Al-Altan

Al-Altan (c. 1196 – 1246), also known as Altalun and Altaluqan, was the youngest child and favourite daughter of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire, and Börte, his primary wife. As part of Genghis's policy of marrying his daughters to powerful rulers in exchange for their submission to him, she married Barchuq Art Tegin, the ruler of the wealthy Uyghur people to the southwest, around 1211. After Genghis died in 1227 and Ögedei Khan, his third son by Börte, ascended to the Mongol throne, it is likely that the Mongol imperial government began to appropriate the territory and taxes of the Uyghurs for themselves. When Ögedei died after an extended drinking binge in 1241, Al-Altan was present—she had probably travelled to her brother's court to defend her Uyghur subjects against the encroachment. She was rumoured to have poisoned Ögedei and remained under suspicion until the accession of her nephew, Güyük Khan, five years later. Shortly afterwards, Al-Altan was put on trial and executed by the general Eljigidei. Accounts of Al-Altan's life and death were heavily suppressed, with official chronicles compelled to excise or obscure potentially troublesome details. The injustice of her death became a major contention during the Toluid Revolution in 1251, during which Eljigidei was executed by Al-Altan's sympathisers in revenge.