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THE HISTORICAL ROLE OF THE GOLDEN HORDE IN THE SILK ROAD AND IN EASTERN EUROPE
Istvan Zimonyi
University of Szeged (SZTE),
Szeged, Hungary zimonyi@hist.u-szeged. hu
Abstract. The term Golden Horde and the other designations needs further research to find the historical correct name for the north western ulus of the Mongol empire. Batu and his brothers became the greatest power within the Mongol empire and they decided to seat the Toluyid Mongke to the throne of the Great Khan. The Black Death brought fundamental changes, the Golden Horde survived it for another century. The age of the Golden Horde represent the dominance of the nomads in Eastern Europe after th Huns and Khazars. The Golden Horde was destroyed by Moscow principality which was the base for the Russian conquest of the Eurasian steppe. The historiographical concept of the Russians and modern successor state-nations of the Golden Horde had to be revised devoiding the rewriting the history of the Golden Horde from modern national point of view.
Keywords: Ulus, Orda, Batu, dominance, nation-building, Khan.
Golden Horde is a misleading term used by the Russian chroniclers from the 16th century and it designates the north-western successor state of the yeke Mongghol ulus 'Great Mongol Empire' which was adapted in modern historiography1. However the sources used the terms Kok Orda 'Blue Horde' and Aq Orda 'White Horde' as the eastern and western wings of the north-western successor state of Chinggis' realm2. It is widespread to use the term ulus 'appanage' from the common patrinomy of the ruling house founded by Chinggis Khan. The term ulus of Jochi 'Jochi's realm' means that Chinggis Khan's eldest son Jochi was assigned the western region of the empire, the Irtish valley. As Jochi died before his father, his sons inherited his ulus: the eldest son Orda, the second son Batu and the other 12 sons. The ulus of Orda represented the eastern half of the Jochids, while the ulus of Batu the western half. However the ulus of Shiban is also
1 Hammer-Purgstall introduced the term [6]. The Golden Horde is also ambigious, as it may refer to the whole territory of the heirs of Jochi from Irtish to Danube or to the ulus of Batu including the territory between the Volga/Ural and the Danube.
2 Recently Uskenbay suggested that the Blue Horde was the Ulus of Orda and the White Orda was the Ulus of Shiban [15, pp. 355-382].
mentioned. Geographically the northwestern successor state is called Dasht-i Qipchaq 'Kipchak Steppe'. Finally the Khanate of Kipchak is also in use denoting the dominant Kipchak population of the region. It is time to admit that the designation of this successor state is obscure and further studies are needed to find a correct name for the state-formation which played an important role in the history of Central Eurasia/Silk Road and Eastern Europe.
The ulus of Jochi was the territory between the Irtish and Ural rivers, i.e. Kazak steppe before 1235. It was divided among the sons of Jochi. The Jochid princes of the eastern half were headed by Orda and those of the western half by Batu. Ogedei after the conquest of the northern China convoked a quriltay in 1235 to discuss the matter of western campaign against the powers of Eastern Europe adjacent to the ulus of Batu. So Batu was appointed as commander of the western campaign and among others, Guyuk and Mongke later great khans and the genius general Subetei accompanied him. The army under Batu conquered the Volga Bulgaria, the Kipchaks, the Rus' principalities, the Alans and attacked the Hungarian Kingdom in 1236-1242. The western campaign came to an end due to the death of Ogedei at the end of 12413. Batu became a ruler of a vast territory from the Danube to Yayiq/Ural rivers and even Orda acknowledged him as the actual lord of the ulus of Jochi. As for the other sons of Chinggis Khan, Ogedei received Jungaria, Chagatai got Semirechie and Mawarannahr, and Tolui inherited the heartland of the empire. In 1242 the ulus of Jochi between the Danube and the Irtish was the largest comparing the ulus of Chagatai and the direct rule of the great khan including eastern Central Asia and northern China. Batu had decisive power in the Mongol Empire, his personal enemy, Guyuk was elected as a great khan in 1246 and the clash seemed to be inevitable, only Guyuk's death in 1248 prevented the war between them. Then Batu called the quriltay in his territory and the Chinggisid princes offered the throne to Batu, who rejected perhaps due to his gout, and Batu nominated the Toluid Mongke which was accepted by the quriltay [2, p. 363]. Until the death of Batu in 1255/6 he can be regarded as a co-ruler of the Mongol
Empire4.
