Golden Horde

The self-designation of the state was Ulugh Ulus or Ulugh Orda (lit. 'Great State'). As the state disintegrated, the definition of the term was narrowed to the rump state that existed in the Volga region known as the Great Horde. After its final disintegration in 1502, the name was adopted by the Crimean Khanate, which considered itself the heir to the Golden Horde.

The name Golden Horde is a partial calque of the Russian term Zolotaya Orda (Золотая Орда), which is itself supposedly a partial calque of the Turkic term Altan Orda (lit. 'Golden Camp' or 'Golden Horde'). In this process, Zolotaya was translated as "Golden", while Orda was transliterated as "Horde". The appellation Golden is said to have been inspired by either the golden color of the tents the Mongols lived in during wartime, by an actual golden tent used by Batu Khan or Özbeg Khan, or by the riches of the khan. The color gold also denoted imperial status, while other colors referred to directions.

The Russians used the term Orda, derived from the word ordo, which the Mongols used to refer to a mobile camp, to denote the seat of the khan. Depending on the time period, the Volga–Ural region has been referred to by various names, including Orda ("Horde"), Zolotaya Orda ("Golden Horde") and Bolshaya Orda ("Great Horde"), in addition to "Jochid Ulus", named after Jochi. The English word horde, in the sense of a large (and often threatening) group, emerged later, metaphorically extended from the reputation of the Mongol hordes.

It was not until the 16th century that Russian chroniclers begin explicitly using the term Zolotaya Orda to refer to this particular successor khanate of the Mongol Empire. The first known use of this term, in 1565, in a Russian chronicle called the History of Kazan, applied it to the ulus of Batu, centered on Sarai. In the earliest Russian chronicles that mention the Golden Horde, the state had no official name; instead, various expressions were used, such as "Tatars". In contemporary Persian, Armenian and Muslim writings, and in the records of the 13th and early 14th centuries such as the Yuanshi and the Jami' al-tawarikh, the khanate was called the Ulus of Jochi ('realm of Jochi' in Mongolian), Dasht-i-Qipchaq (Persian: دشت قپچاق, 'Qipchaq Steppe') or Khanate of the Qipchaq, and Comania or Cumania. Modern historians use the names Golden Horde and Qipchaq or Kipchak Khanate.

The eastern or left wing (or "left hand" in official Mongol-sponsored Persian sources) was referred to as the Blue Horde in Russian chronicles and as the White Horde in Timurid sources (e.g. Zafar-Nameh). Western scholars have tended to follow the Timurid sources' nomenclature and refer to the left wing as the White Horde. However, Ötemish Hajji (fl. 1550), a historian of Khwarazm, referred to the left wing as the Blue Horde, and since he was familiar with the oral traditions of the khanate, it seems likely that the Russian chroniclers were correct, and that the khanate itself referred to its left wing as the Blue Horde. The khanate apparently used the term White Horde to refer to its right wing, which was situated in Batu's home base in Sarai and controlled the ulus. The designations Golden Horde, Blue Horde, and White Horde have not been encountered in the sources of the Mongol period.

Genghis Khan divided the Mongol Empire amongst his four sons as appanages. Jochi (d. 1225) was given the lands (an ulus) around the Irtysh River. As the eldest son, he was given the lands that were farthest away from his father's native land, according to the Mongol custom. However, the territory was not fixed and Jochi died before he could significantly expand it. Batu Khan was designated as his primary heir. Jochi's eldest son Orda founded a separate power in the east (the eastern wing). Both agreed they could not claim each other's territories and that Batu's descendants had precedence over Orda's descendants.

In 1229, at Ögödei's enthronement, the kurultai decided to subdue the Kipchaks and Batu was tasked with military operations in the west, having won Ögödei's favor. In 1235, Batu with the great general Subutai began an invasion westwards, first conquering the Bashkirs' land and then moving on to Volga Bulgaria in 1236. From there, they went on to conquer the Russian principalities, the first to fall being Ryazan in December 1237. The Mongols abandoned their plan to capture Novgorod due to muddy terrain and local resistance. As a result of scorched earth tactics, the Mongols were forced to move southward in the direction of the Dnieper. In the winter of 1240–1241, Kiev was sacked. Batu and Subutai crossed the Dnieper and advanced towards Hungary in March 1241. In the spring of 1241, German, Polish and Hungarian forces were defeated by the Mongols at Legnica and Mohi. In January or February 1242, the Mongols crossed the Danube and advanced into Austria and Dalmatia while pursuing Béla IV of Hungary. However, in March, they halted their advance after learning of Ögödei's death in December 1241. Subutai then ordered all his forces to withdraw. On their way back through Hungary, the Mongols destroyed Pest before proceeding to subjugate Bulgaria.

Relations between Batu and Subutai became increasingly strained. Subutai returned to the Mongol capital Karakorum, while Batu returned to his new residence in the Kipchak Steppe. Batu resented the authority of the Ögödeids and never returned to Mongolia, instead opting to consolidate his horde. It was Orda, not Batu, who led the Jochid delegation to Karakorum and participated in the inauguration of Güyük as the new great khan. Following Güyük's election, both brothers abandoned their claim to the title. Batu's new residence in the lower Volga was strategically located, since the area served as a crossroads for both land and water routes. In addition, its distance from the Dnieper, where the Lithuanians frequently raided, and the Caucasus, where rebellious Alans and Circassians hid in the mountains, made it a safe location. The growing population and increasing number of tents was the result of both trade and the growing pastoral economy.

