Khan Mamai is the great king of Golden Rus'. What did his defeat on the Kulikovo field lead to?

) Golden Horde.

Origin

Fight against Tokhtamysh

In 1377, the young khan, the legitimate heir to the Golden Horde throne, Chingizid Tokhtamysh, with the support of Tamerlane's troops, began a campaign to establish legitimate power in the Golden Horde. In the spring of 1378, after the eastern part of the state (the Blue Horde) with its capital in Sygnak fell, Tokhtamysh invaded the western part (the White Horde) controlled by Mamai. By April 1380, Tokhtamysh managed to capture the entire Golden Horde up to the northern Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, including the city of Azak (Azov). Under the control of Mamai, only his native Polovtsian steppes remained - the Northern Black Sea region and Crimea.

On September 8, 1380, Mamai's army was defeated in the Battle of Kulikovo during a new campaign against the Principality of Moscow, and his big misfortune was that the young Muhammad Bulak, proclaimed by him as Khan, died on Kulikovo Field, under whom Mamai was a beklarbek. The defeat on the Kulikovo field for Mamai was a heavy blow, but not a fatal one, but it helped the legitimate Khan Tokhtamysh to establish himself on the Golden Horde throne. Mamai did not waste time collecting new army in the Crimea for the next campaign against Moscow. But as a result of the war with Khan Tokhtamysh, supported by Tamerlane, Mamai's next blow to Rus' did not take place. A little later, in September 1380, a decisive battle took place between the troops of Mamai and Tokhtamysh. The historian V. G. Lyaskoronsky suggested that this battle “on the Kalki” took place in the area of small rivers, the left tributaries of the Dnieper near the rapids. Historians S. M. Solovyov and N. M. Karamzin suggested that the battle took place on the Kalka River, not far from the place where the Mongols inflicted the first defeat on the Russians in 1223. There was no actual battle, since on the battlefield most of Mamai's troops went over to the side of the legitimate Khan Tokhtamysh and swore allegiance to him. Mamai, with the remnants of his faithful companions, did not start bloodshed and fled to the Crimea, while his harem and noble women from the Jochi clan, whom Mamai took care of, were captured by Tokhtamysh. The victory of Tokhtamysh led to the establishment of legitimate power in the state, the cessation of a long internecine war(“Great Zamyatni”) and the temporary strengthening of the Golden Horde up to the clash with Tamerlane.

Death

After his defeat from the troops of Tokhtamysh, Mamai fled to Kafa (now Feodosia), where he had long-standing connections and political support of the Genoese, but he was not allowed into the city. He tried to get into Solkhat (now Old Crimea), but was intercepted by Tokhtamysh's patrols and killed. It is assumed that he was killed by mercenaries on the orders of the Khan. Tokhtamysh buried Mamai with honors.

Descendants of Mamai

According to the family legend of the Glinsky princes, the descendants of Mamai were serving princes in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Glinsky, whose ancestral possessions were located on the lands of the Poltava and Cherkassy regions of Ukraine, descended from the son of Mamai - Mansur Kiyatovich. Mikhail Glinsky staged a rebellion in Lithuania, after the failure of which he transferred to the Moscow service. His niece Elena Glinskaya is the mother of Ivan IV the Terrible. Relatives of the princes Glinsky, the Russian princes Ruzhinsky, Ostrozhsky, Dashkevich and Vishnevetsky played an important role in the development of the Cossack community of the Dnieper region, the formation of the Zaporizhzhya Army and the lands controlled by it, Zaporozhye.

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Notes

Literature

Scientific biography

Pochekaev R. Yu. Mamai: The history of the "anti-hero" in history (dedicated to the 630th anniversary of the Battle of Kulikovo). - St. Petersburg. : EURASIA, 2010. - 288 p. - (Clio). - 2000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-91852-020-8.(in trans.)
Gumilyov, Lev Nikolaevich Ancient Rus' and the Great Steppe .. - St. Petersburg. : Crystal, 2002. - 767 p. - 5000 copies. - ISBN 5-306-00155-6.
Pochekaev R. Yu.// Mamai: Experience of a historiographic anthology: Collection scientific papers/ Ed. V. V. Trepavlova, I. M. Mirgaleeva; Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan. Institute of History. Sh. Marjani, Center for Golden Horde Studies. - Kazan: Publishing House "Feng" of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, 2010. - S. 206-238. - 248 p. - (History and culture of the Golden Horde. Issue 13). - 600 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9690-0136-7.(region)

