Golden Horde The Golden Horde ( Tatar : Алтын Урда " Altın Urda " ; , " Züchii - in Uls " ; ) was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate , established in the 13th century , which comprised the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire . The khanate is also known as the Kipchak Khanate or as the Ulus of Jochi . After the death of Batu Khan in 1255 , the prosperity of his dynasty lasted for a full century , until 1359 , though the intrigues of Nogai did instigate a partial civil war in the late 1290s . The Horde ' s military power peaked during the reign of Uzbeg ( 1312 – 41 ) , who adopted Islam . The territory of the Golden Horde at its peak included most of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the right bank of the Danube River , extending east deep into Siberia . In the south , the Golden Horde ' s lands bordered on the Black Sea , the Caucasus Mountains , and the territories of the Mongol dynasty known as the Ilkhanate . The khanate experienced violent internal political disorder beginning in 1359 , before it was briefly reunited under Tokhtamysh in 1381 . However , soon after the 1396 invasion of Tamerlane , it broke into smaller Tatar khanates that declined steadily in power . At the start of the 15th century the Horde began to fall apart . By 1433 it was being referred to simply as the Great Horde . Within its territories there emerged numerous , predominantly Turkic - speaking , khanates . These internal struggles allowed the northern vassal state of Muscovy to rid itself of the " Tatar Yoke " at the Great stand on the Ugra river in 1480 . The Crimean Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate , the last remnants of the Golden Horde , persisted until 1783 and 1847 , respectively . Name . The name Golden Horde is said to have been inspired by the golden color of the tents the Mongols lived in during wartime , or an actual golden tent used by Batu Khan or by Uzbek Khan , or to have been bestowed by the Slavic tributaries to describe the great wealth of the khan . But the Mongolic word for the color yellow ( Sarı / Saru ) also meant " center " or " central " in Old Turkic and Mongolic languages , and " horde " probably comes from the Mongolic word ordu , meaning palace , camp or headquarters , so " Golden Horde " may simply have come from a Mongolic term for " central camp . " in any event , it was not until the 16th century that Russian chroniclers begin explicitly using the term " Golden Horde " ( Russian : Золотая Орда ) to refer to this particular successor khanate of the Mongol Empire . The first known use of the term , in 1565 , in the Russian chronicle History of Kazan , applied it to the Ulus of Batu ( Russian : Улуса Батыя ) , centered on Sarai . In contemporary Persian and Muslim writings , and in the records of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries such as the Yuanshi and the Jami ' al - tawarikh , the khanate was called the " " Ulus of Jochi " " ( ' realm of Jochi ' in Mongolian ) , or the " Dasht - i - Qifchaq " " ( Qipchaq Steppe ) or " Khanate of the Qipchaq " . Its left wing ( or " " left hand " " in official Mongolian - sponsored Persian sources ) was referred to as the Blue Horde in Russian chronicles and as the White Horde in Timurid sources ( e . g . Zafar - Nameh ) . Western scholars have tended to follow the Timurid sources ' nomenclature and call the left wing the White Horde . But Ötemish Hajji ( fl . 1550 ) , a historian of Khwarezm , called the left wing the Blue Horde , and since he was familiar with the oral traditions of the khanate empire , it seems likely that the Russian chroniclers were correct , and that the khanate itself called its left wing 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 . However , the designations Golden Horde , Blue Horde , and White Horde have not been encountered in the sources of the Mongol period . Mongol origins ( 1225 – 1241 ) . At his death , Genghis Khan divided the Mongol Empire amongst his four sons as appanage s but the Empire remained united under the supreme khan . Jochi was the eldest , but he died six months before Genghis . The westernmost lands occupied by the Mongols , which included what is today southern Russia and Kazakhstan , were given to Jochi ' s eldest sons : Batu , who eventually became the ruler of the Blue Horde ; and Orda , who became the leader of the White Horde . In 1235 , Batu with the great general Subedei began an invasion westwards , first conquering the Bashkirs and then moving on to Volga Bulgaria in 1236 . From here , in 1237 , he conquered some of the southern steppes of the Ukraine , forcing many of the local Cumans to retreat westward . The military campaign against Kypchaks and Cumans started under Jochi and Subedei in 1216 – 8 when the Merkits took shelter among them . By 1239 a large portion of Cumans were driven out of the peninsula and Crimea became one of the appanages of the Mongol Empire . The remnants of the Crimean Cumans survived in the Crimean mountains who would , in time , mix with other groups in the Crimea ( including Greeks , Goths , Mongols ) to form the Crimean Tatar population . Moving north , Batu began the Mongol invasion of Rus ' and for three years subjugated the principalities of former Kievan Rus ' , 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 and culminating in the battles of Legnica and Muhi . In 1241 , however , the Ögedei Khan died in Mongolia