The Mongolian empire is remembered for their barbaric conquests, and the power of their
great leaders that managed to spread the empire across several continents.
But one of the most fascinating people who has been forgotten from the empire is the
warrior princess Khutulun.
She was the great-great granddaughter of Genghis Khan, and she truly inherited his strength
in battle.
Unlike many other princesses and queens throughout the history of the world, Khutulun was remembered
for her own glory, rather than the achievements of a husband or son.
She just may have been the strongest Mongolian warrior of all time.
The Khan Family Tree Before we get into the details about the life
of Khutulun, it's important to go over some of the details of the Mongolian Empire.
For thousands of years, various tribes in Mongolia went to war with one another, and
they were never united under one government.
Land and horses were taken as spoils of war.
Women and children were seen as men’s property, and they were used as trophies of conquest.
Powerful men had more than one wife, and chieftains typically had a harem.
Genghis Khan became the first leader to unite all of Mongolia.
He achieved this by training his army to be masterful warriors that were stronger than
any other army in the world.
They trained falcons to send messages to communicate with
one another, which helped him to spread his army over vast territories.
He pushed his men to train harder to become a new breed of super-warriors.
Genghis Khan once said, “A man's greatest pleasure is to defeat his enemies, to drive
them before him, to take from them that which they possessed, to see those whom they cherished
in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms.”
Genghis Khan’s army was so strong, they were able to defeat the tribes one by one.
After uniting Mongolia, he set his sights much farther than his own country.
He wanted to become the ruler of the entire world.
He took over parts of Asia, The Middle East, and Europe.
It became the largest empire in the history of humanity.
Even though their army was known for being ruthless warriors, the Mongolian empire actually
brought a lot of innovation to the world during times of peace.
They were tolerant of all religions, they encouraged international trade, and diplomacy.
Genghis Khan’s had several wives of his own, and he had many children.
His grandson Kublai Khan became the ruler of Mongolia in the year 1260, and his brothers
and cousins held positions of power all over the empire.
Unfortunately for Kublai Khan, he was not as feared as his great-grandfather had once
been, and Mongolia would eventually begin to break off into civil wars.
Kublai Khan would even go to war with his own brother, Ariq Boke.
A man named Kaidu was Kublai Khan’s cousin, and the leader of The House of Ögedei.
The two cousins disagreed with one another on how to run the empire, and this would eventually
cause them to go to war, as well.
Kaidu had fourteen sons, but his favorite child by far was his daughter, Khutulun.
And Italian explorer named Marco Polo wrote down the history of the Mongolian Empire while
living amongst Kublai Khan’s royal court.
Most of what is known about Khutlun's life came from his books, as well as some comments
made by a Persian statesman named Rashid al-Din.
She was called by several names, including Aigiarm, which translates to “shining moon.”
While this is a beautiful name to give to a baby girl, she would grow up to prove that
she was far from being a dainty princess.
The Wrestling Princess Because of Genghis Khan’s legacy, future
generations of Mongolian warriors were trained to be some of the strongest people on the
planet.
If they wanted the Mongolian empire to stretch across the globe, they needed to be prepared
to take down any enemy.
By the age of 2, boys were already learning how to shoot bow and arrows and ride on horseback.
They wrestled one another to learn hand-to-hand combat.
They practiced both the Chinese martial arts of Kung Fu as well as ancient Mongolian fighting
techniques.
They weren’t just doing all of this training on foot, either.
All of their fighting techniques also needed to be executed while riding at high speeds
on horseback.
This included both wrestling and archery.
Because of this, their enemies would almost never be able to knock a Mongolian off of
his horse, no matter how hard they tried.
In Mongolia, horses are a huge part of their culture.
The number of horses actually outnumber the human population.
People ate horse meat, and drank mare’s milk.
This milk is fermented into an alcoholic beverage called “airag”, which is considered to
be the national drink of Mongolia to this day.
There is a saying: “A Mongol without a horse is like a bird without the wings”.
While all of this training, fighting, and partying was normal for boys, it was almost
never taught to girls.
Women were expected to be delicate and subservient to men while they took care of the farming,
child-rearing, and household tasks.
Khutulun was a tomboy since she was young, and she wanted to practice fighting with the
boys far more than she was willing to dance or play with dolls.
In his records of his adventures, Marco Polo describes Khutulun as looking statuesque.
She was so tall, one might mistake her for a giantess.
Since the members of the royal family always chose the most beautiful women in the country
to take as their wives, she would have also been very pretty- most likely looking like
a modern-day supermodel.
But unlike most princesses, Khutulun isn’t remembered for her looks.