The era of the Battle of Kulikovo

Shennikov A. A.// Deposited in INION. - L., 1981. - No. 7380. - S. 20-22.
Grigoriev A.P.
Petrov A. E..
(unavailable link since 23-12-2015 (1528 days))
Karyshkovsky P. O. Kulikovo battle. - M .: Gospolitizdat, 1955. - 64 p. - 100,000 copies.(region)
Kirpichnikov A. N. Kulikovo battle. - L.: Science. Leningrad. department, 1980. - 120 p. - 10,000 copies.(region)
Zhuravel A.V."AKI LIGHTNING ON THE DAY OF RAIN". In 2 books. - M .: "Russian Panorama", "Russian Historical Society", 2010. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-93165-177-4 (gen.);
- Book 1: Battle of Kulikovo and its trace in history. - 424 p., ill. - ISBN 978-5-93165-178-1 (book 1).
- Book 2: The legacy of Dmitry Donskoy. - 320 p., ill. - ISBN 978-5-93165-179-8 (book 2).

Unity period

Uluses

An excerpt characterizing Mamai

But the princess, if she did not thank him more with words, thanked him with the whole expression of her face, beaming with gratitude and tenderness. She couldn't believe him, that she had nothing to thank him for. On the contrary, for her it was undoubtedly that if he were not there, then she probably would have to die from both the rebels and the French; that he, in order to save her, exposed himself to the most obvious and terrible dangers; and even more undoubted was the fact that he was a man with a lofty and noble soul, who knew how to understand her position and grief. His kind and honest eyes, with tears coming out of them, while she herself, crying, spoke to him about her loss, did not go out of her imagination.
When she said goodbye to him and was left alone, Princess Mary suddenly felt tears in her eyes, and then, not for the first time, she asked herself a strange question: does she love him?
On the way further to Moscow, despite the fact that the situation of the princess was not joyful, Dunyasha, who was traveling with her in a carriage, noticed more than once that the princess, leaning out of the window of the carriage, smiled joyfully and sadly at something.
“Well, what if I did love him? thought Princess Mary.
No matter how ashamed she was to admit to herself that she was the first to love a man who, perhaps, would never love her, she consoled herself with the thought that no one would ever know this and that it would not be her fault if for the rest of her life, no one talking about loving the one she loved for the first and last time.
Sometimes she remembered his views, his participation, his words, and it seemed to her that happiness was not impossible. And then Dunyasha noticed that she, smiling, was looking out the window of the carriage.
“And he should have come to Bogucharovo, and at that very moment! thought Princess Mary. - And it was necessary for his sister to refuse Prince Andrei! - And in all this, Princess Mary saw the will of providence.
The impression made on Rostov by Princess Marya was very pleasant. When he thought about her, he felt merry, and when his comrades, having learned about the adventure that had happened with him in Bogucharov, joked to him that he, having gone for hay, had picked up one of the richest brides in Russia, Rostov became angry. He was angry precisely because the idea of marrying a pleasant for him, meek Princess Marya with a huge fortune more than once came to his mind against his will. For himself, Nikolai could not wish for a better wife than Princess Mary: marrying her would make the Countess, his mother, happy, and improve his father’s affairs; and even—Nikolai felt it—would have made Princess Marya happy. But Sonya? And this word? And this made Rostov angry when they joked about Princess Bolkonskaya.

