Mamai
Mamai was a powerful Turco-Mongol military commander who held the rank of beylerbey in the Golden Horde. He was from the Kiyat clan. Contrary to popular misconception, he was not a khan, but was a kingmaker for several khans, and dominated parts or all of the Golden Horde for almost two decades in the 1360s and 1370s. Although he was unable to stabilize central authority during the 14th-century Golden Horde war of succession known as the Great Troubles, Mamai remained a remarkable and persistent leader for decades, while others came and went in rapid succession. His defeat in the Battle of Kulikovo by the Russians marked the beginning of the decline of the Horde, as well as his own rapid downfall.
Origins
Unlike the khans of the so-called Golden Horde, Mamai was not a descendant of Genghis Khan and his son Jochi, but belonged to the powerful Turco-Mongol Kiyat clan that branched from the Mongol Kiyat clan, which claimed descent from Mugetu Kiyan, an older brother of Genghis Khan's father Yesugei Baghatur. While they served the rulers of the Golden Horde from at least Batu Khan, the Kiyats may have risen in importance after the fall of the rival khan Nogai in 1299. Abandoning Nogai in favor of the legitimate khan, Toqta, Aq-Buqa Kiyat enjoyed the favor of the khan and his successor, and served as one of the chief emirs. Another Kiyat, Isatai, was entrusted with governing the former ulus of Orda in the eastern part of the Golden Horde, by Öz Beg Khan. Isatai's son Jir-Qutluq and the latter's son Tingiz-Buqa enjoyed the same position under the next khans, Jani Beg and Berdi Beg. Specific information about Mamai's immediate origins is very limited, but his father is named as Alash Beg, probably the son Isatai. At least part of the clan may have been ensconced in the Crimea, perhaps since the early 14th century, before several Kiyats appeared as governor on the eastern periphery of the Golden Horde. The date of Mamai's birth can be estimated only generally, to somewhere in the mid-to-late 1320s. At birth, he appears to have received the Muslim name Muḥammad, sometimes paired with the nickname Kičik, perhaps due to his short stature. Whether "Mamai" is a variation of that name or an additional, "folk" name, remains unclear. According to contemporary Timurid source Nizam al-Din Shami’s Ẓafar-nāma Kiyats were called Uzbek: "chun hissa-yi ab-i khud bi-Uzbak dadi ki az nasl-i Qiyat ast, dar ulus-i Chaghatay zikr-i in makrumat baqi manad". Later sources, such as Majmu al-tawarikh , included Kiyat clan as one of ninety-two Uzbek clans of the Golden Horde.Rise to power
Mamai became an emir during the reign of Jani Beg. After the governorship of Crimea at Solkhat had been held by a member of a different family in 1349–1356, it seems to have been conferred on Ali Beg, perhaps Mamai's father. He died soon after, and the governorship was given to his brother, Qutluq-Timur. He appears to have died by 1359, and the governorship was entrusted to a member of another clan, Qutluq-Buqa of the Kungrat, a brother of the chief emir Mogul-Buqa. Mamai appears to have resented this apparent slight, and left the capital Sarai with his dependents and clansmen, to assert himself locally in and near the Crimea.Troubled by this desertion and possibly already threatened by a rival claimant to the throne, Khan Berdi Beg apparently recalled Mamai to the court and named him chief emir. Moreover, perhaps at this time Berdi Beg gave his daughter in marriage to Mamai. Although the explicit reference to the marriage by Ibn Khaldun only refers to the princess by title, she has been plausibly identified as Tulun Beg Khanum, whom Mamai would later briefly elevate to the throne, and who would later yet marry Tokhtamysh Khan. Perhaps in keeping with tradition within the Golden Horde, Mamai does not appear to have taken the title of Güregen, commonly taken by men marrying women descended from Genghis Khan. According to the contemporary traveler Ibn Khaldun, Mamai was now in charge of all government, while Russian chronicles note him sending emissaries to Moscow.
Kingmaker after the death of Berdi Beg
The sudden death of Berdi Beg in August 1359, and the resulting accession of Qulpa undermined Mamai's position of supremacy at court. Under Qulpa and his successor Nawruz Beg, Mogul-Buqa became beglerbeg again, confirming Mamai's exclusion from power at court, although his precise position and relations with the khans remains unclear. Still in control of at least part of the warriors associated with the Kiyat tribe, Mamai was apparently too powerful to eliminate. Until 1361, moreover, he may have had a formidable ally in his cousin governing the former Ulus of Orda. The elimination of Mamai's cousin, Tingiz-Buqa, by the local khan Qara-Noqai, may have threatened to undermine Mamai's safety and impelled him to act proactively. The murder of Khiḍr Khan, a descendant of Jochi's son Shiban, and the struggle among his kinsmen and rivals for possession of Sarai in 1361 gave Mamai the opportunity to do so. Since Mamai was not a descendant of Genghis Khan and Jochi in the male line, he assumed the role of kingmaker, promoting and supporting Jochid khans of his own choosing from a base in the Crimea and the western portion of Golden Horde. With Mamai's help, these khans sought to establish themselves at the capital Sarai, albeit with intermittent success. The precise origin of Mamai's protégés is nowhere stated clearly, and there has been a tendency to consider them descendants of Batu Khan. Nevertheless, the purge of the ruling family perpetrated by Mamai's father-in-law Berdi Beg in 1357 makes such identifications unlikely. A more plausible hypothesis identifies Mamai's puppet khans with a cluster of suitably-named princes listed among a "Crimean" branch of the descendants of Jochi's son Togai-Timur in the genealogical compendiums Muʿizz al-ansāb and Tawārīḫ-i guzīdah-i nuṣrat-nāmah. If this identification is accepted, Mamai's protégés as khans were as follows:- ʿAbdallāh, khan 1361–1370; recognized at Sarai 1362, 1367–1368, and 1369–1370.
