Uzbek Khan

About the Uzbek Khan ( Arabic / Persian اوزبك خان ), as a statesman and person, many Arab-Persian authors of the XIV-XV centuries wrote. Ibn Battuta , who was awarded a personal audience with him in 1333, gave the khan the highest rating: " He is one of those seven kings who are the greatest and most powerful kings of the world ." The chronicler al- Mufaddal : " ... He is a young man of beautiful appearance, of excellent character, a wonderful Muslim, brave and energetic ." Geographer and historian al-Aini: “ He was a brave and courageous man, religious and pious, respected jurists, loved scholars, obeyed [their advice], trusted them, was merciful to them, visited sheikhs and rendered them good ” ^[5] .

Al-Birzali, for example, writes: “ When this king [ Tokhta ] died, then after him reigned Uzbek Khan, a man of about thirty. He professed Islam, distinguished himself by his intellect, beautiful appearance and figure . " And in another place: "a young man of a beautiful appearance, a fine disposition, an excellent Muslim and a brave man ." Al-Zahabi speaks of him in the same vein: " ... a brave hero, handsome in appearance, a Muslim who destroyed many emirs and wizards ." Even the hulaguid historian Vassaf , who cannot be suspected of being friendly to the Uzbek Khan, speaks of him with great praise: “The pious prince Uzbek, ” he writes, “is the son of Togluk, the son of Toktai, the son of Mengu-Timur , who has divine faith and royal shine " ^[6] .

Note that the name Uzbek was of Turkic origin and was mentioned in the Middle East even before the campaigns of Genghis Khan . This name is found in Osama ibn Munkız (d. 1188) in his “Book of Edification”; Describing the events that took place in Iran during the Seljukids , the author notes that one of the leaders of the troops of the ruler Hamadan Bursuk in 1115-1116 was the "emir of troops" Uzbek - the ruler of Mosul ^[7] . According to Rashid al-Din , the last representative of the Turkic dynasty, the Ildehyzids who ruled in Tabriz , were called Uzbek Muzaffar (1210-1225) ^[8] .

Uzbek Khan was the nephew of Khan Tokhte and the grandson of Khan Mengu-Timur. The son of Tokhta Iksar (Ilbasar, Ilbasmysh), under the patronage of the all-powerful emir of Kadak, was declared a khan, while Kadak himself became the main vizier . But in January 1313, Uzbek, along with Beklyarbek Kutlug-Timur , arrived from Urgench to say words of comfort to the relatives of the late Khan of Tokhta, killed Iksar and Kadak. After, with the support of Kutlug-Timur and the wife of his father Bayalun, Uzbek seized power in the Golden Horde ^[9] . ^[10] .

According to the Tarih-i Sheikh Uweis ^[10] :

... the Horde emir Kadak wanted to raise the son of Tokhta Ilbasmysh to the throne, but Uzbek and Kutlug-Timur arrived from Khorezm and killed both.

The accession of Uzbekistan was carried out with the support of the supporters of Islam . The nomination was preceded by a lively struggle, as representatives of the nomadic aristocracy wanted to have a successor in Tokhta on the Horde throne, a supporter of the traditional order and Tengrianism . As a result, Uzbek, who ascended the throne with the support of the Islamic forces, had to spend eight years in the northern part of Desht-i-Kipchak. In January 1313, the Uzbek Khan ascended the throne. It was only in 1320 (1321) that he officially converted to Islam from a descendant of Bab Arslan Zangi-Ata and his successor Seyd-Ata . Bab Arslan was the mentor of Ahmed Yasavi , a major Sufi , an ideologist among the Turkic tribes.

The anonymous author of the 15th century essay “Shajarat al-atrak” ( Genealogy of the Turks ) reports the following ^[11] :

after ascending the khan’s throne until the expiration of 8 years, he spent his life with all his il and ulus in the countries of the northern (arch) Desht-i-Kipchak , because (he) liked (water and air) those countries and the abundance of hunting (game). When 8 years elapsed from the beginning of his sultanism, then under the leadership of holy sheikh sheikhs and Muslims, the pole of the world, St. Zengi-Ata and the most important seyyid, who has high titles, indicating the way to devotion to the lord of the worlds, the leader of wandering and conductor of seekers, St. Seyid- Ata, the successor of Zengi-Ata, he (Uzbek) in the months of 720 of the hijra (12 II 1320-30 I 1321), corresponding to the Turkic year of the chicken, was honored to accept Islam.

Having become a khan, Uzbek, at the insistence of Kutlug-Timur ^[12] , converted to Islam (according to the Simeon Chronicle : “he sat in the kingdom and became deserted ”) and received the name Muhammed . An attempt to introduce Islam as a state religion met with resistance from the Horde aristocracy. Opposition leaders Tunguz, Taz and Emir Sarai Kutlug-Timur told Uzbek: “ You expect humility and obedience from us, but what do you care about our faith and our confession, and how we will abandon the law and charter of Genghis Khan and transfer to the Arabs? »However, the adherents of the old Mongol party - the emirs and princes - were executed. The execution of 120 Genghisids has been reported ^[13] .

The Uzbek Khan firmly held power in his hands and brutally suppressed all sorts of separatist actions on the outskirts. He abolished Basqualism in Russia, transferring the right to levy tribute and send it to the Horde Russian princes.

The Uzbek Khan was able to eliminate internal strife in the Horde and achieve its rise. At the beginning of the XIV century, the khan carried out a major administrative-territorial reform, according to which the right wing of the Ulus of Dzhuchi was divided into 4 large uluses : Saray , Khorezm , Crimea and Desht-i-Kypchak , headed by ulus emirs ( ulusbeks ) appointed by the khan, due to which it was built a more rigid vertical of power, which ensured him the unquestioning submission of the Volga, Khorezm, Crimea and the Kipchak steppe.