She was known for her incredible wrestling skills.
You could say that she was the world’s first celebrity female wrestler long before the
age of GLOW and the WWE.
She was so far ahead of her time, it would take hundreds of years after her death before
female wrestling would even be an acceptable sport around the world.
Mongolian-style wrestling is very different than what you see on TV, or even what you
saw in your High School.
There was no separation of weight class.
Just two people lock arms, and they both try to push one another over any way they can.
Imagine arm wrestling, only using your entire body to push the other person down to the
ground.
Once the opponent is knocked to the floor, the person who remains standing is the winner.
Because of this, the person’s physical strength usually determines who the victor will be.
Khutulun practiced wrestling and continued to get stronger every day.
She was soon better than any man she had ever gone up against, and she had the goal of becoming
the strongest wrestler in the world.
When she was old enough to get married, several suitors began to show their interest in making
her their wife.
Her father, King Kaidu, began to prepare some eligible suitors for her.
Khutulun was not afraid to speak her mind to her father, and rebelliously announced
that she could never marry a man unless he was able to defeat her in a wrestling match.
At that time, even princes were not usually able to choose who their wife would be.
Politics trumped falling in love, and marriages were usually meant to keep peaceful ties across
the empire.
But since she showed so much strength, Kaidu, gave his daughter his word that she would
be free to marry any man of her choosing.
An official proclamation was written and spread across the empire, announcing that his daughter
was looking for a husband, as long as he defeats her in wrestling.
The entry fee was 100 horses.
If they lost the wrestling match, they would have to forfeit their horses to The House
of Ögedei, which only increased the wealth and power of their army.
Despite the fact that horses are such a huge part of Mongolian culture, people usually
only had one or two per household, if they were lucky.
Owning a hundred horses was no simple task.
A man would have had to already come from some kind of nobility to even collect the
entry fee.
We know that at least one hundred men showed up at The House of Ögedei to challenge Khutulun
to a match, because she collected a fleet of over 10,000 horses.
It’s safe to assume that many of these men who came to win the match were probably feeling
overly confident before they arrived.
They probably thought that defeating a princess would be a piece of cake, but they left feeling
totally humiliated.
It probably took a few matches before the word spread that this was no ordinary princess,
and that men would need to train before they could even think about challenging her.
These wrestling matches were talked about throughout Mongolia, and many people, like
Marco Polo, traveled to see the fights.
Khutulun would show up wearing a garment called a cendal.
This was usually worn by men when they practiced the martial arts, but she would show up wearing
a version that was made with expensive fabrics.
Her suitors usually showed up wearing a similar style.
Even though they were fighting, they still showed up looking their best in front of the
crowd.
In the year 1280, when Khutulun was 20 years old, the son of King Pamar arrived to try
his luck in winning a match against the princess.
The prince offered to wager 1,000 horses instead of the typical 100.
Marco Polo described him as being young and incredibly good-looking, and he was surrounded
by an entourage of servants.
When he showed up in town and announced that he wanted to battle Khutulun for her hand
in marriage, men, women, and children all showed up to witness this wrestling match,
and it drew the biggest crowd by far.
Her parents were very impressed.
They thought that he was a perfect match for her, and encouraged Khutulun to lose on purpose,
so she could marry him.
She replied that she would never lose on purpose for any fortune in the world.
The man who was truly worthy of her hand in marriage would win without her throwing the
match.
To his credit, this prince lasted the longest out of any other wrestler to ever lock arms
with Khutulun.
After she slammed the prince onto the palace floor, the cheering stopped, and the room
went silent.
For the first time ever, the audience was actually disappointed that she won.
Since he lasted the longest in the wrestling match out of any other man, maybe Khutulun
was truly considering if she should throw the match.
However, this man was exactly the sort of husband her father would have arranged for
her.
If you think about it, that kind of defeats the purpose of her being able to choose her
husband in the first place.
Forever Alone?
After years of kicking ass and taking names, people began to wonder why Khutulun wanted
to be a single virgin for the rest of her life so badly.
Rumors began to spread about her.
In modern times, one might assume that she was a lesbian, asexual, or even transgender.
Despite Mongolia being one of the most progressive countries in the world at that time, they
were still not accepting of homosexuality.
So it’s very possible that Khutulun had a strong sense of self, and she wasn’t going
to allow her father to force her into a marriage that would make her miserable.
At the time, the idea of being a lesbian wasn’t even an option in the minds of the public.
Rumors spread that Kaidu may even have had an incestuous relationship with his daughter.
However, this is probably unlikely.