- Tūlūn-Bīk Khānum, queen, recognized at Sarai 1370–1371, died 1386.
- Muḥammad-Sulṭān, khan 1370–1379, recognized at Sarai 1371–1373 and in 1374.
- Tūlāk, khan 1379–1380, never recognized at Sarai.
Mamai and the Great Troubles in the Golden Horde
In 1367 Mamai took advantage of the murder of Khan ʿAzīz Shaykh to reinstall Khan ʿAbdallāh at Sarai. However, Mamai was unable to enjoy his success for long. His rival Ḥājjī Cherkes, ruler of Astrakhan, struck at Mamai's power base in the Crimea, forcing him to leave Sarai and rush home. Meanwhile, Ḥājjī Cherkes proclaimed a khan of his own, Ūljāy-Timur, a descendant of Jochi's son Toqai-Timur, and advanced on Sarai. Khan ʿAbdallāh was once more expelled from the capital, and Ūljāy-Timur was enthroned there by Ḥājjī Cherkes in 1368. Mamai now repaid his rival in kind, attacking Ḥājjī Cherkes' power base Astrakhan. While Ḥājjī Cherkes was distracted with defending Astrakhan, his protégé Ūljāy-Timur lost the throne of Sarai to Ḥasan Beg, a nephew of the earlier khan Khayr-Pūlād, and thus a descendant of Jochi's son Shiban.
Mamai was determined to recover control of Sarai. He captured and executed the exiled Ūljāy-Timur and in 1369 managed to expel Ḥasan Beg from the city, once more enthroning Khan ʿAbdallāh. When the latter died in 1370, Mamai seems to have hesitated before making ʿAbdallāh's young son Muḥammad-Sulṭān khan, at least at Sarai. Accordingly, in 1370–1371 he had Sarai recognize as reigning queen, Tulun Beg Khanum, apparently Mamai's wife, the daughter of Khan Berdi Beg. Meanwhile, Mamai's Crimean headquarters already coined in the name of Muḥammad-Sulṭān. After suppressing opposition in Volga Bulgaria with the help of Dmitrij of Suzdal', Mamai felt secure enough to proclaim Muḥammad-Sulṭān khan at Sarai the end of 1371 or the beginning of 1372.
Mamai's success once again proved ephemeral. Perhaps during Mamai's absence, in 1373, Sarai attracted a new conqueror, Urus Khan, another descendant of Jochi's son Tuqa-Timur, who had become ruler of the former Ulus of Orda in the eastern portion of the Golden Horde. Urus appears to have ejected Mamai's protégé Muḥammad-Sulṭān from Sarai, only to lose the city immediately after failing to dislodge Ḥājjī Cherkes from Astrakhan. This rivalry allowed another descendant of Shiban, Khayr-Pūlād's brother Īl Beg, to seize Sarai briefly in 1374. Mamai returned to Sarai, defeating and expelling Īl Beg, and reinstalling Muḥammad-Sulṭān in 1374. No sooner had Mamai succeeded in this task, that he was again forced to attend to a crisis on the western frontier, where the Lithuanians and Wallachians had defeated one of his lieutenants. As in 1362, his rapid response met with some success, but in the process he lost control of Sarai: Muḥammad-Sulṭān was expelled by again by Urus Khan in 1374. He lost the city in his turn in 1375, to Qāghān Beg, the son of Īl Beg. Qāghān Beg subsequently yielded the throne of Sarai to his cousin ʿArab Shāh, son of Khayr-Pūlād, in 1377. Finally, in 1380, ʿArab Shāh was forced to yield Sarai to Tokhtamysh, the eventual nemesis of both Urus Khan and Mamai.
After the ejection of Mamai's protégé Muḥammad-Sulṭān from Sarai in 1374, apart from a possible brief occupation of the city in either 1375 or 1376, Mamai and his puppet khans no longer controlled the traditional capital of the Golden Horde. Nevertheless, they still exercised authority in the lands north, west, and south of the city, and in 1375 Mamai was able to have his khan recognized at Astrakhan, following the death of his old rival Ḥājjī Cherkes. Mamai's attempt to retain suzerainty over the Russian princes, however, was successfully challenged and undermined by the new Khan ʿArab Shāh, who in 1378 defeated and killed Mamai's subordinate ally Tagai, the governor of Mokhshi. Continued reverses in Volga Bulgaria and Russia threatened Mamai's position, and perhaps because of this he disposed of his puppet khan Muḥammad-Sulṭān and replaced him with a new protégé, Tūlāk, by February 1379.