Qiu Zhirong 求芝蓉
Who is Angutha in Simon of Saint Quentin’s History of the Tatars?
67th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Gotemba 2025
In 1247, Simon of Saint Quentin and a group of Dominican friars were sent by the pope to visit the Mongol military leader, Baiju who charged with the conquest of Western Asia during 1240s. In his History of the Tatars, Simon recorded that after being humiliated by weeks, they finally got the promise of Baiju that the letter to the pope would be drafted and he would designate two envoys. However, three days later, Baiju went back on his word because he was informed that a great envoy and official from Khan who named Angutha was about to arrive. Angutha received from the Khan the mandate to rule over the entire Georgia. The friars had to wait for other weeks to get the new edict of the Khan.
In his famous article Les Mongols et la Papauté, Paul Pelliot proposes that Angutha can be identified with Elijigidei, a high-ranking figure under Ögedei Khan and the governor of the Transcaucasia region appointed by Guyuk Khan. This opinion has usually been accepted by the scholars. But Peter Jackson insists that Angutha was Arghun Aqa, the Mongol administrator in the western part of the Empire.
This divergence is due to the unknown etymology of this name. This essay will point out the original meaning of Angutha, and discuss the reason why it is the personal name of Elijigidei, who was the Ulus Noyan (prime minister) of Ögedei Khan. Angutha was appointed as the governor of the western part of of the Yeke Monghol Ulus by Guyuk Khan and was killed by Baiju after the enthronement of Mongke Khan. His tragic situation was caused by the political struggles among the Chingisids.