This paper offers a reexamination of the role of Nogai (c.1237–1300) in the Golden Horde. Commonly portrayed as an almighty khanmaker appointing the Jochid khans at will, I argue that this is a creation of the secondary literature. Instead, based on a rereading of the relevant primary sources, I argue for a far more limited role of Nogai within the Horde’s politics. While influential as both a military commander (first as beylerbeyi and then tammachi) and as the elder member of the Jochid lineage (aqa), Nogai’s power over the Horde was never as great as the scholarship has consistently portrayed.
The Annals of Jan Długosz: Annales seu chronicle incliti regni Poloniae. [Trans. Maurice Michael] Charlton, UK: IM Publications, 1997.
Ibn Arabshah, Ahmed. Tamerlane: or Timur, the Great Amir. [Trans. J. H. Sanders] London: Luzac & CO., 1936.
The Chronicle of Novgorod 1016–1471. [Trans. Robert Michell and Nevill Forbes] London: Camden Society, 1914.
Chronicles of Qalāwūn and his son al-Ashraf Khalīl. Translated by David Cook. Routledge: London, 2020.
Georges Pachymérès. Relations historiques. [Ed. Albert Failler, trans. by Vitalien Laurent] 5 volumes. Paris, 1984–2000.
The Hypatian Codex II: The Galician-Volynian Chronicle. [Trans. George A. Perfecky] Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1973.
The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Möngke, 1253–1255. [Trans. Peter Jackson] Ed. Peter Jackson and David Morgan. London: The Hakluyt Society, 1990.
The Nikonian Chronicle: From the Year 1241 to the Year 1381. Vol. 3. [Trans. Serge A. Zenkovsky and Betty Jean Zenkovsky] Princeton, NJ: The Kingston Press, 1986a.
The Nikonian Chronicle: From the Year 1382 to the Year 1425. Vol. 4. [Trans. by Serge A. Zenkovsky and Betty Jean Zenkovsky] Princeton, NJ: The Kingston Press, 1986b.
Ötemish Hajji [Утемин-хаджи] 2017. Кара таварих. [Перевод Ильнура Миргалеева] Казань: Институт истории им. Ш.Марджани.
Polo, Marco 1938. The Description of the World. [Trans. and ed. A.C. Moule and Paul Pelliot] London: George Routledge & Sons Limited.
Polo, Marco 1903. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East. [Trans. Henry Yule] Third Edition. Vol. 2. London: John Murray.
Rashīd al-Dīn 1971. The Successors of Genghis Khan. [Trans. John Andrew Boyle] New York: Columbia University Press.
Rashiduddin 1998. Jami’ u’t-tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles: A History of the Mongols. [Trans. W. M. Thackston] Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
Tiesenhausen, Vladimir [Тизенгаузен, Влади́мир] (ред.) 2005 (1884). Сборник Материалов, относя-щихся к истории золотой орды. Vol. 1. Алматы: Дайк-Пресс.
Allsen, Thomas T. 1981. ‘Mongol Census Taking in Rus’, 1245-1275.’ Harvard Ukrainian Studies 5/1: 32–53.
Amitai-Preiss, Reuven 1995. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Īlkhānid War, 1260-1281. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Amitai, Reuven 2000. ‘al-Nuwayrī as a Historian of the Mongols.’ In: Hugh Kennedy (ed.) The Historiography of Islamic Egypt: (c.950-1800). Brill: Leiden, 23–36.
Atwood, Christopher P. 2004. Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire. New York: Facts on File Inc.
Atwood, Christopher P. 2010. ‘Titles, Appanages, Marriages and Officials: A Comparison of Political Forms in the Zünghar and Thirteenth century Mongol Empires.’ In: David Sneath and Christopher Kaplonski (eds.) The History of Mongolia. Vol. II. Part 3. Yuan and Late Medieval Period. Kent, UK: Global Oriental, 610–634.
Atwood, Christopher P. 2020. ‘Rashīd al-Dīn’s Ghazanid Chronicle and Its Mongolian Sources.’ In: Timothy May, Dashdondog Bayarsaikhan and Christopher P. Atwood (eds.) New Approaches to Ilkhanid History. Boston: Brill, 53–121.
Bayarsaikhan, Dashdondog 2011. The Mongols and the Armenians (1220-1335). Boston: Brill.
Berend, Nora 2001. At the Gate of Christendom: Jews, Muslims and ‘Pagans’ in Medieval Hungary, c.1000-c.1300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Biran, Michal 2002. ‘The Chaghadaids and Islam: The Conversion of Tarmashirin Khan (1331-34).’ Journal of the American Oriental Society 122/4: 742–752.
Boyle, John Andrew 1968. ‘Dynastic and Political History of the Īl-Khāns.’ In: John Andrew Boyle (ed.) The Cambridge History of Iran. Volume 5. The Saljuq and Mongol Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 303–421.
