202 chapter four
of the polity’s irreversible decline.238 the scourge of the plague introduced
a new, acute haemorrhage into the horde, calling for radical steps to safe-
guard its human resources.
With the political aim of the alliance against the Ilkhanate and the eco-
nomic component of the slave trade both gone, Jochid relations with the
Mamluks lost any relevance. During the fifteen years of Janibek’s reign
only two embassies were sent to cairo: the first in 1342/3 to announce
his enthronement, and the second in 1357 to announce the conquest of
tabriz.239 they were merely protocol visits.240
By abandoning the Sarai-cairo axis, Janibek had put an end to one of
the most important Golden horde political projects, which Berke Khan
had embarked upon almost a century before. this fundamental shift in
Jochid-Mamluk relations would obviously have repercussions for Jochid
Black Sea policy, and strong ones at that: here too, Janibek had broken
with the past. the difference between the khan’s rule and his father’s was
nowhere more obvious than in their Genoese and Venetian policy.
Janibek’s first step, in 1342, was to reconfirm Özbek’s grant of a decade
earlier to the Venetians at tana,241 and the son seemed to be following
in his father’s footsteps here. Nevertheless, a year later Janibek departed
drastically from the judicious Italian policies of the latter half of his father’s
reign, designed to curb and exploit the profitable Venetian- Genoese
rivalry.
according to contemporary sources, the last straw that broke the cam-
el’s back and saw the khan’s patience run out was one of the numerous
scuffles that broke out in tana,242 in this instance started by a Venetian
and leading to the death of a Mongol. Determined to uproot the evil
238 cf. Safargaliev, Raspad, pp. 107–108, Zakirov, Otnosheniya, p. 91.
239 tiesenhausen, Sbornik, I, pp. 255 (‘the Life of the Sultan al-Malik an-Nāṣirʼ), 427
(al-Maqrīzī), 498 (al-‛aynī).
240 Spuler, Horde, p. 100: “es waren reine höflichkeitsakte ohne praktischen Wert.”
Zakirov, Otnosheniya, p. 90, says the same and adds that the drop-off in diplomatic visits
was due to the persian situation, where Spuler (ibid.) mistakenly sees the cause in otto-
man domination of the Straits, which would not be the case for a century: “Die osmani-
schen türken hatten große teile anatoliens erobert und griffen um 1354 nach Gallipoli
über, um sich von dort aus auf dem Balkan auszubreiten. Dadurch wurde dem Qypcaq
der Weg durch die Meerengen abgeschnitten, seine Beziehungen zu Byzanz und Bulgar-
ien verloren fast ganz ihre Bedeutung. Was die absperrung vom Mittelmeer bedeutete,
braucht kaum gesagt zu werden: der Weg nach Ägypten und damit die Verbindung zur
großen politik an den Gestaden des Mittelmeeren war fast unterbrochen.”
241 DVL, I, pp. 261–263; cf. heyd, Histoire, II, 186, Skržinskaja, Storia, p. 10.
242 See the exchange of letters between the doges of Genoa and Venice on the subject
(DVL, I, pp. 259–260).