Khamag

The Khamag Mongol, the “Whole Mongol”, were the leading Mongol tribal confederation of the twelfth century, grazing the river basins of the Khentii range and the adjacent Transbaikal forests. First attested under the Khitan Liao, the confederation emerged as a steppe power after the Liao collapse in 1125.

Its first recorded khan, Khabul of the Borjigin, drove off invasions by the Jurchen Jin; his successor Ambaghai was seized by the Tatars and executed by the Jin, and Hotula Khan answered with thirteen campaigns of revenge.

After Hotula's death the Khiyad chief Yesugei, Khabul's grandson, held the confederation together until the Tatars poisoned him in 1171. His son Temujin was elected khan of the Khamag in 1189 and united the plateau as Genghis Khan in 1206, carrying the old clans into the Mongol Empire.