page_title: Nogai Horde
section_title: Society
hierarchical_section_title: Nogai Horde / Society
caption_attribution_description: English: A map of Russia (Moscovia) published by Sigismund von Herberstein in 1549
context_page_description: Nogay Horde, Nohai Horde or Nogay Yortu was a confederation of about eighteen Turkic and Mongol tribes that occupied the Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the Manghits constituted a core of the Nogay Horde.
  In the 13th century, the leader of the Golden Horde, Nogay Khan a direct descendant of Genghis Khan through Jochi, formed an army of the Manghits joined by numerous Turkic tribes. A century later the Nogays were led by Edigu, a commander of Manghit paternal origin and Jochid maternal origin, who founded the Nogay dynasty.
  In 1557 the Nogay Nur-al-Din Qazi Mirza quarreled with Ismael Beg and founded the Lesser Nogai Horde on the steppe of the North Caucasus. The Nogays north of the Caspian were thereafter called the Great Nogay Horde. In the early 17th century, the Horde broke down further under the onslaught of the Kalmyks.
  The Nogays north of the Black Sea were nominally subject to the Crimean Khanate rather than the Nogay Bey. They were divided into the following groups: Budjak, Yedisan, Jamboyluk, Yedickul and Kuban.
context_section_description: There were two groups of Nogays: those north of the Caspian Sea under their own Bey (leader), and those north of the Black Sea nominally subject to the Crimean Khan. The first group was broken up circa 1632 by the Kalmyks. The second shared the fate of the Khanate of Crimea.
  The Nogay language was a form of Kypchak Turkic, the same language group as that of the neighboring Kazakhs, Bashkirs and Crimean and Kazan Tatars. Their religion was Muslim, but religious institutions were weakly developed.
  They were pastoral nomads grazing sheep, horses, and camels. Outside goods were obtained by trade (mostly horses and slaves), raiding, and tribute. There were some subject peasants along the Yaik river. One of the main sources of income for the Nogays was raiding for slaves, who were sold in Crimea and Bukhara. Hunting, fishing, caravan taxation, and seasonal agricultural migration also played a role although it is poorly documented.
  The basic social unit was the semi-autonomous ulus or band. Aristocrats were called mirza. The ruler of the Nogays was the Bey. The capital or winter camp was at Saraychik, a caravan town on the lower Yaik. From 1537 the second in rank was the Nur-al-Din, usually the Bey's son or younger brother and expected successor. The Nur-al-Din held the right bank along the Volga.  From the 1560s there was a second Nur-al-Din, a sort of a war chief. Third in rank was the Keikuvat, who held the Emba.
  Political organization was fluid and much depended on personal prestige since as nomads, the Nogay subjects could simply move away from a leader who was disliked. Ambassadors and merchants were regularly beaten and robbed. Stealing horses, looked down upon in many cultures, was an important part of social and economic life on the steppe. Beys and Mirzas would often declare themselves vassals of some outside power, but such declarations had little meaning.
caption: Sigismund von Herberstein places 'Nagayske Tartare' (the "Nogay Tatars") on the lower Volga in his 1549 map.
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