Unfortunately, it’s a rumor that was said of a lot of women back then.
It was just so out of the ordinary that a daughter was held in such high regard by her
father, and that he allowed her to remain unmarried.
The situation was so odd, people simply didn’t know what to make of it.
According to a Persian statesman named Rashid al-Din, Khutulun was fighting so hard for
freedom, because she was in love with a man named Ghazan.
He was the Mongolian leader of the Persian territories, and a direct descendent of Genghis
Khan, as well.
This meant that they would have been cousins, and maybe their union would have been forbidden,
because they were too closely related.
Whether the theory was true or not, Khutulun never did marry Ghazan.
He is remembered for converting to Islam, and setting the new precedent for future rulers
in modern-day Iran.
He married another princess, named Kokochin, who was nicknamed The Blue Princess and remembered
for her stunning beauty.
Marco Polo helped escort her across the desert to meet her new husband.
Khutulun would have been the polar opposite of the dainty, frail princess Kokochin.
It’s possible that her heart belonged to a man she couldn’t have.
We never do learn if Khutulun got married, if she remained unmarried having affairs with
men, or if she was secretly enjoying a harem of her own Most historians believe that she
was single for the rest of her life, because a royal wedding surely would have been on
record somewhere.
What we do know, though, is that if she got married, she would never be allowed to live
out her one true passion in life, which was to be a warrior.
And she continued to do just that.
Going to War Just like the male Mongolian warriors of her
day, Khutulun participated in many battles alongside her father and his army.
Since she was lighter than a male rider, she was able to gallop in on her horse at faster
speeds than her male counterparts, and she was just as strong.
Marco Polo describes her technique of galloping up to an enemy soldier on the opposite side
of the battlefield, picking him up with just one hand, and lifting his body off the ground
while on horseback and delivering the enemy back to her side of the battle.
She was like a hawk flying in on its prey, and the enemy was understandably terrified
of her.
Kaidu Khan felt that Khutulun was the best warrior in his army, and she would have been
the most capable leader.
She was even given a silver medallion called a gergee to wear around her neck, that is
like the modern-day equivalent to becoming a decorated general.
She is the only Mongolian woman to ever hold that honor.
Let’s just appreciate that statement for a moment.
For Kaidu to say that his daughter was the strongest warrior in the entire army is a
big deal.
Even in modern times, it would be almost unheard of to say that a woman is stronger than any
entire army full of men, and the Mongolians were born and bred to be war machines.
Even though Kaidu Khan wanted to appoint Khutulun as his successor, putting a woman in charge
was against the rules.
This was fine by Khutulun, though, because she was much more at home on the battlefield
than in a diplomatic position.
Despite her hesitation to take over the throne as a young woman, she still attended her father’s
court and was present for all of the important meetings, so she was well aware of the local
politics.
The matter was dropped, and her brothers all expected that one of them would be declared
the next Khan whenever their father passed away.
In the year 1301, King Kaidu was dying, and his dying wish was for Khutulun to take over
as Khan.
Even though he had 14 sons, none of them could possibly be as good of a military and political
leader as his daughter.
He attempted to break all Mongolian traditions and appoint Khutulun as his true heir.
At this point, Khutulun was 41 years old.
She had years of experience behind her, and she was respected and feared amongst the army.
She was old enough now to feel that she was ready to take on the role as leader, too.
However, her brothers weren’t having it.
A man named Duwa was given the position as the new Khan of their territory.
In 1306, Khutulun was killed, and there is no record as to exactly how she died.
Considering that she had a following of soldiers who respected her, it’s possible that there
was a power struggle, and that she was killed.
Most of you may have never heard of Khutulun until now, and that’s probably because there
is very little information from people who actually knew her.
Marco Polo and Rashid al-Din are the only two historians who were around in the 1200’s
to write down the details of her life, and each of them only devoted maybe one or two
pages of their books to her story.
Despite the fact that she was barely mentioned in these texts of the Mongolian empire, the
story of her strength was so fascinating, it was still passed along by both Mongolian
and Chinese people by word of mouth.
Just like a childhood game of telephone, her story was convoluted over the years.
In the 1700’s, a French writer named François Pétis de la Croix wrote stories from Asia
for a western audience, and he included a version of Khutulun’s story.
Only, in his telling, she was a Chinese princess named Turadot who refuses to marry a man unless
he could solve three riddles.
If they fail, they die.
This story was eventually made into an Italian opera.
Khutulun also briefly appeared in the Netflix series Marco Polo, but it barely scraped the
surface of how truly awesome she actually was.
We hope that the true story of Khutulun, the warrior princess, will live on.