Subutai was a Tuva Turkic general, and the primary military strategist of
Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan. He directed more than twenty campaigns in
which he conquered thirty-two nations and won sixty-five pitched battles,
during which he conquered or overran more territory than any other commander
in history. He gained victory by means of imaginative and sophisticated
strategies and routinely coordinated movements of armies that were hundreds
of kilometers away from each other. He is also remembered for devising the
campaign that destroyed the armies of Hungary and Poland within two days of
each other, by forces over five hundred kilometers apart.
Early life Historians believe Subutai was born in
the year 1175, probably just west of the upper Onon River in what is now
Mongolia. He belonged to the Uriankhai clan. Subutai's family had been
associated with the family of Temujin for many generations. Subutai's
great-great grandfather, Nerbi was supposedly an ally of the Mongol Khan
Tumbina Sechen. Subutai's father, Jarchigudai, supposedly supplied food to
Temujin and his followers when they were in dire straits at lake Baljuna, and
Subutai's elder brother Jelme also served as a general in the Mongol army
and was a close companion of Temujin. Jelme rescued a severely wounded Temujin
in the process of unification of the Mongolian plateau. Another brother,
Chaurkhan is mentioned in the Secret History of the Mongols.
Despite this close family association, Subutai may be considered proof that the
Mongol Empire was a meritocracy. He was a commoner by birth, the son of
Jarchigudai, who was supposedly a blacksmith. When he was 14 years old,
Subutai left his clan to join Temujin's army, following in the footsteps of his
older brother Jelme who had joined when he was 17 years old. and he rose to the
very highest command available to one who was not a blood relative to Genghis.
Within a decade he rose to become a general, in command of one of 4 tumens
operating in the vanguard. In 1212 he took Huan by storm, the first major
independent exploit mentioned in the sources. Genghis Khan is reported to
have called him one of his "dogs of war" in The Secret History of the Mongols:
"They are the Four Dogs of Temujin. They have foreheads of brass, their jaws are
like scissors, their tongues like piercing awls, their heads are iron,
their whipping tails swords . . . In the day of battle, they devour enemy flesh.
Behold, they are now unleashed, and they slobber at the mouth with glee. These
four dogs are Jebe, and Kublai, Jelme, and Subotai."
Mongol histories say that Subutai said to Genghis Khan, "I will ward off your
enemies as felt cloth protects one from the wind."
As a general Subutai was one of the first Mongol
generals, alongside Genghis Khan, who realized the value of engineers in siege
warfare. Even in field battles he made use of siege engines, much as Chinese
armies had in their own wars. In the Battle of Mohi, the Hungarian
crossbowmen repelled a night bridge crossing by the Mongols, and inflicted
considerable casualties on the Mongols fighting to cross the river the
following day. Subutai ordered huge stonethrowers to clear the bank of
Hungarian crossbowmen and open the way for his light cavalry to cross the river
without further losses. This use of siege weapons was one of the first
recorded uses in the West of artillery outside of siege warfare. While the
stonethrowers were clearing the path to cross the main bridge, Subutai
supervised construction of another temporary bridge downriver to outflank
the Hungarians. Subutai was also well known for
incorporating conquered peoples who brought specialized skills into his
forces, especially engineers. He was skilled at intelligence gathering and
planning his campaigns well in advance. For instance, he used spies to gather
information on the Russian principalities, the Poles, and the
Hungarians at least a year before the attacks on each. He tailored his
strategy to match the enemy, adjusting his tactics according to the opponents,
the terrain, and the weather as required. He emphasized the use of light
cavalry in his army, maneuvering the enemy into feints and ambushes, and
efficiently pursuing and defeating broken armies to destroy further
resistance. Subutai kept his forces in line with the Mongol tradition of
dispensing with excess baggage train and ensured his troops could efficiently
live off the land and rapidly advance great distances on campaign. He
preferred to maneuver the enemy into a position of weakness before committing
to battle. First campaigns in the West
Genghis Khan sent Subutai to hunt down the Merkits. Subutai defeated them on
the Chu River in 1216 and again in 1219 in Wild Kipchak territory. Mohammad II
of Khwarizm attacked Subutai shortly afterwards along the Irghiz. Subutai
held him off after a fierce battle. Genghis Khan led the Mongol army
westwards in late 1219 to invade Khwarizm as retaliation for the
execution of Mongol ambassadors. Subutai commanded the vanguard of the invasion
force. With roughly 130,000 armed men, the Mongol army was numerically inferior
to the forces of the Khwarizim Empire, but through deception and rapid
maneuver, the Mongols crushed the Khwarizim in several key battles.
Mohammad attempted to save himself by fleeing into central Persia, leading
Genghis Khan to send Subutai and Jebe with 20,000 men to hunt him down.
