Golden Horde
The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century, originating from the northwestern part of the Mongol Empire. After the division of the Mongol Empire in 1259, it became a functionally independent khanate. It is also known as the Kipchak Khanate, or the Ulus of Jochi, and replaced the earlier, less organized Cuman–Kipchak confederation.
It originally consisted of the lands bequeathed to Jochi. It grew greatly in size under Batu Khan, the founder of the Blue Horde. After Batu's death in 1255, his dynasty flourished for a full century, until 1359, though the intrigues of Nogai instigated a partial civil war in the late 1290s. The Horde's military power peaked during the reign of Özbeg Khan, who adopted Islam. The territory of the Golden Horde at its peak extended from Siberia and Central Asia to parts of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the Danube in the west, and from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea in the south, while bordering the Caucasus Mountains and the territories of the Mongol dynasty known as the Ilkhanate.
The khanate experienced a period of great political instability known as the Great Troubles, before it briefly reunited under Tokhtamysh. However, soon after the 1396 invasion of Timur, the founder of the Timurid Empire, the Golden Horde broke into smaller khanates which declined steadily in power.
By the start of the 15th century, the Horde had begun to fall apart. By 1466, it was being referred to simply as the "Great Horde". Within its territories there emerged numerous predominantly Turkic khanates. These internal struggles allowed Moscow to formally rid itself of the "Tatar yoke" at the Great Stand on the Ugra River in 1480, which traditionally marks the end of Mongol rule over Russia. The Crimean Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate, the last remnants of the Golden Horde, survived until 1783 and 1847 respectively, when they were conquered by the expanding Russian state.
Name
The self-designation of the state was Ulugh Ulus or Ulugh Orda. As the state disintegrated, the definition of the term was narrowed to the rump state that existed in the Volga region known as the Great Horde. After its final disintegration in 1502, the name was adopted by the Crimean Khanate, which considered itself the heir to the Golden Horde.The name Golden Horde is a partial calque of the Russian term Zolotaya Orda, which is itself supposedly a partial calque of the Turkic term Altan Orda. In this process, Zolotaya was translated as "Golden", while Orda was transliterated as "Horde". The appellation Golden is said to have been inspired by either the golden color of the tents the Mongols lived in during wartime, by an actual golden tent used by Batu Khan or Özbeg Khan, or by the riches of the khan. The color gold also denoted imperial status, while other colors referred to directions.
The Russians used the term Orda, derived from the word orda, which the Mongols used to refer to a mobile camp, to denote the seat of the khan. Depending on the time period, the Volga–Ural region has been referred to by various names, including Orda, Zolotaya Orda and Bolshaya Orda, in addition to "Jochid Ulus", named after Jochi. The English word horde, in the sense of a large group, emerged later, metaphorically extended from the reputation of the Mongol hordes.
It was not until the 16th century that Russian chroniclers begin explicitly using the term Zolotaya Orda to refer to this particular successor khanate of the Mongol Empire. The first known use of this term, in 1565, in a Russian chronicle called the History of Kazan, applied it to the ulus of Batu, centered on Sarai. In the earliest Russian chronicles that mention the Golden Horde, the state had no official name; instead, various expressions were used, such as "Tatars". In contemporary Persian, Armenian and Muslim writings, and in the records of the 13th and early 14th centuries such as the Yuanshi and the Jami' al-tawarikh, the khanate was called the Ulus of Jochi, Dasht-i-Qipchaq or Khanate of the Qipchaq, and Comania or Cumania. Modern historians use the names Golden Horde and Qipchaq or Kipchak Khanate.
The eastern or left wing was referred to as the Blue Horde in Russian chronicles and as the White Horde in Timurid sources. Western scholars have tended to follow the Timurid sources' nomenclature and refer to the left wing as the White Horde. However, Ötemish Hajji, a historian of Khwarazm, referred to the left wing as the Blue Horde, and since he was familiar with the oral traditions of the khanate, it seems likely that the Russian chroniclers were correct, and that the khanate itself referred to its left wing as the Blue Horde. The khanate apparently used the term White Horde to refer to its right wing, which was situated in Batu's home base in Sarai and controlled the ulus. The designations Golden Horde, Blue Horde, and White Horde have not been encountered in the sources of the Mongol period.