While the Mongolian language was undoubtedly in general use at the court of Batu, few Mongol texts written in the territory of the Golden Horde have survived, perhaps because of the prevalent general illiteracy. According to Grigor'ev, the yarliq, or decrees of the khans, were written in Mongol, then translated into the Cuman language. The existence of Arabic–Mongol and Persian–Mongol dictionaries dating from the middle of the 14th century and prepared for the use of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate suggests that there was a practical need for such works in the chancelleries handling correspondence with the Golden Horde. It is thus reasonable to conclude that letters received by the Mamluks – if not also written by them – must have been in Mongol.

When the Great Khatun Töregene invited Batu to elect the next Emperor of the Mongol Empire in 1242, he declined to attend the kurultai and instead stayed at the Volga River. Although Batu excused himself by saying he was suffering from old age and illness, it seems that he did not support the election of Güyük Khan. Güyük and Büri, a grandson of Chagatai Khan, had quarreled violently with Batu at a victory banquet during the Mongol occupation of Eastern Europe. He sent his brothers to the kurultai, and the new Khagan of the Mongols was elected in 1246. The Mongols did not conduct any significant military operations in the northwest during Batu's rule, allowing him to develop the system of administration.

All the senior princes of Rus', including Yaroslav II of Vladimir, Daniel of Galicia, and Sviatoslav III of Vladimir, acknowledged Batu's supremacy. Originally Batu ordered Daniel to turn the administration of Galicia over to the Mongols, but Daniel personally visited Batu in 1245 and pledged allegiance to him. After returning from his trip, Daniel was visibly influenced by the Mongols, and equipped his army in the Mongol fashion, his horsemen with Mongol-style cuirasses, and their mounts armoured with shoulder, chest, and head pieces. Michael of Chernigov, who had killed a Mongol envoy in 1240, refused to show obeisance and was executed in 1246.

When Güyük called Batu to pay him homage several times, Batu sent Yaroslav II, Andrey and Alexander Nevsky to Karakorum in Mongolia in 1247. Yaroslav never returned and died in Mongolia. He was probably poisoned by Töregene Khatun, who probably did it to spite Batu and even her own son Güyük, because he did not approve of her regency. At a council in Vladimir, it was decided that Yaroslav's brother Sviatoslav would become grand prince; however, Sviatoslav never went to the khan for confirmation, which caused Mikhail Khorobrit to expel his brother from Vladimir and claim the throne; however, he died in 1248 during a battle with the Lithuanians. Güyük appointed Andrey as the grand prince of Vladimir and Alexander was given the princely title of Kiev. However, when they returned, Andrey went to Vladimir while Alexander went to Novgorod instead. A bishop by the name of Cyril went to Kiev and found it so devastated that he abandoned the place and went further east instead. The princes of Vladimir-Suzdal ultimately became responsible for delivering the Russian tribute to the khan.

In 1248, Güyük demanded Batu come east to meet him, a move that some contemporaries regarded as a pretext for Batu's arrest. In compliance with the order, Batu approached, bringing a large army. When Güyük moved westwards, Tolui's widow and a sister of Batu's stepmother Sorghaghtani warned Batu that the Jochids might be his target. Güyük died on the way, in what is now Xinjiang, at about the age of 42. Although some modern historians believe that he died of natural causes because of deteriorating health, he may have succumbed to the combined effects of alcoholism and gout, or he may have been poisoned. William of Rubruck and a Muslim chronicler state that Batu killed the imperial envoy, and one of his brothers murdered the Great Khan Güyük, but these claims are not completely corroborated by other major sources. Güyük's widow Oghul Qaimish took over as regent, but she was unable to keep the succession within her branch of the family.

With the assistance of Batu, Möngke succeeded as Great Khan in 1251. Utilizing the discovery of a plot designed to remove him, Möngke as the new Great Khan began a purge of his opponents. Estimates of the deaths of aristocrats, officials, and Mongol commanders range from 77 to 300. Batu became the most influential person in the Mongol Empire as his friendship with Möngke ensured the unity of the realm. Batu, Möngke, and other princely lines shared rule over the area from Afghanistan to Turkey. Batu allowed Möngke's census-takers to operate freely in his realm. Local censuses took place in the 1240s, including the areas of Russia and Turkey. In 1251–1259, Möngke conducted the first empire-wide census of the Mongol Empire. North China was completed in 1252, and in 1257, Möngke appointed a chief darughachi for the Volga region with the assistance of counters, known as chislenitsi in Russian sources. They were able to cover Crimea, the Caucasus, the Kipchak steppe, and possibly up to southern Siberia. The Novgorod region in the far northwest was not counted until the winter of 1258–1259. There was an uprising in Novgorod against the Mongol census, but Alexander Nevsky mediated between the Mongols and the city, after which the nobles oversaw tax collection directly.