Mohammad eluded capture, but he fell ill and died at a fishing village on the
Caspian Sea in early 1221. Subutai spent part of the winter in
Azerbaijan. Here he conceived the idea of circling the Caspian Sea to fall on
the rear of the Wild Kipchaks and Cumans. After a police action in Persia
and a raid into Georgia, the Mongols cut across the Caucasus Mountains during the
winter to get around the Derbent Pass. Using clever diplomacy, Subutai isolated
and defeated the Alans and Don Kipchaks/Cumans in detail. He crushed a
combined Rus and Cuman army along the Kalka. The campaign concluded with
Subutai rejoining Genghis Khan as the Mongol army was making its way back
home. Against Xi Xia and Jin
Subutai played a key part in the campaign against the Xi Xia in 1226. In
1227, he conquered the Jin districts along the upper Wei River. The Mongol
operations were interrupted by the death of Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan was
succeeded by his son Ögedei. In 1230-1231, Ögedei personally led the
main Mongol army against the Jin, but the attempt to break into the plains of
Henan ended in failure after Subutai was defeated at Shan-ch’e-hui. The Mongols
besieged and took Fengxiang, a secondary target. In 1231-1232 the Mongols made
another attempt. This time Subutai was able to outmaneuver the Jin armies.
The Mongols won decisive victories at Sanfeng, Yangyi, and T’iehling. Ögedei
and the main Mongol army returned to Mongolia, leaving Subutai with a small
force to complete the conquest of Henan. Subutai found it difficult to take the
large cities and needed almost 2 more years to finally eliminate the Jin. He
made an alliance with Song to get help to complete the job. But it did not take
the Song long to fall out with the Mongols. Two Song armies seized Kaifeng
and Luoyang during the summer of 1234. The Mongols returned and retook the
cities. The second series of Western campaigns
Ögedei decided to send a major part of the army into the western regions to
finally crush the Wild Kipchaks and Bulgars. Subutai was tasked to direct
the operations. He defeated Kipchak leader Bachman on the north side of the
Caspian Sea and next conquered the Volga Bulgars. In late 1237, Subutai attacked
Ryazan and Vladimir-Suzdal, operating with 3 columns. The Rus forces were
defeated in 3 separate engagements and their cities were taken in quick
succession. The Mongols spent the summer of 1238 resting along the Don River.
Columns were sent out to subjugate the various tribes living in the plains
around the Black Sea. In 1239, the Rus state of Chernigov was defeated and
their cities were taken. The Mongols had made a treaty with
Galich-Vladimir, whose prince was therefore taken by surprise when the
Mongols suddenly attacked in December 1240. Kiev, Vladimir, and other cities
were quickly taken. The Mongols were ready to enter Central Europe. Subutai
operated with several separate detachments, aiming to distract on the
flanks, while he dealt with the main Hungarian army in the center. The
Mongols defeated European armies at Chmielnik, Kronstadt, Liegnitz, Muhi,
and Hermannstadt. Hungary was overrun. The Mongols set out for home in 1242,
after learning that Ögedei had died, relieving Vienna and the rest of Central
Europe from further assaults. Attack on central and eastern Europe
The attack on Europe was planned and carried out by Subutai, who achieved his
lasting fame with his victories there. Having devastated the various Russian
Principalities, he sent spies as far as Poland, Hungary, and Austria, in
preparation for an attack into the heartland of Europe. Having a clear
picture of the European kingdoms, he brilliantly prepared an attack nominally
commanded by Batu Khan and two other princes of the blood. While Batu Khan,
son of Jochi, was the overall leader, Subutai was the actual commander in the
field, and as such was present in both the northern and southern campaigns
against Kievan Rus'. He also commanded the central column that moved against
the Kingdom of Hungary. While Kadan's northern force won the Battle of Legnica
and Güyük's army triumphed in Transylvania, Subutai was waiting for
them on the Hungarian plain. King Béla IV of Hungary had summoned a
council of war at Esztergom, a large and important settlement upriver from Buda
and Pest. As Batu was advancing on Hungary from the northeast, the
Hungarian leadership decided to concentrate their strength at Pest and
then head north to confront the Mongol army. When news of the Hungarian battle
strategy reached the Mongol commanders, they slowly withdrew to the Sajo River,
drawing their enemies on. This was a classic Mongol strategy, ultimately
perfected by Subutai. He prepared a battlefield suitable to his tactics, and
waited for his enemies to blunder in. It was a strong position, because woods
prevented their ranks from being clearly scouted or seen, while across the river
on the plain of Mohi, the Hungarian army was widely exposed.