Having taken command of the armies, Kutuzov remembered Prince Andrei and sent him an order to arrive at the main apartment.
Prince Andrei arrived in Tsarevo Zaimishche on the same day and at the same time of the day when Kutuzov made the first review of the troops. Prince Andrei stopped in the village near the priest's house, at which the commander-in-chief's carriage was stationed, and sat down on a bench at the gate, waiting for the Serene Highness, as everyone now called Kutuzov. On the field outside the village, one could hear the sounds of regimental music, then the roar of a huge number of voices shouting “Hurrah! to the new commander-in-chief. Immediately at the gate, about ten paces from Prince Andrei, taking advantage of the absence of the prince and the fine weather, stood two batmen, a courier and a butler. Blackish, overgrown with mustaches and sideburns, a little hussar lieutenant colonel rode up to the gate and, looking at Prince Andrei, asked: is the brightest here and will he be soon?
Prince Andrei said that he did not belong to the headquarters of his Serene Highness and was also a visitor. The hussar lieutenant colonel turned to the well-dressed batman, and the batman of the commander-in-chief said to him with that special contempt with which the batmen of the commanders-in-chief speak to the officers:
- What, brightest? It must be now. You that?
The hussar lieutenant colonel grinned into his mustache at the orderly, got off the horse, gave it to the messenger and went up to Bolkonsky, bowing slightly to him. Bolkonsky stood aside on the bench. The hussar lieutenant-colonel sat down beside him.
Are you also waiting for the commander-in-chief? said the hussar lieutenant colonel. - Govog "yat, accessible to everyone, thank God. Otherwise, trouble with sausages! Nedag" om Yeg "molov in the Germans pg" settled down. Tepeg "maybe and g" Russian talk "it will be possible. Otherwise, Cheg" does not know what they were doing. Everyone retreated, everyone retreated. Did you do the hike? - he asked.
- I had the pleasure, - answered Prince Andrei, - not only to participate in the retreat, but also to lose in this retreat everything that he had dear, not to mention the estates and home... a father who died of grief. I am from Smolensk.
- And? .. Are you Prince Bolkonsky? It’s very cool to meet you: Lieutenant Colonel Denisov, better known by the name of Vaska, Denisov said, shaking Prince Andrei’s hand and peering into Bolkonsky’s face with especially kind attention. Yes, I heard, ”he said sympathetically and, after a pause, continued : - Here is the Scythian war. This is all hog "osho, but not for those who puff with their sides. And you are Prince Andg "she Bolkonsky?" He shook his head. "Very hell, prince, very hell to meet you," he added again with a sad smile, shaking his hand.
Prince Andrei knew Denisov from Natasha's stories about her first fiancé. This recollection both sweetly and painfully carried him now to those painful sensations that he had not thought about for a long time, but which nevertheless were in his soul. Recently, there have been so many other and such serious impressions as leaving Smolensk, his arrival in the Bald Mountains, recently known about the death of his father - so many sensations were experienced by him that these memories had not come to him for a long time and, when they did, had no effect on him. him with the same strength. And for Denisov, the series of memories that Bolkonsky’s name evoked was the distant, poetic past, when, after dinner and Natasha’s singing, without knowing how, he proposed to a fifteen-year-old girl. He smiled at the memories of that time and his love for Natasha, and immediately turned to what passionately and exclusively now occupied him. This was the campaign plan he had come up with while serving in the outposts during the retreat. He presented this plan to Barclay de Tolly and now intended to present it to Kutuzov. The plan was based on the fact that the French line of operations was too long and that instead of, or at the same time, acting from the front, blocking the way for the French, it was necessary to act on their messages. He began to explain his plan to Prince Andrei.
“They can't hold this whole line. This is impossible, I answer that pg "og" vu them; give me five hundred people, I g "azog" vu them, this is veg "but! One system is pag" tizanskaya.
Denisov stood up and, making gestures, outlined his plan to Bolkonsky. In the middle of his exposition, the cries of the army, more incoherent, more widespread and merging with music and songs, were heard at the place of the review. There was a clatter and screams in the village.
“He’s on his way,” shouted the Cossack, who was standing at the gate, “he’s on his way!” Bolkonsky and Denisov moved up to the gate, at which a handful of soldiers (guard of honor) stood, and saw Kutuzov advancing along Kutuzov Street, riding a short bay horse. A huge retinue of generals rode behind him. Barclay rode almost alongside; a crowd of officers ran after them and around them and shouted "Hurrah!".
Adjutants galloped ahead of him into the yard. Kutuzov, impatiently pushing his horse, which was ambling under his weight, and constantly nodding his head, put his hand to the misfortune of the cavalry guard (with a red band and without a visor) cap that was on him. Having approached the guard of honor of the young grenadiers, mostly cavaliers, who saluted him, for a minute he silently, carefully looked at them with a commanding stubborn look and turned to the crowd of generals and officers standing around him. His face suddenly took on a subtle expression; he shrugged his shoulders with a gesture of bewilderment.
- And with such good fellows, everything retreats and retreats! - he said. “Well, goodbye, general,” he added, and touched the horse through the gate past Prince Andrei and Denisov.
- Hooray! hooray! hooray! shouted from behind him.
Since Prince Andrei had not seen him, Kutuzov had grown fat, flabby and swollen with fat. But the familiar white eye, and the wound, and the expression of weariness in his face and figure were the same. He was dressed in a uniform frock coat (a whip on a thin belt hung over his shoulder) and in a white cavalry guard cap. He, heavily blurring and swaying, sat on his cheerful horse.
“Fu… fu… fu…” he whistled almost audibly as he drove into the yard. His face expressed the joy of reassuring a man who intends to rest after the representation. He took his left leg out of the stirrup, falling down with his whole body and grimacing from the effort, with difficulty brought it onto the saddle, leaned on his knee, grunted and went down on his hands to the Cossacks and adjutants who supported him.
He recovered, looked around with his narrowed eyes, and looking at Prince Andrei, apparently not recognizing him, walked with his diving gait to the porch.
“Fu… fu… fu,” he whistled and looked back at Prince Andrei. The impression of Prince Andrei's face only after a few seconds (as is often the case with old people) was associated with the memory of his personality.
“Ah, hello, prince, hello, my dear, let’s go ...” he said wearily, looking around, and heavily entered the porch, creaking under his weight. He unbuttoned and sat down on a bench on the porch.
- Well, what about the father?
“Yesterday I received news of his death,” said Prince Andrei shortly.
Kutuzov scared open eyes looked at Prince Andrei, then took off his cap and crossed himself: “God rest his soul! May the will of God be over all of us! He sighed heavily, with all his chest, and was silent. “I loved and respected him and I sympathize with you with all my heart.” He embraced Prince Andrei, pressed him to his fat chest and did not let go for a long time. When he released him, Prince Andrei saw that Kutuzov's swollen lips were trembling and there were tears in his eyes. He sighed and grabbed the bench with both hands to stand up.
“Come, come to me, we’ll talk,” he said; but at this time Denisov, as little shy before his superiors as before the enemy, despite the fact that the adjutants at the porch stopped him in an angry whisper, boldly, banging his spurs on the steps, entered the porch. Kutuzov, leaving his hands resting on the bench, looked displeasedly at Denisov. Denisov, having identified himself, announced that he had to inform his lordship of a matter of great importance for the good of the fatherland. Kutuzov began to look at Denisov with a tired look and with an annoyed gesture, taking his hands and folding them on his stomach, he repeated: “For the good of the fatherland? Well, what is it? Speak." Denisov blushed like a girl (it was so strange to see the color on that mustachioed, old and drunken face), and boldly began to outline his plan for cutting the enemy's line of operations between Smolensk and Vyazma. Denisov lived in these parts and knew the area well. His plan seemed undoubtedly good, especially in terms of the force of conviction that was in his words. Kutuzov looked at his feet and occasionally looked back at the yard of a neighboring hut, as if he was expecting something unpleasant from there. Indeed, during Denisov's speech, a general appeared from the hut he was looking at with a briefcase under his arm.
- What? - in the middle of Denisov's presentation, Kutuzov said. - Ready?
“Ready, your grace,” the general said. Kutuzov shook his head, as if to say: "How can one person do all this," and continued to listen to Denisov.
“I give you an honest noble word from a Hussian officer,” said Denisov, “that I am g“ azog ”wu of Napoleon’s messages.
- You Kirill Andreevich Denisov, Chief Quartermaster, how do you have to? Kutuzov interrupted him.
- Uncle g "one, your grace.
- ABOUT! there were friends, ”said Kutuzov cheerfully. - All right, all right, my dear, stay here at the headquarters, we'll talk tomorrow. - Nodding his head to Denisov, he turned away and held out his hand to the papers that Konovnitsyn brought him.
“Would your lordship please come into the rooms,” the general on duty said in a displeased voice, “it is necessary to review the plans and sign some papers. - The adjutant who came out of the door reported that everything was ready in the apartment. But Kutuzov, apparently, wanted to enter the rooms already free. He winced...

