Anyone who looks into the history of the Mongol World Empire soon encounters three extraordinarily powerful and influential women who figured prominently in its rise—Hö’elün (Chinggis Khan’s mother), Börte (his principal wife), and Sorqoqtani (the mother of Khubilai Khan, grandson of Chinggis Khan). More advanced reading soon encounters two more powerful, if somewhat less widely known, women—Töregene (wife and later widow of Ögedei Khan, son of Chinggis Khan) and Oghul-Qaimish (wife and later widow of Güyük Khan, son of Ögedei and grandson of Chinggis). This reviewer found this line of powerful women striking in graduate school, hoping that someday someone would write a full-length monograph about elite and non-elite women as the sine qua non of the empire.
At long last, three such books have arrived; the other two are Jack Weatherford’s The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire (New York,...