.
We have no other information on this anonymous woman, and the incident is not mentioned in
other accounts of the sack of Maragha. This is possibly as close as we come for a regular
woman in the Mongol army, rather than a Chinggisid princess.
The most famous example is Qutulun, a daughter of Qaidu Khan, who dominated Central Asia
from the 1270s to his death in 1301. Qutulun is described by her contemporaries Marco Polo
and Rashid al-Din as Qaidu’s favourite child. While most famous for her wrestling proweress,
she is explicitly described as taking part in campaigns and battles, and was singled
out for her bravery. After Qaidu’s death, Qutulun wished to take control of the army
for her brother Orus, but was forced into an early retirement by another brother, Chapar,
and the Chagatai Khan Du’a. She spent the remainder of her life guarding her father’s
tomb, until killed in a Chagatayid raid in 1307.
The final named Mongolian woman we know who took part in battle was Konchek, a daughter
of the third Ilkhan, Teguder Ahmad. Konchek was married to Irinjin, a non-Chinggisid amir
who took part in a revolt against the powerful amir Chupan in the final years of the Ilkhanate.
The Persian writer Mustawfi writes that Konchek fought bravely in the battle against Chupan
and the Ilkhan Abu Sa’id in June 1319, and was killed. So notable was her valour that
the Mongols gave her a man’s name ‘Ahmad,’ signalling in part how unusual it was for
a woman to take a direct role in combat.
And there is our known named women who fought in battle, though we also have examples of
women fighting in irregular situations: such as El Qutlugh Khatun, whose husband was killed
during the usurpation of Baidu in 1295, After Baidu’s short reign, El Qutlught hunted
down her husband’s murderer, decapitated him and hung his severed head from her horse.
Described as proud, a skilled horsewoman, archer and devout Muslim, apparently it took
a royal decree for her to finally get rid of the severed head. A recent archaeological
find in northern Mongolia from the early 14th century may also be a female warrior. Around
180 cm tall, she was considerably larger and more muscled than average contemporary women.
Buried with a knife, hatchet and a saddle- more common for male graves, but with bone
structure of a woman, immediately people assumed she was a warrior. Yet, the skeleton shows
no sign of battle injuries, and we await further study to confirm the sex and the hypothesis.
So there are cases of female warriors among the Mongols, but they were uncommon, and generally
restricted to Chinggisid princesses. Of course, a woman's worth is not weighed in the number
of cities she sacks, or civilians she slaughters, and Mongolian women took on numerous, far
more important roles in service to their families and Khan than as front line troops. From imperial
regents, like Toregene Khatun, to educating their children to managing herds and hearths,
to organizing and managing camps and the imperial ordo in the Khan’s absence, women were an
integral part to the function of the Mongol Empire in day-to-day life and at the administrative
level.
You can look forward to a video on Chinggis Khan’s mother, Hoelun, coming soon as a
part of a larger Youtuber collaboration for Women’s History Month, a playlist you won’t
want to miss- check it out March 20th!