His name entered everyday culture at the level of sayings: "how Mamai passed." One of the most famous pages of history is connected with it - the Battle of Kulikovo. He played secret political games with Lithuanians and Genoese. Beklyarbek of the Golden Horde Khan Mamai.

Origin

Khan Mamai became the prototype of the famous character of Ukrainian folk culture - the Cossack knight (knight) Mamai. Modern Ukrainian reformist historians even seriously write about the Ukrainian origin of the khan, and esotericists call the Cossack-Mamai "the cosmogonic personification of the Ukrainian people as a whole." For the first time in the everyday culture of the common people, it appeared rather late, in the middle of the 18th century, but it became so popular that it hung in every house next to the icons.

Mamai was half Polovtsian - Kipchak, half - Mongol. By father, he is a descendant of Khan Hakopa from the Kiyan clan, and by mother, from the clan of the Golden Horde temnik Mamai. Then it was a common name, meaning in Turkic Mohammed. He successfully married the daughter of the ruler of the Sarai - Khan Berdibek, who had previously killed his father and all the brothers, the Great Zamyatnya began in the Horde - a long period of civil strife. Berdibek himself was also killed, and the direct line of the Batuid dynasty on the main throne of the Horde was interrupted. Then the eastern descendants of Jochi began to lay claim to Sarai. Under these conditions, Mamai captured the western part of the Horde and installed khans there - indirect heirs of the Batuid clan. He himself could not rule without being Genghisides. And here a big policy with the participation of Mamai unfolded.

“The talented and energetic temnik Mamai came from the Kiyan clan, hostile to Temujin and who lost the war in Mongolia back in the 12th century. Mamai revived the Black Sea power of the Polovtsians and Alans, and Tokhtamysh, heading the ancestors of the Kazakhs, continued the Dzhuchiev ulus. Mamai and Tokhtamysh were enemies." Lev Gumilyov.

