162 chapter four
had sent his grandson to bilād Qirim [crimea] to collect tribute due from
the inhabitants. he came to the town of caffa, which belongs to the Geno-
ese franks and is between Istanbul and al-Qirim [= eski Kïrïm, Solkhat],
and demanded the money from the townsmen. they treated him well,
served him food and wine to drink. after he had eaten and drunk, he felt
dizzy. then they attacked him and killed him. News of his death reached
his grandfather Noghai. he sent a great army to Qirim, which plundered
the town and burnt it. [the soldiers] killed a great many [of the towns-
folk] in Qirim and robbed the wares of the Muslim, alan and frankish
merchants. then they plundered Saru Kirmān [= chersonesus], Kirk
(Yeri), Kerch and other towns.”80
Strange though it may seem, this account shows that the Genoese at
caffa emerged unscathed from Noghai’s punitive expedition to crimea,
which they had themselves unleashed by killing aqtaji. only those caught
in Solkhat suffered reprisals. It is hardly likely that the arab chronicler
would list the towns which suffered, and forget to include the very town
which had brought about the disaster. there is another, much more con-
vincing explanation.
We can hardly imagine that, when they killed the grandson, the Genoese
did not consider the possibility that the grandfather would take revenge.
after his recent victories, nothing could prevent Noghai’s vengeance:
toqta was defeated, and had fled beyond the Don, and all crimea was
open to him, as aqtaji’s presence at caffa demonstrated. the all-powerful
emir on the Danube was kingmaker and had recently proclaimed himself
khan; if the leaders in the town chose to provoke him in a way which
could only incur the most extreme reprisals, they must have been relying
on their strong fortifications to resist the attack which would follow. from
all appearances, they were correct.
thus in 1298–1299 the Genoese acted with breathtaking confidence, rely-
ing on the fortress at the edge of the Mongol world to protect them. Such
an act was simply another manifestation of a mindset already attested in
the sources as early as 1269, when the Genoese allowed the Venetians to
trade alongside them in the crimea, but not to go to tana. this condition
could not have been imposed unless the Genoese already had a coastal
stronghold on the peninsula, which can only have been caffa although it
was not named at this point.
80 Baybars/tiesenhausen, Sbornik, I, pp. 88–89.