Broadbridge, Anne F. 2008. Kingship and Ideology in the Islamic and Mongol Worlds. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Broadbridge, Anne F. 2018. Woman and the Making of the Mongol Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Broadbridge, Anne F. 2019. ‘Careers in Diplomacy among Mamluks and Mongols, 658–741/1260–1341.’ In: Frédéric Bauden and Malika Dekkiche (eds.) Mamluk Cairo, A Crossroads for Embassies: Studies on Diplomacy and Diplomatics. Boston: Brill, 263–301.
Buell, Paul D. 2003. Historical Dictionary of the Mongol World Empire. Oxford: The Scarecrow Press.
Cabrera Ramos, Maria Isabel 2017. ‘Maria Paleologina and the Il-Khanate of Persia. A Byzantine Princess in an Empire between Islam and Christendom.’ Imago Temporis. Medium Aevum 11: 217–231.
Ciocîltan, Virgil 2012. The Mongols and the Black Sea Trade in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. [Trans. by Samuel Willcocks] Leiden: Brill.
Cleaves, Francis Woodman 1962–1963. ‘Aqa Minu.’ Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 24: 64–81.
Curta, Florin 2019. Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300). Boston: Brill.
DeWeese, Devin 1994. Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde: Baba Tükles and Conversion to Islam in Historical and Epic Tradition. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Favereau, Marie 2021. The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World. London: Belknap Press.
Halperin, Charles J. 2009. The Tatar Yoke: The Image of the Mongols in Medieval Russia. [2nd ed.] Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers.
Halperin, Charles J. 2020. ‘On Recent Studies of Rus’ Relations with the Tatars of the Jochid Ulus.’ Golden Horde Review 8/1: 32–50.
Hautala, Roman [Хаутала, Роман] 2016. ‘От ьату до джанибека: военные конфликты укуса джучи с Польшей и венгрией (2)*.’ Золотоордынское Обозрение / Golden Horde Review 4/3: 485–528.
Hautala, Roman 2017. ‘The Confrontation Between the Ulus of Jochi and the Catholic Europe from the Mid-13th to the Mid-14th Centuries.’ In: Rafael Khakimov and Marie Favereau (eds.) The Golden Horde in World History: A Multi-Authored Monograph. Kazan: Sh. Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, 364–375.
Howorth, Henry H. 1888. History of the Mongols: From the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century. Part 2. The So-Called Tartars of Russia and Central Asia. London: Longmans, Green, & Co.
Jackson, Peter 2017. The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Jackson, Peter 2018. Mongols and the West: 1221-1410. [2nd ed.] New York: Routledge.
Kamola, Stefan 2019. ‘Untangling the Chaghadaids: why we should and should not trust Rashīd al-Dīn.’ Central Asiatic Journal 62/1: 69–90.
Kovács, Szilvia 2016. ‘The Franciscans and Yaylaq Khatun.’ Acta Orientalia Vilnensia 13: 45–49.
Lippard, Bruce G. 1983. ‘The Mongols and Byzantium, 1243-1341.’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University.)
Madgearu, Alexandru 2018. ‘The Mongol Domination and the Detachment of the Romanians of Wallachia from the Domination of the Hungarian Kingdom.’ De Medio Aevo 12: 217–238.
May, Timothy 2016. ‘Mongol Conquest Strategy in the Middle East.’ In: Bruno De Nicola and Charles Melville (eds.) The Mongols’ Middle East: Continuity and Transformation in Ilkhanid Iran. Leiden: Brill, 13–37.
May, Timothy 2017. ‘Nogai (d.1299).’ In: Timothy May (ed.) The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia. Vol. I. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 24–25.
May, Timothy 2018a. The Mongol Empire. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
May, Timothy 2018b. ‘Race to the Throne: Thoughts on Ariq-Boke’s and Khubilai’s claims to the Mongol Throne.’ In: George Bulavschi and Dan Aparashivei (eds.) Studia Mediaevalia Europaea et Orientalia: Miscellanea in Honorem Professories Emeriti Victor Spinei Oblata. Bucharest: Publishing House of the Romanian Academy, 343–358.
Mirgaleyev, Ilnur 2017. ‘The Time of Troubles in the 1360s and 1370s.’ In: Rafael Khakimov and Marie Favereau (eds.) The Golden Horde in World History: A Multi-Authored Monograph. Kazan: Sh. Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, 689–693.
D’Ohsson, Abraham 1834–1835. Histoire des Mongols depuis Tchinguis-Khan jusqu’à Timour ou Tamerlan. Vol. 5. The Hague-Amsterdam: Les Frères Van Cleef.
Pelliot, Paul 1963. Notes on Marco Polo. Vol. 2. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
Pfeiffer, Judith 2006. ‘Aḥmad Tegüder’s Second Letter to Qalā’ūn (682/1283).’ In: Judith Pfeiffer, Sholeh A. Quinn and Ernest Tucker (eds.) History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East: Studies in Honour of John E. Woods. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 167–202.
Pochekaev, Roman 2017. ‘First Rulers of the Ulus of Jochi.’ In: Rafael Khakimov and Marie Favereau (eds.) The Golden Horde in World History: A Multi-Authored Monograph. Kazan: Sh. Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, 220–238.
