An imposition that expressed fear and condescension, "Tatar" as a name implied a sense of unity and cohesion within the Mongol realm. Juji's ulus was never a unified or integrated entity, however. Rather, it was made up of various semi-independent ulus led by Batu's brothers and other relatives. At no point did all the parts unequivocally recognize the superordinate authority of Saray, even if they sometimes stopped short of going to war. By the second half of the XIIIth century, internal wars became endemic. Tamerlane applied the coup de grace. Sometime thereafter, the ulus "fragmented," meaning that even nominal allegiance to a single khan ceased. This produced, in the east, various components independent of Saray (and the object of contention among Kirghiz and Uzbeks), and in the west, several so-called "khanates" (Kazan, Astrakhan, and Crimea), as well as other offshoots, among which was the Siberian "khanate." The "fragments" had always been fragments; what changed was the appearance, and to an extent the practice, of allegiance to a single authority.
Scholars have not been able to fix the "borders" of the Golden Horde, or have done so only very vaguely using geographical information supplied by Arabic sources in the XIVth and XVth centuries (there is also a Chinese map from the XIVth century). On European maps of Asia, various political entities are duly noted, but there is no effort to indicate the "borders" separating them. Nonetheless, one historical geographer has pressed forward, noting that the Mongols signed agreements with Riazan recognizing Episcopal spheres and the right to collect church duties (divided among the Saray and Riazan metropolitans), and that they seem to have maintained guards at some kind of "border" with the Rus principalities. At the same time, however, this scholar admits that many steppe peoples migrated, seeking to create "neutral zones" between themselves and the Mongols, a process the Mongols welcomed. All of this suggests that the effort to establish the Golden Horde's borders is anachronistic because they had no such concept. As Howorth wrote, "among nomadic races, territorial provinces are not so well recognized as tribal ones. A potentate distributes his clans, not his acres, among his children. Each of them has of course its camping ground, but the exact limits are not to be definitely measured."
Juji's ulus, notwithstanding its Islamicization, was less a state with borders than a perpetual standing army, an agglomeration of peoples for whom military and civilian life was not clearly distinguished. There were notions of extremities and of lands that were located beyond those that were conducive to pastoralism, but no fixed state boundaries. The ulus was "nonbounded." Its rule, although nominally exclusive, did not preclude multiple sovereignty (some peoples levied by the Horde could wind up paying tribute to others).
Kazakhstan lands in the structure of Golden Horde in the period of state formation (1242-1266)
The period of State formation in the history of the Golden Horde was in the reign of Batu and Berke. During of Batu's governing were distributed land holdings (ulus) in accordance with military posts, established of the state apparatus, aimed solely at collecting taxes and tribute, established a system of political power over nations that, geographically were not members of the Golden Horde. At first it belonged to Russia.
However, when all the power of the army and the magnificence of the Khan's Golden Horde of the court in political terms was not an independent state, and was part of a unified empire, run from the Karakorum. This dependence is expressed by:
• Mandatory expulsion and sending taxes and tributes.
• Khans of the Golden Horde could not claim the Grand Dukes of Vladimir on the table, and could appoint the lords of smaller ranks. New Khan on the throne of Golden Horde also was approved in the Karakorum.
• Do not have the right to put his name on the Golden Horde coins.
• Do not have the right to establish diplomatic relations with other states, as well as the reception of their representatives and maintaining correspondence with foreign sovereigns.
Batu Khan laid the foundation for the Golden state, based upon solely on the usual nomadic tradition establishing by the Yasa of Genghis Khan. In full accordance with the Karakorum line at the maximum extraction of income from the subject population, it begins to emerge and develop state fiscal officials. The period of Batu – the only peaceful period in the history of the Golden Horde, this will undoubtedly allow focusing its main efforts on the creation of internal political and economic structure.
There is more information about Batu-khan:
Batu (ca. 1206–1255) a Mongol prince, the second son of Juji' – Genghis Khan’s eldest son. Batu commanded the army that conquered the northeastern Rus’ principalities (1237–1238) and subsequently that conquered the southern Rus’ principalities and invaded Eastern Europe (1240–1241). Batu was the first khan to rule in the Khanate of Kipchak (Ulus of Juji; Desht-i-Kipchak), which he is credited with having founded. His father, Juji, to whom the lands had been granted “as far as Mongol hooves trod” in the western part of the Mongol Empire (i.e., west of the Irtysh River), died before ruling there. Batu is also credited with building the city of Saray (Old Saray, Saray- Batu) on the Akhtuba channel of the lower Volga River. Batu was present at the quriltai that chose Ugedei as qaghan in 1229 and most likely also at the quriltai of 1234, which planned the campaign against the Kipchaks, as well as the quriltai of 1237, which planned the campaign against the Rus’ principalities and Eastern Europe. Disagreements over Batu’s leadership developed during the campaigns in Rus’ and Eastern Europe (1237–1241).
Güyüg, a son of Ugedei, and Büri, a grandson of Chagatai, challenged Batu’s authority, possibly on the basis of the questionable legitimacy of Batu’s father. When Ugedei died in 1241, Batu opposed and apparently managed to delay the elevation of Güyüg to become Khan until 1246. Claiming ill health, Batu refused to attend any quriltais. His presence at the quriltai was needed to give legitimacy to Ugedei’s successor because, after Chagatai’s death in 1242, Batu was considered aqa – i.e., senior-ranking member of the Genghisids. When Güyüg was declared Khan by a quriltai despite Batu’s absence (although Batu was ostensibly represented by his five brothers), he mounted a campaign against Batu but died on the way to Batu’s ulus in 1248.
This time Batu succeeded in getting a quriltai of 1251 to select his own candidate, Möngke, who was the son of Tulyi (Genghis Khan’s youngest son). Batu had apparently reached agreement with Sorghaqtani, the widow of Tulyi, thus forming an alliance of Jujids and Tulyids against the Ugedeids. Möngke and Batu then launched a joint attack on the Ugedeids and their supporters, the Chagataids. As a result of Batu’s role in elevating Möngke to being Khan and in helping him to consolidate his hold on that position, Batu had a relatively free hand in ruling his own khanate.
The sky worshiper, Batu followed a policy of religious toleration, but seems not to have been pleased by the conversion of his brother Berke to Islam, for, according to William Rubruck, Batu changed Berke’s yurt to the eastern part of the Khanate beyond the Volga River to reduce his contacts with Muslims, which he thought harmful. The Mongol and Turkic sources refer to Batu as a saint, which means “good” or “wise”, and in the Rus’ sources before ca. 1448, Batu is depicted as “a powerful tsar” to whom the Rus’ princes had to pay obeisance. After 1448, the Russian sources increasingly depict Batu as a cruel plunderer and enslaver of the Rus’ land.
Death of Batu in 1256 led to the first in the Golden Horde battle for the possession of the throne. Governor of the state in 1257 became the younger brother of Batu – Berke. Winning Berke was largely facilitated by the support of his candidacy by Muslim merchants, attracted