Subutai
Also known as Sübedei · Subutai 速不台
- Dates
- c. 1175–1248
- Era
- Mongol empire under Genghis Khan and Ögedei
- Role
- Mongol general of the Kalka raid and the invasion of Hungary
Subutai, not Genghis Khan, directed the Mongol campaign that defeated Hungary in 1241, and the army left the next year undefeated.
Who was Subutai?
Subutai was the Mongol general who carried campaigns further than the khan who had promoted him. He was born about 1175, of the Uriangqai, a forest people, not of the great steppe clans. He attached himself to Temüjin young, with his brother Jelme, and became the officer trusted with independent columns. Chinese histories record him as 速不台. He served Genghis Khan and then Ögedei. He is the man to name when a map shows Mongol armies on the Kalka in 1223 and on the Sajó in Hungary in 1241. He died about 1248, back in the east, after the western ride was over.
With Jebe he pursued the Khwarezm shah, crossed the Caucasus, and in 1223 destroyed a Rus and Cuman coalition on the Kalka. They did not stay to rule. Under Ögedei, with Batu leading the princes, Subutai directed the operations that took the Rus cities, Kiev among them in 1240, and broke King Béla IV of Hungary at Mohi in April 1241. A column also struck Poland. In 1242 the princes withdrew: Ögedei had died in December 1241, and the succession called them home, though pasture and losses are still debated. They were not driven out by a defeat. His method was separated armies on one timetable, with a flank arriving from off the map.
Key ideas
Columns on a timetable
His signature is the army that marches apart and strikes together. At Mohi a fight at the bridge held attention while another force crossed and came in on the flank, and distance is useful only if the meeting time is real.
A raid is not an occupation
The Kalka campaign of 1223 destroyed a field army, collected intelligence, and ended in a withdrawal, so reading it as a failed conquest of Rus misses the design. The conquest of the Rus cities came in 1237–1240, as a different campaign.
The general beside the prince
Batu was the Chinggisid prince in nominal command of the western campaign. Subutai was the professional who had been doing this since Jebe's ride, and name both, or the battle has no author.
Famous episodes
The Kalka
History1223
Jebe and Subutai came up from the Caucasus into the steppe north of the Black Sea, drew a Rus and Cuman force into pursuit, and broke it on the Kalka. Several princes died. The Mongol column then turned east and went home. Genghis Khan was not there, and the raid mapped a world the next generation would invade.
Mohi
HistoryApril 1241
On the Sajó river, Subutai's operation destroyed the Hungarian host of King Béla IV. One force contested the bridge while another crossed elsewhere and struck the camp. Béla fled. The battle is also called Mohi, after the nearby village, and it is the clearest European example of his separated columns meeting on time.
The withdrawal
History1242
In 1242 the Mongol princes left Hungary and the other western conquests short of further advance. Ögedei's death is the reason the Mongol political system itself would have recognised: the princes were needed at the succession. Historians also argue about grazing, casualties, and fortified resistance. The record does not show a battlefield defeat that threw them out.
Myths vs facts
Subutai was a minor officer lucky to serve a genius khan.
He was the senior field commander of the deepest Mongol operations, from the Jebe raid to Hungary. Genghis Khan appointed men of that kind on purpose. The khan died in 1227, and Subutai's most famous European battle was in 1241.
Europe defeated the Mongols, which is why they turned back after 1241.
Mohi was a Mongol victory. The withdrawal in 1242 followed Ögedei's death and is still debated at the margins. A last-minute Christian rescue on the battlefield is legend, and the princes left after winning.
Genghis Khan led the Kalka campaign and the invasion of Hungary.
Kalka was Jebe and Subutai, in 1223, near the end of the Khwarezmian war. Hungary was 1241, under Ögedei, with Batu and Subutai. Genghis Khan had been dead for fourteen years.
Takeaways
- Separate columns by miles only if they share a timetable.
- Call a deep raid a raid, and a conquest a conquest.
- Name the general as well as the khan when you tell the war.
Rivals and connections
Sources
- Secret History of the Mongols 蒙古秘史
- Yuan shi 元史, biography of Subutai 速不台