page_title: Jochi
section_title: Wars of conquest
hierarchical_section_title: Jochi / Wars of conquest
caption_attribution_description: English: "Tumanba Khan, His Wife, and His Nine Sons", Folio from a Chingiznama (Book of Genghis Khan)
context_page_description: Jochi was a Mongolian army commander who was the eldest son of Genghis Khan, and presumably one of the four sons by his principal wife Börte, though issues concerning his paternity followed him throughout his life. An accomplished military leader, he participated in his father's conquest of Central Asia, along with his brothers and uncles.
context_section_description: In 1207, Jochi conquered several of the forest peoples in Siberia, extending the northern border of the Mongol Empire for the first time. On behalf of his father, Jochi led two campaigns against the Kyrgyz, in 1210 and in 1218.
  Jochi played a major role in the Khwarezm war of 1219–1221 in Central Asia – his forces captured the towns of Signak, Jand, and Yanikant in April, 1220, during this war. Subsequently, he was given the command of operation against the city of Urgench (Gurganj, in present-day Turkmenistan), the capital of the Khwarezmian Empire. Here the siege of the town suffered delays because Jochi engaged in extensive negotiation with the town to persuade it to surrender peacefully and to save it from destruction. Jochi's brother Chagatai regarded this action as militarily unsound: Chagatai wanted to destroy the city but Genghis Khan had promised the city to Jochi after his victory. This difference of opinion on military affairs deepened a rift between Jochi and Chagatai. Genghis Khan intervened in the campaign and appointed Ögedei as the commander of the operation. Ögedei resumed the operations vigorously – capturing, sacking and thoroughly destroying the town and massacring its inhabitants (1221).
  The differences in tactics between Jochi and Chagatai in early 1221 added to their personal quarrel about the succession.  To settle the matter, Genghis Khan called for a "kurultai", a political and military council - a formal meeting used both in familial matters and in matters of state.  Temüjin had won election/appointment as Khan of his tribe during a kurultai, and he called them often during his early campaigns to garner public support for his wars – such meetings were key to Genghis Khan's legitimacy.  Tribal tradition was also critical.  As Genghis Khan's first-born son, Jochi was favored to rule the clan and the empire after his father died.  At the familial kurultai called in 1222, Chagatai raised the issue of Jochi's legitimacy.  At that meeting, Genghis Khan made it clear that Jochi was his legitimate first-born son. However, he worried that the quarrelsome nature of the two would split the empire.  By early 1223 Genghis Khan had selected Ögedei, his third son, as his successor.  For the sake of preserving the Empire, both Jochi and Chagatai agreed, but the rift between them never healed. Their rift would later politically divide the European part of the Mongol Empire from its Asian part permanently.
caption: A Mughal miniature painting of Genghis Khan his wife Börte and their sons.
exif: {}