Regency and Influence of Mongol Women

Key Insight

While Mongol men were engaged in conquering foreign countries on battlefields for years, women assumed critical administrative roles in managing the vast empire. Traditionally, women handled domestic affairs in herding tribes when men were away; this practice extended to imperial management. Notable figures included Sorkhokhtani, widow of Genghis Khan's youngest son Tolui, who governed northern China and eastern Mongolia, and Ebuskun, widow of Genghis Khan's second son Chaghatai, who ruled Central Asia (Turkestan).

Toregene, the most capable wife of Ogodei Khan, gradually accumulated administrative power as Ogodei became increasingly incapacitated by drunkenness. Upon his death in 1241, Toregene officially became regent. For the subsequent ten years, until 1251, she and a select group of other women governed the largest empire known in world history. These powerful women, often not born Mongol but married into the family from conquered steppe tribes, and many of whom were Christians, found their gender and religion to be no impediment to their rise.

Beyond managing the day-to-day affairs, these women actively supported different lines of activities. For example, Toregene, as Yeke Khatun (Great Empress), issued an order to print Taoist texts under her own name and Ogodei's seal on April 10, 1240. She championed religion and education, and invested in building projects and crucial social structures on an imperial scale, laying new foundations for the empire through institutions that would profoundly impact the world within and beyond Mongol dominion after the men resumed the world wars.