Battle of Chakirmaut

The Battle of Chakirmaut, fought in 1204 at the foot of the Naqu Cliffs, was the decisive engagement of Temüjin's war against the Naiman, the strongest tribe of the western steppe. Tayang Khan, the Naiman ruler, gathered his forces with Jamukha—Temüjin's former sworn brother and now his rival—among his commanders. Temüjin advanced in disciplined decimal formations that the Naiman had never seen, and their line wavered before contact. Jamukha, judging the day lost, deserted with his men. Tayang was wounded and captured, and died soon afterwards; the Naiman army broke. Jamukha himself was betrayed by his own followers, who delivered him to Temüjin, and was executed. Tayang's son Kuchlug fled west to the Qara Khitai, a refuge that would later draw the Mongols further west. With the Naiman defeated, no power on the steppe could oppose Temüjin, and two years later a kurultai proclaimed him Genghis Khan.