Tangut captivity of Genghis Khan

Abstract

The article puts forward a hypothesis about the capture of Genghis Khan by the Tanguts during his attack on the Tangut state of Xi Xia in 1207-1208. The only source that provides this information is the work of Guillaume de Rubruk, who visited Mongolia in 1253-1255. No supporting information has yet been found, however, there is no data that would completely exclude the possibility of Genghis Khan being captured. On the basis of Chinese, Mongolian, Persian, Tibetan, and Tangut sources, the author reconstructs a picture of the Mongol invasions into Xi Xia in search of the moment when this event had the maximum chance to occur. Special attention is paid to the goals that the Mongols may have set in each of the five documented attacks on the Tangut country. Analysis of the sources suggests that the nature of these raids changed dramatically after the second Tangut campaign of 1207-1208: predatory raids were replaced by a full-scale war, which ended with the submission of Xi Xia to the Mongols. Perhaps the reason for this was revenge for the stay of the Mongol leader in Tangut captivity. The possibility of Genghis Khan being held captive in the Chin Empire is also briefly discussed, which is also only reported in a thirteenth-century Chinese diplomat's essay