Kurultay

A kurultai (Mongolian: Хуралдай, Khuraldai; Turkish: Kurultay) was a political and military council of ancient Turk chiefs and khans which was later borrowed by Mongol peoples. The root of the word is "Kur/Khur" (assemble/discuss) and that helps form "Kurul/Khural" meaning political "meeting" or "assembly" in Turkic languages. Kurultay, Khuraldai, khuruldai, or khuraldaan means "a gathering", or more literally, "intergatheration". This root is the same in the Turkic word khurim/khurum, which means "feast" and "wedding" and originally referred to large festive gatherings on the steppe, but is used mainly in the sense of wedding in modern times.

This term appeared for the first time in the last 282nd paragraph of the Secret History of the Mongols in form "Yeke Qurilta" (Modern Mongolian: Ikh Khuraldai; literally: great khuraldai). Mongolian Families voted by showing up for the event; families that did not show up were considered a vote against the reason for holding the Kurultai. After the new khan has been elected, an elaborate enthronement procedure followed. Johann Schiltberger, a 15th-century German traveler, described the installation of a new Golden Horde khan as follows ( quoted in ):

When they choose a king, they take him and seat him on white felt, and raise him in it three times. Then they lift him up and carry him round the tent, and seat him on a throne, and put a golden sword in his hand. Then he must be sworn as is the custom.

Russian princes and boyars, who often had to wait in Sarai for the kurultai to elect a new khan, who would then re-issue their yarlyks (patents), would no doubt often witness this khan kutermiak rituals, which became increasingly more frequent and futile during the mid-14th century time of troubles in the Horde, giving rise to the Russian word "кутерьма" (kuter'ma), meaning "running around pointlessly".

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