Möngke now had direct control over the Rurikid princes. However, Andrey II refused to submit to Batu. Batu sent a punitive expedition under Nevruy, who defeated Andrey and forced him to flee to Novgorod, then Pskov, and finally to Sweden. The Mongols overran Vladimir and harshly punished the principality. The Livonian Knights stopped their advance to Novgorod and Pskov. Thanks to his friendship with Sartaq Khan, Batu's son, who was a Christian, Alexander was installed as the grand prince of Vladimir by Batu in 1252.

After Batu died in 1256, his son Sartaq Khan was appointed by Möngke Khan. As soon as he returned from the court of the Great Khan in Mongolia, Sartaq died. The infant Ulaghchi succeeded him under the regency of Boragchin Khatun, Batu's widow. The khatun summoned the Rurikid princes to Sarai to renew their patents. In 1256, Andrey traveled to Sarai to ask for pardon. He was once again reappointed as the grand prince of Vladimir. Ulaghchi soon died after a few months and, according to Arabic sources, Boragchin turned to Hulegu for protection. Batu's younger brother, Berke, accused Boragchin of high treason and had her executed. Berke, who had been converted to Islam, was enthroned as khan of the Golden Horde in 1257 or 1258.

In 1256, Daniel of Galicia openly defied the Mongols and ousted their troops in northern Podolia. In 1257, he repelled Mongol assaults led by the prince Kuremsa on Ponyzia and Volhynia and dispatched an expedition with the aim of taking Kiev. Despite initial successes, in 1259 a Mongol force under Boroldai entered Galicia and Volhynia and offered an ultimatum: Daniel was to destroy his fortifications or Boroldai would assault the towns. Daniel complied and pulled down the city walls. In 1259 Berke launched savage attacks on Lithuania and Poland, and demanded the submission of Béla IV, the Hungarian monarch, and the French king Louis IX in 1259 and 1260. His assault on Prussia in 1259–1260 inflicted heavy losses on the Teutonic Order. The Lithuanians were probably tributary in the 1260s, when reports reached the Curia that they were in league with the Mongols.

In 1261, Berke approved the establishment of a church in Sarai. After the death of Alexander Nevsky in 1263, the Novgorodians negotiated with the grand prince for the right to organize tax collection themselves – a proposal the Mongols accepted, provided that the payments continued. From the 1260s, local nobles began collecting taxes on behalf of the Mongols. To keep Russian nobles on their side, the Mongols allowed them to keep their lands. Berke also moved towards Islamic ruling practices and therefore might have applied the dhimmi system, in which a special tax was applied to non-Muslims.

After Möngke Khan died in 1259, the Toluid Civil War broke out between Kublai Khan and Ariq Böke. While Hulagu Khan of the Ilkhanate supported Kublai, Berke sided with Ariq Böke. There is evidence that Berke minted coins in Ariq Böke's name, but he remained militarily neutral. After the defeat of Ariq Böke in 1264, he freely acceded to Kublai's enthronement. However, some elites of the White Horde joined Ariq Böke's resistance.

Möngke ordered the Jochid and Chagatayid families to join Hulagu's expedition to Iran. Berke's persuasion might have forced his brother Batu to postpone Hulagu's operation, little suspecting that it would result in eliminating the Jochid predominance there for several years. During the reign of Batu or his first two successors, the Golden Horde dispatched a large Jochid delegation to participate in Hulagu's expedition in the Middle East in 1256–1257.

One of the Jochid princes who joined Hulagu's army was accused of witchcraft and sorcery against Hulagu. After receiving permission from Berke, Hulagu executed him. After that two more Jochid princes died suspiciously. According to some Muslim sources, Hulagu refused to share his war booty with Berke in accordance with Genghis Khan's wish. Berke was a devoted Muslim who had had a close relationship with the Abbasid Caliph Al-Musta'sim, who had been killed by Hulagu in 1258. The Jochids believed that Hulagu's state eliminated their presence in the Transcaucasus. Those events increased the anger of Berke and the war between the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate soon broke out in 1262.

The increasing tension between Berke and Hulagu was a warning to the Golden Horde contingents in Hulagu's army to flee. One contingent reached the Kipchak steppe, another traversed Khorasan, and a third body took refuge in Mamluk ruled Syria where they were well received by Sultan Baybars (1260–1277). Hulagu harshly punished the rest of the Golden Horde army in Iran. Berke sought a joint attack with Baybars and forged an alliance with the Mamluks against Hulagu. The Golden Horde dispatched the young prince Nogai to invade the Ilkhanate but Hulagu forced him back in 1262. The Ilkhanid army then crossed the Terek River, capturing an empty Jochid encampment, only to be routed in a surprise attack by Nogai's forces. Many of them were drowned as the ice broke on the frozen Terek River. The outbreak of conflict was made more annoying to Berke by the rebellion of Suzdal at the same time, killing Mongol darughachis and tax-collectors. Berke planned a severe punitive expedition. But after Alexander Nevsky begged Berke not to punish his people, and the cities of Vladimir-Suzdal agreed to pay a large indemnity, Berke relented. Alexander died on his trip back in Gorodets on the Volga. He was well loved by the people and called the "sun of Suzdal".

