Golden Horde (Kipchak Khanate)

History

The vast nomadic state founded by Genghis Khan's grandson Batu on the lower Volga - The Volga River is the longest river in Europe, flowing through western Russia into the Caspian Sea. During the Mongol invasion, it served as a crucial transport and migration route. Batu Khan established the capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai, along its lower banks.In Russian culture, it is affectionately called 'Mother Volga' (Volga Matushka) and is celebrated in numerous folk songs and legends as a source of life and strength, and its name is linked to the legendary Slav giant hero Volga Buslayevich. after his armies swept through Russia and eastern Europe. In the west it was called the Golden Horde, said to be named for the golden gleam of the khan's tent.

The Tatar yoke

The horsemen of the Kipchak Khanate — the Rus called them Tatars — rode across frozen rivers and broke the Rus principalities one after another. Of all the Mongol states this one kept to nomadic life the longest, and its army stayed formidable.

From the capital at Sarai - Sarai was the grand capital city of the Golden Horde (Kipchak Khanate), founded by Batu Khan in the mid-13th century near the lower Volga River. It grew into a major, wealthy trading hub connecting Europe and Asia, featuring beautiful mosques, palaces, and public baths.According to a famous local legend, two life-sized golden horses made of solid gold stood at the gates of Sarai to show off the Khan's power, but they mysteriously disappeared and are believed to be buried somewhere in the Volga steppes. they took heavy tribute from the Rus lands - The Rus' Region, also known as the Rus' Land, refers to the historical territory in Eastern Europe inhabited by the East Slavs during the medieval period, covering parts of modern Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia. It was characterized by vast plains, dense forests, and major river networks that fostered thriving trade routes. The name 'Rus' is bound to legendary founding stories. According to the Primary Chronicle, the warring Slavic tribes invited Rurik and his Varangian (Viking) brothers from across the Baltic Sea to bring order and rule over them. The tribe they belonged to was called the 'Rus,' and thus the land they ruled became known as the Land of Rus. Another legend tells of three brothers—Lech (ancestor of Poland), Czech (ancestor of Czechia), and Rus—where the eldest brother, Rus, traveled east to settle and establish the Rus' Land. Although this region unified into the prosperous federation of Kyivan Rus', internal conflicts among its princes weakened it. Consequently, they suffered a devastating defeat by the invading Mongols at the Battle of the Kalka River in 1223, ushering in a long period of Mongol domination. for roughly 250 years, a period Russian history calls the Tatar yoke.

Ruling with a piece of paper

Rather than govern the Rus lands directly, the khan issued princes a patent called a yarlyk and let them rule in his name. The yarlyk went to whoever delivered the tribute, so the princes competed for the khan's favour — and in that competition Moscow, which took on the job of collecting, steadily grew stronger.

A steppe that turned to Islam

Batu's brother Berke was the first Mongol ruler to accept Islam. Muslim merchants and scholars gathered at Sarai afterwards, and the khanate allied with the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt rather than with its Mongol cousins in the Ilkhanate - The Mongol khanate Hülegü founded in Persia and the Middle East; its very name means a khan who obeys the Great Khan.. Boats and caravans moving along the Volga carried furs, salt and grain, and made the state rich.

Until the yoke was lifted

Moscow won its first great victory at Kulikovo in 1380, and in 1480 the two armies faced each other across the Ugra River and withdrew, which ended the domination in practice. The khanate broke into the khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan and Crimea, and the last of them, Crimea, lasted into the 18th century.