Tokhta

Tokhta (Toqta, Tokhtai, Tochtu or Tokhtogha) (died c. 1312) was a khan of the Golden Horde, son of Mengu-Timur and great grandson of Batu Khan.

His name "Tokhtokh" means "hold/holding" in the Mongolian language.

In 1288, Tokhta was ousted by his cousins. In 1291, he reclaimed the throne with the help of Nogai Khan. Tokhta then gave the Crimea to Nogai as a gift. Nogai subsequently beheaded many of the Mongol nobles who were supporters of Tulabuga, thanks to his new supposed puppet khan.

Tokhta wanted to eliminate the Russian princes' semi-independence. To that effect, he had sent his brother Tudan to the Rus lands in 1293. Tudan's army would go on to devastate fourteen towns. Tokhta himself (known here as Tokhta-Temur) went to Tver, and forced Dmitry Alexandrovich, Nogai's ally, to abdicate. The Russians chroniclers depicted these events as "The harsh-time of Batu returns." Some sources have suggested that Tokhta and Nogai had worked together.

Soon afterwards, Tokhta and Nogai began a deadly rivalry. The Khan's father-in-law Saljiday of the Khunggirads, his wife Bekhlemish, the granddaughter of Tolui, and other Chingisids in the Horde also complained about Nogai's contrariness to him. Nogai had refused to come to the court of the Khan. They also disagreed on trade rights of the Venetians and Genoese merchants as well.

Khan Tokhta's forces lost the first battle with Nogai in 1299-1300. Nogai did not bother to chase after him, and he decided instead to return to his lands. Tokhta asked the Ilkhan Ghazan for his assistance. The latter refused because he did not want to be mixed up with their quarrels. In 1300, Tokhta finally defeated Nogai at the battle of the Kagamlyk River, south-southwest of the city of Poltava, and united the lands from the Volga to the Don under his authority. Nogai's son Chaka had fled first to the land of the Alans, and then to Bulgaria, where he reigned as their Czar. This had enraged Tokhta so much so that soon after Chaka's brother-in-law Theodore Svetoslav participated in a plot to overthrow him. Chaka was found strangled and his head was sent to Khan Tokhta to show his (Theodore Svetoslav's) and the Bulgarian nobility their allegiance. Tokhta then divided Nogai's lands, which had stretched from the Crimea and the Russian principalities to modern Romania, among his brother Sareibugha and his sons.

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