CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Wilson, Jack |
|---|---|
| Title | The Role of Nogai in Eastern Europe and the Late Thirteenth-Century Golden Horde: A Reassessment |
| Summary | For the late thirteenth century Golden Horde, the figure of Nogai (c.1237-c.1300) is usually presented in secondary literature as an all-powerful kingmaker who actively appointed and deposed khans at will from 1270-1300. Generally presented as controlling the khans, clamoring for independence, declaring his own autonomous kingdom, or otherwise deliberately undermining the khan, Nogai often appears as the dominant figure of Golden Horde politics in much of the scholarship. However, this depiction does not align with the primary source materials, which show Nogai uninvolved with any of the successions except for the overthrow of Tele-Buqa Khan in 1291. I offer a suggestion to the origins of this khanmaker image, and reinterpretation the events of Nogai’s life without the khanmaker dynamic, ignoring the common depiction of the secondary literature to instead focus on the surviving primary source material. Instead of the primary power broker of the Golden Horde, I found Nogai to largely have worked in cooperation with the khans of the Golden Horde, usually more concerned with his own affairs and not seeking independence or to undermine the khans. Only once threatened by the reigning khan, do the primary sources depict Nogai taking part in his removal, a far more limited role than ascribed to him by literature of the last century. |
| Supervisor | Nagy, Balázs and Laszlovszky, József |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/wilson_jack.pdf |
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