the golden horde and the black sea 163
the settlement began almost anonymously, but by the end of the thir-
teenth century it was known overseas as a town of the “Genoese franks”
and the Mongols discovered to their chagrin that its fortifications held
firm. the settlement and development of the town probably proceeded
in gradual, discrete phases.81
the 1290s were thus an eventful decade, and its course indicates how
important the Black Sea trade was both for the Italian naval powers and
for rival Mongol rulers. regardless of the actual outcomes of the land and
sea battles, they were focused on the common goal of caffa. toqta could
certainly not remain indifferent to the fate of the town which had risked
its existence for his sake in defying Noghai.
4.2.3 Toqta: Cooperation and Rupture
Genoese cooperation with Noghai was thus forged and quenched in the
bloody confrontations in the ulus of Jochi, and on the Black Sea, at the end
of the thirteenth century.82 With the khan victorious, the Genoese seemed
assured of more success in the future when toqta became sole ruler of
the steppe Mongols in the first year of the following century. Numerous
Genoese merchants travelled as far as Sarai, the heart of the ulus, and
probably even beyond the Volga, assured of good prospects.
there was nothing in this atmosphere of mutual understanding to indi-
cate that the days of goodwill were numbered. the victims had no inkling
of the shattering blow which toqta was about to deal them: when his
order to arrest merchants and confiscate their goods was carried out, they
81 the notary Lamberto di Sambuceto’s registers contain twenty acts of sale relating
to buildings and property in caffa in 1289–1290; Balard’s conclusion on examining these
is certainly important, though it is hard to say exactly what it tells us about local govern-
ment: “on peut enfin remarquer qu’un seul acte de vente fait mention des droits éventuels
du khan mongol sur les terrains ou les immeubles de caffa, alors qu’à péra, les contrats de
vente réservent les droits du basileus” (Sambuceto/Balard, p. 57); the document in ques-
tion was signed on 11th august 1290, and concerns a plot of land outside the walls (positam
in territorio de Caffa, extra licias dicti loci de Caffa), and the seller pledges to the buyer:
promitto tibi legittime deffendere et expedire in iudicio et extra, a quacumque persona col-
legio et universitate, excepto ab imperatore et comune Janue (ibid., pp. 372–373, Brătianu,
Actes, p. 40).
82 Brătianu, Recherches, pp. 256, 261, 271, 282–283, remarks that the naval war between
Genoa and Venice for control of the Black Sea trade tied into the internal warfare in the
Mongol state; the Serenissima allied itself with Noghai, while the Genoese stayed loyal
to toqta, the rival. they paid dearly for this loyalty when Noghai, after his first victory
over the khan of Sarai, entered crimea and destroyed caffa along with the other towns.
this narrative is however based far more on “the logic of events” that on incontrovertible
documentary evidence.