3 The description of the western campaign cf. [20, p. 325-352].
4 Szilvi Kovacs called my attention to the data of Rubruq, who visited both the courts of Batu and Mongke in 1254:
XXIII. (4) From the village I have mentioned we went eastward, close to the mountains above referred to, and from that point we entered among the subjects of Mangu Chan, who everywhere sang and clapped their hands before our guide, because he was an envoy of Baatu. For they show each other this mark of honor; the subjects of Mangu receive in this fashion the envoys of Baatu, and those of Baatu the envoys of Mangu. The subjects of Baatu, however, are the stronger, so they do not observe the custom so carefully [J: Baatu's people, however, give themselves rather more airs and are not as careful to observe the practice]. [18, p. 225; 14, p. 138].
[1, p. 204]
Mongke's conquest, the third wave of Mongol wars brought fundamental changes in the balance of power. Hulegu's campaign against the Middle East and Qubilay attack against the Song dynasty led to the formation of the Il-Khanate in Persia, Irak and Anatolia and the Chinese Yuan dynasty. In the 1260-s the four ulus became practically independent. The ulus of Jochi remained a stabile state in contrast with the Chagataid ulus. The Il-Khanate and Yuan dynasty were in close cooperation as both were ruled by Toluids and were put to the attacks of the Chagataids and Jochids. Allsen emphasized that Iran and China were the richest sedentary regions of the Mongol Empire, the Mongol elite moved to sedentary territory and had to find a compromise the local ruling elements to stabilize their rule, whereas the Batuids remained in the steppe and controlled the Russian principalities from there, and finally the Chinese and Islamic worlds represented
XXVIII (18) Then he began his reply: "As the sun sends its rays everywhere, likewise my sway and that of Baatu reach everywhere, so we do not want your gold or silver." [18, p. 251; 14, p. 174].
XXXIV. (5) And he added: "There are two eyes in the head; but though there be two, they have but one sight, and when one turns its glance there goes the other. You came from Baatu, and so you must go back by way of him." [18, p. 299; 14, pp. 237-8].
XXXVII. (6) After that, Baatu caused me to come into his presence, and had interpreted to me the letter Mangu Chan sends you. For Mangu had written to him that if he wished to add, strike out, or alter anything in them, he was to do so. [18, p. 314; 14, p. 257].
the leading civilizations of the medieval world5. It means that the Russian principalities belonging to the sphere of Byzantine civilization cannot be compared those of the China and Islamic world in 13th-14th centuries.
The Black Death in the mid-14th century due to the Mongol commercial network became catastrophic for the whole world from China via ulus of Jochi to the Middle East and Europe [11, pp. 447-457; 12, pp. 819-834]. The Il-Khanate and Yuan dynasty did not survive the crises, the death of Abu Sa'id, in 1335, was the fall of the Il-Khanate, while the Yuan capital was captured by the forces of the founder of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in 1368 and the last Great Khan and emperor of the Yuan dynasty had to move to Mongolia. The ulus of Chagatai and that of Jochi survived the crisis [3, p. 196]. The former revived under the rule of Timur and his successors. The ulus of Jochi faced the period of decay and chaos (bulghaq) between 1359 and 1380, but the khans from the Blue Horde could lengthen its existence for another century in spite of the devastating campaigns of Timur. In the middle of the 15th century the ulus of Jochi disintegrated forming successor states: Noghay Horde, the Great Horde, the Crimean and Siberian khanates, and the khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan and Kasimov and those of the Özbegs, Kazaks.6 Most of these khanates fell victim of the Moscowite conquests: In 1552 Kazan and in 1556 Astrakhan were conquered by Ivan IV; by 1600 the khanate of Sibir collapsed; Crimea was annexed in 1783, the Kazak Hordes were invaded gradually from 1730 to 1848, whereas the territory of Mawarannahr and Semirechie (Özbegistan, Kyrgyzistan, Tajikistan) were annexed between 1865 and 1868. The legacy of the Mongol Empire was taken by the Russian Empire in modern age conquering and subduing the territory of the ulus of Jochi and that of Chagatai, but the territory of Il-Khanate and Yuan dynasty, i.e. Persia and China remained outside the Russian conquest. It is worth mentioning that the settled civilizations south of the Eurasian steppe belt could not control the nomads for a longer period and the same is true for the nomads, even the Mongols could rule Persia and China for a century. The nomads of Eurasia were defeated from north, the Russian took possession first the forest zone north of the steppe and they were able to subdue and control the nomads from there.
As for the history of Eastern Europe, the great steppe empires, the Türk Khaganate and Mongol Empire and their successor states, i.e. Khazar Empire and the ulus of Jochi brought fundamental changes in its history. If the formation of Eastern Europe is regarded as a competition between steppe and forest for the dominance, the first nomadic empires of Eastern Europe, the Huns, the Avars, and the Khazars determined its history from the 4th to the 10th century. The Khazar
5 [1, p. 143]. The main civilizations were the Chinese, Islamic, India, Byzantium and Europe according to Lewis [10].
