Editing Subutai (section)

==The Great Raid (1220–1223)==
[[File:Genghis Khan empire-en.svg|thumb|260px|Routes taken by Mongol invaders]]
Subutai and Jebe spent part of the 1219 winter in [[Azerbaijan]] and Iran, raiding and looting while preventing the western Khwarezm forces from assisting the rest of the empire to the east. Here he conceived the idea of conducting the most audacious reconnaissance-in-force in history, which was described by [[Edward Gibbon]] as [an expedition] "which has never been attempted, and has never been repeated": 20,000 Mongol forces would circle the [[Caspian Sea]] through the Caucasus Mountains to fall on the rear of the Wild [[Kipchaks]] and [[Cumans]].<ref>''In the Service of the Khans'', 19.</ref>

After destroying resistance in Persia and submitting Azerbaijan, the Mongols [[Mongol invasions of Georgia|invaded]] the Christian [[Kingdom of Georgia]]. Though the king [[George IV of Georgia]] was reluctant to commit to battle, Subutai and Jebe forced his hand by ravaging the countryside and killing his people. Subutai and Jebe then [[Battle of Khunan|defeated]] the Georgian army despite the presence of many thousands of Georgian knights, by luring the knights away from their infantry with a [[feigned retreat]], then enveloping the knights. After destroying them, the Mongols encircled and crushed the Georgian army. Subutai, who was identified by the Georgians as being in command, originally lured the Georgians into thinking his army was a friendly ally by having his men parade in front of crosses, and using spies to start false rumors that the Mongols were actually Christian wonder-workers who had come to assist the Georgians.<ref>Kirakos Gandzaketsi, History of the Armenians, 166–167.</ref>

This Mongol reconnaissance mission may have inadvertently altered the history of the Crusades, as Georgia had planned on sending their now destroyed army to join the [[Fifth Crusade]]. Instead, King George's sister [[Rusudan of Georgia|Rusudan]] had to write to the [[Pope Honorius III]] to explain that they could not assist the Crusade because their whole army had been disintegrated.<ref>Oliver of Paderborn, "The Capture of Damietta", trans. Joseph J. Gavigan, ''Christian Society and the Crusades, 1198–1229'', ed. Edward Peters (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971), 90, 123–124.</ref> Though Georgia lay defenseless after these catastrophic defeats, the Mongol mission was to raid and scout, not conquer.

After ravaging Georgia, the Mongols cut across the [[Caucasus Mountains]] during the winter to get around the [[Derbent]] Pass. The Mongols were tricked by their guides into taking a perilous route and emerged from the mountains exhausted, only to be confronted with a far larger steppe coalition army. Using clever diplomacy, Subutai isolated and defeated the [[Alans]], [[Circassians]], and Don Kipchaks/Cumans in detail. After plundering the southern Russian steppes, the Russian princes united with the retreating Cuman confederacy to defeat the Mongols. Subutai sacrificed the 1,000 men of his rear guard to induce the coalition army to recklessly pursue him and become separated. The plan worked, but strategic advantage came at a high price. In all likelihood the 1,000 men were led by Jebe who was killed by some Kipchaks.<ref>Stephen Pow: ''The Last Campaign and Death of Jebe Noyan''. ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'' 27, no. 01 (2016): 31-51.</ref> As expected the coalition army pursued the Mongols and after retreating for 9 days, Subutai suddenly turned and crushed the combined [[Kievan Rus'|Rus']] and [[Cuman]] army at the [[Battle of the Kalka River|Kalka]] (31 May 1223). Arab historian Ibn al-Athir mentions  a [[Battle of Samara Bend|campaign]] against Volga Bulgaria, where the Mongol army was defeated in late 1223 or early 1224 ([[Islamic calendar|620]]). According to Ibn al-Athir, 4,000 men survived from the Mongol side in this battle. The remaining army proceeded to [[Cumania|Desht-i Qipchaq]], where they joined the army of Jochi, but historians have doubted this account in light of the Mongols seeking out and defeating the Qangli Turks in southern Russia shortly afterward.<ref>Frank McLynn, Genghis Khan (2015), 607–613.</ref>