Tokhtamysh

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Tokhtamysh (d. ca 1406), was the last khan of the White Horde, who unified the White Horde and Blue Horde subdivisions of the Golden Horde into a single state. He was a descendant of Genghis Khan's eldest grandson, Orda Khan.

Tokhtamysh appears in history in 1376, trying to overthrow his uncle Urus Khan, king of the White Horde, and fleeing to the great Timur. Tokhtamysh outlived Urus and both his sons and forcefully ascended the throne of the White Horde in 1378 with Timur's backing.

Tokhtamysh dreamed of emulating his ancestors and made plans to reunite the Ulus Jochi. In 1380, he invaded the Blue Horde by fording across the Volga and quickly annihilated an army sent by Muscovy. The ruler of the Blue Horde, Mamai, was killed shortly after the Battle of Kulikovo, making Tokhtamysh's victory over the horde was all the more easier.

Having united the Blue and White Hordes into the Golden Horde in 1382 Tokhtamysh led a successful campaign against Muscovy as a punishment for the Kulikovo defeat - setting back, though not ending, the Russian aspiration to get free of Mongol rule. This campaign, like other apsects in the life and career of the national hero Dmitri Donskoi, was the subject of historical paintings by modern Russian painters (see images).

In just six years, Tokhtamysh had reunified the Mongol lands from Crimea to Lake Balkesh.

Next, Tokhtamysh sent a reconnaissance force into the northern principalities to determine Lithuania's influence. Kestutis, the Lithuanian king, viewing this as a possible prelude to invasion, attacked and defeated the force. Enraged, Tokhtamysh invaded Lithuania and Poland, defeating them.

Believing he could emulate the successes of Genghis Khan himself, in 1385 Tokhtamysh, with an army of 50,000 (or five tumens), invaded Persia and took Tabriz. Returning to north they took 200,000 slaves from Caucasus including tens of thousands of Armenians from the districts of Parakahayk, Syunik, and Artsakh. As Tokhtamysh moved north from the Caucasus, Timur annexed Azerbaijan and Persia to his own expanding kingdom. Furious, Tokhtamysh turned back and made war on his former ally.

Eventually, Tokhtamysh conceded defeat and withdrew to the steppe. However, in 1387 he suddenly invaded Transoxiana, the heart of Timur's realm. Unfortunately for Tokhtamysh, heavy snow forced him back to the steppe.

In 1395, the scenario reached its climax as Timur attacked the Golden Horde and defeated Tokhtamysh at the Terek. Tamerlane sacked the capital, Sarai Berke, vassalized the Golden Horde, and placed a puppet ruler on the throne. Tokhtamysh escaped to the Ukrainian steppes and asked for help from the Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania. In the great Battle of the Vorskla River (1399) the combined forces of Tokhtamysh and Vytautas were annihilated by two of Tamerlane's generals, khan Temur Qutlugh and emir (murza, visir) Edigu. The defeated Tokhtamysh was killed in Siberia by Edigu's men in 1406 or 1407.

See also

• List of Khans of the Golden Horde
• Tokhtamysh-Timur war
• Siege of Moscow (1382)

Notes

References

• The struggle against the Khan Toqtamish-http://www.geocities.com/somasushma/toqtamish.html

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Last updated on Thursday March 06, 2008 at 05:59:06 PST (GMT -0800)
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