The History of Kazakhstan from the Earliest Period to the Present time. Volume I. Zhanat Kundakbayeva

throne not a pagan, but a supporter of the Muslim religion. New Khan took the throne at the age of about 50. Age of Berke was quite stormy and eventful, both in the inner life of the state and in the foreign policy arena.

      • New Khan in his youth was converted to Islam and, therefore, immediately after accession to the throne declared Islam the state religion. This caused resistance nomadic aristocracy. Meanwhile, Khan began to pursue vigorously Islamization of the country. He invited from Iran to Egypt, priests, known theologians and scholars. At the same time from KKhwarezm were delivered new parties of artisans, builders and artists. Thanks to their labors the cities of the Golden Horde dramatically change their appearance.

      • When Berke began the process of disintegration of the Mongol Empire. Berke's striving to transform ulus Juji as an independent state. It was reflected in coinage.When the Golden Horde was dependent on the native yurt, as it was when Batu, Golden coin minted with the name of the Great Khan Mengu. Berke also minted coins with the name of the great khan Arigbuga. But as soon as Kubilai Khan became the Great Khan, Berke refused to mint coins with the name of the Great Khan, which was tantamount to a denial of the supreme power of Kubilai. At the same time the independence of the ulus was not recognized by the rest of the Mongol princes, so Berke was minted the coins with the name of the last caliph Nasir al-din, emphasizing that he Berke recognized only the spiritual power of the caliphs.

      • During the reign of Berke in 1263 began a war with their relatives – the Khulaguids who settled in Iran. Both branches of a single clan Genghisids not share a very rich and very attractive for nomadic province of Azerbaijan. In the heated struggle Golden Horde was supported by Mamluk Egypt, fearing the expansion of Khulaguids in the direction of their possessions. Throughout the conflict, none of the parties failed to achieve decisive advantage, even though the Golden Horde was able to capture the capital of Iran, Tabriz. Berke himself died in 1266 under Tbilisi during one of the campaigns against Khulaguids.

      During Batu and Berke's reign Golden Horde not only fully took shape as a state with all attributes of power and social structure, but also entered into steady economic relations with Asian and European countries, as well as developed strategic directions for foreign policy interests. We can say that in the subsequent history of the state continued deepening and developing all aspects of its internal and foreign policy lay down by the founders.

      There is more information about Berke-khan:

      Berke, Khan of the Kipchak Khanate from 1257 to 1267. He was a grandson of Genghis Khan, third son of Juji, and younger brother of Batu. William Rubruck tells us that Berke converted to Islam but does not provide a date. This evidence conflicts with that of the Persian historian Juzjani, who says Berke was raised from infancy as a Muslim. It also conflicts with the evidence of Abu ’l-Ghazi, who says that Berke adopted Islam after he became khan. In this regard, William has been generally taken as the most reliable source of the three, for he also remarks that Berke’s yurt was originally in the southern part of the Khanate where Muslims from Turkey and Persia passed. Subsequently, after Berke converted to Islam, 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 date generally assigned for Berke’s accession to the khanship (1257) is based on two considerations:

      (1) Berke succeeded Ulaghchi, the son of Batu; and (2) the last mention of Ulaghchi is in the Rus’Chronicles under 1257. Berke, thus, became the fourth khan of the Kipchak Khanate after Batu, Sartak, and Ulaghchi. Early in his reign, according to Juzjani, Berke traveled to Bukhara and honored the learned men there. He also ordered to punish Christians in Samarkand and the destruction of their churches for mistreating Muslims in the town. Although he was the first khan of the Kipchak Khanate to be a Muslim, he continued the Mongols’ pluralistic religious policy of tolerance toward all religions and did not make Islam the privileged religion of the Khanate.

      Berke supported Arigh Boke in his struggle (1260–1264) with Kubilai Khan. When Prince Alaghu revolted against Arigh Boke, he took over Khwarezm and drove Berke’s officals away. W. Barthold argues that the destruction of a 5000-man division of Berke’s, described by Wassaf, was not the work of Kubilai’s forces nor those of Khulagu (as C. d’Ohsson suggests) but of Alaghu. Berke later supported Khaidu against Alaghu and by extension against Kubilai.

      Berke seems to have had few direct dealings with the Rus’ lands except to promote religious tolerance, to send tax collectors there, and to commandeer Rus’ troops to send to his ally, the Mamluks in Egypt. When an uprising of townspeople against Berke’s tax collectors in Rus’had to be put down with Khanate troops, Alexander Nevskii went to Berke, either on his own initiative or because he was summoned, and pleaded for leniency for the perpetrators. It was on his way back from his meeting with Berke that Alexander Nevskii died in Gorodets in 1263.

      From 1262 on, Berke fought the Ilkhanate of Khulagu until the latter’s death in 1265, and then continued fighting Khulagu’s successor, Abaqa, until Berke’s own death in January 1267. During the period 1264–1265, as a part of this Kipchak Khanate-Ilkhanate war, Berke formed an alliance with the Mamluk sultan in Egypt while Khulagu formed an alliance with the Byzantine Empire. This brief period represented one of the few occasions during the two-and-a-half centuries of the Kipchak Khanate’s existence that it was not on friendly terms with the Byzantine Empire.

      Control questions:

      1. What are the signs of the Golden Horde dependent status on the Mongol Empire during Batu and Berke reign?

      2. Who supported Berke in his accession to the throne of the Golden Horde'?

      3. What can you say about the Berke's attempts of of the Golden Horde's Islamization?

      4. The Mongol Empire's state during the reign of Berke in the Golden Horde

      5. What are the reasons of the war of Juji with their relatives – the Khulaguids who settled in Iran?

      Kazakhstan lands in the structure of Golden Horde from the first political crisis in the Golden Horde (1266-1312) till disintegration period (1420-1480)

      Powerful general during the reign of Berke and Möngke Temür. However he lacked the military talents of Batu or his great grandfather Jöchi. He led an unsuccessful raid on Hungary in 1261, and commanded two failed campaigns against Khulagu – in 1262 and 1267. In the latter debacle he not only lost an eye but witnessed the death of his sovereign. However he was successful against the Byzantine Empire in 1265, after it had invaded Bulgaria, forcing it into an alliance, the Emperor Michael Palaeologos offering the hand of one of his illegitimate daughters to Emir Nogay. In 1271 he invaded Bulgaria at the request of his father-in-law who was seeking revenge against the King of Bulgaria for a raid against Thrace. Like Berke, Nogay was a Muslim, having been converted at some time prior to 1262. Nogay had three legitimate sons: Cheke, Teke and Buri.

      Nogay does not appear to have inherited his own ulus, and was always described as a commander, suggesting that he may not have been a legitimate son. Instead he seems to have carved out his own fiefdom in the western part of the Kipchak Khanate. Grousset refers to a Franciscan envoy to the Crimea named Ladislas, who noted that while the Khans of Kipchak (Töda-Möngke and Töle-Buqa, see below) occupied the region around Saray, Nogay roamed further west in the region of the Don and the Donets. From the 1260's onwards he controlled the westernmost region of the Khanate of Kipchak, effectively establishing an independent province on the western and northern shores of the Black Sea, ranging from the lower Danube to the lower Don and extending north to the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains (in other words a large part of present day Moldova and the Ukraine). His influence extended into the Balkans and northern Bulgaria. His main encampment was on the River Bug, which enters the Black Sea just west of the Crimea.