Why did the Turks of the Golden Horde start calling themselves Tatars?
Screex Regardless of their original origins and the ethnic roots of their ruling clan, the Tatars in the early 13th century were a Mongol tribe. They lived in the eastern part…
The first since Genghis Khan
No matter what they say, but the Genghisids are a great dynasty, because its founder Genghis Khan managed to turn an amorphous something from a bunch of Mongolian tribes into…
Command and army in the Golden Horde
The basis of the military system in the Ulus Dzhuchi was a hierarchically organized system of Tatar clans' possessions. Its characteristic feature was the intertwining of military and administrative system.…
“The Nogai Massacre”
In 1547, the warlike Crimean Khan Sahib-Girey took Astrakhan and, “having defeated the Astrakhan Khan Yamgurji, scattered his subjects, and the men and women who had escaped death, with all…
Timur ibn Taragai Barlas: 12 little-known facts about the greatest military leader in world history
Who was this undoubtedly talented organizer and the greatest military leader in world history? In Asia he is considered a genius, in Europe - an ogre. Perhaps, only Genghis Khan,…
Who are the Kalmyks? The history of the ethnonym
How do the Kalmyks differ from the Dzungars, Oirats, and Torguts? And how do the Kalmyks differ from their relatives, the Torguts, Dzungars, and Oirats? Some would say that they…
Steppe Lords: The Dzungar Perspective on the Centuries-Long War with the Kazakhs
Western Campaign: Why the Sons of Choros Needed the Steppes of Desht-i-Kipchak The lands stretching west of the Tarbagatai and Altai mountain ranges always attracted the Oirat leaders. It was…
Batu’s Iron Fist: The Daily Life of a Warrior of the Great Steppe
Morning in the felt world: rituals and duties The sun had not yet had time to scorch the withered grass, and the camp-smoke was already buzzing like a disturbed beehive.…
Batu — the eldest of the Chingizids
Batu and Guyuk In December 1241, Khan Ugedei died. All power was concentrated in the hands of his wife and regent Doregene (Turakin in Russian sources). Doregene wanted to transfer…
Sholoy-Setsen Khan
At the beginning of the 17th century, the Manchus set out to conquer eastern Mongolia, a prospect that the Mongols themselves viewed in different ways: some resigned themselves to fate,…