the golden horde and the black sea 255
its site is not precisely known, it was certainly somewhere within Noghai’s
domain when it reached the height of its development.449
thanks to its economic and military strength, this Mongol polity was
able not just to play a determining role in Golden horde internal politics,
but to develop its own foreign policy. this policy’s reach, in turn, was
decisive for Danubian influence on internal Jochid matters, which grew
constantly right up until the moment the khanate collapsed.
friendly relations with sultan Baybars, established in 1270/1, offer fur-
ther proof of Danubian foreign relations and influence: Noghai assured the
sultan that he was following the true path, meaning the path of Islam, laid
down by his spiritual and political ‘father’ Berke.450 cairo appreciated this
attitude to an unusual degree, seeing it through the lens of the campaign
against the Ilkhanate at a moment when khan Möngke temür’s earlier
impressive grudge against the persian Mongols was flagging somewhat.
from this moment on, Noghai was a constant presence in the Mamluk
sultans’ letters to the Volga khans.451
Noghai’s rise from a tartar general to a significant political figure in his
own right is also attested by his alliance with the imperial dynasty of the
palaiologoi, through marriage to euphrosyne, Michael VIII’s illegitimate
daughter, sometime after 1265, probably in 1271 or 1272.452
the growth in his strength and influence is also reflected in the rus-
sian world, among the knyazï who were the tartars’ most important vas-
sals. although the conflict with töle Bugha is only sporadically evident, by
contrast the rivalry with toqta provoked a veritable political polarisation,
with some of the princes recognising the emir of the Danube as their tsar,
while others acknowledged the khan on the Volga.453
the kingdoms of hungary and poland were geographically well within
Noghai’s range of action, and keenly felt the presence of this dangerous
neighbour. his central european expedition of 1285 demonstrated once
again his outstanding qualities as a military leader, in contrast to prince
töle Bugha.
449 Brătianu, Vicina, pp. 46 ff; for the location and identity of Vicina-Măcin, see ciocîl-
tan, “argumente.”
450 Baybars/tiesenhausen, Sbornik, I, pp. 79–80, Veselovskiy, Khan, p. 22.
451 cf. tiesenhausen, Sbornik, I, p. 67, Spuler, Horde, p. 53, Khowaiter, Baybars, p. 61.
452 Dölger, Regesten, III, p. 57, Nikov, Otnosheniya, pp. 12, 14, ostrogorsky, Geschichte,
pp. 379–380, Spuler, Horde, p. 60.
453 cf. Vernadsky, Mongols, pp. 183–185, who concludes that “the division of the author-
ity in the Golden horde resulted in the formation of two rival groups among the russian
princes;” cf. also Veselovskiy, Khan, p. 27.