homeland . Batu turned back from his siege of Vienna to take part in disputing 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 ian capital of Atil . Shortly before that , Batu and Orda ' s younger brother Shiban was given his own enormous " ulus " east of the Ural Mountains along the Ob and Irtysh Rivers . While there can be no doubt that in the mid - 13th century at the court of Batu the language was in general use , few Mongol texts written in the territory of the Golden Horde have survived , perhaps because of the prevalent general illiteracy . According to Grigor ' ev , yarliq 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 Mamluks in Egypt 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 . Indeed , the linguistic and even socio - linguistic impacts were great , as the Russians borrowed thousands of words , phrases and other significant linguistic features from the Mongol and the Turkic languages that were united under the Mongol Empire . Golden Age . Early rulers under the Great Khans ( 1241 – 1259 ) . Batu declined to attend a kurultai , thus delaying the succession for several years when the Great Khatun Töregene invited him to elect the next Emperor of the Mongol Empire in 1242 . Although Batu stated he was suffering from old age and illness and politely refused the invitation , it seems that he did not support the election of Güyük Khan because Güyük and Büri , grandson of Chagatai Khan , had quarreled violently with Batu at a victory banquet during the Mongol occupation of Eastern Europe . Finally , he sent his brothers to the kurultai , and the new Emperor of the Mongols was elected in 1246 . All the senior Rus ' princes , including Yaroslav II of Vladimir , Danylo of Halych , and Sviatoslav Vsevolodovich of Vladimir , acknowledged Batu ' s supremacy . However , the Mongol court exterminated some anti - Mongol princes such as Michael of Chernigov who had killed a Mongol envoy ( 1240 ) . After a short time , Güyük called Batu to pay him homage several times . Batu sent Andrey and Alexander Nevsky to Karakorum in Mongolia in 1247 after their father ' s death . Güyük appointed Andrey Grand prince of Vladimir - Suzdal , and Alexander prince of Kiev . In 1248 , he demanded Batu come eastward 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 forty - two . 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 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 would be unable to keep the succession within her branch of the family . With the assistance of the Golden Horde , 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 – 300 . Batu became the most influential person after the Khagan and Möngke ' s friendliness with Batu ensured the unity of the empire . 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 , though his prestige as kingmaker and elder Borjigin was at its height . In 1252 – 1259 , Möngke conducted a census of the Mongol Empire including Iran , Afghanistan , Georgia , Armenia , Russia , Central Asia and North China . While that of China was completed in 1252 , Novgorod in the far northwest was not counted until winter 1258 – 9 . There was an uprising in Novgorod against the Mongol census , but Alexander Nevsky forced the city to submit to the census and taxation . The Grand prince Andrey II gave umbrage to the Mongols . Batu sent a punitive expedition under Nevruy . On their approach , Andrey fled to Pskov , and thence 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 , Alexander was installed as the Grand Prince of Vladimir ( i . e . , the supreme Russian ruler ) by Batu in 1252 . In 1256 Andrey traveled to Sarai to ask pardon for his former infidelity and was shown mercy . Möngke ordered the Jochid and Chagatayid families to join Hulagu ' s expedition to Iran . Berke ' s persuasion might have forced his brother Batu to postpone Hulagu ' s operation , little suspecting that it would result in eliminating the Jochid predominance there for several years . During the reign of Batu or his first two successors , the Golden Horde dispatched a large Jochid delegation to participate in Hulagu ' s expedition in the Middle East in 1256 / 57 . After Batu died in 1256 , his son Sartaq was appointed by Möngke . As soon as he returned from the court of the Great Khan in Mongolia , Sartaq died . After a brief reign of an infant Ulaghchi under the regency of Boragchin Khatun , Batu ' s younger brother Berke was enthroned as khan of the Jochids in 1257 . In 1257 , Danylo repelled Mongol assaults led by the prince Kuremsa on Ponyzia and Volhynia and dispatched an expedition with the aim of taking Kiev . Despite initial successes , in 1259 , a Mongol force under Boroldai entered Galicia and Volhynia and offered an ultimatum : Danylo was to destroy his fortifications or Boroldai would assault the towns . Danylo complied and pulled down the city walls . In 1259 Berke launched savage attacks on Lithuania and Poland , and demanded the submission of Béla IV , the Hungarian monarch , and the French King Louis IX in 1259 and 1260 . His assault on Prussia in 1259 / 60 inflicted heavy losses on the Teutonic Order . The Lithuanians were probably tributary in the 1260s , when reports reached the Curia that they were in league with the Mongols . Civil war of the Mongols ( 1260 – 1280 ) . After Möngke Khan died in 1259 , a war of succession between Kublai Khan and Ariq Böke began . While Hulagu supported Kublai , Berke threw his allegiance to Ariq Böke . He also minted coins in Ariq Böke ' s name . However , Berke remained neutral militarily , and after the defeat of Ariq Böke , freely acceded to Kublai ' s enthronement . However , some elites of the White Horde joined Ariq Böke ' s resistance . One of the Jochid princes who joined Hulagu ' s army was accused of witchcraft and sorcery against Hulagu . After receiving permission from Berke , Hulagu executed him . After that two more Jochid princes died suspiciously . According to some Muslim sources , Hulagu refused to share his war booty with Berke in accordance with Genghis Khan ' s wish . Berke was a devoted Muslim who had had a close relationship with the Abbasid Caliph Al - Musta ' sim , who had been killed by Hulagu in 1258 . The Jochids believed that Hulagu ' s state eliminated their presence in the Transcaucasus . Those events increased the anger of Berke and the war between the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate soon broke out in 1262 . In 1262 a rebellion erupted in Suzdal , killing Mongol darughachi s and tax - collectors . Berke planned a severe punitive expedition . But after Alexander Nevsky begged Berke not to punish the Russian people and the Vladimir - Suzdal cities agreed to pay a large indemnity , Berke relented . The increasing tension between Berke and Hulagu was a warning to the Golden Horde contingents in Hulagu ' s army that they had better escape . One section reached the Kipchak Steppe , another traversed Khorasan and a third body took refuge in Mamluk ruled Syria where they were well received by Sultan Baybars ( 1260 – 77 ) . Hulagu harshly punished the rest of the Golden Horde army in Iran . Berke sought a joint attack with Baybars and forged an alliance with the Mamluks against Hulagu . The Golden Horde dispatched Nogai to invade the Ilkhanate but Hulagu forced him back in 1262 . The Ilkhanids then crossed the Terek River , capturing an empty Jochid encampment , only to be routed in a surprise attack by Nogai ' s forces . Many of them were drowned as the ice broke on the frozen Terek River . When the former Seljuk Sultan Kaykaus II was arrested in the Byzantine Empire , his younger brother Kayqubad II appealed to Berke . An Egypt ian envoy was also detained there . With the assistance of the Kingdom of Bulgaria ( Berke ' s vassal ) , Nogai invaded the Empire in 1264 . He forced Michael VIII Palaiologos to release Kaykaus , pay tribute to the Horde , and marry one of his daughters , Euphrosyne Palaiologina , to Nogai . Berke gave Kaykaus Crimea as an appanage and had him marry a Mongol woman . Ariq Böke had earlier placed Chagatai ' s grandson Alghu as Chagatayid Khan , ruling Central Asia . He took control of Samarkand and Bukhara . When the Muslim elites and the Jochid retainers in Bukhara declared their loyalty to Berke , Alghu smashed the Golden Horde appanages in Khorazm . Alghu insisted Hulagu attack the Golden Horde ; he accused Berke of purging his family in 1252 . In Bukhara , he and Hulagu slaughtered all the retainers of the Golden Horde and reduced their families into slavery , sparing only the Great Khan Kublai ' s men . After Berke gave his allegiance to Kublai , Alghu declared war on Berke , seizing Otrar and Khorazm . While the left bank of Khorazm would eventually be retaken , Berke had lost control over Transoxiana . In 1264 Berke marched past Tiflis to fight against Hulagu ' s successor Abagha , but he died en route . Batu ' s grandson Mengu - Timur was nominated by Kublai and succeeded his uncle Berke . However , Mengu - Timur secretly supported the Ögedeid prince Kaidu against Kublai and the Ilkhanate . After the defeat of Baraq ( Chagatai Khan ) , a peace treaty was made among Mengu - Timur , Kaidu and him in c . 1267 . One - third of Transoxiana was granted to Kaidu and Mengu - Timur according to this peace treaty . In 1268 , when a group of princes operating in Central Asia on Kublai ' s behalf mutinied and arrested two sons of the Qaghan ( Great Khan ) , they sent them to Mengu - Timur . One of them , Nomoghan , favorite of Kublai , was located in the Crimea . Mengu - Timur might have struggled with Hulagu ' s successor Abagha for a brief period of time , but the Great Khan Kublai forced them to sign a peace treaty . He was allowed to take his share in Persia . Independently from the Khan , Nogai expressed his desire to ally with Baybars in 1271 . Despite the fact that he was proposing a joint attack on Iran with the Mamluk Sultanate ( Cairo ) , Mengu - Timur congratulated Abagha when Baraq was defeated by the Ilkhan in 1270 . In 1267 , Mengu - Timur issued a diploma – jarliq – to exempt Rus ' clergy from any taxation and gave to the Genoese and Venice exclusive rights to hold Caffa and Azov . Some of Mengu - Timur ' s relatives converted to Christianity at the same time and settled among the Rus ' people . Even though Nogai invaded the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire in 1271 , the Khan sent his envoys to maintain friendly relationship with Michael VIII Palaiologos . He ordered the Grand prince of Rus to allow German merchants free travel through his lands . This gramota says : " " Mengu - Timur ' s word to Prince Yaroslav : give the German merchants way into your lands . From Prince Yaroslav to the people of Riga , to the great and the young , and to all : your way is clear through my lands ; and who comes to fight , with them I do as I know ; but for the merchant the way is