When the former Seljuk Sultan Kaykaus II was arrested in the Byzantine Empire, his younger brother Kayqubad II appealed to Berke. An Egyptian envoy was also detained there. With the assistance of the Kingdom of Bulgaria (Berke's vassal), Nogai invaded the Empire in 1265. By the next year, the Mongol-Bulgarian army was within reach of Constantinople. Nogai forced Michael VIII Palaiologos to release Kaykaus and pay tribute to the Horde. Berke gave Kaykaus Crimea as an appanage and had him marry a Mongol woman. Hulagu died in February 1265 and Berke followed the next year while on campaign in Tiflis, causing his troops to retreat.

Ariq Böke had earlier placed Chagatai's grandson Alghu as Chagatayid Khan, ruling Central Asia. He took control of Samarkand and Bukhara. When the Muslim elites and the Jochid retainers in Bukhara declared their loyalty to Berke, Alghu smashed the Golden Horde's lands in Khorazm. Alghu insisted Hulagu attack the Golden Horde; he accused Berke of purging his family in 1252. In Bukhara, he and Hulagu slaughtered all the retainers of the Golden Horde and reduced their families into slavery, sparing only the Great Khan Kublai's men. After Berke gave his allegiance to Kublai, Alghu declared war on Berke, seizing Otrar and Khorazm. While the left bank of Khorazm would eventually be retaken, Berke had lost control over Transoxiana. In 1264 Berke marched past Tiflis to fight against Hulagu's successor Abaqa, but he died en route.

Berke left no sons, so Batu's grandson Mengu-Timur was nominated by Kublai and succeeded his uncle Berke. However, Mengu-Timur secretly supported the Ögedeid prince Kaidu against Kublai and the Ilkhanate.

After Öz Beg Khan assumed the throne in 1313, he adopted Islam as the state religion. He built a large mosque in the city of Solkhat in the Crimea in 1314 and proscribed Buddhism and Shamanism among the Mongols in the Golden Horde. By 1315, Öz Beg had successfully Islamicized the Horde and killed Jochid princes and Buddhist lamas who opposed his religious policy. Under the reign of Öz Beg, trade caravans went unmolested and there was general order in the Golden Horde. When Ibn Battuta visited Sarai in 1333, he found it to be a large and beautiful city with vast streets and fine markets where six "nations" – Mongols, Alans, Kypchaks, Circassians, Russians and Greeks – each had their own quarters. Merchants had a special walled section of the city all to themselves.

Öz Beg continued the alliance with the Mamluks begun by Berke and his predecessors. He kept a friendly relationship with the Mamluk Sultan and his shadow Caliph in Cairo. In 1320, the Jochid princess Tulunbay was married to Al-Nasir Muhammad, Sultan of Egypt. Al-Nasir Muhammad came to believe that Tulunbay was not a real Chingissid princess but an impostor. In 1327–1328, he divorced her, and she then married one of al-Nasir Muhammad's commanders. When Öz Beg learned of the divorce in 1334–1335, he sent an angry missive. Al-Nasir Muhammad claimed that she had died and showed his ambassadors a fake legal document as proof, although Tulunbay still lived and would only pass away in 1340.

The Golden Horde invaded the Ilkhanate under Abu Sa'id in 1318, 1324, and 1335. Öz Beg's ally Al-Nasir refused to attack Abu Sa'id because the Ilkhan and the Mamluk Sultan signed a peace treaty in 1323. In 1326 Öz Beg reopened friendly relations with the Yuan dynasty and began to send tributes thereafter. From 1339 he received annually 24,000 ding in Yuan paper currency from the Jochid appanages in China. Öz Beg allowed the Great Khan to export Russian, Alan and Kypchak soldiers to China. In 1316, possibly due to the discontent among Mongol elites in Iran, some of the Ilkhanid emirs approached Öz Beg to take the throne of the Ilkhanate, but the Jochid khan declined after consulting with his senior emir, Qutluq Timür.

Öz Beg, whose total army exceeded 300,000, repeatedly raided Thrace in aid of Bulgaria's war against Byzantium and Serbia beginning in 1319. The Byzantine Empire under Andronikos II Palaiologos and Andronikos III Palaiologos was raided by the Golden Horde between 1320 and 1341, until the Byzantine port of Vicina Macaria was occupied. Friendly relations were established with the Byzantine Empire for a brief period after Öz Beg married Andronikos III Palaiologos's illegitimate daughter, who came to be known as Bayalun. In 1333, she was given permission to visit her father in Constantinople and never returned, apparently fearing her forced conversion to Islam. Öz Beg's armies pillaged Thrace for forty days in 1324 and for 15 days in 1337, taking 300,000 captives. In 1330, Öz Beg sent 15,000 troops to Serbia but was defeated. Backed by Öz Beg, Basarab I of Wallachia declared an independent state from the Hungarian crown in 1330.

