merkitsen

Merkitsen (also rendered Merkit or Merkits) were a tribal group of the Mongolian steppe active in the 12th and early 13th centuries. They are commonly described in contemporary sources as a nomadic pastoral people organized into clan-based units, living by herding horses, sheep, goats and cattle across the forest-steppe and river valleys of what is now Mongolia.

The Merkits appear in the early biographies of Temüjin (later Genghis Khan). They are best known for their conflict with him after members of the Merkit abducted his wife Börte, an event that prompted alliances and military action by Temüjin to recover her. That episode is one of several intertribal disputes recorded in the Secret History of the Mongols and in later Persian and Chinese histories.

Politically the Merkits operated like other steppe tribes, led by chiefs and organized through kinship ties. During the rise of Temüjin, the Merkits were repeatedly defeated in campaigns by him and his allies. Many survivors were killed, captured, or absorbed into the rapidly expanding Mongol confederation, leading to the dissolution of the Merkits as a distinct political entity by the early 13th century.

Remains of Merkitsen influence survive primarily in historical texts and in the role that their conflict with Temüjin played in the formation of the Mongol Empire; archaeological and linguistic evidence about their specific origins and language remains limited.