История Ногайской Орды

The two opening decades of the 16th c. were the time of a most dangerous upheaval for the Noghay Horde. Having inherited from Musa the influential and powerful Yurt, his brothers and sons came very close to losing their lands and subjects. The conflicts between the Noghay mirzas (noblemen), the simultaneous emergence of several biys put forward by fighting aristocratic factions, the Crimean and Kazakh invasions were the factors that brought the nomadic state to the brink of destruction. However, historical conditions became eventually more favorable to it. In the East, the Noghays succeeded in taking advantage of the unrest in the Kazakh Khanate that followed after the death of its powerful ruler Qasim. They mustered their forces and launched an offensive against the Eastern Dasht-i Q'ipchaq. The Kazakhs were soon driven as far as the Uzbek frontiers, and their former lands were one by one ceded to Noghay mirzas. In the West, after they had — several times and in a degrading manner — to pledge allegiance to the Crimea, Noghay leaders also proved able to change the situation in their favor. Simultaneously with the anti-Kazakh "reconquest", they overthrew the Crimean Yurt (1523) and substantially reduced the power of the Astrakhan Khanate which became subordinate. Noghay political influence became felt more and more in Kazan.

Mirza Mamay came to occupy the most prominent position in the Noghay Horde. However, he was not resolute enough to become a self-proclaimed ultimate ruler, or perhaps was unable to achieve this. He was primarily a military leader, a warlord. It was under his leadership that the Noghays achieved the decisive victories of the 1520s, which enabled them during the following decade to transform their state into a powerful and independent nomadic empire.

The 1530s — 40s became the time when the Noghay Horde reached the peak of its power and influence. Having defeated and intimidated their neighbors, Musa's descendants were finally able to make their land safe from foreign threat. Despite the unstable nature of unity within the ruling clan and the overthrow of the biy Sayyid Ahmad, the Noghay Horde of that time was still seen by the neighboring peoples as a dreadful and relatively cohesive force. The Noghays were also able to incorporate the Kazakh Khanate into the sphere of their hegemony, to consolidate and regularize their rule in Bashkiria. They competed on equal terms with Crimea for influence in Astrakhan and with Russia — though covertly — in Kazan. It was then that the Horde began to show certain signs of the incipient state machinery: the mirzas and the els under their administration were subdivided into "wings" (provinces) submitted now to the ultimate control of military governors; the biy, as regards his position and authority within the state (but not outside it), approached the status of the sovereign khan. The rule of the biy Shaykh Mamay (ca. 1540–49) was the highest peak in the development of Noghay political and social structure.

Under the biy Yusuf (1549–54), the Noghay Horde still remained strong and influential. The defeat that was inflicted by the Crimea in 1549 caused little damage to the Horde, though it was a painful lesson for the mirzas. It was not in the Khanate of the Girays that the main threat to the Noghay nomadic empire resided. The mighty Russian state pressed from the West. The Russian conquest of the Kazan Yurt (1552) upset the equilibrium of political forces established by that time in Eastern Europe. The state of Astrakhan was increasingly losing its independence coming under the influence of neighboring countries, until a Moscow-controlled puppet was enthroned there in 1554. The system of Late Jöchids' yurts eventually collapsed. Noghays participated neither in the Kazan nor in Astrakhan campaign of the czar's army — they were becoming watchers of history rather than its architects. The irresolution of the biy Yusuf was not the only reason for that; the strong right-wing opposition which formed by that time also contributed to such a state of affairs. The mirza Isma'il, the wing's head, started to look to Moscow in his politics. He was able to win over the Volga region mirzas, a numerous and authoritative faction of the Manghit nobility. Power was slipping out of Yusufs hands. Foreign rulers began to deal with Isma'il going over the biy's head. It seemed that Isma'il was now, to all intents and purposes, "number one" in the nomadic state. This situation had no peaceful outcome. The mid — 1550s saw the outbreak of the Second Unrest in the Noghay Horde.