Mamai vs Tokhtamysh

Tokhtamysh was an adherent of the old Horde order, striving to unite the splitting horde. In addition, he was a Chingizid and had uncontested rights to Sarai, as opposed to Mamai. Tokhtamysh's father was killed by the ruler of the White Horde, Urus Khan, but after the death of the latter, the nobility there refused to obey his descendants and called Tokhtamysh. internal war Tokhtamysh lost, but escaped after a decisive battle, having swum across the wounded Syr Darya - into the possessions of Tamerlane. He said: "You, apparently, are a courageous person; go, return your khanate to yourself, and you will be my friend and ally." Tokhtamysh took the White Horde, received the Blue Horde - by right of inheritance, and moved on Mamai. Now everything depended on alliances formed in the West.

big politics

Because the Golden Horde weakened in strife, the Lithuanians began to strengthen in the territories formerly controlled by the Mongols. Kyiv became practically Lithuanian, Chernihiv and Severskaya were under the influence of Lithuania. Prince Olgerd was a militant anti-Orthodox, while the majority of the population in the expanded Lithuania was already Russian, and Moscow used this against the Lithuanians. However, other Russian princes, on the contrary, used Lithuania against Moscow - first of all, Suzdal and Novgorod. There was also a division according to Western politics in the Horde.

Mamai bet on Lithuania, and Tokhtamysh on Moscow. Mamai led a pro-Western line, because he needed money to fight Tokhtamysh. The Crimean Genoese promised to help with money in exchange for concessions for the extraction of furs in the north of Rus'. Mamai tried for a long time to persuade Moscow to fulfill the conditions of the Genoese in exchange for a label and other privileges. Both the Muscovites accepted. Metropolitan Alexy, who ruled de facto when Dmitry was a child, used Mamai to elevate, both legally and de facto, the Principality of Moscow. But in the end, Moscow turned its back on Mamai, and the so-called “great peace” took place. Not without the influence of Sergius of Radonezh, who said that there could be no business with the Latins (Genoese and Latins).

From the “Word on the Life and Repose of the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich, Tsar of Russia”: “Mamai, instigated by crafty advisers who adhered to the Christian faith, and themselves did the deeds of the wicked, said to his princes and nobles: “I will seize the Russian land, and destroy the Christian churches … Where there were churches, I’ll put murmurs here.”

Before the Battle of Kulikovo

Interesting events took place before the Battle of Kulikovo. Since Mamai hoped to conclude an alliance either with Moscow, and then with other principalities against Moscow, he often sent embassies to Rus'. To Ryazan, Tver, Moscow itself, etc. These embassies were often mistreated. This happened in Nizhny Novgorod (then under the reign of the Suzdalians), where the Suzdal Bishop Dionysius was sitting. He raised the townspeople against the Tatar embassy. As Lev Gumilyov writes, “all the Tatars were killed in the most cruel way: they were stripped naked, released onto the ice of the Volga and poisoned by dogs.” Mamai overtook the drunken Suzdal troops on the Pyana River and cut them, repeating the same thing a little later in Nizhny. On adrenaline, Mamai decided to continue moving towards Moscow, but the troops of Mamaisky Murza Begich were defeated on the Vozha River. After that, the main open clash between Mamai and Moscow became inevitable.

One of the prominent representatives of the Mongolian military aristocracy, a talented and energetic military leader and politician in the Golden Horde.

The name Mamai is an ancient Turkic version of the name Muhammad, was widespread during the time of the Kazan Khanate. For the Georgian holy Catholicos of the same name, see Art. Mamai Georgian

On the paternal side, he was a descendant of the Kipchak Khan Akopa, descended from the Kiyan clan, on the maternal side, from the Golden Horde temnik Murza Mamai. He rose under the Golden Horde Khan Berdibek (1357–1361), marrying his daughter. Not belonging to the clan of Genghis Khan, he could not be a khan himself. But, taking advantage of the internecine struggle for the khanate in the Golden Horde, after the death of Khan Berdibek, in the middle of the XIV century, in the fight against Tokhtamysh, he subjugated most of the Golden Horde western territory, that is, the land from the Don to the Danube, made his way to power with poison and dagger. By the end of the 1370s, he became the de facto ruler of the Golden Horde, ruling it through dummy khans (Russian chronicles called them "Mamaev tsars"). Under him, several khans were replaced, who obeyed him in everything: Abdul, Mohammed-Sultan, Tyulyubek, and others, after which he himself proclaimed khan.

Inciting feudal strife between the Russian princes, who fought among themselves for a label for a great reign, counteracting the strengthening of the strongest of the lands subject to him in Rus' - Moscow, Mamai consistently supported her opponents. He made the main bet on Tver, and also - for tactical reasons - and on Ryazan. At the same time, for the sake of warning, he repeatedly broke into the territory of the Ryazan principality (which served as a buffer between Moscow Russia and the Horde), devastating it. Mamai's orientation towards the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was accompanied by his hostile attitude towards Muscovite Rus'.

