Golden Horde
This article refers to the medieval Turkic state. For the Irish rock band, see The Golden Horde (band). The
Golden Horde (
Turkish:
Altın Ordu) was a
Mongol state established in parts of present-day
Russia,
Ukraine, and
Kazakhstan after the break up of the
Mongol Empire in the
1240s.
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Tatar-language map of the Golden Horde |
The name Golden is believed to have come from the
steppe color system for the
cardinal directions : black â€" north, blue â€" east, red â€" south, white â€" west, and yellow (or gold) â€" center.
According to another version, the name was derived from a magnificent golden tent that
Batu Khan established to mark a place of his future capital on the
Volga. Although much aired in the
19th-century books, this theory is now considered
apocryphal.
There are no written records dated prior to
17th century (well after the destruction) that refer to the state as Golden Horde. Earlier documents allude to this polity as
Ulus of Jochi.
Some scholars prefer to use an alternative name - Kipchak (or
Qipchaq) Khanate - because various derivatives of Kipchak were also applied to this state in medieval documents.
At his death,
Genghis Khan divided the
Mongol Empire amongst his four sons.
Jochi was the eldest, but he was already dead and his paternity was in doubt, so the westernmost lands trodden by the Mongol hoof, then southern
Russia, were divided among his sons,
Batu leader of the
Blue Horde (West), and
Orda, leader of the
White Horde (East).
[In this terminology the names Blue and White follow the Persian usage, as do most contemporary historians; in Turkish usage they are reversed, causing some confusion in secondary literature.] |
Destruction of Suzdal by the Mongol armies. From the medieval Russian annals |
Batu then succeeded in establishing control over Orda's territorial endowment and subjugated the northern littoral of the
Black Sea, incorporating the indigenous
Turkic peoples into his army. In the late 1230s and early 1240s, he conducted his brilliant campaigns
against the Volga Bulgaria and
against the successor states to
Kievan Rus, bringing their ancient prosperity to an end.
Batu's Blue Horde continued west, raiding
Poland and
Hungary after the
Battles of Legnica and
Muhi. In
1241, however, the Great Khan
Ogedei died in
Mongolia, and Batu turned back from his siege of
Vienna to take part in disputing the succession. The Mongol armies would never again travel so far west.
In
1242, Batu established his capital at
Sarai, commanding the lower stretch of the
Volga River. Shortly before that, the Blue Horde split when Batu's younger brother
Shayban left Batu's army to set up his own horde east of the
Ural Mountains along the
Ob and
Irtysh Rivers.
The Horde quickly lost its Mongol identity. While the descendants of Batu's original Mongol warriors constituted the upper class of society, most of the Horde's population were
Kipchaks,
Bulgar Tatars,
Kyrghyz,
Khwarezmians, and other Turkic peoples.
Internal organization
The Horde's supreme ruler was the
khan, chosen by the
kurultai among
Batu Khan's descendants. The prime minister, also ethnically Mongol, was known as "prince of princes", or beqlare-beq. The ministers were called
viziers. Local governors, or
baskaks, were responsible for levying tribute and extinguishing popular discontent. Civil and military administration, as a rule, was not separated.
|
A 13th-century cup produced in the Golden Horde. |
The Horde developed as a settled rather than nomadic culture, with Sarai evolving into a populous and prosperous metropolis. In the early 14th century, the capital was moved considerably upstream to
Sarai Berqe, which became one of the largest cities of the medieval world, with a population estimated by the 2004
Britannica at 600,000.
Despite Russian efforts at
proselytizing in Sarai, the Mongols clung to their traditional
animist beliefs until
Uzbeg Khan (1312-41) adopted
Islam as a state religion. Several Russian rulers -
Mikhail of Chernigov and
Mikhail of Tver among them - were reportedly assassinated in Sarai for their refusal to worship pagan idols, but the khans were generally tolerant and even freed the
Russian Orthodox Church of taxes.
Vassals and allies
The Horde exacted tribute from its subject peoples -
Russians,
Armenians,
Georgians, and
Crimean
Greeks. The territories of Christian subjects were regarded as peripheral areas of little interest as long as they continued to pay tribute. These vassal states were never incorporated into the Horde, and Russian rulers early obtained the privilege of collecting the Tatar tribute themselves. To maintain the control over Russia, Tatar warlords carried out regular punitive raids to Russian principalities (most dangerous in 1252, 1293, 1382).
