Biligtu Khan

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Biligtü Khan (actually Ajurchiridhara , Mongolian ᠠᠶᠣᠱᠷᠢᠳᠠᠷ ; * 1338 ; † 1378 in Karakorum ) was a Mongolian Khagan of the Northern Yuan and followed his father Toghan Timur . He ruled between 1370 and his death in 1378.

Takeover

The influence of his ambitious and educated mother - she was once a Korean concubine and later the first Empress Qi - helped Biligtü Khan to the throne. Repeated intrigues aimed at putting him on the throne in place of his inactive father, however, did not find a sufficient following. Even in his father's time, he was involved in destructive power struggles at court, which ultimately led to his temporary expulsion by a court party around the governor Bolod Timur in 1364 . The power struggles, which were also fought by military means, weakened the Yuan considerably in the 1360s, so that they could not and would not offer any serious resistance to the Ming advancing north .

Northern yuan

After the Mongols were driven out of China by the Ming in 1368 under the government of his father Toghan Timur (r. 1333–1368 / 70), the Yuan dynasty continued to exist, at least for them . Therefore, Biligtü took control of the Northern Yuan in 1370 , which essentially consisted of what is now Mongolia . An official seal found during excavations in Karakorum with partly Chinese and Phags-pa script proves this. Biligtü Khan traded under the name Zhaozong ( 昭宗 , Zhāozōng ) as the emperor of the Yuan.

Preservation of Mongolia

After the expulsion of the Mongols from China (1368), he had to retreat to Karakoram from the Ming, who continued to attack, and there he gathered the remaining forces. His most important partner here was the able military Köko Timur († 1375), who defeated Hongwu's best general Xu Da on the Tula on June 7, 1372 and thus finally stopped the Ming invasion . Conversely, the Mongol leaders Biligtü Khan, Köko Timur and Naghachu tried to maintain their influence in Gansu and Manchuria .

Death and succession

Biligtü Khan died in Karakorum in 1378 and was succeeded as ruler by his brother Uskhal Khan (* 1342, murdered 1388), who was finally defeated by the Ming at Lake Buir Nur in 1387. The Chinese penetrated into Karakoram , completely destroyed the former capital of the Mongol Empire and the Kublaid dynasty became history. Instead, the Oirats rose around 1400 .

literature

• Michael Weiers: History of the Mongols. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 2004, ISBN 3-17-017206-9 .
• Timothy Brook: The Troubled Empire. China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Harvard University Press, 2010, ISBN 0-674-07253-7 . (engl.)

predecessor	Office	successor
Toghan Timur	Mongolian Khagan 1370-1378	Uskhal Khan