With Öz Beg's assistance, the grand prince Mikhail Yaroslavich won the battle against the party in Novgorod in 1316. While Mikhail was asserting his authority, his rival Yury of Moscow ingratiated himself with Öz Beg so that he appointed him as the grand prince and gave him his sister, Konchak, in marriage. After spending three years at Öz Beg's court, Yury returned with an army of Mongols and Mordvins. After he ravaged the villages of Tver, Yury was defeated by Mikhail, and his new wife and the Mongol general, Kawgady, were captured. While she stayed in Tver, Konchak, who converted to Christianity and adopted the name Agatha, died. Mikhail's rivals suggested to Öz Beg that he had poisoned the Khan's sister and revolted against his rule. Mikhail was summoned to Sarai and executed on 22 November 1318. Yury became the grand prince once more. Yury's brother Ivan accompanied the Mongol general Akhmyl in suppressing a revolt by Rostov in 1320. In 1322, Mikhail's son, Dmitry, seeking revenge for his father's murder, went to Sarai and persuaded the Khan that Yury had appropriated a large portion of the tribute due to the Horde. Yury was summoned to the Horde for a trial, but he was killed by Dmitry before any formal investigation. Eight months later, Dmitry was also executed by the Horde for his crime. The grand princely title went to Aleksandr Mikhailovich. In early 1326, Yury's remains were returned to Moscow and buried by the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church headed by Metropolitan Peter.

Öz Beg's approach to Russian affairs was less constructive than that of Toqta, in which he made no attempt to change things in Russia, with his goal being to prevent the formation of a unified Russian state and to keep the balance between its princes, especially between those of Tver and Moscow. In 1327, the baskak Shevkal, cousin of Öz Beg, arrived in Tver from the Horde, with a large retinue. They took up residence at Aleksander's palace. Rumors spread that Shevkal wanted to occupy the throne for himself and introduce Islam to the city. The Tverians revolted after Shevkal established his office, and the Mongol commissioner and most of his lieutenants were killed. Öz Beg summoned Ivan I, the prince of Moscow, and ordered him to lead a punitive expedition along with Alexander of Suzdal; the Muscovite and Suzdalian troops, reinforced by Mongol detachments, looted Tver and captured thousands of prisoners. The incident, the Tver Uprising of 1327, caused Öz Beg to begin backing Moscow as the leading Russian state. Öz Beg refrained from giving Moscow too much power, giving the patent for the grand princely title to Alexander of Suzdal, though Ivan I would be appointed as grand prince four years later following Alexander's death, and given the right to collect taxes from other Russian potentates. As a result of the good relations between Ivan I and Öz Beg, the Moscow region began to prosper and its population grew rapidly. Ivan I also added to his grand princely title "and all Russia" in an imitation of the Russian Orthodox metropolitan's title, who moved his residence to Moscow, making it the ecclesiastical capital of Russia, but it also marked the beginning of the drive to unify Russia.

The Mongols had undermined the strength of Galicia and Volhynia, where the Danilovichi had sought to improve internal conditions in the country from the late 13th-century, with Yuri I assuming the royal title (rex Russiae) during his reign, but the Lithuanian grand dukes managed to build a strong army and administration as well as uniting the Lithuanian and Belarusian provinces under their rule. Following Yuri's death in 1308, the situation in Galicia and Volhynia quickly deteriorated, with both of his sons dying in 1323, leading to the throne to be offered to Boleslav of Mazovia. He was confirmed by Öz Beg as "Yuri II". Gediminas of Lithuania gained control of Kiev and installed his brother Fedor as prince, but the principality's tribute to the Khan continued. On a campaign a few years later, the Lithuanians under Fedor included the Khan's baskak in their entourage. Yuri II married a daughter of Gediminas and possibly gave his daughter in marriage to a son of Gediminas, leading to Öz Beg to intervene to prevent the plans of Poland and Lithuania. Mongol forces raided the borderlands of Lithuania in 1336 and then Lublin in Poland the next year. The prince of Smolensk defied Öz Beg's authority, instead recognizing the suzerainty of Gediminas. After the sudden death of Yuri II, who had no heirs, a committee of Galician boyars led by Dmytro Dedko took control of the city; a detachment of Mongol troops was sent to protect Galicia and Volhynia from the Poles, who were forced to retreat but did not give up on their claims to the region.

A decree, issued probably by Mengu-Timur, allowing the Franciscans to proselytize, was renewed by Öz Beg in 1314. Öz Beg allowed the Christian Genoese to settle in Crimea after his accession, but the Mongols sacked their outpost Sudak in 1322 when the Genoese clashed with the Turks. The Genoese merchants in the other towns were not molested. Pope John XXII requested Öz Beg to restore Roman Catholic churches destroyed in the region. Öz Beg signed a new trade treaty with the Genoese in 1339 and allowed them to rebuild the walls of Caffa. In 1332 he allowed the Venetians to establish a colony at Tanais on the Don. In 1333, when Ibn Battuta visited Sudak, he found the population to be predominantly Turkish.

Öz Beg's eldest son Tini Beg reigned briefly from 1341 to 1342 before his younger brother, Jani Beg (1342–1357), came to power.

In 1344, Jani Beg tried to seize Caffa from the Genoese but failed. In 1347, he signed a commercial treaty with Venice. The slave trade flourished due to strengthening ties with the Mamluk Sultanate. Growth of wealth and increasing demand for products typically produce population growth, and so it was with Sarai. Housing in the region increased, which transformed the capital into the center of a large Muslim Sultanate.

The Black Death of the 1340s was a major factor contributing to the economic downfall of the Golden Horde. The disease likely first appeared in the region of Issyk-Kul. In the spring and summer of 1346, it had been reported in most cities, including Urgench, Sarai, and Azaq. It then reached Solkhat and spread among the ranks of Jani Beg's army during the siege of Caffa. According to a Russian source, the disease killed "Tatars" and other people all across the Horde. Although the death toll is unknown, the Horde likely suffered a significant loss of population. As entire regions were depopulated, the economy of the Horde went into steep decline. By the 1350s, parts of the northern trade route had collapsed.