Porsin, Artem [Порсин, Артем] 2015. ‘Источник информации Рукн ад-Дина Бейбарса в освещении им междоусобной войны в Золотой Орде в конце XIII–начале xiv веков.’ Золотоордынское Обозрение / Golden Horde Review 4: 29–43.
Pow, Stephen 2019. ‘Hungary’s Castle Defense Strategy in the Aftermath of the Mongol Invasion (1241-1242).’ Fortifications, Defence Systems, Structures and Features in the Past 13: 239–250.
Pow, Stephen and Jingjing Liao 2018. ‘Subutai: Sorting Fact from Fiction Surrounding the Mongol Empire’s Greatest General (with Translations of Subutai’s Two Biographies in the Yuan Shi).’ Journal of Chinese Military History 7: 37–76.
Reva, Roman [Рева, Роман] 2014. ‘Распределение власти в Улусе Джучи в 686–690 / 1287–1291 гг.’ Нумизматика Золотой Орды 4: 134–147.
Richards, D.S. 2000. ‘A Mamluk Amir’s Mamluk History: Baybars al-Mansuri’s Zubdat al-Fikra.’ In: Hugh Kennedy (ed.) The Historiography of Islamic Egypt: (c.950-1800). Leiden: Brill, 37–44.
Rykin, Paul 2011. ‘The System of Kinship and Affinity Terms in Middle Mongolian.’ Acta Orientalia Hung. 64/1: 25–47.
Saunders, John J. 1971. The History of the Mongol Conquests. New York: Barnes & Noble.
Spuler, Bertold 1965. Die Goldene Horde: Die Mongolen in Rußland, 1223-1502. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Stánicá, Aurel-Daniel 2018. ‘The “Golden Hoard” Ceramics in Dobruja (13th-14th centuries).’ Peuce (Serie Nouă)-Studii şi cercetari de istorie şi arheologie 16: 251–280.
Szőcs, Tibor 2010. ‘Egy második ‘tatárjárás’? A tatár-magyar kapcsolatok a XIII. század második felében [The Second Mongol Invasion? Mongol-Hungarian relations in the second half of the thirteenth century].’ Belvedere Meridionale 22: 16–49.
Tanase, Thomas 2004–2005. ‘Le ‘Khan’ Nogaï et la géopolitique de la mer Noire en 1287 à travers un document missionnaire: la Lettre de Ladislas, Custode de Gazarie.’ Annuario dell’Istituto romeno di cultura e ricerca umanistica di Venezia 6-7: 267–303.
Trepavlov, Vadim 2017. ‘The Formation of the Ulus of Jochi.’ In: Rafael Khakimov and Marie Favereau (eds.) The Golden Horde in World History: A Multi-Authored Monograph. Kazan: Sh. Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, 134–143.
Uzelac, Alexander 2011. ‘Tatars and Serbs at the End of the Thirteenth Century.’ Revista de istorie Militară 5-6: 9–20.
Uzelac, Alexander [Узелац, Александар] 2013. ‘Почеци Ногајеве власти у западној степи на доњем Дунаву (c. 1267-1273).’ Историјски часопис 62: 11–34.
Uzelac, Alexander [Узелац, Александар] 2015. Под сенком Пса - Татари и јужнословенске земље у другој половини XIII века. Београд: Утопија.
Uzelac, Alexander 2016. ‘The Port of Maurocastro, Emperor Theodore Svetoslav and the Tatar Elite in the Pontic Steppes.’ The Historical Review 65: 45–59.
Uzelac, Alexander 2017a. ‘Echoes of the Conflict between Tohkta and Nogai in the Christian World.’ Золотоордынское Обозрение / Golden Horde Review 5/3: 509–521.
Uzelac, Alexander 2017b. ‘The Golden Horde and the Balkans (13th-14th Centuries).’ In: Rafael Khakimov and Marie Favereau (eds.) The Golden Horde in World History: A Multi-Authored Monograph. Kazan: Sh. Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, 376–393.
Uzelac, Alexander 2018. ‘An Empire within an Empire? Ethnic and Religious Realities in the Lands of Nogai (c.1270–1300).’ Chronica: Annual of the Institute of History 18: 271–283.
Vásáry, István 2005. Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vásáry, István 2007. ‘“History and legend” in Berke Khan’s Conversion to Islam.’ In: Turks, Tatars and Russians in the 13th-16th Centuries. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 230–252.
Vásáry, István 2009. ‘The Jochid Realm: The Western Steppe and Eastern Europe.’ In: Nicola Di Cosmo, Allen J. Frank and Peter B. Golden (eds.) The Cambridge History of Inner Asia: The Chinggisid Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 67–85.
Vernadsky, George 1953. The Mongols and Russia. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Veselovskij, Nikolaj Ivanovich [Веселовский, Hиколай Иванович] 1922. Хань изь Tемниковь Золотой Oрды Hогай и eго Bремя. Петроград: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к.
Wilson, Jack R. 2022. ‘Nogai the Khanmaker: A Historiographical Problem.’ Golden Horde Review 10/2: 332–343.