the golden horde and the black sea 253
to follow them as they fled and to leave the wounded in peace. he took
booty, prisoners and [his enemy’s] baggage train and returned home.”439
the same author provides this description of the second battle: “In
the year 699 [= 28th September 1299–15th September 1300], toqta again
thought to make war against Noghai. It happened that some of Noghai’s
emirs, in whom he placed great trust, crossed to toqta’s party. thanks
to these 30,000 cavalry, [the khan’s] courage grew. When toqta was pre-
paring the expedition, the news reached Noghai, who also prepared for
war. [.. .] they met at Kukan L.k and began to fight. Noghai was defeated
at sunset. his sons and his army fled, but he—seated on his horse with
his eyebrows covering his eyes, for he was an old man—was caught by a
russian from toqta’s army, who wanted to kill him. he revealed his iden-
tity and said: ‘I am Noghai, take me to toqta. I must speak to him.ʼ the
russian paid no attention to his words, killed him and brought his head
to toqta, saying: ‘take this, it is the head of Noghai.ʼ [the khan] asked
him: ‘Who told you that this is Noghai?ʼ [the russian] told him what
had happened, which saddened toqta. he ordered that Noghai’s killer be
executed, and said: ‘under the law, his life must be taken, because those
of his class should not dare to kill such great men.ʼ after that, toqta went
back to his home.”440
thus, seen from the perspective of relations with the central authority,
Noghai’s career revealed the fatal contradictions of his course. although
at its peak his power incontestably eclipsed that of the legitimate leaders
of the ulus—proof being that he was the kingmaker, or khanmaker, in the
1290s—the principle of legitimacy was too deeply rooted in Mongol minds
to be violated, which prevented him from fitting the form of his rule to
its practical content: even on the eve of the decisive battles with toqta,
he did not dare declare himself khan of the whole Golden horde. his
attempts to impose himself on the Volga khan as a ‘father’ show Noghai
seeking a solution which was in fact more suited to his interests in the
439 tiesenhausen, Sbornik, I, pp. 137–138.
440 Ibid., p. 138; variations include Baybars (ibid., p. 91) who adds a raid on the crimea
(p. 89; see chapter 3.2.2) and al-Maqrīzī (p. 423); the site of the battle, Kukan L.k, cannot
be further identified; Vernadsky, Mongols, p. 188, proposes the river Kagamlyk, which flows
into the Dnieper in the province of poltava; for other opinions, see Spinei, Moldova, p. 171,
or on both battles Veselovskiy, Khan, pp. 46 ff., Brătianu, Recherches, pp. 282 ff., Spuler,
Horde, pp. 74–77, Grekov, Yakubovskiy, Orda, p. 116 (mentioning the great number of pris-
oners which the victors sold into slavery in egypt), paraska, “orda,” pp. 183–184, Decei,
“horde,” pp. 62–63.