The Jochid Civil War
The Jochids’ commercial and political success in the late thirteenth century was undeniable and far-reaching, and the Horde’s impact in Europe and the Mediterranean is testament to the empire-building skill of Möngke-Temür and his associates. But growth came with costs. The enormous benefits of settlement and trade were not evenly distributed, and new wealth produced new centers of power within the Horde, which fostered internal competition and eventually civil war.
One of the emergent power centers was Orda’s horde, which benefited from the politics of commerce. Overland trade routes were a key arena of competition between the most powerful Mongol lineages: the Jochids dominated the northerly east-west routes, traversing Ordaid lands, and the Toluids dominated the southerly routes, which ran through Ilkhanid territory. With this in mind, Möngke-Temür sought to promote the northern connections at the expense of the southern ones by persuading foreign businessmen that the Horde’s route was quicker and safer than the Ilkhanids’. By following the Ordaid route, known as the Siberian Road, traders could also avoid Qaidu’s territory. Qaidu’s lands offered the shortest path from the Persian Gulf trade hotbed of Hormuz to the Chinese capital of Zhongdu, but Qaidu’s constant fighting with Qubilai and frequent tensions with the dominated Chagatayids made for insecurity along the route.
Under these circumstances, the Ordaids were able to take full advantage of their dominant position in the far-northern fur trade. The Siberian Road connected Bashkir land to Qaraqorum and northern China, ideal endpoints for a trade based on furs. It wasn’t just merchants who thrived. Along the route, the horde set up collection and delivery stations where caravans stopped and transacted, benefiting locals. And the khan collected fees from the caravans as they made their way across the Siberian plain.31
Boosted by the flourishing economy, the Ordaid leader, Qonichi, became a more important figure in Mongol politics.32 Qonichi had his own keshig, which governed the people, organized supplies, guarded the court, regulated markets, and collected taxes. But he did not challenge the khan. Like his Ordaid predecessors, Qonichi followed the Batuids’ foreign policy. Yet, around 1282, the balance of power within the Horde changed drastically because of the sudden death of Möngke-Temür. In the absence of the beloved Strong Horse Khan, two non-Batuid chiefs saw opportunities to consolidate power: Qonichi and Nogay. As non-Batuids, neither could obtain the begs’ agreement to become khan, but they could try to install a puppet khan who would not get in the way of their own plans. On Nogay’s advice, the Jochids enthroned Möngke-Temür’s brother Töde-Möngke, a man of high status but low political stature, who showed no interest in governing.33
Under Möngke-Temür, the Horde had scrupulously balanced between Qaidu and Qubilai, while maintaining frosty but largely peaceful relations with the Ilkhanids. Qonichi upended this grand strategy, for he felt he had more to gain from connections with Qubilai and the Toluids than by continuing to back Qaidu. Qonichi brought together Nogay and Töde-Möngke to formulate a common policy that would realign Jochid efforts, and at a 1283 quriltai the parties agreed that it was time to reconcile with the Toluids. As a token of good will, the Jochids released Qubilai’s son Nomuqan, who had been a hostage of the Horde for some eight years. The great khan sent gifts in return, publicly expressing his desire to normalize relations with the Jochids. Over the next few years, relations between the Ordaids and the Toluids continued to improve. In 1288 Qonichi received from the great khan thirty-three pounds of silver, a neckless of pearls, and beautiful embroidered clothing—generosity that was soon extended to Qonichi’s warriors via the sharing practices common to all the Mongol hordes.34 As for the Ilkhanids, Qonichi saw no benefit in maintaining the cold war. Unlike the Batuids, whose territory bordered the Ilkhanids’ along the Caucasus, the Ordaids felt no threat from the Ilkhanids. Qonichi sent envoys carrying a message of “sincere friendship” to the Ilkhanids. He even proposed forging alliances against Qaidu.35
The new Jochid friendship with the Toluids was an outcome of a joint decision among the principal Jochid hordes, but, for the first time, it was an Ordaid, Qonichi, who initiated foreign policy. The Batuids followed. This is not to say that the Jochids were entirely unified, though. Nogay’s ambitions outstripped Qonichi’s. While Qonichi pursued prosperity and security for his already-well-established horde, Nogay wanted more. He wanted to expand and deepen the realm, solidifying the Horde’s power in the west. And he wanted to be the Jochid khan. It was Nogay’s ambition that ultimately led to a civil war within the Horde.
