mongol expansion & eurasian commercial axes 45
at the same time as he resolved the problem of Jochid “colonisation” of
the scythian steppe, Batu Khan regularised the relations of his ulus with
the neighbouring powers. once the tartars withdrew from europe back
into the steppe, the russian knyazï hastily recognised the hegemony of
the golden horde, which from its very foundation was the largest power
in eastern europe. Batu’s achievement, realised gradually over the course
of his life, was mainly organisational: he perfected the system of govern-
ment that controlled and drew revenue from this vassal group, the largest
and most important subject population that the golden horde was ever
to have, and his system was so well conceived that it functioned with-
out reform or innovation for almost a century and a half.33 For the same
period, a good part of the carpathian and Balkan region was also subject
to the Volga khanate.34
the settlement of the ulus of Jochi in the cuman steppe was an excel-
lent fit for the needs and abilities of an essentially nomad state. however,
one fundamental flaw marked this great power’s fate from beginning to
end: that it did not lie directly across the silk road.
the first khan of the golden horde to face this problem was Batu him-
self, known in his day as a great patron and protector of merchants. here
is the description penned by his contemporary, the persian Jūzjānī: “he
[= Batu] was uncommonly just and more than usually fond of the Mus-
lims; the Muslims had freedom to live and trade in his dominions. there
were mosques for the believers in his camp and in the camps of his tribe,
with imam and muezzin. after his reign, and even during his lifetime,
the Muslim countries never suffered attack by his order, neither from
those who obeyed him nor from his armies.”35^ another persian source of
the same period, Juwaynī, emphasised Batu’s role as a promoter of trade:
rigorously organised transhumance, overseen by a central authority. the steppe-dwellers
who roamed across these pastures, most of them cumans, were divided up into military
units in a decimal system, probably led at first by the 4,000 Mongol soldiers assigned by
chinggis Khan to Jochi (grousset, Empire, p. 319).
33 For more detail, cf. grekov, Yakubovskiy, Orda, pp. 218 ff.
34 rubruck (wyngaert, Sinica Franciscana, i, pp. 167–168); the Franciscan’s claims are
confirmed by a letter of 11th november 1250 from Béla iV of hungary to pope innocent
iV: “we have resisted becoming their [= the tartars’] subjects, while all the other peoples
against whom they have bent their strength have become their subjects, and the realms
to the east of our kingdom, such as ruscia [russia], cumania, the Brodniks, Bulgaria,
most of which were subject to our reign before this” (DIR, C, i, p. 345); cf. sacerdoţeanu,
Invazie, pp. 70–73, sacerdoţeanu, Guillaume de Roubruck, pp. 147–152, papacostea, Româ-
nii, pp. 136–144.
35 tiesenhausen, Sbornik, ii p. 15; grekov, Yakubovskiy, Orda, p. 62, note that “in the
current instance, ‘Muslims’ must be understood as Muslim merchants.” Batu’s attitude is