Mongol origins (c. 1225 – 1241)
divided the Mongol Empire amongst his four sons as appanages. Jochi was given the lands around the Irtysh River. As the eldest son, he was given the lands that were farthest away from his father's native land, according to the Mongol custom. However, the territory was not fixed and Jochi died before he could significantly expand it. Batu Khan was designated as his primary heir. Jochi's eldest son Orda founded a separate power in the east. Both agreed they could not claim each other's territories and that Batu's descendants had precedence over Orda's descendants.In 1229, at Ögödei's enthronement, the kurultai decided to subdue the Kipchaks and Batu was tasked with military operations in the west, having won Ögödei's favor. In 1235, Batu with the great general Subutai began an invasion westwards, first conquering the Bashkirs and then moving on to Volga Bulgaria in 1236. From there he conquered some of the southern steppes of present-day Ukraine in 1237, forcing many of the local Cumans to retreat westward. The Mongol campaign against the Kipchaks and Cumans had already started under Jochi and Subutai in 1216–1218 when the Merkits took shelter among them. By 1239, a large portion of Cumans were driven out of the Crimean Peninsula, and it became one of the appanages of the Mongol Empire. The remnants of the Crimean Cumans survived in the Crimean Mountains, and they would, in time, mix with other groups in the Crimea to form the Crimean Tatar population. Moving north, Batu began the Mongol invasion of Rus' and spent three years subjugating the principalities, whilst his cousins Möngke, Kadan, and Güyük moved southwards into Alania.
Using the migration of the Cumans as their casus belli, the Mongols continued west, raiding Poland and Hungary, which culminated in Mongol victories at the battles of Legnica and Mohi. However, in 1241, Ögedei Khan died in the Mongol homeland. Batu turned back from his siege of Vienna but did not return to Mongolia, rather opting to stay at the Volga River. His brother Orda returned to take part in the succession. The Mongol armies would never again travel so far west. In 1242, after retreating through Hungary, destroying Pest in the process, and subjugating Bulgaria, Batu established his capital at Sarai, commanding the lower stretch of the Volga River, on the site of the Khazar capital of Atil. Shortly before that, the younger brother of Batu and Orda, Shiban, was given his own enormous ulus east of the Ural Mountains along the Ob and Irtysh Rivers.
While the Mongolian language was undoubtedly in general use at the court of Batu, few Mongol texts written in the territory of the Golden Horde have survived, perhaps because of the prevalent general illiteracy. According to Grigor'ev, the, or decrees of the khans, were written in Mongol, then translated into the Cuman language. The existence of Arabic-Mongol and Persian-Mongol dictionaries dating from the middle of the 14th century and prepared for the use of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate suggests that there was a practical need for such works in the chancelleries handling correspondence with the Golden Horde. It is thus reasonable to conclude that letters received by the Mamluks – if not also written by them – must have been in Mongol.
Golden Age
Batu Khan (1242–1256)
When the Great Khatun Töregene invited Batu to elect the next Emperor of the Mongol Empire in 1242, he declined to attend the kurultai and instead stayed at the Volga River. Although Batu excused himself by saying he was suffering from old age and illness, it seems that he did not support the election of Güyük Khan. Güyük and Büri, a grandson of Chagatai Khan, had quarreled violently with Batu at a victory banquet during the Mongol occupation of Eastern Europe. He sent his brothers to the kurultai, and the new Khagan of the Mongols was elected in 1246. The Mongols did not conduct any significant military operations in the northwest during Batu's rule, allowing him to develop the system of administration.All the senior princes of Rus', including Yaroslav II of Vladimir, Daniel of Galicia, and Sviatoslav III of Vladimir, acknowledged Batu's supremacy. Originally Batu ordered Daniel to turn the administration of Galicia over to the Mongols, but Daniel personally visited Batu in 1245 and pledged allegiance to him. After returning from his trip, Daniel was visibly influenced by the Mongols, and equipped his army in the Mongol fashion, his horsemen with Mongol-style cuirasses, and their mounts armoured with shoulder, chest, and head pieces. Michael of Chernigov, who had killed a Mongol envoy in 1240, refused to show obeisance and was executed in 1246.