In an effort to revive the power of the Golden Horde, he undertook a number of campaigns in Russian lands. In Mamai, he burned Nizhny Novgorod, which by that time was under the patronage of Moscow, and at the same time sent a detachment of Murza Begich to collect the missing taxes from the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich. As the chronicle tells, Mamai wanted to restore power over Russia, wishing "to be like under Batu".

During the conduct of hostilities, Mamai used such factors as surprise, swiftness, attack by large masses of cavalry in open areas. Often maneuvered on the battlefield in order to dismember the enemy or bypass his flanks and go to the rear, followed by encirclement and destruction; at the same time, he showed excessive self-confidence, due to success in battles with weaker opponents.

In the summer, he gathered a large army, which included not only the Tatars, but also the Circassians, Yases, and Chechens conquered by him. However, on September 8, 1380, the Battle of Kulikovo took place in which Mamai was defeated and fled from the battlefield with a small detachment of Tatars to Kafu (Feodosia). The chronicler reported: "... the filthy Mamai ran with four men into the bend of the sea, gnashing his teeth, crying bitterly ..."- this is how the Legend of the Mamaev Battle told about it. In the Crimea, he was met by Tamerlane's henchman, Khan Tokhtamysh, to whom Mamai was to cede power over the Golden Horde. Mamai wanted to hide with his treasures and a few adherents in Kaffa, but here he was treacherously killed.

Literature

Nasonov A. N., Mongols and Rus', M.-L., 1940.
Grekov B. D., Yakubovsky A. Yu., Golden Horde and its fall, M.-L., 1950.
Egorov V. A., Historical geography of the Golden Horde in the XII-XIV centuries., M., 1985.
Rus' under the yoke: how it was, M., 1991.

Used materials

Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron.
"MAMAI," Dictionary of personal names:

A brave commander, a capable administrator, a skilled politician, a talented diplomat - all this can be safely said about the temnik of the Golden Horde Mamai. In fact, he owned most of the Golden Horde territory, where the descendants of the Polovtsy, Alans, Yases, Kasogs, and Crimeans lived. His loyal allies were Lithuanians and Genoese. It is no secret that Mamai was a pro-Western, but this did not prevent him from taking a great part in the selection of the next khan from the Genghisides, and at his own discretion to rule the state through nominal rulers.

He himself never attempted to take the throne, respecting the exclusive prerogative of the descendants of the great Khagan Genghis Khan. But, despite this, he was still connected with the great kagan by common roots, namely, the ancient family of Kiyat.

The woman is the head of the tribe

Unfortunately, the year, place and time of the birth of the great Mongol are still controversial and blurred. For example, judging by the surviving data, Mamai's homeland was somewhere between the Black Sea coast of Crimea and the Dnieper. From here he began his ascent up the steps of the military ladder, and here he fled after the defeat in 1380. Somewhere in the Black Sea region or in the Cafe itself, he found his last refuge, and was later killed, leaving toponymic names in the memory of the people in the southern lands - the Mamaika River, the Mamaika settlement (near modern Evpatoria, now the outskirts of the city), Mamaev Kurgan and numerous Turkic surnames. But the year of birth remains unknown. One can only assume that perhaps he was born between the 30s and 40s of the XIV century. The first mention in the annals of this man dates back to 1361, when, at the request of the Moscow boyars and Metropolitan Alexy, he helped the young Moscow prince Dmitry, (in the future Donskoy) to take the throne of Vladimir. Then Dmitry was only eleven years old. Consequently, Mamai was much older than the prince, already had influence in the Horde and had military power.

There is also some interesting information about his religion. Of course, he was a devout Muslim, but according to a number of researchers, according to his religious and social views, Mamai belonged to the order of the Ismailis, one of the sects of the Shiite current of Islam.

And if the sources speak with doubt about the place of his birth and say absolutely nothing, about the date of his birth and the first years of his life, then all as one say that Mamai came from a noble Mongolian family of Kiyat. Old family was famous for many worthy sons and descendants. Genghis Khan himself was from the Kiyat-Borjigin clan. It is possible that Genghis Khan and his descendants were not connected with Mamai by ties of kinship, but their origin was from one ancestor - a venerable lady, whose name was Alan-Goa.

Translated from the Mongolian Alan-Goy means spotted doe. Little is known about this woman today. It is believed that she lived at the turn of the 10th-11th centuries, was the wife of a certain Dobun-Mergen, from whom she had two sons, and when she was widowed, she gave birth to three more sons and went down in history as the progenitor of the Mongolian ethnic group.

