Nogai Horde

Nogai Horde
←
 1440s–1634 →
Approximate territory of Nogai Horde in the end of XV century.
Capital Saray-Jük
Language(s) Kypchak languages
Government Monarchy
Historical era Renaissance
 - Established 1440s
 - Conquered by the Tsardom of Russia 1634

The Nogai Horde was a confederation of about eighteen Turkic and Mongol tribes that occupied the Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the Manghits constituted a core of the Horde. In the thirteenth century the Golden Horde commander Nogai (Nogai Khan) formed an army of the Manghits joined by numerous Turkic tribes. A century later the Nogais were led by Edigu, a commander of Manghit origin, who founded the Nogai ruling dynasty.[1]

Contents

Society

There were two groups of Nogais: those north of the Caspian Sea under their own Bey (leader), and those north of the Black Sea nominally subject to the Crimean Khan. The first group was broken up circa 1632 by the Kalmyks. The second shared the fate of the Khanate of Crimea.

Nogai language was a form of Kypchak Turkic, the same language group as that of the neighboring Kazakhs, Bashkirs and Crimean and Kazan Tatars. Their religion was Muslim, but religious institutions were weakly developed.

They were pastoral nomads grazing sheep, horses, and camels. Outside goods were obtained by trade (mostly horses and slaves), raiding, and tribute. There were some subject peasants along the Yaik river. One of the main sources of income for the Nogais was raiding for slaves, who were sold in Crimea and Bukhara. Hunting, fishing, caravan taxation, and seasonal agricultural migration also played a role although it is poorly documented.

The basic social unit was the semi-autonomous ulus or band. Aristocrats were called mirza. The ruler of the Nogais was the Bey. The capital or winter camp was at Saraychik, a caravan town on the lower Yaik. From 1537 the second in rank was the Nureddin, usually the Bey's son or younger brother and expected successor. The Nureddin held the right bank along the Volga. From the 1560s there was a second Nureddin, a sort of a war chief. Third in rank was the Keikuvat, who held the Emba. Political organization was fluid and much depended on personal prestige since as nomads, the Nogai subjects could simply move away from a leader who was disliked. Ambassadors and merchants were regularly beaten and robbed. Stealing horses, looked down upon in many cultures, was an important part of social and economic life on the steppe. Beys and Mirzas would often declare themselves vassals of some outside power, but such declarations had little meaning.

Circa 1557 the Nogay nureddin Kazy Mirza quarreled with Ismael Beg and founded the Lesser Nogai Horde on the steppe of the North Caucasus. The Nogais north of the Caspian were thereafter called the Great Nogai Horde. In the early seventeenth century The Great Nogai Horde broke down further under the onslaught of the Kalmyks.[2]

The Nogais north of the Black Sea were nominally subject to the Crimean Khan rather than the Nogai Bey. They were divided into the following groups: Budjak (from the Danube to the Dniester), Yedisan (from the Dniester to the Bug), Jamboyluk (Bug to Crimea), Yedickul (north of Crimea) and Kuban. In particular, the Yedisans are mentioned as a distinct group, and in various locations.

History

Decline of the Golden Horde

Independence

Decline

During the next 150 years, Black Sea grain ports assist massive southward expansion of Russian agriculture and population.

Partial List of Beys and Mirzas

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Khodarkovsky, Russia's Steppe Frontier p. 9
  2. ^ Khodarkovsky - Russia's Steppe Frontier p. 11
  3. ^ Sunderland, p26
  4. ^ Khodarkovsky, Where Two Worlds Meet, p149
  5. ^ Khodarkovsky (2004)

References