Nogay was the Horde’s senior commander. In practice he outranked all the other begs, making him the first Jochid beglerbeg, although apparently he never wore the title. He was stationed along the Jochids’ western border, a strategically essential location demanding constant, calculated military presence. Since the Hungarian campaign of 1241–1242, Bulgarian rulers had oscillated between war and peace with the Horde, threatening to cut off Jochid access to the inland trade route to Poland and to the lavish grasslands of the western steppe. The inland route was crucial to the Horde’s wider foreign policy, as it not only gave the Jochids access to the European hinterlands but also compensated for fluctuations elsewhere: the Crimean road to the Middle East opened and closed subject to the Mamluks’ goodwill, while the Caucasian road was dependent on the Ilkhanids. In addition, there was the constant possibility that the Byzantines would choke off the Black Sea straits. A firm hand in the west was therefore necessary to control the Byzantines, too.
That hand was Nogay’s. The commander was ideally positioned for the task. He was a descendent of Jochi, although not through the prestigious lines of his sons Batu, Berke, or Orda. Nogay had fought, and lost an eye, on the Caucasian border, helping to establish a fearsome reputation. And he had led the war against the Byzantines in 1263, earning the respect of a major neighboring power. Nogay turned southeastern Moldavia into his headquarters, and from there brought the Byzantines and the Bulgarians into greater dependency on the Horde.
Nogay’s horde prospered from its location on the Danube, benefiting from trade, commodities production, the influx of conquered peoples, and climactic conditions suited to the nomadic herding life. But Nogay’s status fell during Möngke-Temür’s reign. Nogay had been a close ally of Berke’s, even joining the khan in converting to Islam. But after Berke’s death, Nogay was removed from the center of power. With the Batuids established as the exclusive heirs to the Jochid throne, Nogay’s pedigree took a blow; all of Möngke-Temür’s brothers, sons, and nephews ranked higher in the line of succession, dramatically limiting Nogay’s horizons.
Still, Nogay tried to amass decision-making power during Möngke-Temür’s reign. In 1270 Nogay contacted the Mamluk sultan Baybars in an effort to forge his own alliance with the Mamluks without involving the khan. Nogay also sought to appropriate the extravagant gifts the Mamluks delivered to their Mongol allies. To win over the sultan, Nogay invoked his own Muslim faith. Nogay also referenced his partnership with Berke, Baybars’s close friend. Most likely Nogay was present in the ceremonial tent with the begs when Berke received the Mamluk ambassadors for the first time. Just like Berke, Nogay offered to extend his friendship to the sultan and fight the Mamluks’ enemies.36
Yet Baybars resisted Nogay’s outreach. For one thing, the sultan was suspicious of Nogay’s low status in the Jochid line. For another, Baybars’s main enemies were the Ilkhanids, whereas Nogay had worked long and hard to make peace with them, at times contravening Möngke-Temür’s own policy. Recall that, in 1270, Möngke-Temür was allied with Baraq against Abaqa, until the Ilkhanids definitively defeated Baraq. Möngke-Temür responded with grudging overtures to the Ilkhanids, remaining embittered toward them. Nogay, however, was enthusiastic about allegiance with Abaqa. Indeed, Nogay’s chief wife went in person to Abaqa’s court to negotiate a marriage between their son Büri and the Ilkhan’s daughter. Büri stayed with his wife’s family as a proof of the ties that united Nogay and Abaqa. Nogay’
s embrace of the Ilkhanids did not endear him to Baybars, and it was not until the 1280s, when Nogay’s power became impossible to ignore, that he and the Mamluk sultan had any further exchanges.37
One key demonstration of that power came in 1283, when Nogay went so far as to replace Grand Prince Andrei of Vladimir with a preferred kniaz. Töde-Möngke Khan, freshly installed after the death of Möngke-Temür, supported Andrei but did not have enough influence to impose his own will. Nogay pushed Andrei from his throne and installed Andre’s elder brother Dmitrii. This was clear interference with the khan’s prerogative to appoint his own vassal, an unmistakable signal that Töde-Möngke was only nominally in charge.38
Nogay’s foreign policy was similarly independent of the khan’s. As a border commander, Nogay often got information before the rest of the Jochid leaders, and he did not always share what he knew. What is more, Nogay made high-level military decisions on his own. His horde’s location was ideal for acquiring more people, land, wealth, and prestige; he could expand his territory to the north, south, and west without fighting other Mongols, and he did not care to wait for the khan’s approval when it came to conquest. Nogay also had no compunction about raiding even in areas he already dominated. In the 1280s Nogay led the only truly expansionist horde. The Ordaids remained peaceful, and the Batuids focused on maintaining a cold peace with the Ilkhanids on their southern frontier.
