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Great Khan Succession System

Type Object Region Mongolian Plateau Time c. 1206–1230

The Great Khan succession system (Yeke Kuriltai) was the Mongol Empire's assembly mechanism for electing and confirming its supreme ruler, centered o…

Timeline

  1. c. 1219–1227Mongolian Plateau · Mongolian PlateauDuring his life, Genghis Khan apportioned ulus to his sons, with the youngest Tolui keeping the hearth and inheriting the khanate and central lands, but the Great Khan had to be nominated and confirmed by a kuriltai of princes and noyans, forming a dual principle combining nomination and election.
  2. 1227–1229Mongolian Plateau · Mongolian PlateauAfter Genghis Khan's death in 1227, Tolui served as regent according to the youngest-son hearth-keeping tradition; princes returned to their territories to prepare for a kuriltai, and for two years the empire was administered by Tolui's line pending the assembly's election of a new Great Khan.
  3. 1229–1230Karakorum · Orkhon ValleyIn 1229, princes and noyans held a kuriltai near Karakorum, electing Genghis Khan's third son Ögedei as Great Khan, confirming the coexistence of the ulus apportionment with central khanal authority, and completing the empire's first institutional transfer of power.

Sources