The Last Campaign and Death of Jebe Noyan

Abstract

Research objectives: Despite Jebe Noyan’s importance to the establishment of Chinggis Khan’s empire, he remains a shadowy figure, and much uncertainty still exists on when he died, and in what circumstances. While also providing an overview of his background and military career as it is recorded in the sources, the main objective was to discover when and how Jebe Noyan died. That is, the aim was to find clues in the sources that help make sense of his disappearance from records around 1223. Research materials: A diverse range of primary sources originating from a variety of medieval societies was consulted. The most important sources were the Russian Novgorod and Galicia-Volhynia Chronicles which offer the most detail on the last campaign that we know Jebe participated in. Two biographies from the Yuan Shi was consulted for additional details. Persian sources (Juvaini, Rashiduddin), Arabic sources (Ibn al-Athir), and Caucasus sources (the Georgian Chronicle) were also explored, along with the views of a number of scholars in secondary literature. Research results and novelty: The main finding is that the Novgorod First Chronicle appears to describe Jebe Noyan’s death roughly a week before the Battle of the Kalka. This is a novel argument as Jebe is widely thought to have died after his putative return to Mongolia. Another important finding is that the primary sources do not support the view that Jebe and Sübe’etei’s 1221–1223 campaign around the Caspian Sea was an exploratory raid; rather they tend to record that the objective was conquest.