Toghrul

Toghrul led the Keraites and stood as anda to the Mongol chief Yesugei, a bond that made him patron to Yesugei's son Temüjin when the boy needed allies. He sheltered and supported the future conqueror in his early rise, a relationship chronicled in the Secret History of the Mongols. The alliance frayed as Temüjin's strength grew, and by 1203 Toghrul was dead—whether by battle, betrayal, or the simple arithmetic of steppe politics, the source that recorded him does not fully say.