Youth and Early Career
Esen was born to his father, Toghon, the Choros taishi (grand preceptor, from 太師) who had expanded Oirat territory substantially, with more Mongol tribes acknowledging his supremacy.
His early campaigns were against the Chaghatayid khans of Moghulistan. Esen three times defeated and twice captured the Moghuli ruler Uvais (Ways Khan) (1418–1432). Esen released him respecting his Chinggisid blood in both cases. The second time Uvais granted Esen his sister Makhtum Khanim who bore his two sons. Esen had to nominally convert to Islam in order to marry the Muslim princess, but remained effectively a shamanist.
After his father died in 1438, Esen inherited his position, taishi, for the reigning khan Togtoo-Bukha (r.1433-52). Under Esen taishi's leadership, the western Mongols and other Mongol tribes who support Togtoo-Bukha conquered the rest of Mongolia, and received the submission of the Jurchens and the Tuvans (Uriankhais) in Manchuria and Eastern Siberia. It is unarguably true that the Oirat warriors played a crucial role in this conquest. In the 1430s Esen also took over control of the Mongol kingdom called Qara Del in Hami oasis on the Silk Road between the Gobi and the Takla Makan deserts; after 1443-45 his conquest reached the northern border of Korea.
Read more about this topic: Esen Taishi
Famous quotes containing the words youth and, youth, early and/or career:
“Celestial Cupid her fam’d son advanc’t,
Holds his dear Psyche sweet intranc’t
After her wandring labours long,
Till free consent the gods among
Make her his eternal Bride,
And from her fair unspotted side
Two blissful twins are to be born,
Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn,”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Genius goes around the world in its youth incessantly apologizing for having large feet. What wonder that later in life it should be inclined to raise those feet too swiftly to fools and bores.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“I looked at my daughters, and my boyhood picture, and appreciated the gift of parenthood, at that moment, more than any other gift I have ever been given. For what person, except one’s own children, would want so deeply and sincerely to have shared your childhood? Who else would think your insignificant and petty life so precious in the living, so rich in its expressiveness, that it would be worth partaking of what you were, to understand what you are?”
—Gerald Early (20th century)
“John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)