First, let me preface this by noting I made a video on the theories around Jochi’s death last year, for those of you who want to hear more on what the sources say, and lists all the sources I used for this write up.

Jochi! The son of Chinggis Khan who gets the most sympathy, both in modern and medieval writing.

For the question of ‘how was Chinggis Khan affected by Jochi’s death,’ we have to note an important thing, and that is, much like for Chinggis himself, the historical source provides different explanations for his death, and some of them lay the blame for it on Chinggis. Quite a number of these sources also suggest Jochi’s death was in 1225, which I am more inclined to believe.

The general gist in the sources is that after the fall of the Khwarezmian capital of Gurganj (Otrar) in 1221, a long and difficult siege in which Jochi’s abilities as a commander came under question, is that he then travelled to the Qipchaq steppe, where, depending on the source, he either spent the next years subduing Qipchaq tribes and expanding the empire, or hunting and wasting time.

While some authors (like Juvaini, writing in the 1250s) just have Jochi die of undisclosed reasons around 1225, returning to his own territory after a final meeting with his father, the fullest account of Jochi’s death comes from the great Ilkhanid vizier and historian, Rashid al-Din, writing around 1300. In his version, Jochi falls ill, and is unable to answer Chinggis’ summons. Chinggis gets suspicious that these are just excuses, and a Mangqut individual who sees Jochi sending his men off on a hunt (though Jochi himself was too ill to take part) informs Chinggis that he knew nothing about any illness, but did see Jochi going hunting. Since hunting was what Mongols did for fun, Chinggis Khan now believed that Jochi was ignoring his summons to goof off, essentially, rebelling against his father. By this point Chinggis Khan was old, and was concerned about the succession for his empire. A wayward son, positioned in the vast and valuable steppes to the west, could prove a potentially faultline in the empire. Enraged that Jochi would so deliberately tear apart their hard work, he ordered two of his other sons, Chagatai and Ogedai, to begin marshalling forces for an invasion. Before the army could set out, news arrived that Jochi had succumbed to his illness. Chinggis was horrified, and a search was made for the Mangqut man, but he could not be found. In this version, Chinggis is distraught, and appoints Jochi’s son Batu to succeed him, and leaves his territory in-tact. So basically, Chinggis reacts exactly how you’d expect a father to react upon learning of his son’s death.

Meanwhile, there’s Juzjani. Juzjani was a Khwarezmian citizen who fled the Mongols, seeking refuge in the Delhi Sultanate of India. Writing in the 1250s, if you have to know one thing about Juzjani’s work, it’s that he hated the Mongols, Chinggis Khan and Chagatai both earning particular ire from him. In his version, he writes that after the fall of Gurganj, Jochi and Chagatai travel to the steppe, where Jochi falls in love with the territory. So much does he love it, in fact, that he becomes willing to betray his father, kill him and ally with the Khwarezm-shah (Muhammad II, who had died in Dec. 1220, or his son Jalal al-Din Mingburnu, who had fled to India-neither particularly likely options for an alliance!). Chagatai learns of this, tells his father, and they have Jochi poisoned. It’s notable that Juzjani describes Jochi in quite glowing terms, and writes that Chinggis was in awe of him. Now, note that I mentioned that Juzjani hated Chinggis. I suspect that the sudden death of the World Conqueror’s eldest son, for undisclosed reasons, made the rumour mills of Asia crazy. Rumours of tensions between father and son over the succession and disputes over Jochi’s uncertain paternity reached Juzjani and had morphed into Chinggis taking a direct role in Jochi’s demise. Juzjani hated Chinggis so much he wouldn’t have found it hard to believe that the Khan killed his own son, and if Chinggis hated Jochi, therefore Jochi must have had all sorts of good and admirable qualities!

In Kazakh legends, Jochi is killed while hunting wild horses (the aksak kulan story for those familiar with it), and Chinggis learns of it through a musician. In some versions, the music is so sad Chinggis knows what has happened even without lyrics; in others, when he realizes what has happened, he had the musicians instrument destroyed/hands cut off/ tongue cut out so he can’t play the song again, and is very upset by it. A side note: the legend states that Jochi had his right hand ripped off and skulled crushed. There is a mausoleum in Kazakhstan today said to hold his body, and *apparently* the tomb inside was excavated during the Soviet period, and matched the aforementioned injuries. But Hell if I’ve been able to find reliable information to back any of that up.

So, how was Chinggis affected by Jochi’s death? Most accounts have him bereaved, and it’s hard to imagine a father not being affected by his son’s death- even if that son was a ‘Merkit bastard’ and the father the Conqueror of the World. The sources imply tensions between them in their final years, some more overtly than others, but the variation between sources makes me think the Mongols went to efforts to hide the truth of his death. That isn’t evidence of wrongdoing though, as the Mongols had rather strong taboos around discussing or mentioning death, and generally referred to it through metaphors. The deceased would be referred to through posthumous titles- Jochi’s likely being Ulush-idi, and causes of death are rarely expounded upon. For Chinggis Khan himself, every writer in thirteenth century Asia had his own version of how the Khan died, and the likeliest source, the Mongolian Secret History of the Mongols, merely states that the Khan ‘ascended to Heaven.’ Despite rumours that Chinggis played a hand in Jochi’s death, I believe he was saddened by the loss.

Timing wise, if Jochi died in 1225, Chinggis would have learned about it while en route to his final campaign against the Tangut Xi Xia Dynasty. That campaign was a horrific loss of life and destructive even by Mongol standards. We might wonder if pain over his son’s loss, and his impending mortality, led him to exact a heavy punishment on the Tangut?