The Khongirad (; ; ; ) was one of the major divisions of the Mongol tribes. Their homeland was located in the vicinity of Lake Hulun in Inner Mongolia and Khalkha River in Mongolia,Хонгирад аймаг mongol.undesten.mn (Mongolian)M. Sanjdorj, History of the Mongolian People's Republic, Volume I, 1966 where they maintained close ties with the ruling dynasties of northern China. Because the various Khongirad clans never united under a single leader, the tribe never rose to great military glory. Their greatest fame comes from being the primary consort clan of the ruling house of Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire. Genghis Khan's mother (Hoelun), great grandmother, and first wife were all Khongirads, as were many subsequent Mongol empresses and princesses.
During the Yuan dynasty they were given the title Lu Wang ("Prince of Lu"; ), and a few Khongirads migrated west into the territory of modern Uzbekistan and Turkistan Region where they became governors of Khwarazm and were known as the Sufi dynasty. After a brief period as independent rulers, they were subjected by Timur.
Etymology According to Mongolian historians, the name derives from the words "khun" (swan) and "ard" (people; lit. tribe of the swan). The swan is one of the totems of Mongolian peoples, such as the Buryats. The name of this tribe first appeared in paragraph 61 of the Secret History of the Mongols in the form "ongirad". The ethnonym "Khonggirat (Hungirat)" shares a common origin with the Buryat ethnonym Khongoduurs. G. R. Galdanova identifies the ethnonym "khongodor" with the medieval "hungirat", due to the possible transposition of "-rat" and "-dor". Later, A. Angarkhayev, agreeing with Ts. R. Tsydenzhapov's interpretation, suggested a simplified form from "khon (khong)" and "arad" → "khongarad" ~ "khongirad" ~ "khongodor". S. P. Baldayev believed the ethnonym derived from khon — "noble bird" and "goodor" — "chicks of a noble bird". According to D. S. Dugarov, the basis were the Turkic "khun/khon (kun)" — "sun" and "khuba" — "swan", carried by remnants of the once powerful Xiongnu. Sh. R. Tsydenzhapov proposed that this ethnonym derived from the swan totem "khun" during the Xiongnu era, with its modern phonetic form developed from "khun" — "swan".
Uzbek researchers believe the word "Qo'ng'irot" originated from the merger of the words "qo'ng'ir" and "ot". Kh. Daniyarov writes that, according to some sources, the word is actually Mongolian and means "qoraqarg'a" (black crow).Daniyarov Kh. Op. cit. P. 86
B. Z. Nanzatov compares the Mongolian word "khongor" with the Old Turkic "qoŋur". According to his theory, the ethnonyms "khonggirat, Khongoduurs, konyrat" all derive from the Turko-Mongolian term "khongor" ~ "qoŋur", denoting an animal's coat color — specifically reddish, chestnut, brown, or dun, as well as buckskin and light reddish. Another folk etymology suggests the tribal name derived from "Qoŋyr" and "At", meaning "brown horse" in Turkic.
According to Ayuudain Ochir, the ethnonym "khongirad, khonkhirad, khonkhereyed" derived, like the ethnonym Kerait (khereyed, khereid), from the name of the raven totem. Mongols call one species of large raven "khon kheree".
Origin The Khongirads are often identified as the descendants of the ancient Wuku/Wugu tribe in Tang Dynasty records. The tribe's own origin myth claims that they were descended from three brothers born of a golden vessel—Jurluq Mergen, Quba Shira, and Tusbu Da'u. The descendants of these brothers formed the Hongirad tribe, but feuds quickly splintered the tribe and gave rise to the offshoot tribes of the Ikires, Olkhonud, Karanut, Gorlos, and Qongliyuts. Only the descendants of Jurluq Mergen retained the tribal name of Hongirad. One of the most famous Hongirad ancestors was Miser Ulug, an Onggirat Hercules who was super-humanly strong and often slept for days at a time.
Many names of the 12th century's Hongirads and their subtribes have Mongol origin:The Secret History of the Mongols
Dei Setsen — tsetsen (wise) Jurluq Mergen — zörlög (path) mergen (wise). (See Merkit) Quba Shira — goo (beautiful) shar (yellow). In the 1680s Zasagt Khan of the Khalkha Mongolia was Shar (Shira). (See Alan Gua).
