Baljuna Covenant
The Baljuna Covenant was an oath sworn in mid-1203 AD by Temüjin—the khan of the Mongol tribe and the future Genghis Khan—and a small group of companions, subsequently known as the Baljunatu.
Three years later in 1206, having defeated all enemies on the steppe, Temüjin entitled himself Genghis Khan at a kurultai and honoured the Baljunatu with the highest distinctions of his new Mongol Empire.
Nineteenth-century historians doubted the episode's historicity because of its omission (probably on account of the heterogeneity of the oath-swearers) from the Secret History of the Mongols, a 13th-century epic poem recounting Temüjin's rise.
On the other hand, according to the Jami al-tawarikh of Rashid al-Din and oral histories recounted by Marco Polo, Toghrul was already predisposed against Temüjin and reacted angrily to the marriage proposal.
Desiring to avoid open conflict if possible, the Kereit leader devised a plan of deception: he informed Temüjin that he had decided to accept the proposed marriages and intended to hold a celebratory banquet.
An unsuspecting Temüjin set off with a minimal guard to the feast,[b] where the conspirators had planned to ambush and kill him; warned of hostile rumours by his father's old retainer Münglig, he halted.
Even though he received some defectors from the Kereit force, including Kuildar of the Mankut and Jurchedei of the Uru'ud [ru], Temüjin was decisively defeated at the Battle of Qalaqaljid Sands in early 1203.
The defections proved crucial in allowing Temüjin to escape—Jurchedei wounded Senggum with an arrow, halting the Kereit attack—but Toghrul also chose not to pursue, reasoning that his enemy was out of the strategic picture.
Bo'orchu arrived at dawn, having lost his horse at Qalaqaljid, and he was shortly followed by Boroqul, who was tending to Ögedei, Temüjin's third son, who had suffered a serious neck injury.
Biographies in the Yuán Shǐ, a 14th-century official history, exaggerate the exigent situation by stating Temüjin was accompanied by only nineteen followers, but this might well refer only to the company leaders.
Temüjin in all probability spent a large portion of the summer attempting to recruit warriors to his cause: those he succeeded with included the Onggirat (the tribe of his wife Börte), the Ikires, and some of the Nirun Mongols.
Other recruits included leaders of the Khitan tribe, who saw in Temüjin a route to revenge against the Jin, and the Muslim merchants Ja'far and Hasan, who exchanged a thousand sheep for guarantees of future security and favourable trade pacts.
In transcending traditional avenues of community, the Baljuna Covenant was "a type of brotherhood [akin to] modern civic citizenship based upon personal choice and commitment", in the words of the historian Jack Weatherford.