The reign of Uzbek Khan was the time of the highest power of the Golden Horde. The era is marked by a cultural upsurge and wide urban construction. When it was built a new capital - Sarai al-Jedid . Khan paid a lot of attention to the development of trade. Caravan routes have become not only safe, but also comfortable. The Horde conducted lively trade with the countries of Western Europe, Asia Minor, Egypt, India, and China.

In 1317, the Uzbek Khan married his sister Konchak to Moscow Prince Yuri Danilovich , allowing her to accept Orthodoxy , which allowed the Prince to enlist the support of the Khan in the struggle for a great reign with Mikhail Yaroslavich Tversky . The Uzbek gave Yuri a Horde detachment led by Kavgadiy , but Mikhail Yaroslavich defeated the combined Moscow-Tatar army in the Battle of Bortenev . The unexpected death of Konchaki in Tver captivity gave Yuri an occasion to accuse Mikhail of poisoning before Uzbek. Mikhail Tverskoy was called to the Horde and here, due to the hatred of Kavgadyi for him, he was killed by order of the Uzbek.

“Under this king Azbyak in the Horde, five great Russian princes were killed by his command: Grand Duke Mikhailo Yaroslavich Tverskaya, and his two sons, Grand Duke Dmitry Mikhailovich and his brother Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, Grand Duke Vasily Ryazansky, Grand Duke Ivan Yaroslavich Ryazansky; Yes, three specific princes: Prince Alexander Novoselsky, Prince Fedor Alexandrovich, grandson of the blessed Grand Duke Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver, and Prince Fedor Ivanovich Starodubsky. At the same tsar Azbyak, the pious and great prince Yuri Danilovich of Moscow was killed in the Horde by the Grand Duke Dmitry Mikhailovich of Tver, without the command of Tsar Azbyak. And all was killed by the king Azbyak in the Horde of great princes and princes — nine people ” (The front annalistic vault ) .

The son of Mikhail of Tver, Alexander , who reigned in Tver , resumed the struggle with the Moscow prince Ivan Kalita , taking part in the uprising in 1327, in which the Tverichs killed the Horde ambassador Schelkan and his whole retinue. The Uzbek Khan was angry when he learned about the murder, and sent for the Prince of Moscow. According to other sources, Kalita went to the Horde himself, in a hurry to take advantage of the Tver incident. The Uzbek gave him a shortcut to reign and 50,000 troops. In 1327, Kalita with the Tatar and Suzdal detachments defeated the Tver army, brutally crushed the uprising and devastated the Principality of Tver. After that, Uzbek divided the main territory of North-Eastern Russia (the Grand Duchy of Vladimir ) into two parts, one of them being given to Ivan Kalita, and the other, together with the capital Vladimir , was transferred to the insignificant Suzdal prince Alexander Vasilyevich , after whose death Kalita again set off in 1331 to the Horde and received a label for the whole principality.

Alexander Mikhailovich Tverskoy, fleeing the wrath of Uzbek, fled to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . In 1337 he himself appeared to the khan and asked for pardon. The Uzbek liked the manly speech of the prince and he forgave him. But on October 29, 1339, at the instigation of Kalita, Alexander and his son Fedor were executed by order of the Uzbek painful death.

In 1340, Uzbek sent an army to the Smolensk Prince Ivan Alexandrovich , who did not want to pay tribute, which ravaged the Principality of Smolensk .

Despite the fact that the Uzbek Khan conducted a rather active foreign policy, the territory of the state did not undergo changes under him. Khan sought to prevent the Polish Kingdom from capturing the Galicia-Volyn principality . In 1337, the combined Russian-Horde army made a trip to Lublin . Then, at the request of the Galician boyar Dmitry Dedko, Uzbek sent a 40,000th army against King Casimir III the Great , which was defeated on the Vistula ^[14] .

Continuing to act in line with the traditional policy of the Juchids , Uzbek claimed the Transcaucasian territories - the possessions of the Khulaguids . In 1318/1319, 1325 and 1335, the Horde forces invaded Shirvan and Arran , but did not achieve tangible success. Beklyarbek Kutlug-Timur opposed the war with the Hulaguids, fearing that it would undermine the trade and internal stability of the Horde.

The Uzbek Khan maintained diplomatic relations with Byzantium , India, and the countries of Western Europe. Relations with Mamluk Egypt were renewed. The Khan entered into a dynastic marriage with the Byzantine emperor Andronicus II , marrying his daughter, and also entered into a kinship with the Egyptian sultan al-Nasir Mohammed , for whom he married his niece, Princess Tulunbai ^[15] . True, the sultan soon divorced her, and at the request of Uzbek (in 737 / 1336–1337) to give him one of the sultan’s daughters (“by whom he, Uzbek, could be famous and make brotherhood and friendship ”) an-Nasyr replied that his daughters are still young ^[16] . Nevertheless, relations between the two Muslim countries continued to be very close and friendly, which emphasizes the secretary of the Sultan al-Nasyr Ibn-Fadlullah al-Omari ^[15] .

For some time, the Uzbek Khan maintained good relations with Byzantium . However, at the end of the reign of Andronicus II, they sharply deteriorated. Around 1320-1324, the forces of the Uzbek Khan invaded Thrace and once again plundered it.

After the death of Uzbek in 1341, power in the Golden Horde for a short time passed to his son Tinibek .

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