6 The classical works on the history of the ulus of Jochi: [13; 4; 16]. A new overview: [17, pp. 67-85].
Empire promoting the commerce between the Caliphate and Northern Europe started to control the communities living in the forest zone to acquire the most precious commodities (furs, honey, wax, slaves). This trade attracted the Rus' to Eastern Europe from Scandinavia. The Rus' centred on Kiev became a great power in the 10th century and finally put to an end of the Khazar Empire in 965. However the eastern zone of the Eastern European forest was under the control of a Khazar's successor state, the Volga Bulghars at the Volga-Kama region which embraced Islam in the beginning of the 10th century and was the centre of trade between the eastern Islamic lands and Northern Europe. After the fall of the Khazar Empire the Kipchaks/Cumans could consolidate the steppe zone by the end of the 11th century. There was a balance of power between the forest and steppe in the 11th-13th centuries. The Mongol conquest upset the balance of power as the Jochids organized the powers of Eastern Europe into a single political unit under Batu. The ulus of Jochi disintegrated in the second half of the 14th century and new regional political units emerged in the 15th century. The shift in balance of power allowed the Principality of Moscow to collect the Russian lands and became a strong new power which made possible to get rid of the Mongol rule. In the 16th century, the Russians had the upper hand of these successor states and the steppe had to capitulate.
The interpretation of the history of Jochi's ulus is an actual task. Halperin called the attention the importance to study the contemporary Russian sources concerning the attitude to the Tatars. The chroniclers representing the clergy of Orthodox Christianity were hostile to the Tatars/Mongols as the Tatars were pagans or Muslims. The authors of the Russian annals recorded the events avoiding the concept of Tatar suzerainty with the help of using the term custom for the forms of exercising power [5]. The Imperial and Soviet Russian historiography blamed the Tatars for wrecking the economy of Rus' principalities, isolating Russia from Europe, introducing servitude in political life, preventing the modernization of Russia.
After the fall of the Soviet Union new nation-building concepts appeared. The historians of Russian Federation in Moscow and St. Petersburg seem to avoid the former stereotypes and try to form a real picture on the history of Jochi's ulus. Tatarstan has a special status, as an autonomous republic of the Russian Federation, its sovereignty is limited, so they must cooperate and take account the viewpoint of Russia. The Tatar historiography made a great progress publishing several excellent books on the ulus of Jochi [7; 8; 9]. The Tatar nation regards the ulus of Jochi as a part of their national history. The Kazak nation became independent in 1991and the ulus of Jochi and its successor state is a part of their national history. In both cases it must be considered that nations are products of the 19th-20th centuries and those ethnic communities from which the nations were formed are historically different categories and the nation cannot be projected to the Middle Ages. Historians of the steppe sometimes write histories from national point of view which is outdated in modern historical studies.
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About the author: Istvan Zimonyi - Dr. Sci., Professor, University of Szeged (SZTE), Department of Medieval Studies and Department of Altaic Studies (2, Egyetem Str., Szeged 6722, Hungary), e-mail: zimonyi@hist.u-szeged.hu
Received June 04, 2018. Accepted for publication July 26, 2018.
РОЛЬ ЗОЛОТОЙ ОРДЫ В ИСТОРИИ ВЕЛИКОГО ШЕЛКОВОГО ПУТИ И ВОСТОЧНОЙ ЕВРОПЫ
Иштван Зимони
Сегедский университет
г. Сегед, Венгрия zimonyi@hist.u-szeged. hu
Резюме. Термин "Золотая Орда" и другие понятия требуют дальнейших исследований, чтобы найти исторически правильное название Северо-Западного улуса Монгольской империи. Бату и его братья стали создателями величайшей державы в составе Монгольской империи, и они решили возвести на трон великого хана Толуида Мункэ. Черная смерть привела к коренным изменениям, Золотая Орда пережила ее еще на столетие. Эпоха Золотой Орды олицетворяет господство кочевников в Восточной Европе после гуннов и хазар. Золотая Орда была разрушена Московским княжеством, которое стало основой для русского завоевания Евразийской степи.
Ключевые слова: улус, Орда, Батый, доминирование, государственное строительство, хан.
Сведения об авторе: Иштван Зимони - доктор наук, профессор кафедры алтаистики гуманитарного факультета университета Сегеда (Сегед, Венгрия), e-mail: zimonyi@hist.u-szeged.hu
Дата поступления материала 04.06.2018.
Принят к публикации 26.07.2018.
