the golden horde and the black sea 223
did the Genoese visit the port at the mouth of the Don during this period,
completely exposed as it was to events on the steppe.314
the Genoese had struck deep roots on the Northern Black Sea coast
and withstood the troubles of the times far better than their Venetian
rivals. they did not cease to extend and reinforce the walls of caffa during
the latter fourteenth century,315 and sheltered by these walls, they tried to
win the goodwill of the “emperors” of the day and, of course, of Mamai,
who visited the city in october 1374 where he was received with splendid
pomp. a few months later, the Genoese sent him gifts of rich clothing, and
the consul gave envoys sent out to the horde similar gifts to deliver.316
the caffan authorities’ diplomatic charm offensive met a definite
setback at a crucial nexus of tartar-Genoese relations, since it did not
prevent Mamai from taking Soldaia back by force.317 Setting aside this
incident, and other factors which complicated the relationship, it is pos-
sible that shared commercial interests led the tartars and Genoese to an
arrangement, tacit as always. unfortunately any such understanding could
only have been of limited geographical reach, and politically shaky—an
expression of the erosion of Jochid power, no longer able to guarantee the
needs of long-range commerce.
the decline of the Golden horde was remarked far and wide318 and
could not have escaped the attention of the tartars’ closest and most
numerous vassals, who up until now had also been the most obedient: the
russians. Jochid weakness was to waken the latent tendencies for emanci-
pation, and these joined together in a very dangerous grouping of forces.
During the last years of Mamai and the early reign of toqtamïsh, who suc-
ceeded in 1380, this was the most important and most problematic issue.
It would decisively worsen both the internal developments in the tartar
state and its foreign policy, the latter including Black Sea policy.
the Grand prince of Moscow, Dmitriy Ivanovich (1362–1389), was the
moving spirit of unification among the russian knyazates and of the anti-
Mongol insurgency, two developments which converged and became
314 Balard, Romanie, I, p. 155.
315 cf. ibid., pp. 207–214.
316 Ibid., p. 457 and Iorga, Notes, I, pp. 32–33.
317 Balard, Romanie, I, p. 457 note 4, loses sight of the Genoese garrison that he had
registered at Soldaia in 1376 (on p. 159) and contradicts himself when he wrongly dates the
Jochid reconquest: “L’événement est sans doute antérieur à 1374–1375, puisqu’alors Mamaï
est bien accueilli par les autorités de caffa.”
318 among other accounts, see the conclusive diagnosis offered by the Byzantine Dem-
etrios Kydones in 1366 (Jireček, Geschichte, I, 428).