Kaidu is a term that can refer to different things, but one of the most notable ones is Kaidu, the Khan of the Golden Horde.
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Kublai, preoccupied with conquering Song China, underestimated his cousin. He sent envoys and even offered rich territories. Kaidu returned the envoys’ heads. By 1268, he had seized control of the Chagatai Khanate (Transoxiana and the Tarim Basin), either by installing puppets or ruling directly. He now commanded the heart of the Silk Road and its lucrative cities: Samarkand, Bukhara, and Kashgar. The rebel prince had become a khan in his own right. By 1268, he had seized control of the
Khutulun famously declared she would only marry a man who could defeat her in wrestling. Hundreds of suitors tried; all lost, forfeiting 100 horses each. Eventually, she amassed a herd of 10,000 horses. She fought alongside Kaidu in his greatest battles, often saving his life. After Kaidu’s death, she became a power broker, but her story was later distorted by Persian and European chroniclers into the romantic legend of “Turandot” (though the opera by Puccini bears little resemblance to the real woman). not with brushes and ink.”
Kaidu’s war was not merely dynastic; it was ideological. He saw Kublai’s adoption of Chinese court rituals, paper money, fixed taxes, and a bureaucratic state as a betrayal of Genghis Khan’s Yassa (law). In Kaidu’s eyes, a Mongol should live in a felt tent ( ger ), follow the herds, and owe allegiance only to a khan who proved himself on horseback. He famously declared: “Kublai has polluted himself with the customs of the peasants. Our grandfather’s empire was won with the bow and the horse, not with brushes and ink.”
