If you’ve been hanging around spaces that talk about exchanges for the past year, you’ve probably heard me mention Mongolian History RPF already. If not... welcome to my TED talk! ;D
Mongolian history is obviously a HUGE swathe to cover, so I’m going to drill down and focus on the four “characters” I’m nominating (and will be requesting and offering): Khutulan, Töregene Khatun, Fatima, and Mandukhai Khatun.* I’ll be listing some online resources and primers for the curious at the bottom of this post, but if you really want to dive deep, Jack Weatherford’s The Secret History of the Mongol Queens is super accessible and is the best English-language resource you’re going to find-- try your local library.
*I was going to nominate Samar Gunj since she did so much but she doesn’t even appear to have a wikipedia page in English? But Mandukhai is also awesome.
I’m not looking for anyone to become an expert in the subject overnight-- hell, I’m certainly not an expert! This is just fanfiction, after all. What I’ll be requesting (and hoping to write!) is fictionalized takes on events that we’re pretty sure actually happened, as well as events that never actually took place-- things that might have been. If this sounds at all interesting to you, please come play in this sandbox with me and don’t let the idea of historical research put you off! I got into this on Christmas Eve last year because someone’s prompt got into my head and I couldn’t quite think of a good way to fill it...until I listened to the Missed In History podcast episode on Khutulun.
KHUTULUN
If you’ve heard of any of these figures, it’s probably Khutulun. She’s relatively well-known in the Western world, for a simple reason: Marco Polo met her on his expedition (in addition to a whole bunch of other people, but the one we’re familiar with in the West is Marco Polo).
The basics: after the Mongol Empire began to fracture and collapse into civil war, Khutulun (Genghis Khan's great-great granddaughter) fought alongside her father, Kaidu Khan. She also reportedly was an amazing wrestler and would not marry a man unless he could best her at wrestling, and won 10,000+ horses from men who tried to win her hand in marriage. There’s an additional, even more unsubstantiated story about how an assassin came to Kaidu Khan’s camp, intending to kill Kaidu Khan, but Khutulun stopped him. The nameless assassin then swore his service to Kaidu Khan and stayed there for many years... eventually marrying Khutulun (without beating her in wrestling).
I’m talking about these women together because their stories are intertwined. Warning, though: I’m not talking in detail about it here, but any in-depth discussion of these women is going to touch on some pretty nasty stuff, including torture.
Now, Toregene was married to a useless prince who became Great Khan, and she basically held the empire together. In fact, after his death, she consolidated power and remained as empress-- with her loyal servant Fatima by her side.
Notably, Fatima and Toregene shared a tent and "intimate confidences", and Toregene named Fatima queen. Does that mean they were together? Well, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to know the sexuality of any historical figure if we don’t have their own words, and historical conceptions of sex and sexuality were different than our own (although LGBTQ+ people have always existed!). None of that actually matters though, because this is fanfiction, and you are free to make shit up. And in my opinion, Toregene and Fatima are very shippy.
Their lives ended in tragedy-- they retired together in quiet, but Fatima was accused of witchcraft and executed shortly thereafter, and Toregene died of unknown causes. But while they lived, they were both pretty badass (and I totally ship them).
She was also known as Queen Monduhai the Wise and she was the first person since Ghengis Khan (who died 200 years before her birth!) to unite the warring Mongol clans.
She was married to the Khan, and after he died she adopted an orphan who also just happened to be the last living descendant of Genghis Khan (I’d explain how Mandukhai is related but that’s a twisted family tree. Just know that Genghis wasn’t an only child.), raised the kid, married him when he became an adult, and named him Dayan Khan, or “Great Khan”. Under their leadership, the Mongol Empire was reunited for the first time in centuries. (Seriously, this is a huge deal!)
And she didn’t just sit back and lead from her tent-- she fought battles, even while pregnant! The Ming Dynasty of China expanded the Great Wall to contain Mandukhai! Historically, we know that she (probably) died of natural causes, but there were rumors that circulated that Ming agents assassinated her...
Mongolian History RPF
Mongolian history is obviously a HUGE swathe to cover, so I’m going to drill down and focus on the four “characters” I’m nominating (and will be requesting and offering): Khutulan, Töregene Khatun, Fatima, and Mandukhai Khatun.* I’ll be listing some online resources and primers for the curious at the bottom of this post, but if you really want to dive deep, Jack Weatherford’s The Secret History of the Mongol Queens is super accessible and is the best English-language resource you’re going to find-- try your local library.