Explaining their birth, Alan-Goa claimed that she gave birth to them from a fair-haired young man who came to her at midnight through the smoke hole of the yurt and left at dawn, like a “yellow dog”. Conception allegedly occurred from the light that emanated from him and penetrated into the womb of the widow. According to her, the mysterious visitor was the god Tengri himself. Of course, it is difficult to believe a woman who claims such a phenomenon, and the Mongols of the 10th century themselves were skeptical about the story of Alan-Goa. But apparently, she enjoyed great influence and was able to convince, since they took her story on faith, and sacredly considered these three sons "marked with the seal of heavenly origin."
The clan of Genghis Khan, as well as the clan of Mamai, descended from the youngest son of Alan-Goa - Bodonchar (Bochkin-Chalchi). True, there are some assumptions that the true father of Bodonchar was Ma-alikh Bayaudets, a Turk, the only man, except for the sons of Alan-Goa, who lived in her house. According to the anonymous manuscript "Altan Tobchi", the son of Alan-Goa, Bodonchar, was born in 970. He was distinguished by red hair and light eyes, passing these character traits to their descendants. Many Mongolian families built their genealogy to Bodonchar, such as Duglat, Barulas, Urut, Mangut, Taydzhiut, Chonos, Kiyat and others. Under the grandchildren of Bodonchar, the process of ethnos formation began. There were more and more Mongolian clans, and their numbers also grew. There was a division into new tribal groups, the names of leaders began to stand out. One of these was Kaidu, the great-grandson of Bodonchar. Over time, the leaders began to be called kagans (khans). The founder of the clan Kiyat Khabul (c. 1100 - 1148), a representative of the eighth generation, a descendant of Alan-Goa and the god Tengri, became the first supreme ruler - khan. He reigned in 30-40 years of the XII century. With him, the process of formation of the Mongolian ethnogenesis ended, and began Mongolian history. Khabul had seven sons, who gave the world Genghis Khan, whose father, the grandson of Khabul Yesugei-bagatur, became the founder of the Kiyat-Borjigin clan, and Mamaia, whose family lineage descended from the eldest sons of Khabul.
Emir of the Black Sea

Over the centuries, the relationship between the Genghisides and the Kiyats has significantly moved away, but the emirs from the Kiyat clan still remained privileged and respected in the Horde. They married daughters from the khan's dynasty, stood at the head of a powerful army and controlled the remote uluses of the Golden Horde empire.

Emir was no exception. Mamai Kiyat. He married the daughter of Muhammad Berdibek, the twelfth Khan of the Golden Horde (1357-1359), whose dowry brought him the governorship of the Crimea and the entire Northern Black Sea region. Mamai proved to be a good administrator and an excellent strategist, for this, a few years later, the khan appoints him to the high position of beklarbek - one of the two main positions in the administration of the Golden Horde, whose functions included leading the army, managing foreign affairs and the supreme court. Emir Mamai very quickly won sympathy among the local population of the Crimea and the Black Sea region, made friends with the nearest neighbors, Lithuanians and Genoese. Thanks to his talent as a diplomat, he ensured that the Crimean ulus-yurt became an organized state, relying on local natives. Mamai's headquarters itself was located in the city of Orda in the lower reaches of the Dnieper (on the territory of the modern Kakhovka reservoir).
In 1359, Khan Berdibek was killed by Chingizid Kulpa, who took the throne of the Horde. Mamai, who was subordinate to the army, took advantage of the situation and declared war on him. From that moment on, Mamai's power increased even more, now, having removed Kulpa, he himself began to choose candidates for the place of the kagan, and in August 1361 he proclaimed his first protege Abdullah khan. Naturally, other Chingizid applicants were dissatisfied with the choice of the all-powerful emir and refused to recognize the authority of the new khan. The "Great Jail" began in the Horde. For eleven years, Mamai had to fight with varying success against nine khans of the Golden Horde. And only by 1366 he managed to put under his control the western part of the Horde (from the Crimea to the right bank of the Volga).

Emir Mamai Kiyat was defeated in a clash on the Kulikovo field with a vassal, or, as it is commonly called, an ally of Khan Tokhtamysh, Dmitry Donskoy, to whom he himself issued a label for reigning. It just so happened that Dmitry took the side of Tokhtamysh, recognizing the next Chingizid Khan of the Great Horde (see the article “The fiasco of Mamai and the Triumph of Tokhtamysh”, Avdet 2008 No. ...). He went to the Crimea, but did not lose hope for revenge until an accident changed all his plans. In 1380, returning to his native steppes after the battle, Mamai unexpectedly met on the banks of the Kalka River with his old enemy, Tokhtamysh. For the latter, this meeting was also a surprise. The fight was inevitable. And at the time when both Mamai and Tokhtamysh were about to give their soldiers a command to fight, something unexpected happened. Mamai's warriors dismounted and swore allegiance to the legitimate khan, Chingizid Tokhtamysh. They did not capture and betray their leader, which would be a betrayal, they allowed him to leave for the Crimea.