Nogay organized several raids in Poland and Lithuania, with conquest in mind. He also wanted to supervise more directly southern Russia, a Jochid tributary area. And Nogay demonstrated his power by inviting Jochid vassals to obey him rather than the khan. For instance, he invited the kniazia of Suzdal and Bryansk to visit him, not the khan. In 1285 Tsar George Terter of Bulgaria minted coins bearing Nogay’s name and paid tribute to him. In turn, Nogay offered military aid. Nogay even struck out on his own to strengthen relations with the Byzantines. He married Euphrosyne, daughter of Emperor Andronikos II, who was Michael Palaiologos’s successor. The contemporary Greek historian Pachymérès reported that the emperor Michael had also curried favor, continually sending Nogay gifts including luxurious clothing, fine food, barrels of spiced wine, and gold and silver cups. Nogay was delighted with everything Michael had sent him, apart from the clothing, which he accepted only when he was told that the garments bore magical powers. Otherwise, a Mongol warrior would never dress like a Byzantine.39
Such was Nogay’s strength that foreign leaders would abandon their allies in favor of vassalage to him. Thus, in 1284–1285, Nogay’s army entered Hungary at the invitation of King László IV, who needed help to crush a rebellion among the Hungarian barons. Nogay was happy to oblige: László’s kingdom was geopolitically crucial as part of the borderland between Europe and the Horde—precisely the region that Nogay intended to control. In choosing to ally with Nogay, László was choosing a Muslim over his existing Christian partners, an extremely bold move. Hungary lay on the eastern frontier of Latin Christendom, and Catholics hoped to integrate the territory into their own sphere of influence. To ally with the Horde, László had to cut ties with his own House of Angevine and with the Roman Catholic Church. But allying himself with the Horde served László’s best interests. Unlike the pope, Nogay could provide the military help László needed. The pope was left furious with both the Hungarian king and the Jochids, whose ambitions he feared.40
Töde-Möngke Khan was not involved in Nogay’s military campaigns in Hungary, Poland, and Lithuania. The khan had a reputation for being disinterested in politics—making him a lunatic or a saint, depending on the source’s point of view—and did not appreciate Nogay’s appetite for war. Soon enough, other high-ranking Jochids were flocking to Nogay’s side. Even the khan’s nephew Töle-Buqa took his orders from Nogay, participating in the Hungarian campaign.41
In 1287 Töde-Möngke abdicated. Nogay forced him out in favor of Töle-Buqa. But while Töle-Buqa had the right lineage—Batu was his great-grandfather—and the title of khan, he lacked the ruling prerogatives of his predecessors. Under new arrangements, Töle-Buqa had to share power with his brother Könchek, with Möngke-Temür’s sons Alghui and Toghrilcha, and with Nogay. The Jochids were now governed by a council, of which the khan was merely one member. Relations between Töle-Buqa Khan and Nogay quickly deteriorated, as the khan suffered several military failures while carrying out plans developed by Nogay. Indeed, already during the Hungarian campaign of 1285, Töle-Buqa had lost large numbers of troops amid a devastating retreat across Transylvania. Then, in 1287–1288, the Jochids launched military operations in Poland but were unable to capture Sandomir and Krakow, as planned. The khan lost more men, war equipment, and horses and, again, his army was forced to withdraw under difficult conditions.42
Other military failures were likely Töle-Buqa’s alone. In 1288 and again in 1290, he tried to lead the Jochid army into Ilkhanid territory, but the frontier was well guarded, and Töle-Buqa’s warriors were stopped each time. Nogay did not take part in the attacks; nor did Qonichi, whose Ordaid horde was at peace with the Ilkhanids. But Nogay must have known about at least the first assault. In April 1288, just before Töle-Buqa’s attack, Nogay offered the Ilkhanid ruler a sharil, a Buddhist relic. Arghun—Abaqa’s son, who had succeeded to the Ilkhanid throne in 1284—was extremely pleased with the gift. Nogay wanted to make clear that he had nothing to do with the aggression that was to come.43
Nogay’s policy toward the Ilkhanids should not be misunderstood as a sign of rapprochement, much less friendship. Nogay still considered the Ilkhanids rivals; he was merely pursuing his own approach to victory, an approach that, for the moment, did not involve direct aggression. While Töle-Buqa wasted troops against Arghun, Nogay sought to undermine his adversary through diplomacy involving his Christian neighbors. In the late 1280s, Catholics were balancing between Jochids and Ilkhanids—exploring relations with both, for reasons spiritual and political. For the Jochids, the stakes were high. If the pope were to ally with the Ilkhanids, the Horde might lose its Latin trade partners. More generally, the Horde would find itself weakened in European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern markets. And no matter the trade effects, the Jochids would have to deal with the Ilkhanids from an inferior position. So Nogay decided to divide the Ilkhanids and the pope.