clear . " " This decree also allowed Novgorod ' s merchants travel throughout the Suzdal lands without restraint . Mengu " Timur was good as his words , when the Danes and the Livonian Knights attacked the north - western lands of the Rus in 1269 , the Khan ' s great basqaq ( darughachi ) , Amraghan , and many Mongols assisted the Russian army assembled by the Grand duke Yaroslav . The Germans and the Danes were so cowed that they sent gifts to the Mongols and abandoned the region of Narva . The Mongol Khan ' s authority extended to all Russian principalities and , in 1274 – 5 , the census took place in all Rus ' cities including Smolensk and Vitebsk . Dual khanship ( 1281 – 1299 ) . Mengu - Timur was succeeded in 1281 by his brother Töde Möngke , who was a Muslim . He made his peace with Kublai , returned his sons to him , and acknowledged his supremacy . Nogai and Köchü , Khan of the White Horde and son of Orda Khan , also made peace with the Yuan Dynasty and the Ilkhanate . According to Mamluk historians , Töde Möngke sent the Mamluks a letter proposing to fight against their common enemy the unbelieving Ilkhanate . This indicates that he might have had an interest in Azerbaijan and Georgia both of which were ruled by the Ilkhans . At the same time , the influence of Nogai greatly increased in the Golden Horde . Backed by him , some of Rus ' princes , such as Dmitry of Pereslavl , refused to come to the court of the Khan in Sarai while Dmitry ' s brother Andrey of Gorodets sought assistance from Töde Möngke . Nogai savagely raided Bulgaria and Lithuania in the 1270s . He blockaded Michael Asen II inside Drăstăr in 1279 , executed the rebel emperor Ivailo in 1280 , and forced George Terter I to seek refuge in the Byzantine Empire in 1292 . In 1284 Saqchi came under the Mongol rule during the major invasion of Bulgaria and coins were struck in the Khan ' s name . Smilec became emperor of Bulgaria according to the wishes of Nogai Khan who helped his allies the Byzantines . Accordingly , the reign of Smilec has been considered the height of Mongol over - lordship in Bulgaria . Nogai compelled Stephen Uroš II Milutin of Serbia to accept the Mongol supremacy , and received his son , Dečanski , as hostage in 1287 . Under his rule , the Vlachs , the Slavs and the Alans and the Turco - Mongol s lived in what is modern day Moldavia . After their failed but devastating invasion of Hungary in 1285 , Nogai , Talabuga and other noyan s overthrew Töde Möngke because he was not an active Khan who was surrounded by clerics and sheikhs . Talabuga was elected as Khan and Töde Möngke was left to live in peace . In addition to his attack on Poland in 1287 , Talabuga ' s army made unsuccessful attempts to invade the Ilkhanate in 1288 and 1290 . Nogai vowed to support Dmitry in his struggle for the grand ducal throne . On hearing about this , Andrey renounced his claims to Vladimir and Novgorod and returned to Gorodets . In 1285 Andrey again led a Mongol army under the Borjigin prince to Russia , however , Dmitry expelled them . Under Nogai , the western part of the Horde and its vassals became de facto independent . During the punitive expedition against the Circassians , the Khan ' s suspicion of Nogai increased . When Talabuga challenged Nogai , who had established a de facto independent ulus ( district ) in the westernmost part of the Horde , Nogai organized a coup , and replaced him with Toqta in 1291 . Simultaneous with Dmitry ' s action , Mikhail Yaroslavich was summoned to appear before Nogai who was called " Khan " at the time instead of the legitimate Khan , Toqta , in Sarai , and Daniel of Moscow declined to come to Sarai . In 1293 Toqta sent a punitive expedition led by his brother , Tudaun ( Dyeden in Russian chronicles ) , to Russia and Belarus to punish those stubborn subjects . The latter sacked fourteen major cities , finally forcing Dmitry to abdicate . When the Bulgarian czar was expelled by a local boyar c . 1295 , the Mongols launched another invasion of Bulgaria to protect their protege . Nogai ' s daughter married a son of Kublai ' s niece , Kelmish , who was wife of a Qongirat general of the Golden Horde . Nogai was angry with Kelmish ' s family when her Buddhist son despised his Muslim daughter . For this reason , he demanded Toqta send Kelmish ' s husband to him . Before that , Nogai ' s independent actions related to Rus ' princes and foreign merchants had already annoyed the Khan . The Khan refused and declared war on Nogai . Toqta was defeated at the first battle between them . When the legitimate Khan Toqta tried for a second time , Nogai was killed in battle in 1299 at the Kagamlik , near the Dnieper . Toqta had his son stationed in Saqchi and along the Danube as far as the Iron Gate . Nogai ' s son Chaka who had briefly made himself Emperor of Bulgaria was murdered by Theodore Svetoslav on the orders of Toqta . After Mengu - Timur died , rulers of the Golden Horde withdrew their support from Kaidu , the head of the House of Ögedei . Kaidu tried to restore his influence in the Golden Horde by sponsoring his own candidate Kobeleg against Bayan ( r . 1299 – 1304 ) , Khan of the White Horde . After taking military support from Toqta , Bayan asked help from the Great Khan and the Ilkhanate to organize a unified attack on the Mongol Khanates of Kaidu and his number two Duwa . However , the Yuan court was unable to send quick military support . General peace ( 1299 – 1312 ) . From 1300 to 1303 a very severe drought occurred in the areas surrounding the Black Sea . Toqta allowed the remnants of Nogai ' s followers to live in his lands . He demanded that the Ilkhan Ghazan and his successor Oljeitu give Azerbaijan back but was refused . Then he sought assistance from Egypt against the Ilkhanate . And Toqta made his man ruler in Ghazna , but he was expelled by its people . But thanks to Toqta ' s peace mission dispatched to the Ilkhan Gaykhatu earlier in 1294 , the period of peace inaugurated was to last mostly uninterruptedly , until 1318 . In 1304 ambassadors from Mongol rulers of Central Asia and the Yuan announced to Toqta their general peace proposal . Toqta immediately accepted Yuan emperor Temür Öljeytü ' s supremacy and all yams ( postal relays ) and commercial networks across the Mongol khanates reopened . Toqta introduced the general peace among the Mongol khanates to Rus ' princes at the assembly in Pereyaslavl . The Yuan influence seemed to have increased in Golden Horde as some of Toqta ' s coins carried ' Phags - pa script in addition to Mongolian script and Persian characters . The Khan arrested the Italian residents of Sarai , and besieged Caffa in 1307 . The cause was apparently Toqta ' s displeasure at the Genoese trade in his subjects who were mostly sold for soldiers to Egypt . The Genoese resisted for a year , but in 1308 set fire to their city and abandoned it . Relations between the Italians and the Golden Horde remained tense until Toqta ' s death . The Khan was married to Mary , illegitimate daughter of the Byzantine Emperor , securing the Byzantine - Mongol alliance after the defeat of Nogai . A report reached Western Europe that Toqta was highly favourable to the Christians . According to Muslim observers , however , Toqta remained an idol - worshiper ( Buddhism and Tengerism ) and showed favour to religious men of all faiths , though he preferred Muslims . During the late reign of Toqta , tensions between princes of Tver and Moscow became violent . Toqta might have considered eliminating the special status of the Grand principality of Vladimir , placing all the Rus princes on the same level . Toqta decided to personally visit northern Russia , however he died while crossing the Volga in 1313 . Political evolution ( 1312 – 1359 ) . After Uzbeg ( Öz - Beg ) mounted the throne in 1313 , he adopted Islam as the state religion . He proscribed Buddhism and Shamanism among the Mongols in Russia , thus reversing the spread of the Yuan culture . By 1315 , Uzbeg had successfully Islamicized the Horde , killing Jochid princes and Buddhist lama s who opposed his religious policy and succession of the throne . Mohammed Uzbeg Khan continued the alliance with the Mamluks which Berke and his predecessors had begun . He kept a friendly relationship with the Mamluk Sultan and his shadow Caliph in Cairo . After a long delay and much discussion , he married a princess of the blood to Al - Nasir Muhammad , Sultan of Egypt . The Mongol rulers ' Rus ' policy was one of constantly switching alliances in an attempt to keep Russia and Eastern Europe weak and divided . With the assistance of Sarai , the Grand duke Mikhail Yaroslavich won the battle against the party in Novgorod in 1316 . While Michael was asserting his authority , his rival Yury of Moscow ingratiated himself into the favor of Uzbeg so that he appointed him chief of the Rus ' princes , and gave him his sister , Konchak , in marriage . Having been three years at Uzbeg ' s court , Yury returned with an army of Mongols and Mordvins . After he ravaged the villages of Tver , Yury was defeated by Mikhail in December 1318 , and his new wife and the Mongol general , Kawgady , were captured . While she stayed in Tver , Konchak , who converted to Christianity and adopted the name Agatha , died . Mikhail ' s rivals suggested to Uzbeg Khan that he had poisoned the Khan ' s sister and revolted against his rule . Mikhail was summoned to Sarai and executed on November 22 , 1318 . In 1322 , Mikhail ' s son , Dmitry , seeking revenge for his father ' s murder , went to Sarai and persuaded the Khan that Yury had appropriated a large portion of the tribute due to the Horde . Yury was summoned to the Horde for a trial but , before any formal investigation , was killed by Dmitry . Eight months later , Dmitry was also executed in the Horde for his crime . At first Uzbeg did not want to empower Moscow . In 1327 , Shevkal , the cousin of Uzbeg , arrived in Tver from the Horde , with a large retinue . They took up residence at Aleksander ' s palace . Rumors spread that Shevkal wanted to occupy the throne for himself and introduce Islam to the city . When , on 15 August 1327 , the Mongols tried to take a horse from a deacon named Dyudko , he cried for help and a mob of furious people fell on the Tatars and killed them all . Shevkal and his remaining guards were burnt alive . Thus Uzbeg Khan began backing Moscow as the leading Russian state . Ivan I Kalita was granted the title of grand prince and given the right to collect taxes from other Russian potentates . The Khan also sent Ivan at the head of an army of 50 , 000 soldiers to punish Tver . Aleksander was shown mercy in 1335 , however , when Moscow requested that he and his son Feoder be quartered in Sarai by orders of the Khan on October 29 , 1339 . Uzbeg , whose total army exceeded 300 , 000 , repeatedly raided Thrace , partly in service of