Sons and family houses
The four sons of Chinggis Khan and his chief wife Börte were:
- Jochi
- Chagatai
- Ögedei
- Tolui
First, the crucial distinction
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Later successor states
By about 1260, the political blocs commonly listed were the Golden Horde, Chagataid khanate, qaghan/Yuan realm, and Ilkhanate. The last two were both ruled by Toluid descendants.2
The Ögedeid house did not vanish: Güyük became Great Khan and Qaidu remained a major rival in Central Asia. It simply does not map one-to-one onto the conventional list of four later khanates.5
Where genealogy begins in tradition
The Secret History of the Mongols opens with a blue-grey wolf and a fallow doe, then traces the line through Alan Qo’a to Bodonchar. These figures express sacred and political ancestry; they should not be read as modern civil records.1
- Origin tradition
- Medieval source account
- Historically attested
- Editorial explanation
Börte Chino & Qo’ai Maral
The blue-grey wolf and fallow doe at the opening of the chronicle. Transliteration varies across editions.
Alan Qo’a
An ancestress whose luminous conception story and lesson of the bundled arrows frame unity and legitimacy.
Bodonchar
Remembered in the chronicle as the forebear from whom the Borjigin lineage descends.
The complete explorer now has its own page
A real tree, not a squeezed chart
Search and follow every father-linked generation in the 2 August 2026 Wikidata snapshot. The dedicated explorer opens one branch at a time, keeps the actual parent–child structure, and supports pan, pinch, zoom, keyboard navigation, and animated branch expansion.
806 people
41 recorded levels
14 first-generation branches
Open the interactive family tree
Complete for the published father-link query: Chinggis Khan, 795 linked descendants, and 10 paternal ancestors. It is a reproducible catalogue—not a claim that every historical relationship or maternal line is settled.
The political map after unity
These are successor states, not four direct copies of the four sons. Their autonomy emerged through appanage, conquest, succession disputes, and civil war—especially after Möngke’s death in 1259.2
Golden Horde
JochidBuilt from Jochi’s western appanage and the campaigns led by his son Batu. Berke’s later conflict with Hülegü shows Chinggisid states acting as rivals, not one command.3
Pontic–Caspian steppe and Rus’Chagataid Khanate
ChagataidChagatai’s Central Asian ulus survived the 1251 purge and became an effectively autonomous khanate during the succession crisis after 1259.4
Transoxiana, Semirechye, and eastern TurkestanQaghan / Yuan
Toluid via KublaiKublai defeated his brother Ariq Böke, ruled as qaghan, and proclaimed the Yuan dynasty in 1271. His court centred imperial power in China and Mongolia.2
China, Mongolia, and the imperial claimIlkhanate
Toluid via HülegüHülegü, brother of Möngke and Kublai, established a regional Chinggisid dynasty in Iran. It remained allied with Kublai’s Toluid branch.7
Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and neighbouring regions
Where is the Ögedeid state?
Ögedei’s descendants remained a house of enormous importance. Güyük became Great Khan; later, Qaidu led prolonged resistance to Kublai. But their domains do not form one of the standard four autonomous successor states of c. 1260.5
Women who carried the dynasty
Genealogy is distorted when wives, mothers, estate holders, and regents appear only as footnotes. These women shaped household survival and imperial succession.
Hö’elün
After Yesügei’s death, the Secret History credits Hö’elün with keeping the abandoned household alive—the family from which the later empire emerged.1
Töregene Khatun
Ögedei’s chief wife governed as regent after his death and worked for the election of their son Güyük, who was enthroned in 1246.6
Sorghaghtani Beki
Tolui’s widow and mother of Möngke, Kublai, Hülegü, and Ariq Böke preserved the Toluid patrimony. Her sons’ rise shifted the Great Khanate away from the Ögedeid house.2
Later manuscript image
Rashid al-Din manuscript tradition, 14th century. Wikimedia Commons source; public-domain artwork and reproduction. Resized and converted to WebP.
Hülegü and Dokuz Khatun
A 14th-century illustration from the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh tradition places the Ilkhanid ruler beside his influential wife. It is evidence of later courtly representation, not a literal snapshot of the couple.
Historical depictions, not photographs
Photography did not exist in the 13th century. These web-sourced images are later court portraits or manuscript illustrations. Their value lies in how later Mongol and successor courts represented the dynasty.
No genuine photograph of Chinggis Khan, Ögedei, or Batu can exist. Kublai’s portrait is near-contemporary but posthumous; the others shown here are retrospective. The captions state the gap plainly.
Three words that change the map
Medieval political vocabulary does not always fit modern borders or family-tree labels. These working definitions keep the page readable without pretending the terms were static.
Altan urug
“Golden lineage”: the Chinggisid dynasty whose descent carried exceptional claims to rule. The decorative “AU” mark in this site header is a modern monogram, not a historical tamga.
Ulus
A people, patrimony, or realm held together by households, troops, pasture, and subjects. It should not automatically be translated as a modern nation-state.2
Yasa / yasaq
A term used for Chinggisid orders and customary norms. This page avoids presenting it as one surviving, comprehensive “secret law code,” because no such single text is extant.
Sources, editions, and limits
Claims on the page point here. Medieval chronicles are indispensable but perspective-bound; modern scholarship is used to distinguish family genealogy, source tradition, and later political geography.
- Igor de Rachewiltz, trans., The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century. Shorter edition, 2015. Open edition and full bibliographic record.
- Peter Jackson and Michael Knüppel, “Mongols,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. Especially the sections on appanages, succession, and the empire’s four later political divisions. Read the article.
- Michal Biran, “Joči,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. On Jochi’s birth, Chinggis Khan’s acceptance of him, the succession dispute, and the Jochid appanage. Read the article.
- Peter Jackson, “Chaghatayid Dynasty,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. On Chagatai’s ulus and the later autonomous khanate. Read the article.
- Bertold Spuler, “Central Asia v. In the Mongol and Timurid Periods,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. On the Ögedeid appanage, Qaidu, and Central Asian rivalries. Read the article.
- Peter Jackson, “Güyük Khan,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. On Töregene’s regency, Güyük’s election, and the Ögedeid succession. Read the article.
- Peter Jackson, “Hulāgu Khan,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. On Hülegü’s Toluid parentage and the foundation of the Ilkhanid dynasty. Read the article.
- Rashid al-Din, Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh / Compendium of Chronicles, trans. W. M. Thackston. Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998–1999. A Persian court history composed under the Ilkhanids.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its surrounding sacred landscape.” For the Khentii sacred landscape and its association with the Secret History. Read the site record.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353. For Ilkhanid court culture and artistic exchange. Open the publication record.
Editorial method: origin stories are labelled as tradition; a medieval author’s claim is described as that source’s account; dates use “c.” where appropriate; disputed matters are not turned into certainty. Portraits are labelled by date and medium rather than treated as documentary photographs. Image-specific credits and licences are also recorded in the site repository.