40 Facts About Tokhtamysh

Tokhtamysh was Khan of the Golden Horde, who briefly succeeded in consolidating the Blue and White Hordes into a single polity.

Tokhtamysh belonged to the House of Borjigin, tracing his ancestry to Genghis Khan.

Tokhtamysh rose to power during a tumultuous period in the Golden Horde, which was severely weakened after a long period of division and internecine conflict.

From a fugitive, Tokhtamysh had become a powerful monarch, quickly solidifying his authority in both wings of the Golden Horde.

Tokhtamysh has often been called the last great ruler of the Golden Horde.

Tokhtamysh refused to join the forces of his cousin and suzerain, Urus, the khan of the former Ulus of Orda centered on Sighnaq, for a campaign to subdue Sarai, the traditional capital of the Golden Horde.

The young Tokhtamysh fled, then submitted to his father's murderer, and was forgiven on account of his youth.

In 1373, while Urus was asserting himself at Sarai, Tokhtamysh gathered a group of Urus' opponents and attempted to make himself khan in Sighnaq.

Urus immediately advanced against them, and Tokhtamysh fled, only to return, submit, and be forgiven again.

When Urus took over Sarai in 1375, Tokhtamysh took the opportunity to flee again.

Tokhtamysh sought refuge at the court of Timur, where he arrived in 1376.

Tokhtamysh fled to Timur once more, and returned with an army to fight his enemies.

Wounded, Tokhtamysh escaped by swimming across the Syr Darya and once more went to Timur's court, at Bukhara.

Tokhtamysh was now installed as khan in Sighnaq, and he spent the rest of the year establishing his authority and harnessing his resources for his next target, Sarai.

From a fugitive, Tokhtamysh had become a powerful monarch, the first khan in over two decades to rule both halves of the Golden Horde.

Tokhtamysh proceeded to solidify his authority with wisdom and restraint.

Tokhtamysh similarly sought the cooperation of the emirs and tribal chieftains by confirming the privileges that had been conferred to them in the past.

Tokhtamysh duly acknowledged Tokhtamysh as the new khan and his suzerain, but although he sent rich gifts, Dmitrij withheld the payment of tribute.

Three days later, the citizens were tricked into surrendering by Vasilij and Semen of Niznij Novgorod, and Tokhtamysh's troops stormed into the city, slaughtering, plundering and finally razing it for the insubordination of its ruler.

When Dmitrij Konstantinovic of Niznij Novgorod died the same year, Tokhtamysh granted that principality to his brother Boris Konstantinovic, but gave Suzdal' to Dmitrij's sons Semen and Vasilij.

In 1386, Dmitrij of Moscow's son Vasilij, hostage at Tokhtamysh's court, escaped to Moldavia and made his way to Moscow via Lithuania.

In 1391 Tokhtamysh sent his commander Beg Tut to ravage Vjatka, presumably in response to the depredations of the Ushkuyniks, buccaneers along the Volga; but the buccaneers launched a revenge raid on the area of Bolghar.

In 1383, taking advantage of Timur's preoccupation with affairs in Persia, Tokhtamysh restored the Golden Horde's authority over the semi-autonomous Sufi Dynasty in Khwarazm, apparently without provoking his former patron.

Tokhtamysh captured the capital, Tabriz, by storm and ravaged the neighboring area for ten days, before retiring with his plunder, including some 200,000 slaves, among them thousands of Armenians from the districts of Parskahayk, Syunik, and Artsakh.

Timur showed remarkable leniency to the captured warriors of Tokhtamysh, feeding and clothing them and allowing them to return home.

Tokhtamysh overthrew the Sufi Dynasty of Khwarazm for its collusion with Tokhtamysh and razed to the ground its capital, Gurganj, in 1388.

Increasingly aware that he was outmatched, Tokhtamysh sought to create an anti-Timurid coalition, reaching out to neighboring rulers concerned by Timur's power.

Only after reaching the headwaters of the Tobol did Timur discover that Tokhtamysh was regrouping to the west, across the Ural and planning to defend the crossing.

One of Tokhtamysh's commanders, Beg Pulad, who had escaped from the Battle of Kondurcha, had declared himself khan at Sarai in the expectation that Tokhtamysh had perished.

Tokhtamysh had survived and still commanded sufficient authority and manpower to strike back.

Tokhtamysh dealt similarly with Edigu, coming to terms with him in exchange for his submission, and leaving him with autonomous authority in the east, greatly weakening the position of Timur Qutluq.

Tokhtamysh sought to create an anti-Timurid coalition once more, reaching out to the Mamluk sultan Barquq, the Ottoman sultan Bayezit I, and the Georgian king Giorgi VII.

Tokhtamysh fled north to Bolghar and later perhaps to Moldavia.

Tokhtamysh survived Timur's onslaught, but his position was far more tenuous than before.

Meanwhile, Tokhtamysh had set about reasserting his authority in the southwestern portions of the Golden Horde, killing his cousin Tash Timur, who had declared himself khan in the Crimea, and fighting the Genoese there, besieging Kaffa in 1397.

In late 1397 or early 1398, Tokhtamysh briefly triumphed over his rivals, taking over Sarai and the Volga towns, and sent out jubilant missives through his envoys all round.

Tokhtamysh fled the battlefield and made his way east to Sibir; Vytautas survived the battle, although some twenty princes, including two of his cousins fell in the fight.

Tokhtamysh was the last khan of the Golden Horde who minted coins with Mongolian script.

In 1385, Tokhtamysh was at the height of his power and his future, as well as that of the Golden Horde, looked bright.

However, in entering into and exacerbating the conflict with his former protector Timur, Tokhtamysh set a course for the undoing of all his achievements and for his own destruction.