the golden horde and the black sea 221
over the ruling ulus on the Volga.305 this inversion of power relations was
taken to its logical conclusion once Khan toqtamïsh took power in 1380,
and its profound importance was felt throughout Jochid lands: the new
order between the hordes lasted until the end of the Mongol state on the
cuman steppe. this dominance of the periphery over the centre may also
be called part of the disastrous legacy of Janibek and Berdibek.
When the usurpers were enthroned in Sarai-Berke on the left bank of
the Volga, this provoked a loyalist reaction around the emir Mamai, the
most prominent figure in this turbulent period. he governed ably and
energetically, in the name of the khan avdula (abdullah) until 1370, and
then in the name of Bulaq.306 these two camps, the Blue horde and the
White, each had their own internal disputes,307 and the line between
them was fixed at the Volga, with Sarai and astrakhan changing hands
between rulers several times.308
forced to abandon the whole of the eastern half of the ulus to their kin-
folk, Mamai’s tartars to the West of the Volga and on the crimea had lost
a great part of the power base which had so far allowed them to impose
their rule on their Northern neighbours, the russians and Lithuanians.
While details varied from case to case, the underlying factors determining
the new relations in 1360–1380 were the same, namely a shifting balance
of power: while centralised rule was breaking down in the horde, in the
neighbouring states it was coalescing, more quickly in Lithuania, more
slowly in the russian world which was still subject to the ‘Mongol yoke.’
telling evidence for the state of tartar-Lithuanian and tartar-russian
relations during the civil wars of the horde is furnished by the Lithuanian
victory at Sinie Vodï in 1362 or 1363 and the russian victory at Kulikovo
in 1380.
although the details of the Battle of Blue Waters (Sinie Vodï) are uncer-
tain, chronicles of the event agree on one undisputed fact: the army of
algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, met no more than modest resistance
on the battlefield from a few local brigades commanded by three tar-
tar princes—clear proof of how far the disintegration of the horde had
305 on the distinction between the Blue horde and the White horde, Kök Orda
and Aq Orda, cf. Grekov, Yakubovskiy, Orda, pp. 261–262, and fedorov-Davïdov, Stroy,
pp. 143–150.
306 cf. Grekov, Yakubovskiy, Orda, pp. 279, 283.
307 cf. the attempts of Spuler, Horde, pp. 112–124, to use numismatic evidence to recon-
struct the holdings of the various khans and pretenders.
308 Grekov, Yakubovskiy, Orda, p. 280.