蒙古帝国的版图扩张将于不久后达到最高峰，但在内斗逐步毁坏统治家族的情况下，这个帝国已行将就木。忽必烈握有最盛的兵力，不过兵员中汉人多过蒙古人，而且尽管他于一二六○年成为大汗，却是在中国而非蒙古境内召开的假忽里台大会上获选此位，未能得到孛儿只斤氏或其它蒙古人的支持。
孙子们仍膜拜祖父成吉思汗的先灵，把他当作神一般崇拜，然而这些后嗣同时也毁掉了他所创造的一切。可是他们毁得愈多，成吉思汗在仪式上的地位就愈重要。忽必烈汗创设了济农（jinong，「黄金王子」）一职，指派济农「守护北疆，管理开国皇帝的『四大斡儿朵』、军队、蒙古人、母土」。36 由于肩负这一职责，济农掌控了蒙古世界最神圣的圣物：成吉思汗的黑灵旗和他四个妻子的四顶毡帐。黑灵旗是成吉思汗的马鬃旗，他升天后仍有一部分凡灵留在那旗子里。37
令人费解的是，原来只有四个毡帐，后来却增加为八个。有人解释，多出来的毡帐是用来供奉他的马鞍或他的奶桶的祠堂，但那些毡帐原应属某个女人所有，因为奶桶和马鞍本来是不配拥有毡帐的。最合理的说法是，就像成吉思汗四个妻子死后毡帐都被带到阿瓦迦，这多出来的四顶毡帐，很可能是他四个遭罢黜女儿的毡帐。毛毡里留有已死女人的部分灵魂，因此夺走这些女人土地的儿子们，无不希望那女人别阴魂不散地骚扰他。解决办法就是将她们的斡儿朵集中于一处。此后，它们被人称作成吉思汗的八毡帐或八斡儿朵。
注释：
2 Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles，W. M. Thackson译（Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1998）, p. 345。拉希德丁认为这些女孩是斡亦剌人，但志费尼未交代这部落的名称，见J. Boyle所译Genghis Khan: The History of the World-Conqueror（Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997）。《蒙古秘史》认为她们属于斡赤斤叔叔一系，但窝阔台应该不会娶自己父系这边的女人。↺
3 Rashid al-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan, John Andrew Boyle译（New York: Columbia University Press, 1971）, pp. 35-38。↺
4 Juvaini, Genghis Khan, p. 235。↺
5 Igor de Rachewiltz, “Töregene’s Edict of 1240,” Papers on Far Eastern History 23（1981年3月）: 38-63。↺
6 Rashid al-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan, p. 199。↺
7 Juvaini, Genghis Khan, p. 245。↺
8 同上，p. 614。↺
9 Rashid al-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan, p. 121。↺
10 Giovanni DiPlano Carpini, The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars, Erick Hildinger译（Boston: Branden, 1996）, p. 111。↺
11 Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh, p. 39。↺
12 Igor de Rachewiltz译，The Secret History of the Mongols,（Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2004），第269节 。↺
13 Carpini, Story of the Mongols, p. 107。↺
14 同上，p. 111。↺
15 Juvaini, Genghis Khan, p. 244。↺
16 Abu-Umar-I-Usman, Tabakat-I-Nasirir: A General History of the Muhammadan Dynasties of Asia，第二卷 ，H.G. Raverty译（London: Gilbert & Rivington, 1881）, p. 1144。↺
17 William Woodville Rockhill译，The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253-55 as Narrated by Himself（London: Hakylut Society, 1900）, p. 164。↺
18 Juvaini, Genghis Khan, p. 556。↺
19 Rashid al-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan, p. 155。↺
20 Christopher Dawson, The Mongol Mission: Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolian and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries（New York: Sheed and Ward, 1955）, p. xx。↺
21 Rockhill, Journey of William of Rubruck, p. 250。↺
22 Morris Rossabi, Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times（Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988）, p. 12。↺
23 Juvaini, Genghis Khan, p. 264-265。↺
24 Thomas T. Allsen, “The Rise of the Mongolian Empire and Mongolian Rule in North China,” 收录于Herbert Franke与Denis Twitchett所合编The Cambridge History of China第六卷 （Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994）, p. 391。↺
25 Rashid al-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan, p. 202。↺
26 同上，p. 211。↺
27 George Qingzhi Zhao, Marriage as Political Strategy and Cultural Expression（New York: Peter Lang, 2008）, p. 135。↺
28 George Lane, Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth Century Iran: A Persian Renaissance（New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003）, p. 67。↺
29 Rashid al-Din, The Successors of Genghis Khan, p. 213；也记载于Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh, p. 408。↺
30 Rockhill, Journey of William of Rubruck, p. 245。↺
31 Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh, p. 40；也参见Christopher P. Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire（New York: Facts on File, 2004）, p. 346。↺
32 Hidehiro Okada（冈田英弘），“The Chakhar Shrine of Eshi Khatun”，收录于Denis Sinor所编Aspects of Altaic Civilization III（Bloomington: Indiana University Research Institute for Asian Studies, 1990）, p. 178。↺
33 Juvaini, Genghis Khan, pp. 52-53。↺
34 Rashid al-Din, Rashiduddin Fazullah’s Jami’u’t-Tawarikh, p. 409。↺
35 Abu-Umar-I-Usman, Tabakat-I-Nasirir, p. 1100。↺
36 Gombojab Hangin, “The Mongolian Titles Jinong and Sigejin,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 100, no. 3（1980）: 259。↺
37 Charles Bawden译，The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobči（Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1955），第85节 。↺
