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Jebe

general serving under Genghis Khan

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ1346632 ↗
Source-derived summary

Jebe (or Jebei, Mongolian: Зэв, pronounced as Zev; birth name: Jirqo'adai (Modern Mongolian: Zurgaadai), Mongolian: Зургаадай, Chinese: 哲别) (died approximately 1224) was one of the most prominent Noyans (generals) of Genghis Khan. He belonged to the Mongol Besüd tribe, and fought among the Tayichi'ut before entering Temüjin's service. Although Jebe was originally an enemy soldier, Genghis Khan recruited him and turned him into one of his greatest generals. Jebe played an important role in the expansion of the Mongol Empire. Despite his importance, there are relatively few sources or biographies about his life. Jebe has been described as "the greatest cavalry general in history" for his unorthodox and daring maneuvers.

Life

In 1202, during the Battle of the Thirteen Sides, an arrow wounded Genghis Khan's horse in the neck, barely missing him. His loyal subordinate, Jelme, cared for him. After winning the battle, he asked the defeated to reveal who shot his horse in the neck. This was a euphemism for his own injury in an attempt to conceal his injury or possibly to prevent false confessions.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Jebe” is general serving under Genghis Khan. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Jebe, general and serving, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1224, 1202—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1181. For this dossier, Jebe, general and serving is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “general serving under Genghis Khan” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1346632. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1224 and 1202.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Jebe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.