Help finding an old answer about a warrior princess.

by bjuandy

I remember reading an answer about a noble/princess from history who successfully rejected her suitors by defeating each one in a duel and ultimately taking a wife[sic]/lover for herself. The story came from an Asian nation as well as I can remember. I've already dug through the FAQ and did every intuitive search I could think of via Reddit's search function.

sunagainstgold

Does the story of Khutulun or Aiyaruk sound familiar (or I guess, in this translation Aigiarm)?

From the Norton translation of Marco Polo's Travels:

You must know, then, that King Kaidu had a daughter named, in the Tartar language, Aigiarm, which means shining moon. This damsel was so strong, that there was no young man in the whole kingdom who could overcome her. She vanquished them all.

Her father the king wished to marry her; but she declined, saying, that she would never take a husband till she met with some gentleman who should conquer her by force, upon which the king, her father, gave her a written promise that she might marry at her own will. She now caused it to be proclaimed in different parts of the world, that if any young man would come and try strength with her, and should overcome her by force, she would accept him for her husband.

This proclamation was no sooner made, than many came from all parts to try their fortune. The trial was made with great solemnity. The king took his place in the principal hall of the palace, with a large company of men and women; then came the king's daughter, in a dress of cendal, very richly adorned, and next came the young man, also in a dress of cendal. The agreement was, that if the young man overcame her so as to throw her by force to the ground, he was to have her for wife; but if, on the contrary, he should be overcome by the king's daughter, he was to forfeit to her a hundred horses.

In this manner the damsel gained more than ten thousand horses, for she could meet with no one able to conquer her, which was no wonder, for she was so well-made in all her limbs, and so tall and strongly built, that she might almost be taken for a giantess.

She goes on to defeat one final suitor, whom her parents desperately want her to marry, and:

But, contrary to their hopes, after much pulling and tugging, the king's daughter gained the victory, and the young prince was thrown on the pavement of the palace, and lost his thousand horses. There was not one person in the whole hall who did not lament his defeat.

After this the king took his daughter with him into many battles, and not a cavalier in the host displayed so much valour; and at last the damsel rushed into the midst of the enemy, and seizing upon a horseman, carried him off to her own people.

So, uh, the story ends up with her probably being a kidnapper and rapist, which is...not great. It is worth pointing out that other contemporary or near-contemporary writers/chroniclers offer different endings, including of marriage to various important nobles.

There's also Toregene, who survived two forced marriages (one by kidnapping and slavery as a prisoner of war) by outliving both husbands--including the Mongol emperor. She gradually worked her way into full power over the empire from 1241/42 to 1246, with a goal of securing the succession for her own son instead of the designated heir. Along the way, she never remarried. But her closest companion was a fellow prisoner of war turned imperial minister named Fatima. Apparently the two were so close that Fatima is occasionally called "queen" in sources, although I'm not familiar with them firsthand. (We hosted an AMA awhile back with Jack Weatherford, author of The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire--he goes into significant detail about Toregene in the book.)