#qaraqorum

QARAQORUM STREET VIEW, 1250s

Qaraqorum (Karakorum, Khara Khorum) is famous as the capital of the Mongol Empire and housing the court of the Great Khans, but the textual sources and archaeological study also demonstrate its important as a regional production centre.

The dense settlement layer, particular along the central street and main intersection within the city, shows extensive evidence for wide ranging crafts production, such as glass working, gem and precious stone working, bone carving, processing of birch bark, with furnaces for metal working and kilns for ceramics located in the immediate vicinity of the city. Gold bracelets and the moulds for them and other items have been found in the workshops; remains of iron fragments (bars, wheels caps, even a plough) testify to other activities produced in the city, and for local agriculture. In the written record, we see Khans from Ögedei to Töghön-Temür sending craftsmen and labourers from China to Qaraqorum to expand agriculture, construct palaces and temples, repair existing structures or otherwise support the local economy. This is reflected archaeologically, as the city shows possibly six phases of building and rebuilding from the 13th century until late in the 14th.

In this image you can see a smith's shop, with various Chinese, nomads and even an Alan taking part in activities here. In the background you can see the city's large Buddhist temple complex, the “Pavilion of the Rising Yuan." Begun under Ögedei (but not completed until Möngke's reign, and extensively rebuilt under Töghön-Temür), this huge structure was as high as 90 metres, according to an inscription found on site! Though estimates based on its foundation suggest a slightly more modest structure up to 38 metres high.

You can learn more about Qaraqorum's role in Mongolia's production networks in my latest video on nomadic blacksmithing:

THE THRONE ROOM OF GREAT KHAN MÖNGKE AND THE SILVER TREE OF QARAQORUM

The throne hall of Qaraqorum is one of our best described parts of the entire city. A particularly detailed account comes from the Franciscan Friar William of Rubruck, and mostly corroborated by other contemporaries like Juvaini. All agree in its splendour, and they mostly relate the appearance of the hall during the reign of Möngke (r.1251-1259) who refurbished much of it.

Möngke's throne sat on an elevated position at the northern end of the hall, facing south. His chief wife (Qutuqai Khatun) sat beside some, slightly lower. Three sets of stairs went to them, to which servants walk to bring them meals. To the Khan's left, sat the women of the court; to his right, the men.

Of course, the most famous feature of court is the Silver Tree; Rubruck is the main source for this, but it is alluded to by other sources and similar alcohol "fountains" were features of other Mongol courts (especially Khubilai's). The Silver Tree was a new part of the court; a Parisian goldsmith captured during the invasion of Hungary, William Bouchier, designed and built it (perhaps shortly after Möngke's enthronement). It consisted of a silver-covered trunk with conduits running through it that came out as gilded snakes twisting in the branches; qaraqumiss, bal, grape and rice wines pour from them into containers below. At the base, four lions pour airag/qumiss from their mouths. At the top was an angel, which would blow air through a horn to sound the signal for the drinking to begin.

On the banners behind Möngke, I have also placed his personal seal, his tamga. Finds of his coinage with the seal have been found in Qaraqorum's environs.

You can learn more about Qaraqorum's role in Mongolia's production networks in my latest video on nomadic blacksmithing:

THE GREAT KHAN'S PALACE AT QARAQORUM

In Qaraqorum, the Mongol Imperial capital from the 1230s-60s, the Great Khan held his residence twice a year. First built by Ögedei Khan, and refurbished by Möngke, it was in a "Forbidden city," to the south of the main city of Qaraqorum, a separate, walled-off section which had numerous secondary structures and palaces for other members of the Altan Urag and their servants. The structure was known was the Qarshi to the Mongols (palace) and also by a Chinese name given to it, the Wanangong, Palace of Eternal Peace.

The Qarshi of Qaraqorum/Erdene Zuu monastery is the sqaure at the bottom of this topopgraphic map of the site

While the Qarshi is no longer extant, we have a fairly good understanding of its position and layout thanks to the numerous references and descriptions of it in Chinese, European and Islamic accounts, and comparisons to the sites of other 13th century Chinggisid palaces (like Kondui palace).

The Qarshi consisted of a central, main hall (often singled out in sources for its magnificence and height), flanked by two smaller halls ("naves", in William of Rubruck's eye-witness description, who compared the entire structure to a church). It was built by Chinese craftsmen and this layout matches certain Chinese palace designs, though modified for Chinggisid tastes. In the Orkhon Valley, Siberian larch along with local granite quarries were use in the city, and must have featured extensively on the palace. Labourers were brought in to make dried-bricks and kilns for roof tiles on-site for most of the rest of the construction.

With the abandonment of the city by the fifteenth century, the Qarshi fell into disrepair. By the late 1500s, the Erdene Zuu monastery, was constructed on the site of the palace, likely reusing what remained of usable building material. While Erdene Zuu differs in layout, it likely offers a clue to the orientation of the earlier structure

You can learn more about Qaraqorum's role in Mongolia's production networks in my latest video on nomadic blacksmithing: