caption father house religion spouse image article_title name
the flag of nogai khan . tatar borjigin islam euphrosyne palaiologina tügä toraï chaka of bulgaria file : nogai flag.svg nogai khan
 nogai khan
nogai khan

nokhai -lrb- died 1299 -rrb- , also called nohai , kara nokhai , isa nogai , was a general and de facto ruler of the golden horde and a great-great-grandson of genghis khan .
his grandfather was baul/teval khan , the 7th son of jochi .
his name is also spelled nohai and nogaj .
nogai khan was also a notable convert to islam .
pelliot wrote that nokhai meant a `` dog . ''
although in the mongolian language , `` nokhoi '' -lrb- in mongolian script : nokhai -rrb- literally means a `` dog '' , it does not necessarily mean a particularly negative and insulting name in its context , since people were called `` dogs '' among the mongols at the time and sometimes presently as `` nokhduud '' as in `` you dogs -lrb- guys/men/people -rrb- . ''
genghis khan also called his capable generals `` dogs of war '' or `` men of war . ''
this probably came about because mongols had a lot of dogs , and dogs were very useful for people 's lives in hunting and warnings .
according to the historian j. j. saunders , the name `` dog '' was used to distract the attention of evil spirits -lrb- presumably , they would not be interested in a canine -rrb- .
the mongols sometimes referred to the wolf as a `` steppe dog '' .
