the golden horde and the black sea 247
another unexpected but favourable circumstance helped to restore
relations between Sarai and cairo: at the beginning of 1265, hülegü died,
considerably reducing Ilkhanid ability to pressure Byzantium. abaqa
faced difficult problems in taking over power, among them Berke’s oppor-
tunistic attack through the caucasus, and he accepted the Byzantine bride
who had been intended for his father, one of many signs that he accepted
Michael VIII’s offer to broker a general peace.417
thus about three years after war had broken out between Berke and
hülegü over transcaucasia,418 the conflict between the two chinggisid
powers spread to include the Straits, which briefly became a flashpoint.
the chain reaction among all those chagrined by Byzantine defection was
however concerted enough to bring Michael VIII back into line with the
allies he had deserted.
Berke formed the Golden horde’s policy in asia Minor, taken up and
continued by his successors, who enjoyed no more success than he had
done. ‛Izz al-Dīn arrived in the horde in 1265 with the tartar army which
had rescued him from Byzantine captivity, and received the rich crimean
towns of Soldaia and Solkhat as his appanage.419 a Seljukid chronicler
recorded the grant with a shrewd appreciation of the reason for the hon-
our shown to the ex-sultan and his suite, namely the hope that they would
be restored “to their old position and homeland.”420 It was an empty hope,
just like the expectations pinned on Mas‛ūd, one of ‛Izz al-Dīn’s sons.
he took the throne in Konya after his father’s death in 1287, and was at
last in a position to effect the long-awaited political shift in asia Minor,
but brought Sarai nothing but further disappointment: although he had
been raised in the Golden horde with the idea of ‘restoring’ his sultanate,
Mas‛ūd showed not the least sign of bringing the Seljuk state out from
Ilkhanid vassalage.421
the khans’ capacity to influence the course of events in anatolia was
limited by their inability to project military force into the region from
the Volga, across the sea. an awareness of this limitation comes through
clearly in the letter which Berke sent to Baybars in 1263 asking him to sup-
port ‛Izz al-Dīn, since the egyptian ally was in a position to send troops
417 Baybars however categorically refused the offer (cf. canard, “un traité,” p. 219).
418 See chapter 3.1.
419 Decei, “problema,” pp. 172, 180, 185.
420 Ibid., p. 173.
421 Ibid., p. 186, Spuler, Horde, p. 62.
