The Khanate of the Golden Horde

The Mongol kurultai of 1235 decided to conquer the Russian lands and the northern Caucasus; Batu Khan was named to lead the army, with the commander Subutai Bahadur to help him. In autumn 1237 the attack began with Ryazan, and in 1238–1240 Vladimir, Suzdal, Kyiv, Halych, Volhynia and other towns were taken. After news of Ogedei’s death (1241) Batu Khan returned to the Volga region, and by 1243 the Ulus of Jochi — later called the Golden Horde in Russian sources — took shape (Batu Khan ruled until 1255). Batu’s descendants ruled it; the kurultai decided key matters, the beglerbeg held executive power and the vizier ran the divan. In Rus all princes received a yarlyk from the khan. Conquered steppes were given as suyurghals, and a suyurghal was hereditary. In the mid-13th century a census was taken, a large payment called “chiqim” and an emergency tax, “talab”, were levied, and Mongol governors, the baskaks, supervised payment. Prince Yaroslav and his son Alexander Nevsky did not oppose the strong Horde but chose to preserve their people; later one of the princes was given the right to collect the tribute. In Iran there was a struggle for Transcaucasia with Hulagu’s descendants, and the Horde allied with the Egyptian sultans. The Golden Horde reached its peak under Uzbek Khan (1312–1342) and Janibek (1342–1357); early in his reign Uzbek Khan proclaimed Islam the state religion, yet the capital Sarai also had houses of worship of other faiths. For their time Sarai-Batu and Sarai-Berke were very large, crowded cities. After Janibek a struggle for the throne began; Tokhtamysh briefly reunited the state, but Amir Temur’s three campaigns, above all the defeat on the Terek in 1395, led to the ruin of Sarai, Sarai-Berke and Astrakhan and shifted trade routes south. From the first half of the 15th century the Horde broke up into the khanates of Crimea, Kazan, Siberia and Kazakh and the Nogai Horde.