*I was going to nominate Samar Gunj since she did so much but she doesn’t even appear to have a wikipedia page in English? But Mandukhai is also awesome.
I’m not looking for anyone to become an expert in the subject overnight-- hell, I’m certainly not an expert! This is just fanfiction, after all. What I’ll be requesting (and hoping to write!) is fictionalized takes on events that we’re pretty sure actually happened, as well as events that never actually took place-- things that might have been. If this sounds at all interesting to you, please come play in this sandbox with me and don’t let the idea of historical research put you off! I got into this on Christmas Eve last year because someone’s prompt got into my head and I couldn’t quite think of a good way to fill it...until I listened to the Missed In History podcast episode on Khutulun.
KHUTULUN
If you’ve heard of any of these figures, it’s probably Khutulun. She’s relatively well-known in the Western world, for a simple reason: Marco Polo met her on his expedition (in addition to a whole bunch of other people, but the one we’re familiar with in the West is Marco Polo).
The basics: after the Mongol Empire began to fracture and collapse into civil war, Khutulun (Genghis Khan's great-great granddaughter) fought alongside her father, Kaidu Khan. She also reportedly was an amazing wrestler and would not marry a man unless he could best her at wrestling, and won 10,000+ horses from men who tried to win her hand in marriage. There’s an additional, even more unsubstantiated story about how an assassin came to Kaidu Khan’s camp, intending to kill Kaidu Khan, but Khutulun stopped him. The nameless assassin then swore his service to Kaidu Khan and stayed there for many years... eventually marrying Khutulun (without beating her in wrestling).
Primers/Resources:
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/wrestler-princess
https://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/khutulun
https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/khutulun.htm
+footnotes and bibliographies of the above
TOREGENE KHATUN & FATIMA
I’m talking about these women together because their stories are intertwined. Warning, though: I’m not talking in detail about it here, but any in-depth discussion of these women is going to touch on some pretty nasty stuff, including torture.
Now, Toregene was married to a useless prince who became Great Khan, and she basically held the empire together. In fact, after his death, she consolidated power and remained as empress-- with her loyal servant Fatima by her side.
Notably, Fatima and Toregene shared a tent and "intimate confidences", and Toregene named Fatima queen. Does that mean they were together? Well, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to know the sexuality of any historical figure if we don’t have their own words, and historical conceptions of sex and sexuality were different than our own (although LGBTQ+ people have always existed!). None of that actually matters though, because this is fanfiction, and you are free to make shit up. And in my opinion, Toregene and Fatima are very shippy.
Their lives ended in tragedy-- they retired together in quiet, but Fatima was accused of witchcraft and executed shortly thereafter, and Toregene died of unknown causes. But while they lived, they were both pretty badass (and I totally ship them).
Resources/Primers:
https://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/toregene-khatun
https://web.archive.org/web/20060709022543/https://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=4601
+footnotes and bibliographies of the above
MANDUKHAI KHATUN
She was also known as Queen Monduhai the Wise and she was the first person since Ghengis Khan (who died 200 years before her birth!) to unite the warring Mongol clans.
She was married to the Khan, and after he died she adopted an orphan who also just happened to be the last living descendant of Genghis Khan (I’d explain how Mandukhai is related but that’s a twisted family tree. Just know that Genghis wasn’t an only child.), raised the kid, married him when he became an adult, and named him Dayan Khan, or “Great Khan”. Under their leadership, the Mongol Empire was reunited for the first time in centuries. (Seriously, this is a huge deal!)
And she didn’t just sit back and lead from her tent-- she fought battles, even while pregnant! The Ming Dynasty of China expanded the Great Wall to contain Mandukhai! Historically, we know that she (probably) died of natural causes, but there were rumors that circulated that Ming agents assassinated her...
Primers:
http://thefemalesoldier.com/blog/mandukhai-khatun
http://brewminate.com/queen-manduhai-the-wise/
(Sorry, I think the main resource for Mandukhai is The Secret History of the Mongol Queens!)
I know this is tl;dr, but I really enjoy this little niche of fandom, and I hope someone else out there does, too!