Jani Beg
Eleventh Khan of the Golden Horde
Biography
Jani Beg was the third son of Ozbeg Khan, who had firmly established Islam in the Golden Horde and brought it to its political and economic peak. Ascending the throne in 1342 after internal court struggles, Jani Beg governed firmly from the thriving capital of Sarai on the Volga, maintaining strong tributary hegemony over the Rus principalities and eastern Europe.
Between 1345 and 1347, he laid siege to the Genoese trading stronghold of Kaffa (modern-day Feodosia) on the Crimean peninsula. When the Black Death struck his army during the siege, he reportedly catapulted plague-infested corpses over the city walls. Genoese ships fleeing the fortress brought the infection to Mediterranean ports, accelerating the catastrophic spread of the plague into Europe.
In 1357, taking advantage of the decades of factional civil war following Abu Sa'id's death, Jani Beg led a massive expedition across the Caucasus into Azerbaijan. He seized Tabriz from the Chobanids and ended the last political power bearing the Ilkhanate name. However, while returning north after installing his son Berdi Beg in Tabriz, he died suddenly in camp. His death marked the end of the Golden Horde's zenith, plunging it into two decades of bloody civil war among more than twenty rival khans.