250 chapter four
on this front and rewarded him with the rank of commander over several
tümens.426
It is hardly likely that Berke was the khan who posted him to the Dan-
ube, since sources mention Noghai at Berke’s side until the khan’s death
on campaign in the caucasus (again) in January 1267.427
although sources reveal little of the emir’s activities before 1267, it is
certain that he became a key figure in carrying out the policies of the
court at Sarai that set tartar-Byzantine relations during Möngke temür’s
reign.428
Noghai took one further decisive step in consolidating his political power
under the next khan, töde Möngke: several independent sources confirm
one another in reporting that power in the Golden horde was shared.
at least in its outward manifestations, the duumvirate was harmonious,
proven by the two rulers’ joint proposal to the Great Khan Qubilai that he
convene a qurultai. however well-balanced this power-sharing agreement,
however, it was the exception in a state with a pronouncedly centralist
doctrine, and could not last long: töde Möngke, probably uneasy with the
company he was keeping, turned his back on worldly power in favour of
spiritual exercises among Muslim mystics, and abdicated in 1287.429
During the time of his nephew and successor töle Bugha, the balance
of power shifted rapidly, and massively, in the established direction, so
much so that the appearance of joint rule could no longer be preserved.
Serious cracks were already beginning to show in 1285/6, when the emir
and prince töle Bugha led tartar campaigns first to transylvania and
then to poland,430 and these were merely the warning signs of more deci-
sive ruptures later. töle Bugha was forced to share power from the very
426 tiesenhausen, Sbornik, I, pp. 74–78 (Baybars), 130–133 (al-Nuwayrī), 481–482 (al-‛aynī,
who implausibly claims that he was “included in the ranks of the khans”); certainly his
deeds at arms here made him the pre-eminent military commander in the cuman steppe,
as pachymeres/Bekker, I, p. 180, remarks, while rashīd al-Dīn/tiesenhausen, Sbornik, II,
p. 69, says that he was chief of staff for Batu and Berke, and that the former entrusted him
with keeping order in the ulus; elsewhere, rashīd al-Dīn/Boyle, p. 160, says that he com-
manded the right wing of the Jochid army; cf. also rashīd al-Dīn/Quatremère, pp. 398–399,
d’ohsson, Histoire, III, pp. 379, 418–419, Veselovskiy, Khan, pp. 5–6, 10–14, Vernadsky, Mon-
gols, p. 164, Brătianu, Recherches, p. 260, while for the first military clashes between the
two ulus, see chapter 3.1, pp. 67 ff.
427 See preceding note, and Spuler, Horde, p. 51.
428 cf. Veselovsky, Khan, pp. 22–23, pavlov, “B”lgariya,” passim.
429 the explanation is suggested by Spuler, Horde, pp. 69–70.
430 cf. Veselovskiy, Khan, pp. 30–38, Spuler, Horde, pp. 66–67, Spinei, Moldova, pp. 170–
171, papacostea, Românii, pp. 123 ff., 161.