Only one day after the smaller Mongol army in Poland had won the Battle of
Legnica, Subutai launched his attack, thus beginning the Battle of Mohi during
the night of April 10, 1241. At Mohi, a single division crossed the river in
secret to advance on the Hungarian camp from the southern flank. The main body
began to cross the Sajo by the bridge at Mohi, and continued to attack the
following day. This was met with fierce resistance, so catapults were used to
clear the opposite bank of crossbowmen, as was noted earlier. When the crossing
was completed, the second contingent attacked from the south.
The result was complete panic, and, to ensure that the Hungarians did not fight
to the last man, the Mongols left an obvious gap in their encirclement. This
was one of Subutai's classic tricks, to create a tactical situation which
appeared to be favorable to the enemy, but which was anything but. The Mongols
had already incurred heavier than usual casualties as the Hungarian crossbowmen
had done considerable damage to the Mongol cavalry. Subutai did not want a
battle where the massed crossbowmen, supported by mounted Knights, stood firm
and fought to the death against his army. He far preferred to let them flee
and be slaughtered individually. The gap in the Mongol lines was an invitation to
retreat, which would leave the Knights and crossbowmen spread out all over the
countryside, easy pickings for the disciplined Mongols. As Subutai had
planned, the Hungarians poured through this apparent hole in the Mongol lines,
which led to a swampy area, poor footing for horses and hard going for infantry.
When the Hungarian knights split up, the Mongol archers picked them off at will.
It was later noted that corpses littered the countryside over the space of a
two-day journey. Two archbishops and three bishops were killed at the Sajo,
plus 40,000 fighting men. At one stroke, the bulk of Hungarian fighting men were
totally destroyed, with relatively minimal casualties to the Mongols,
reportedly less than 1,000 men. Final years
By late 1241, Subutai was discussing plans to invade the Holy Roman Empire,
when news came of the death of Ögedei Khan. Over the objections of Subutai,
the Mongol Princes withdrew the army to Mongolia for the election of a new Great
Khan. The death of Ögedei effectively put an end to the Mongol invasion of
Europe. Subutai insisted that Batu attend the
kurultai to elect the successor of Ogedei in Mongolian heartland. Batu
declined to come and Güyük was elected after 3 years. Güyük had no love for
Batu and wanted this best of the Mongol generals unavailable to Batu if the feud
between them came to open war. The new Khagan placed Subutai in charge at the
age of 70 of the campaign against the Song dynasty for 1246–1247. The Papal
envoy Plano Carpini saw him when he was in Karakorum, Mongolia. He said Subutai
was well respected among the Mongols and called Knight/Valiant. Subutai returned
to Mongolia from the Song campaign in 1248 and spent the rest of his life at
his home in the vicinity of the Tuul River, dying there at the age of 72. His
descendants such as Uryankhadai and Aju would serve the Great Khans for the next
three decades as commanders. Historical fiction
Until the Sun Falls by Cecelia Holland The Snow Warrior by Don Dandrea
Conqueror series by Conn Iggulden The Mongoliad series by Neal Stephenson,
Erik Bear, Greg Bear, Joseph Brassey, Nicole Galland, Cooper Moo, Mark Teppo
and others, including fans. Notes
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Volga-Ural Region 1217–1237, Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 3, 1983
Amitai-Preiss, Reuven. The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War. Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 0-521-52290-0 Boyle, John Andrew, History of the World
Conqueror, Manchester, 1958 de Rachewiltz, Igor, In the Service of
the Khan: Eminent personalities of the early Mongol-Yuan period, Wiesbaden,
1992 de Rachewiltz, Igor, The Secret History
of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century,
Brill, 2004 Devi, Savitri, The Lightning and the
Sun, 1958 ISBN 978-0-937944-14-1 Gabriel, Richard A.. Subotai the
Valiant: Genghis Khan's Greatest General. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger
Publishers. ISBN 0-275-97582-7. Retrieved 25 January 2014 – via
Questia.). Morgan, David. The Mongols. Oxford:
Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-17563-6 Nicolle, David. The Mongol Warlords,
Brockhampton Press. Reagan, Geoffry. The Guinness Book of
Decisive Battles, Canopy Books, NY. Saunders, J. J.. The History of the
Mongol Conquests, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. ISBN 0-8122-1766-7
Sicker, Martin. The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab Conquests to
the Siege of Vienna, Praeger Publishers. Soucek, Svatopluk. A History of Inner
Asia, Cambridge University Press. Strakosch-Grassmann, Einfall der
Mongolen in Mittel-Europa 1241–1242, Innsbruck, 1893
Thackston, W.M., Rashiduddin Fazlullah’s Jamiʻuʾt-tawarikh, Harvard University,
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998–99
Turnbull, Stephen. Genghis Khan & the Mongol Conquests 1190–1400, Osprey
Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-523-6 References
External links Subedei the Warrior