Jani Beg abandoned his father's Balkan ambitions and backed Moscow against Lithuania and Poland. Jani Beg sponsored joint Mongol-Rus' military expeditions against Lithuania and Poland. In 1344, his army marched against Poland with auxiliaries from Galicia–Volhynia, as Volhynia was part of Lithuania. However, in 1349, Galicia–Volhynia was occupied by a Polish-Hungarian force, and the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia was finally conquered and incorporated into Poland. This act put an end to the relationship of vassalage between Galicia–Volhynia and the Golden Horde. In 1352, the Golden Horde with its Rus' allies ravaged Polish territory and Lublin. The Polish king, Casimir III the Great, submitted to the Horde in 1357 and paid tribute in order to avoid more conflicts. The seven Mongol princes were sent by Jani Beg to assist Poland.

Jani Beg asserted Jochid dominance over the Chagatai Khanate and conquered Tabriz, ending Chobanid rule there in 1356. After accepting the surrender of the Jalayirids, Jani Beg boasted that three uluses of the Mongol Empire were under his control. However, on his way back from Tabriz, Jani Beg was murdered on the order of his own son, Berdi Beg. Following the assassination of Jani Beg, the Golden Horde quickly lost Azerbaijan to the Jalayir king Shaikh Uvais in 1357.

Berdi Beg was killed in a coup by his brother Qulpa in 1359. Qulpa's two sons were Christians and bore the Slavic names Michael and Ivan, which outraged the Muslim populace of the Golden Horde. In 1360, Qulpa's brother Nawruz Beg revolted against the khan and killed him and his sons. In 1361, a descendant of Shiban (5th son of Jochi) was invited by some grandees to seize the throne. Khidr rebelled against Nawruz, whose own lieutenant betrayed him and handed him over to be executed. Khidr was slain by his own son, Timur Khwaja, in the same year. Timur Khwaja reigned for only five weeks before descendants of Öz Beg Khan seized power.

In 1362, the Golden Horde was divided between Keldi Beg in Sarai, Bulat Temir in Volga Bulgaria, and Abdullah in Crimea. Meanwhile, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania attacked the western tributaries of the Golden Horde and conquered Kiev and Podolia after the Battle of Blue Waters in 1363. A powerful Mongol general by the name of Mamai backed Abdullah but failed to take Sarai, which saw the reign of two more khans, Murad and Aziz. Abdullah died in 1370 and Muhammad Bolaq was enthroned as puppet khan by Mamai. Mamai also had to deal with a rebellion in Nizhny Novgorod. Muscovite troops impinged on the Bulgar territory of Arab-Shah, the son of Bulat Temir, who caught them off guard and defeated them on the banks of the Pyana River. However Arab-Shah was unable to take advantage of the situation because of the advance of another Mongol general from the east. Encouraged by the news of Muscovite defeat, Mamai sent an army against Dmitry Donskoy, who defeated the Mongol forces at the Battle of the Vozha River in 1378. Mamai hired Genoese, Circassian, and Alan mercenaries for another attack on Moscow in 1380. In the ensuing battle, Mongol forces once again lost at the Battle of Kulikovo.

By 1360, Urus Khan had set up court in Sighnaq. He was named Urus, which means Russian in Turkish language, presumably because "Urus-Khan's mother was a Russian princess... he was prepared to press his claims on Russia on that ground." In 1372, Urus marched west and occupied Sarai. His nephew and lieutenant Tokhtamysh deserted him and went to Timur for assistance. Tokhtamysh attacked Urus, killing his son Kutlug-Buka, but lost the battle and fled to Samarkand. Soon after, another general Edigu deserted Urus and went over to Timur. Timur personally attacked Urus in 1376 but the campaign ended indecisively. Urus died the next year and was succeeded by his son, Timur-Melik, who immediately lost Sighnaq to Tokhtamysh. In 1378, Tokhtamysh conquered Sarai.

By the 1380s, the Shaybanids and Qashan attempted to break free of the Khan's power.

Tokhtamysh attacked Mamai, who had recently suffered a loss against Moscow, and defeated him in 1381, thus briefly reestablishing the Golden Horde as a dominant regional power. Mamai fled to the Genoese who killed him soon after. Tokhtamysh sent an envoy to the Russian states to resume their tributary status, but the envoy only made it as far as Nizhny Novgorod before he was stopped. Tokhtamysh immediately seized all the boats on the Volga to ferry his army across and commenced a siege of Moscow, which fell after three days under a false truce. The next year, most of the Russian princes once again made obeisance to the khan and received patents from him. Tokhtamysh also crushed the Lithuanian army at Poltava in the next year. Władysław II Jagiełło, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, accepted his supremacy and agreed to pay tribute in return for a grant of Russian territory.