Bulgaria ' s war against both Byzantium and Serbia from 1319 on . The Byzantine Empire , beginning in the reign of Andronikos II Palaiologos and continuing in that of Andronikos III Palaiologos , was raided by the Golden Horde between 1320 and 1341 , until the Byzantine port of Vicina Macaria was occupied . Some sources report that Uzbeg also married Andronikos III ' s illegitimate daughter , who had taken the name " Bayalun " , and who later , after relations between the Horde and the Byzantines deteriorated , fled back to the Byzantine Empire , apparently fearing her forced conversion to Islam . His armies pillaged Thrace for forty days in 1324 and for fifteen days in 1337 , taking 300 , 000 captives . However , his attempt to reassert Mongol control over Serbia was unsuccessful in 1330 . Backed by Uzbeg , Basarab I of Wallachia declared an independent state from the Hungarian crown in 1330 . Uzbeg allowed the Genoese to settle in Crimea after his accession . But the Mongols sacked Sudak under the Khan in 1322 when the Christians defied the Muslims in the city . The Genoese merchants in the other towns were not molested . Pope John XXII requested Uzbeg to restore Roman Catholic churches destroyed in the region . Thus , the Khan signed a new trade treaty with the Genoese in 1339 and allowed them to rebuild the walls of Kaffa . In 1332 he had allowed the Venetians to establish a colony at Tanais on the Don . A decree , issued probably by Mengu - Timur , allowing the Franciscans to proselytize , was renewed by Uzbeg in 1314 . The Golden Horde invaded the Ilkhanate under Abu Sa ' id in 1318 , 1324 and 1335 , during his reign . His ally Al - Nasir refused to attack Abu Sa ' id because the Ilkhan and the Mamluk Sultan signed a peace treaty in 1323 . In 1326 Uzbeg reopened friendly relations with the Empire of the Great Khan and began to send tributes thereafter . From 1339 he received annually 24 , 000 ding in Yuan paper currency from the Jochid appanage s in China . When the Ilkhanate collapsed after Abu Sa ' id ' s death , its senior - bey s approached Uzbeg in their desperation to find a leader , but the latter declined after consulting with his senior emir , Qutluq Timür . When in 1323 Gediminas also gained control of Kiev and installed there as prince his brother Fedor , there was no question of discontinuing the principality ' s tribute to the Khan . The Lithuanians under Fedor on a campaign a few years later included the Khan ' s basqaq in their entourage . Under Uzbeg and his successor Janibeg ( 1342 – 1357 ) , Islam , which among some of the Turks in Eurasia had deep roots going back into pre - Mongol times , gained general acceptance , though its adherents remained tolerant of other beliefs . In order to successfully expand Islam , he built a mosque and other " elaborate places " requiring baths — an important element of Muslim culture . Sarai attracted merchants from other countries . The slave trade flourished due to strengthening ties with the Mamluk Sultanate . Growth of wealth and increasing need of products always produce population growth , and so it was with Sarai . Housing in the region increased . This transformed the capital into the center of a large Muslim Sultanate . Janibek sponsored the joint Mongol - Rus military expeditions against Lithuania and Poland . In 1344 his army marched once more against Poland with auxiliaries from Galicia – Volhynia , as Volhynia was part of Lithuania . However , in 1349 , after the occupation of Galicia – Volhynia by the Polish - Hungarian force , the Kingdom of Galicia – Volhynia was finally conquered and incorporated in Poland . This act put an end to the relationship of vassalage between Galicia – Volhynia Rus ' and the Golden Horde . All khanates of the Mongol Empire faced a serious disaster at that time like the rest of the old world . The Black Death of the 1340s was a major factor contributing to the Golden Horde ' s economic downfall . Janibeg abandoned his father ' s Balkan ambitions , and backed Moscow against Lithuania and Poland . He also asserted Jochid dominance over the Chagatai Khanate , and conquered Tabriz , ending the Chobanid rule there in 1356 . After accepting the surrender of the Jalayirids , Janibeg boasted that three uluses of the Mongol Empire were under his control . The Polish King , Casimir III the Great , submitted to the Horde and undertook to pay tribute in order to avoid more conflicts . The seven Mongol princes were sent by Janibeg to assist Poland . Following his subsequent assassination , the Golden Horde quickly lost Azerbaijan to the Jalayir king Shaikh Uvais in 1357 . Decline . Great troubles ( 1359 – 1381 ) . Following the assassination of Berdibek by his brother in 1359 , the Khanate sank into prolonged internecine war , in which sometimes as many as four Khans vied for recognition by the emir s and for possession of major cities like Sarai , Qirim , and Azaq . After the overthrow of their nominal suzerain Yuan Emperor Toghan Temür , the Golden Horde lost touch with Mongolia and China . White Horde descendants of Orda and Tuqa - Timur carried on generally free from trouble until the late 1370s . Urus Khan of the White Horde took Sarai and reunited most of the Horde from Khorazm to Desht - i - Kipchak in 1375 . In western Pontic steppe , Mamai , a Tatar general who was a king - maker , attempted to reassert Tatar authority over Russia . His army was defeated by the Grand prince