The son of Mamai Mansur, a Chingizid on the maternal side, went to Lithuania, was received there and lived on the southern outskirts, without losing touch with the Steppe and with his relatives. According to legend, under the village of Glina, Mansur saved the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt from death, for which he received the title of Prince Glinsky. From him came the dynasty of the Glinsky princes, who played one of the important roles in the history of the Moscow principality, and the Crimean murzas Mansura and many others descend from him.
As for the most omnipotent emir, according to some sources, he was killed by allies - the Genoese, dissatisfied with the outcome of the battle.

Mamai Kiyat was buried in Sheikh-Mamai (now the village of Aivazovskoye, Kirovsky district of Crimea), near Kafa. His grave, or rather a mound, was found by the artist I. Aivazovsky, who was engaged in archeology in the southern Crimea.

Origin

Mamai was half Polovtsian - Kipchak, half - Mongol. On his father, he is a descendant of Khan Hakopa from the Kiyat clan, and on his mother, from the clan of the Golden Horde temnik Mamai. Then it was a common name, meaning in Turkic Mohammed. He successfully married the daughter of the ruler of the Sarai - Khan Berdibek, who had previously killed his father and all the brothers, the Great Zamyatnya began in the Horde - a long period of civil strife. Berdibek himself was also killed, and the direct line of the Batuid dynasty on the main throne of the Horde was interrupted. Then the eastern descendants of Jochi began to lay claim to Sarai. Under these conditions, Mamai captured the western part of the Horde and installed khans there - indirect heirs of the Batuid clan. He himself could not rule without being Genghisides. And here a big policy with the participation of Mamai unfolded.

“The talented and energetic temnik Mamai came from the Kiyat clan, hostile to Temujin and who lost the war in Mongolia back in the 12th century. Mamai revived the Black Sea power of the Polovtsians and Alans, and Tokhtamysh, heading the ancestors of the Kazakhs, continued the Dzhuchiev ulus. Mamai and Tokhtamysh were enemies." Lev Gumilyov.

Mamai vs Tokhtamysh

Tokhtamysh was an adherent of the old Horde order, striving to unite the splitting horde. In addition, he was a Chingizid and had uncontested rights to Sarai, as opposed to Mamai. Tokhtamysh's father was killed by the ruler of the White Horde, Urus Khan, but after the death of the latter, the nobility there refused to obey his descendants and called Tokhtamysh. Tokhtamysh lost the internal war, but escaped after a decisive battle, swimming across the wounded Syrdarya to the possessions of Tamerlane. He said: "You, apparently, are a courageous person; go, return your khanate to yourself, and you will be my friend and ally." Tokhtamysh took the White Horde, received the Blue Horde - by right of inheritance, and moved on Mamai. Now everything depended on alliances formed in the West.

big politics

Since the Golden Horde weakened in strife, the Lithuanians began to strengthen in the territories formerly controlled by the Mongols. Kyiv became practically Lithuanian, Chernihiv and Severskaya were under the influence of Lithuania. Prince Olgerd was a militant anti-Orthodox, while the majority of the population in the expanded Lithuania was already Russian, and Moscow used this against the Lithuanians. However, other Russian princes, on the contrary, used Lithuania against Moscow - first of all, Suzdal and Novgorod. There was also a division according to Western politics in the Horde.

Before the Battle of Kulikovo

The princes of Glinsky called themselves descendants of Mamai. According to their family legend, the descendants of Mamai served in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and supposedly the Glinskys descended from Mamai's son Mansur Kiyatovich. If so, then Mamai was the ancestor of Ivan IV the Terrible by his mother, Elena Glinskaya.

Doom

In the Battle of Kulikovo, about which we have written a lot, Mamai lost not only the army, but also legitimacy: the infant Khan Mohammed, who ruled de jure in Saray, was killed. Thus, Tokhtamysh almost did not have to fight in order to finish off the remnants of Mamai's army on the Kalka River - people themselves went over to a more legitimate ruler. Mamai went to the Genoese in Kafa (present-day Feodosia), but it is clear that they were no longer interested in him. There he was killed. Whether by the Genoese, or Tokhtamysh's scouts: this is not so important, since his fate was sealed, and his time was over.

Origin

Fight against Tokhtamysh

Death

Descendants of Mamai

see also

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Origin

Mamai vs Tokhtamysh

big politics

Before the Battle of Kulikovo

Literature

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Origin

Mamai vs Tokhtamysh

big politics

Before the Battle of Kulikovo

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