Chagatai Khan

Chagatai Khan was the second son of Genghis Khan and Börte and received a large ulus in Central Asia after the Mongol conquests. He was regarded as a strict defender of Mongol customary law and had a difficult relationship with his elder brother Jochi, whose legitimacy he challenged. Chagatai supported Ögedei’s election as great khan, and his descendants ruled the Chagatai Khanate, although the state later divided and changed character.

Chagatai is a recurring figure in Conn Iggulden’s Conqueror series, where the rivalries among the sons of Genghis Khan drive the succession narrative. Historical fiction often sharpens his hostility towards Jochi and presents him as an uncompromising guardian of steppe tradition. The family conflict is dramatically useful, but the surviving chronicles were themselves shaped by later dynastic interests.

Conn Iggulden’s Bones of the Hills places Chagatai Khan within a narrative shaped by empire, conquest and resistance, military command and battlefield decision-making, and family, marriage and personal loyalty. Conn Iggulden’s Lords of the Bow places Chagatai Khan within a narrative shaped by military command and battlefield decision-making, court politics and dynastic power, and family, marriage and personal loyalty.