Dmitri Donskoy at the Battle of Kulikovo in his second consecutive victory over the Tatars in 1380 . While preparing another invasion of Moscow , Mamai faced a greater challenge from the east . In 1379 , Tokhtamysh , a kinsman of Urus Khan , won leadership of the White Horde with the assistance of Tamerlane . After that he defeated Mamai , and annexed the territory of the Blue Horde , briefly reestablishing the Golden Horde as a dominant regional power in 1381 . A brief reunion ( 1381 – 1419 ) . After Mamai ' s defeat , Tokhtamysh restored the dominance of the Golden Horde over Russia by attacking Russian lands in 1382 . He besieged Moscow on August 23 , but Muscovites beat off his attack , using firearm s for the first time in Russian history . On August 26 , two sons of Tokhtamysh ' s supporter Dmitry of Suzdal , dukes of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod Vasily and Semyon , who were present in Tokhtamysh ' s forces , persuaded the Muscovites to open the city gates , promising that their forces would not harm the city . This allowed Tokhtamysh ' s troops to burst in and destroy Moscow , killing 24 , 000 people . He also crushed the army of the Lithuanians at Poltava in the next year . Władysław II Jagiełło , Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland , accepted his supremacy and agreed to pay tribute in turn for a grant of Rus ' territory . For another century , Russia was forced back under the Tatar yoke . Elated by his success , Tokhtamysh invaded Azerbaijan , Khorazm , and Transoxiana , parts of Tamerlane ' s empire . War was declared against him by the Timurids . A fatal blow to the Horde was dealt by Tamerlane , who annihilated Tokhtamysh ' s army , destroyed his capital , looted the Crimean trade centers , and deported the most skillful craftsmen to his own capital in Samarkand in 1395 – 6 . When Tokhtamysh fled , Urus Khan ' s grandson , Temür Qutlugh , was chosen Khan in Sarai , and Koirijak was appointed sovereign of the White Horde by Timur . Tokhtamysh escaped to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and asked Vytautas for assistance in retaking the Horde in exchange for surrendering his suzerainity over Rus ' lands . The alliance of Tokhtamysh and Vytautas was defeated by the Khan Temür Qutlugh and his emir Edigu at the battle of the Vorskla River in 1399 . The trade routes never recovered from Timur ' s destruction , and Toqtamish died in obscurity in 1405 . Edigu forced the Grand Prince of Moscow to accept the Khan ' s supremacy in 1408 . Seeing Tatar commoners selling their children into slavery as damaging to both the manpower and the prestige of the Golden Horde ' s army , Edigu and his puppet Khan prohibited the slave trade at a kurultai . Despite some rebellions of Genghisid princes , he could keep the Horde united until 1410 when he was expelled to Central Asia . While he was absent , Jalal ad - Din khan briefly took the throne after he participated in the battle of Grunwald . Edigu returned to the Horde and set up his ordo in Crimea , challenging the sons of Tokhtamysh before his murder in 1419 . Disintegration ( 1420 – 1480 ) . After 1419 , Olug Moxammat became Khan of the Golden Horde . However , his authority was limited to the lower banks of the Volga where Tokhtamysh ' s other son Kepek reigned . Together with the Khan claimant Dawlat Berdi , they were beaten by Baraq of the Uzbeks in 1421 . The latter was assassinated in 1427 and Olug Moxammat reenthroned . The Lithuanian monarch Svitrigaila supported Olugh Moxammat ' s rival Sayid Ahmad I , who in 1433 gained the Golden Horde throne . Vasili II of Russia also supported Sayid Ahmad in order to weaken Olugh Moxammat who established the Khanate of Kazan and made Moscow a tributary . Sayid supported Švitrigaila during the Lithuanian Civil War ( 1431 – 1435 ) . The Horde ( Great Horde ) broke up into separate Khanate s : In the summer of 1470 ( other sources give 1469 ) , the last prominent Khan , Ahmed , organized an attack against Moldavia , the Kingdom of Poland , and Lithuania . By August 20 , the Moldavian forces under Stephen the Great defeated the Tatars at the battle of Lipnic . In 1474 and 1476 , Ahmed insisted that Ivan III should recognize Russia ' s vassal dependence on the Horde . However , the correlation of forces was not in the Horde ' s favor . In 1480 , Ahmed organized another military campaign against Moscow , which would result in the Horde ' s failure . Russia finally freed itself from the Horde , thus ending over 250 years of Tatar - Mongol control . On 6 January 1481 , the Khan was killed by Ibak Khan , the prince of Tyumen , and Nogays at the mouth of the Donets River . Fall ( 1480 – 1502 ) . The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ( which possessed much of the Ukraine at the time ) were attacked in 1487 – 1491 by the remnant of the Golden Horde . They reached as far as Lublin in eastern Poland before being decisively beaten at Zaslavl . The Crimean Khanate became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire in 1475 and subjugated what remained of the Great Horde , sacking Sarai in 1502 . After seeking refuge in Lithuania , Sheikh Ahmed , last Khan of the Horde , died in prison in Kaunas some time after 1504 . The Crimean Tatars wreaked havoc in southern Russia , Ukraine and even Poland in the course of the 16th and early 17th centuries , but they were not able to defeat Russia or take Moscow . Under