Nogay’s wedge would be the Franciscans. Franciscan friars had been circulating among the Jochids since the mid-thirteenth century. The Franciscans Plano Carpini and Rubruck had been among the first Westerners to visit the Mongol Empire and to describe the Horde, and their reports informed missions of later years. Dominicans also visited the Jochids, but the Franciscans were more involved in the life of the Horde. Initially, the friars used their connections to the Italian Black Sea trade network to gain influence with the Mongols. The Franciscans traveled with the nomads, trying to convert them on the road and learning their languages, habits, laws, and social norms. Thus when the Franciscans arranged their first permanent missions at Sarai and Caffa around 1280, the nomads were already familiar with them. Soon after, the friars established themselves in Nogay’s capital. They were instantly popular, for they were letter writers, secretaries, interpreters, and healers. Reportedly, they undertook all these services for free.44
Around 1287 Nogay got his chance to bring the Franciscans over to his side. A Franciscan church and bell tower in the Crimean settlement of Solkhat had been destroyed by local Muslims, and heads of the Horde’s Franciscan community wanted justice. They brought a petition before the Jochid authorities. Seizing the opportunity to show publicly that he was a friend of Catholics, Nogay sided with the Franciscans. He delegated a Muslim envoy to inform the Muslim community of Solkhat that they would have to pay for the construction of three new bell towers, and he sent the friars a large amount of money to cover damages. At the same time, Nogay’s chief wife asked the Franciscans to baptize her at a Crimean holy site called Qirq Yer. To reward the friars and show them favor, she authorized them to build a monastery in Qirq Yer and ordered local offici
als to protect them.45
At this point Nogay had lived close to Christians for more than twenty years and had learned from his interactions with them. He knew that the Christian world was fragmented, and he would need to choose the right allies among its multiple and overlapping sovereignties in order to gain the pope’s esteem. Those allies could not be the Russian Orthodox, to whom the Jochids had already shown favor through conferral of tarkhan status and support for the construction of Orthodox bishoprics at Sarai and Sudak. Backing the Franciscans would tamp down Orthodox influence within the Horde and potentially win over European Catholics. Nogay thus intended to support a new Catholic bishopric, or an institutional equivalent, on his own territory. With the Franciscans as his loyal proxy, Nogay would have a pipeline to the pope, helping to turn Catholics away from the Ilkhanids.
By the late 1280s, Nogay was closer than ever to becoming khan of the Horde. The final step was to unseat Töle-Buqa and the council. To this end, Nogay joined forces with an ambitious young warrior named Toqto’a. Toqto’a was the son of Möngke-Temür and his chief wife Öljeitu. As such, Toqto’a had a strong claim to the Jochid throne. But Toqto’a faced obstacles. His uncle, Töle-Buqa, and his brothers Alghui and Toghrilcha, omitted him from the council, for fear that he would try to take the throne himself. Toqto’a was brave, strong, and popular among the Horde’s fighting men; other high-ranking Jochids were keen to keep him in check. Seeking a protector and ally who could elevate him to his desired position, Toqto’a called on Nogay. The supreme commander obliged. While their goals were ultimately at odds—both wished to become khan—in the near term, the men were aligned. They began to orchestrate a coup to overthrow Töle-Buqa and the council.
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