220 chapter four
Berdibek presided over the transition from one epoch to the other,
and his Black Sea policy was consistent with such a reign: he was the last
khan who tried to pursue the long-established goals. harking back to the
privileges issued by Özbek and Janibek to emphasise the continuity of
their friendship, on 24th September 1358 Berdibek renewed the grant of
tana to the Venetians under the same conditions as found in the docu-
ment his father had issued.301 two days later the new governor in Solkhat,
Qutlugh temür,302 also undertook to open crimean harbours: Venetian
merchants could trade in the ports of Soldaia, provato and calitra.303 cus-
toms duties were levied at 3% here, as opposed to 5% at tana, showing
that the Jochids wished to stimulate Venetian trade in an area dominated
by Genoese caffa.
the resulting influx of capital into the treasury at Sarai was meant to
consolidate the tottering state, but could not save the central government
or state cohesion: the forces which held all parts of the empire together
in a functioning whole had begun to slacken shortly after Janibek took
the throne, and the process of disintegration was far too advanced for
Berdibek to be able to halt the collapse of the Golden horde with his
attempted economic remedy.
Beginning in 1360–1361, the chaos of civil war engulfed the steppe tar-
tars for almost two decades. characteristic for this stage in the ulus of
Jochi’s collapse is the succession of numerous khans who were recogn-
ised in larger or smaller territories: for the twenty years from 1360 to 1380,
chronicles and numismatic evidence attest no fewer than twenty-five
such rulers, none with any great political profile.304
When Khïzïr was enthroned at Sarai in 1361, this was unprecedented
in Golden horde dynastic history: he was a prince of the White horde,
and came after a long line of khans who had all come from one fam-
ily, from Batu onward. More important than the genealogical aspect was
the underlying reality that Khïzïr marked the beginning of White horde
dominance over the Blue horde, when former eastern vassals prevailed
301 DVL, II, pp. 47–51.
302 probably the son of toghluq temür, who had preceded ramazan [= Zayn al-Dīn
ramaḍān] in the post (heyd, Histoire, II, p. 202).
303 DVL, II, pp. 51–52; like provato, calitra is between caffa and Soldaia (heyd, Histoire,
II, pp. 202–203).
304 Grekov, Yakubovskiy, Orda, p. 271.