Toregene Khatun was a very high ranking Khatun and ruled as regent of the Mongol Empire from the death of her husband Ogedei Khan in 1241 until the election of her eldest son Guyuk Khan in 1246. She was effectively the Great Khatun (female version of "Great Khan") of the Mongol Empire as the temporary successor of Ogedei Khan at his death.

Toregene was born into the Naiman tribe. When Genghis conquered the Markets in 1204, Dayir Usun gave Toregene to Ogedei as his second wife. While Ogedei's first wife Boraqchin had no sons, Toregene gave birth to five sons, Guyuk, Kotan, Kochu, Qarachar, and Qashi.

She eclipsed all of Ogedei's wives and gradually increased her influence among the court officials. She was an exercise of power in a society that was traditionally led only by men. She managed to balance the various competing powers within the empire, and even within the extended family of the descendants of Genghis Khan, over a 5-year period in which she not only ruled the empire but set the stage for the ascension of her son Guyuk as Great Khan. During Toregene's reign, foreign dignitaries arrived from the distant corners of the empire to her capital at the Karakorum or to her nomadic imperial camp.

A coin probably struck in Caucasia during the reign of Toregene Khatun.

Image Source: wikipdeia.org