Four Oirats

The Four Oirats, the Oirat Confederation, were the Western Mongols whose great tribal union of the steppe rose on the Mongolian plateau from 1399 to 1628. Forest peoples west of Genghis Khan's Mongols, they had bowed to him in 1207 and grown apart after, trading envoys and titles with the Ming dynasty until Yongle made them wang in 1409 and demanded submission the same year, while Ming pressed its claimant Oljei Temur too, wavering between Islam and Buddhism for centuries after. After Elbeg Khan's fall around 1399, the Oirat tribes closed ranks as Eleuths (Dorvon Oirad) against the eastern khanates. Nobody agrees who the original four were: Choros, Torghut, Dorbet and Khoshut in the common telling, with Kergud early and Khoid small ones beside, political-ethnic knots rather than blood kin. Without capital or throne the confederation moved with its herds between Mongolia and Dzungaria through its ascendancy, 1399 to 1628.