Elated by his success, Tokhtamysh invaded Azerbaijan in 1386 and seized Tabriz. He ordered money with his name on it coined in Khwarezm and sent envoys to Egypt to seek an alliance. In 1387, Timur sent an army into Azerbaijan and fought indecisively with the forces of the Golden Horde. Tokhtamysh invaded Transoxania and reached as far as Bukhara, but failed to take the city, and had to turn back. Timur retaliated by invading Khwarezm and destroyed Urgench. Tokhtamysh attacked Timur on the Syr Darya in 1389 with a massive army including Russians, Bulgars, Circassians, and Alans. The battle ended indecisively. In 1391, Timur gathered an army 200,000 strong and defeated Tokhtamysh at the Battle of the Kondurcha River. Timur's allies Temür Qutlugh and Edigu took the eastern half of the Golden Horde. Tokhtamysh returned in 1394, ravaging the region of Shirvan. In 1395, Timur annihilated Tokhtamysh's army again at the Battle of the Terek River, destroyed his capital, looted the Crimean trade centers, and deported the most skillful craftsmen to his own capital in Samarkand. Timur's forces reached as far north as Ryazan before withdrawing from Russian territory. The Russian chroniclers claimed that a vision of the Virgin defending Moscow, accompanied by a heavenly host, convinced Timur to turn back. Vasily I of Moscow took advantage of the conflict and was given permission to take the throne of Nizhny Novgorod. Moscow's rulers also gained recognition from the khan that the grand princely throne was a family possession.

Temür Qutlugh was chosen Khan in Sarai while Edigu became co-ruler, and Koirijak was appointed sovereign of the White Horde by Timur. Tokhtamysh fled to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and asked Vytautas for assistance in retaking the Golden Horde in exchange for suzerainty over the Russian lands. In 1399, Vytautas and Tokhtamysh attacked Temür Qutlugh and Edigu at the Battle of the Vorskla River but were defeated. The Golden Horde victory secured Kiev, Podolia, and some land in the lower Bug River basin. Tokhtamysh died in obscurity in Tyumen around 1405. His son Jalal al-Din fled to Lithuania and participated in the Battle of Grunwald against the Teutonic Order.

Temür Qutlugh died in 1400 and his cousin Shadi Beg was elected khan with Edigu's approval. After defeating Vytautas, Edigu concentrated on strengthening the Golden Horde. He forbade selling Golden Horde subjects as slaves abroad. Later on the slave trade was resumed, but only Circassians were allowed to be sold. As a result, most of the Mamluk recruits in the 15th century were of Circassian origin. Timur died in 1405 and Edigu took advantage to seize Khwarezm a year later. From 1400 to 1408, Edigu gradually regained the eastern Russian tributaries, with the exception of Moscow, which he failed to take in a siege but ravaged the surrounding area. Smolensk was also lost to Lithuania. Shadi Beg rebelled against Edigu but was defeated and fled to Astrakhan. Shadi Beg was replaced by Pulad, who died in 1410 and was succeeded by Temur Khan, the son of Temür Qutlugh. Temur Khan turned against Edigu and forced him to flee to Khwarezm in 1411. Temur himself was ousted the next year by Jalal al-Din, who returned from Lithuania and briefly took the throne. In 1414, Shah Rukh of the Timurids conquered Khwarezm. Edigu fled to the Crimea where he launched raids on Kiev and tried to forge an alliance with Lithuania to win back the horde. Edigu died in 1419 in a skirmish with one of Tokhtamysh's sons.

The Khanate of Sibir was ruled by a dynasty originating with Taibuga in 1405 at Chimgi-Tura. After his death in 1428, the khanate was ruled by Abu'l-Khayr Khan. When he died in 1468, the khanate split in two, with the Shaybanid Ibak Khan situated in Chimgi-Tura, and the Taibugid Muhammad at the fortress of Sibir, from which the khanate derives its name.

After 1419, the Golden Horde functionally ceased to exist. Ulugh Muhammad was officially Khan of the Golden Horde but his authority was limited to the lower banks of the Volga where Tokhtamysh's other son Kepek also reigned. The Golden Horde's influence was replaced in Eastern Europe by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who Ulugh Muhammad turned to for support. The political situation in the Golden Horde did not stabilize. In 1422, the grandson of Urus Khan, Barak Khan, attacked the reigning khans in the west. Within two years, Ulugh, Kepek, and another claimant Dawlat Berdi, were defeated. Ulugh Muhammad fled to Lithuania, Kepek tried to raid Odoyev and Ryazan but failed to establish himself in those regions, and Dawlat took advantage of the situation to seize Crimea. Barak defeated an invasion by Ulugh Beg in 1427 but was assassinated the next year. His successor, Abu'l-Khayr Khan, founded the Uzbek Khanate.

By the 1440s, a descendant of Edigu by the name of Musa bin Waqqas was ruling at Saray-Jük as an independent ruler of the Nogai Horde.