When Güyük called Batu to pay him homage several times, Batu sent Yaroslav II, Andrey and Alexander Nevsky to Karakorum in Mongolia in 1247. Yaroslav never returned and died in Mongolia. He was probably poisoned by Töregene Khatun, who probably did it to spite Batu and even her own son Güyük, because he did not approve of her regency. At a council in Vladimir, it was decided that Yaroslav's brother Sviatoslav would become grand prince; however, Sviatoslav never went to the khan for confirmation, which caused Mikhail Khorobrit to expel his brother from Vladimir and claim the throne; however, he died in 1248 during a battle with the Lithuanians. Güyük appointed Andrey as the grand prince of Vladimir and Alexander was given the princely title of Kiev. However, when they returned, Andrey went to Vladimir while Alexander went to Novgorod instead. A bishop by the name of Cyril went to Kiev and found it so devastated that he abandoned the place and went further east instead. The princes of Vladimir-Suzdal ultimately became responsible for delivering the Russian tribute to the khan.
In 1248, Güyük demanded Batu come east to meet him, a move that some contemporaries regarded as a pretext for Batu's arrest. In compliance with the order, Batu approached, bringing a large army. When Güyük moved westwards, Tolui's widow and a sister of Batu's stepmother Sorghaghtani warned Batu that the Jochids might be his target. Güyük died on the way, in what is now Xinjiang, at about the age of 42. Although some modern historians believe that he died of natural causes because of deteriorating health, he may have succumbed to the combined effects of alcoholism and gout, or he may have been poisoned. William of Rubruck and a Muslim chronicler state that Batu killed the imperial envoy, and one of his brothers murdered the Great Khan Güyük, but these claims are not completely corroborated by other major sources. Güyük's widow Oghul Qaimish took over as regent, but she was unable to keep the succession within her branch of the family.
With the assistance of Batu, Möngke succeeded as Great Khan in 1251. Utilizing the discovery of a plot designed to remove him, Möngke as the new Great Khan began a purge of his opponents. Estimates of the deaths of aristocrats, officials, and Mongol commanders range from 77 to 300. Batu became the most influential person in the Mongol Empire as his friendship with Möngke ensured the unity of the realm. Batu, Möngke, and other princely lines shared rule over the area from Afghanistan to Turkey. Batu allowed Möngke's census-takers to operate freely in his realm. Local censuses took place in the 1240s, including the areas of Russia and Turkey. In 1251–1259, Möngke conducted the first empire-wide census of the Mongol Empire. North China was completed in 1252, and in 1257, Möngke appointed a chief darughachi for the Volga region with the assistance of counters, known as chislenitsi in Russian sources. They were able to cover Crimea, the Caucasus, the Kipchak steppe, and possibly up to southern Siberia. The Novgorod region in the far northwest was not counted until the winter of 1258–1259. There was an uprising in Novgorod against the Mongol census, but Alexander Nevsky mediated between the Mongols and the city, after which the nobles oversaw tax collection directly.
Möngke now had direct control over the Rurikid princes. However, Andrey II refused to submit to Batu. Batu sent a punitive expedition under Nevruy, who defeated Andrey and forced him to flee to Novgorod, then Pskov, and finally to Sweden. The Mongols overran Vladimir and harshly punished the principality. The Livonian Knights stopped their advance to Novgorod and Pskov. Thanks to his friendship with Sartaq Khan, Batu's son, who was a Christian, Alexander was installed as the grand prince of Vladimir by Batu in 1252.