Subtribes Hongirad — khun (swan), khungiin (swan's), ard (person); swan person. Swan is one of Mongol totems. (See Oirats). Qongliyuts — Khonkhluud; khonkh (bell), "iud" or "uud" is plural suffix. Gorlos — Modern Southern Mongol subgroup Ikires — Ikhires: ikh (great), ikhes (chief, noble) Karanut — Kharnuud: khar (black), "iud" or "uud" is plural suffix Olkhunut — Olkhunuud, "uud" is plural suffix. They have three subgroups: Alag aduutan: alag (piebald), aduutan (horse herder); piebald horse herder. Shar khonit: shar (yellow), khoni (sheep); yellow sheep breeder. Ulaan zalaat: ulaan (red), zalaa (tassel); person who wears hat with red tassel. Today, Mongols call themselves "red-tasseled Mongols" because Mongols wear hat with red tassel and they adore fire. Fire is a general symbol of eternal growth, wealth, and success and a figure of fire is used in Mongolian flag, coat of arms and Soyombo symbol. The three tongues of the flame represent the past, present, and future.
Shamanic practices continue in present-day Mongol culture.Shamanism in China: bibliography, by Barend ter Haar, who teaches at the Institute for Chinese Studies. Mentions that a book called Popular Religion and Shamanism includes "as well as three studies of shamanism among non-Han cultures (Mongol, Tungusic and Daba)".Local Belief Systems , by Professor Mark Bender. Ohio State University.
Relationship with the Mongols: The Legend of Ergune Khun According to Mongol legend, two warriors named Kiyan (Khiyad) and Negus (Mongolian: Nokhos, dog or wolf) were defeated in battle and forced to seek shelter in an enclosed valley called Ergune khun ("steep cliffs"). After several generations the descendants of these heroes became too numerous for the valley to support, but no one remembered the way out. A blacksmith came up with a solution—they would create their own way out by melting an exposed iron vein that existed in one of the encircling mountains. Building a massive fire and stoking it with 70 large bellows, the trapped clan did just that and succeeded in creating a passage to the outside world. Once free, the people of Kiyan and Negus went on to create several tribes, including the Mongols and the Hongirads (whose susceptibility to gout was explained by the "fact" that their ancestors were the first to flee Ergene Qun, so they burned their feet on the hot iron).
Consort tribe
In addition to having a shared ancestry with the Mongols in general, the Hongirads also shared ancestors with the Mongol royal line, whose originator, Alan Qo'a, was a woman of the Kharlas clan, an offshoot of the Khongirads founded by the legendary Miser Ulug. Down to the 12th century, Mongol rulers such as Khabul Khan and his great-grandson Genghis Khan were still taking Khongirad wives. Yesugei Ba'atur, the father of Genghis Khan, was not a high ranking Mongol leader, but even he secured himself an Onggirat wife by stealing one from another man. The wives of most rulers of the Yuan Dynasty and Golden Horde were also from the Hongirad. That is why they held enormous powers behind the courts in both states. They forced the rulers of the Golden Horde to make peace with Kublai in 1280s and convinced Tokhta Khan to accept supremacy of the Great Khan in 1304. The Hongirad under queen Dagi and Temüder, the Minister of the Secretariat, reached their political peak in the Yuan Dynasty, the principal state of 4 khanates, during the reign of Gegeen Khan Shidebala (r.1321-1323). They built Yingchang city in modern Inner Mongolia in 1271.
After the death of the last Yuan emperor, Toghan Temur, who lost his imperial status in China and other Mongol khanates, a body of the Khongirat and Olkhunut (Borte's clan) surrendered to the Ming Dynasty in 1371. Meanwhile, the Khongirad, belonged to the southern Khalkha tumen in modern Inner Mongolia and Olkhunuts lived in modern Khovd Province.
Transoxiana
During the 18th century, the basins of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya passed under the control of three Uzbek khanates claiming legitimacy in their descent from Genghis Khan. These were, from west to east, the Khongirads based on Khiva in Khwārezm (1717–1920), the Manghud in Bukhara (1753–1920), and the Mings in Kokand (Qǔqon; c. 1710–1876). The Sufi Dynasty (1359–1388) which was founded by the Qongirat elites in Khwārezm ruled their own state under the Jochids and Timur. "Two or three decades after Ibn Battuta's visit, there arose in Khwarazm an independent minor dynasty, the Sufids, of a Kongrat Turkish tribe." The Qongirat Inaks became de facto rulers of the Khanate of Khiva in 18th century and their descendants assumed the title of khan themselves in 1804. On 2 February 1920, Khiva's last khan, Sayid Abdullah, abdicated before its territory was finally incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1924.
Descendants are found among the people in Mongolia and the Yugurs in Gansu, China, and little bit in the Karakalpaks and the Uzbegs.
Kazakhstan