Ulugh Muhammad ousted Dawlat Berdi from Crimea. At the same time, the khan Hacı I Giray fled to Lithuania to ask Vytautas for support. In 1426, Ulugh Muhammad contributed troops to Vytautas' war against Pskov. Despite the Golden Horde's greatly reduced status, both Yury of Zvenigorod and Vasily Kosoy still visited Ulugh Muhammad's court in 1432 to request a grand ducal patent. A year later, Ulugh Muhammad lost the throne to Sayid Ahmad I, a son of Tokhtamysh. Ulugh Muhammad fled to the town of Belyov on the upper Oka River, where he came into conflict with Moscow. Vasily II of Moscow attempted to drive him out but was defeated at the Battle of Belyov. Ulugh Muhammad became master of Belyov. Ulugh Muhammad continued to exert influence on Moscow, occupying Gorodets in 1444. Vasily II even wanted him to issue him a patent for the throne, but Ulugh Muhammad attacked him instead at Murom in 1445. On 7 July, Vasily II was defeated and taken prisoner by Ulugh Muhammad at the Battle of Suzdal. Despite his victory, Ulugh Muhammad's situation was pressed. The Golden Horde was no more, he had barely 10,000 soldiers, and thus could not press the advantage against Moscow. A few months later he released Vasily II for a ransom of 25,000 rubles. Unfortunately, Ulugh Muhammad was murdered by his son, Mäxmüd of Kazan, who fled to the middle Volga region and founded the Khanate of Kazan in 1445. In 1447, Mäxmüd sent an army against Moscow but was repelled.

In 1449, Hacı I Giray seized Crimea from Ahmad I, and founded the Crimean Khanate. The Crimean Khanate considered its state as the heir and legal successor of the Golden Horde and Desht-i Kipchak, called themselves khans of "the Great Horde, the Great State and the Throne of the Crimea".

One of Ulugh Muhammad's sons, Qasim Khan, fled to Moscow, where Vasily II granted him land that became the Qasim Khanate.

In 1458, Janibek Khan and Kerei Khan led 200,000 of Abu'l-Khayr Khan's followers eastwards to the Chu River where Esen Buqa II of Moghulistan granted them pasture lands. After Abu'l-Khayr Khan died in 1467, they assumed leadership over most of his followers, and became the Kazakh Khanate.

In 1435, the khan Küchük Muhammad ousted Sayid Ahmad. He attacked Ryazan and suffered a major defeat against the forces of Vasily II. Sayid Ahmad continued to raid Muscovy and in 1449 made a direct attack on Moscow. However he was defeated by Muscovy's ally Qasim Khan. In 1450, Küchük Muhammad attacked Ryazan but was turned back by a combined Russo-Tatar army. In 1451, Sayid Ahmad tried to take Moscow again and failed.

Küchük Muhammad was succeeded by his son Mahmud bin Küchük in 1459, from which point on the Golden Horde came to be known as the Great Horde. Mahmud was succeeded by his brother Ahmed Khan bin Küchük in 1465. In 1469, Ahmed attacked and killed Abu'l-Khayr Khan. Ahmed Khan attempted to subdue the former subjects of the Golden Horde, including the Russians and Uzbeks, with his goal being to once again unite the Horde.

In the summer of 1470, Ahmed organized an attack against Moldavia, the Kingdom of Poland, and Lithuania. By 20 August, the Moldavian forces under Stephen the Great defeated the Tatars at the battle of Lipnic. In 1474 and 1476, Ahmed insisted that Ivan III, the grand prince of Moscow, recognize the khan as his overlord. Ivan III also began the process of unifying the Russian principalities, which would strengthen Moscow's position against the Horde and Lithuania. In 1480, Ahmed organized a military campaign against Moscow, resulting in a face off between two opposing armies known as the Great Stand on the Ugra River. Ahmed judged the conditions unfavorable and retreated, particularly after receiving the news that Russian princes had rebelled against the Polish–Lithuanian ruler and were moving towards Sarai. This incident formally ended the "Tatar yoke" over the Russian lands. On 6 January 1481, Ahmed was killed by Ibak Khan, the prince of the Khanate of Sibir, and Nogays at the mouth of the Donets River.

Ahmed's sons were unable to maintain the Great Horde. They attacked the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (which possessed much of Ukraine at the time) in 1487–1491 and reached as far as Lublin in eastern Poland before being decisively beaten at Zaslavl.

The Crimean Khanate, which had become a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire in 1475, subjugated what remained of the Great Horde, sacking Sarai in 1502. After seeking refuge in Lithuania, Sheikh Ahmed, the last khan of the Great Horde, died in prison in Kaunas Castle some time after 1504. According to other sources, he was released from the Lithuanian prison in 1527.

After 1466, Mahmud bin Küchük's descendants continued to rule in Astrakhan as the khans of the Astrakhan Khanate.

During the Lithuanian–Muscovite War of 1500–1503, the army of the Crimean Khanate conquered the last remnants of the Great Horde, sacking its capital city of New Sarai in 1502, and destroying it for good. The final blow to the Horde was delivered by Crimeans and Moldavians at the Battle of Samara River. The Crimean Tatars claimed the legacy of the Golden Horde, overlordship over the Khanate of Kazan as an appanage of ruling Giray dynasty, and suzerainty over Moscow. As soon as the Crimean Khanate had achieved the elimination of the Great Horde, however, the main reason for its alliance with Muscovy disappeared. The historian Charles J. Halperin noted: "The ad hoc alliance of Muscovy, Kasimov, Kazan', Astrakhan', the Crimea, and the Nogais collapsed almost immediately after accomplishing its purpose of destroying the Great Horde." By 1507, the houses of Moscow and Giray were in conflict, the focus becoming whoever controlled Kazan.