Kyrgyz People in the History of the Golden Horde

Research Article

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of Kyrgyz tribes in the political and military-historical history of the Golden Horde in the 14th – early 15th centuries. The relevance of this study stems from the insufficient development of this topic in the historiography of the Ulus of Jochi, where the Kyrgyz are often considered peripheral. The geographical proximity of Kyrgyz tribes to the eastern borders of the Golden Horde, as well as their participation in migratory, military, and political processes in the region, led to their persistent presence in sources from the Golden Horde period. Objectives. The purpose of this study is to reconstruct the nature and forms of interaction between Kyrgyz tribes and the Golden Horde during its political destabilization and subsequent collapse. To achieve this goal, the following tasks are addressed: identifying the areas of Kyrgyz settlement during the Golden Horde period; Analysis of reports from Eastern and European sources on contacts between the Kyrgyz and the Golden Horde khans; examination of military conflicts and allied ties between the Kyrgyz tribes and various dynastic groups of the Ulus of Jochi; determination of the place of the Kyrgyz in the ethnopolitical processes of the Eastern Desht-i-Kipchak. Materials and methods. The source base of the study consists of Persian chronicles (Mu'in ad-Din Natanzi, Mahmud ibn Wali, Sharaf ad-Din Yazdi), works of Eastern authors, data from Russian annals, as well as numismatic materials and late medieval compilations. Methodologically, the work is based on the principles of source analysis, the comparative historical method, and a critical comparison of different types of written evidence, which allows for a refinement of the chronology of events and the interpretation of ethnopolitical processes. The study established that the Kyrgyz played a significant role in the history of the Golden Horde's eastern borderlands, acting as an independent military and political factor. It is shown that Kyrgyz lands served as a refuge for individual Golden Horde rulers and dynastic groups during periods of civil strife, as well as an arena for military campaigns by the Golden Horde khans (Mubarak Khoja, Pulad Khan, and Chekre). It is revealed that relations between the Kyrgyz and representatives of the Shibanid nobility were predominantly good-neighborly, while the strengthening of central authority in the Horde was accompanied by punitive campaigns against the Kyrgyz tribes. Conclusions. It is concluded that the interaction of the Kyrgyz tribes with the Golden Horde was determined primarily by geography and the dynamics of internal political struggle in the Ulus of Jochi. The Kyrgyz tribes were not passive subjects of the Golden Horde's policies; instead, they actively influenced the military and political situation in Eastern Desht-i-Kipchak. The collapse of the Golden Horde and subsequent migrations contributed to the movement of the Kyrgyz to Semirechye and the Eastern Tien Shan, which determined their subsequent place in the history of Central Asia and the early states of the post-Horde region.