There is a point of view, much propagated by
Lev Gumilev, that the Horde and Russian polities concluded a defensive alliance against the fanatical
Teutonic knights and pagan
Lithuanians. Enthusiasts point out to the fact that the Mongol court was frequented by Russian princes, notably
Yaroslavl's
Feodor the Black, who boasted his own
ulus near Sarai, and
Novgorod's
Alexander Nevsky, the sworn brother of Batu's successor
Sartaq Khan. Although Novgorod never acknowledged the Horde's ascendancy, a Mongol contingent supported Novgorodians in the
Battle of the Ice.
Sarai carried on a brisk trade with the
Genoese trade emporiums on the
Black Sea littoral -
Soldaia,
Caffa, and
Azak.
Mamluk Egypt was the khans' long-standing trade partner and ally in the
Mediterranean.
After Batu's death in
1255, the prosperity of his empire lasted for a full century, until the
assassination of
Jani Beg in
1357. The
White Horde and the
Blue Horde were effectively consolidated into a single state by Batu's brother
Berke. In the 1280s, the power was usurped by
Nogai, a kingmaker who pursued a policy of Christian alliances. The Horde's military clout peaked during the reign of
Uzbeg (1312-41), whose army exceeded 300,000 warriors.
Their Russian policy was one of constantly switching alliances in an attempt to keep Russia weak and divided. In the
14th century the rise of
Lithuania in North East Europe posed a challenge to Tatar control over Russia. Thus Uzbeg Khan began backing
Moscow as the leading Russian state.
Ivan I Kalita was granted the title of
grand prince and given the right to collect taxes from other Russian potentates.
The
Black Death of the 1340s was a major factor contributing to the Golden Horde's eventual downfall. Following Jani Beg's assassination, the empire fell into a long
civil war, averaging one new Khan per annum for the next few decades. By the 1380s,
Khwarezm,
Astrakhan, and
Muscovy attempted to break free of the Horde's power, while the lower reaches of the
Dnieper were annexed by
Lithuania and
Poland.
Mamai, a Tatar general who did not formally hold the throne, attempted to reassert Tatar authority over Russia. His army was defeated by
Dmitri Donskoi at the
Battle of Kulikovo in his second consecutive victory over the Tatars. Mamai soon fell from power, and in 1378,
Tokhtamysh, a descendant of Orda Khan and ruler of the White Horde, invaded and annexed the territory of the Blue Horde, briefly reestablishing the Golden Horde as a dominant regional power. He sacked Moscow as punishment for its insubordination in
1382.
 |
Tokhtamysh's invasion of Russia in 1382. |
A fatal blow to the Horde was dealt by
Tamerlane, who annihilated Tokhtamysh's army, destroyed his capital, looted the Crimean trade centers, and deported the most skillful craftsmen to his own capital in
Samarkand.
In the first decades of the 15th century, the power was wielded by
Edigu, a vizier who routed
Vytautas of Lithuania in the great
Battle of the Vorskla River and established the
Nogai Horde as his personal demesne.
In the
1440s, the Horde was again wracked by civil war. This time it broke up into eight separate
Khanates:
Siberia Khanate,
Qasim Khanate,
Khanate of Kazan,
Khanate of Astrakhan,
Kazakh Khanate,
Uzbek Khanate, and
Khanate of Crimea all seceding from the last remnant of the Golden Horde - the Great or
Big Horde.
None of these new Khanates was stronger than
Muscovite Russia, which
finally broke free of Tatar control by
1480. Each Khanate was eventually annexed by it, starting with Kazan and Astrakhan in the
1550s. By the end of the century the Siberia Khanate was also part of Russia, and
descendants of its ruling khans entered Russian service.
The Khanate of Crimea became a vassal state of the
Ottoman Empire in
1475 and subjugated what remained of the
Great Horde by
1502.
Crimean Tatars wreaked havoc in southern Russia in the course of the 16th and early 17th centuries but they were not able to defeat Russia or take Moscow. Under Ottoman protection, the
Khanate of Crimea continued its precarious existence until
Catherine the Great annexed it on
April 8,
1783. It was by far the longest-lived of the
successor states to the Golden Horde.
*
List of Khans of the Golden Horde*
Berke-Hulagu war*
Tokhtamysh-Tamerlane war*
The Golden Horde coinage*
Coins of Golden Horde and Crimean Khanat