Ottoman protection , the Khanate of Crimea continued its precarious existence until Catherine the Great annexed it on April 8 , 1783 . It was by far the longest - lived of the successor state s to the Golden Horde . Geography and society . Genghis Khan assigned four Mongol mingghan s : the Sanchi ' ud ( or Salji ' ud ) , Keniges , Uushin , and Je ' ured clans to Jochi . By the beginning of the 14 - th century , noyan s from the Sanchi ' ud , Hongirat , Ongud ( Arghun ) , Keniges , Jajirad , Besud , Oirat , and Je ' ured clans held importants positions at the court or elsewehere . There existed four mingghans ( 4 , 000 ) of the Jalayir in the left wing of the Ulus of Jochi ( Golden Horde ) . The population of the Golden Horde were largely a mixture of Turks and Mongols who adopted Islam later , as well as smaller amounts of Finno - Ugrians , Sarmato - Scythians , Slavs , and people from the Caucasus , among others ( whether Muslim or not ) . Most of the Horde ' s population was Turkic : Kipchaks , Cumans , Volga Bulgars , Khwarezm ians , and others . The Horde was gradually Turkified and lost its Mongol identity , while the descendants of Batu ' s original Mongol warriors constituted the upper class . They were commonly named " the Tatars " by the Russians and Europeans . Russians preserved this common name for this group down to the 20th century . Whereas most members of this group identified themselves by their ethnic or tribal names , most also considered themselves to be Muslims . Most of the population , both agricultural and nomadic , adopted the Kypchak language , which developed into the regional languages of Kypchak groups after the Horde disintegrated . The descendants of Batu ruled the Golden Horde from Sarai Batu and later Sarai Berke , controlling an area ranging from the Volga River and the Carpathian mountains to the mouth of the Danube River . The descendants of Orda ruled the area from the Ural River to Lake Balkhash . Censuses recorded Chinese living quarters in the Tatar parts of Novgorod , Tver and Moscow . Internal organization . The Golden Horde ' s elites were descended from four Mongol clans , Qiyat , Manghut , Sicivut and Qonqirat . Their supreme ruler was the Khan , chosen by the " kurultai " among Batu Khan ' s descendants . The prime minister , also ethnically Mongol , was known as " prince of princes " , or " beklare - bek " . The ministers were called " vizier s " . Local governors , or " basqaq s " , were responsible for levying taxes and dealing with popular discontent . Civil and military administration , as a rule , were not separate . The Horde developed as a sedentary rather than nomadic culture , with Sarai evolving into a large , prosperous metropolis . In the early 14th century , the capital was moved considerably upstream to Sarai Berqe , which became one of the largest cities of the medieval world , with 600 , 000 inhabitants . Despite Russian efforts at proselytizing in Sarai , the Mongols clung to their traditional animist or shamanist beliefs until Uzbeg Khan ( 1312 – 41 ) adopted Islam as a state religion . Several rulers of Kievan Rus ' – Mikhail of Chernigov and Mikhail of Tver among them – were reportedly assassinated in Sarai , but the Khans were generally tolerant and even released the Russian Orthodox Church from paying taxes . Vassals and allies . The Horde exacted tax payments from its subject peoples – Rus ' people , Armenians , Georgians , Circassians , Alans , Crimean Greeks , Crimean Goths , and others ( Bulgarians , Vlachs ) . The territories of Christian subjects were regarded as peripheral areas of little interest as long as they continued to pay taxes . These vassal states were never fully incorporated into the Horde , and Russian rulers early obtained the privilege of collecting the Tatar tax themselves . To maintain control over Rus and Eastern Europe , the Tatar warlords carried out regular punitive raids on their tributaries . At its height , the Golden Horde controlled the areas from Central Siberia and Khorazm to the Danube and Narva . There is a point of view , much propagated by Lev Gumilev , that the Horde and Russian polities entered into a defensive alliance against the Teutonic knights and pagan Lithuanians . Proponents point to the fact that the Mongol court was frequented by Russian princes , notably Yaroslavl ' s Feodor the Black , who boasted his own ulus near Sarai , and Novgorod ' s Alexander Nevsky , the sworn brother ( or " anda " ) of Batu ' s successor Sartaq Khan . A Mongol contingent supported the Novgorodians in the Battle of the Ice and Novgorodians paid taxes to the Horde . Sarai carried on a brisk trade with the Genoese trade emporiums on the coast of the Black Sea – Soldaia , Caffa , and Azak . Mamluk Egypt was the Khans ' long - standing trade partner and ally in the Mediterranean . Berke , the Khan of Kipchak had drawn up an alliance with the Mamluk Sultan Baibars against the Ilkhanate in 1261 . Provinces . The Mongols favored decimal organization which was inherited from Genghis Khan . It is said that there were a total of 10 political divisions within the Golden Horde . The Golden Horde majorly was divided into Blue Horde ( Kok Horde ) and White Horde ( Ak Horde ) . Blue Horde consisted of Pontic - Caspian steppe , Khazaria , Volga Bulgaria , while White Horde encompassed the lands of the princes of the left hand : Taibugin Yurt , Ulus Shiban , Ulus Tok - timur , Ulus Ezhen Horde .