Mamai left a significant mark on history: it was under him that the famous Battle of Kulikovo took place. It was an ambiguous, but influential personality of his time. Consider who Mamai is, what he did for his country, what he became famous for.
Origin
Mamai was born around 1335. He came from the Kiyat clan (an ancient Turkic tribe, whose representative was Genghis Khan himself). Mamai married very favorably, taking Tulunbek, the daughter of Muhammad Berdibek (the eighth ruler of the Horde), as his wife.
Berdibek died in 1359. This ended the reign of the Batuid dynasty. Mamai began the so-called "Great Jam" period, which lasted almost until his death. He tried to restore the dynasty, making only representatives of the clan khans. However, according to the law of the Golden Horde, they were impostors.
Ranks and positions
Answering the question of who Mamai is, one cannot ignore his rank and position. He ruled the troops of the Golden Horde from 1361 to 1380, was a military leader. The Russians called him temnik. This is the military rank of a person who leads the largest group of his army (about 10 thousand people). He did not have the title of khan, since he did not belong to the Genghisid family. He was also a beklarbek -Governor of the Golden Horde State Administration.
History of events before the Battle of Kulikovo and policy of Mamaia
When Berdibek, Tulunbek's father, was killed by Khan Kulp, Mamai declared war on him and, as already mentioned, the period of the "Great Memory" began. For 11 whole years since 1359, Mamai fought as many as nine khans, who opposed the fact that he put Khan Abdullah at the head of the White Horde. In 1366, Mamai conquered some lands in the west of the possessions of the Golden Horde (near the Crimea) and began to rule there. This weakened the central government. Temporarily, he even ruled the capital - New Saray (when he managed to win it back).
Eastern states did not support Mamai, so he mainly turned to European states for support (most often to Lithuanian, Genoa and Venice). Mamai's reign was very ambiguous. Historians know that at first he supported the Moscow principality, even concluded an agreement with Metropolitan Alexy, who, one might say, ruled Moscow while Prince Dmitry was little. For Russia, the benefit of such an alliance was that Mamai reduced taxes levied on Russians.
After some time, Mikhailo Alansky with the little prince himself asked the temnik (recall, that's how Mamai was called in Russia) to give a label to the principality of Dmitry Donskoy. Alan made many gifts to Temnik, and he agreed. Thus, Dmitry Donskoy, the prince, became dependent on Mamai (the Mamaev Horde, more precisely, the self-proclaimed state in the Golden Horde), and not on those rulers who ruled in Sarai. Seven years laterMamai took away the label for the principality from the prince, and gave it to Mikhail of Tverskoy. But already matured at that time, Prince Dmitry managed to regain this label a year later. It was handed to him by Khan Muhammad Bulak, who was placed on the throne by Mamai.
At the same time, there was a struggle with Tokhtamysh (legitimate khan of the Horde). He was a Chingizid and from 1377 tried to become a full-fledged ruler. His main goal was to remove Mamai. A year later, he and his troops invaded the temnik's domain. By 1380, Tokhtamysh returned his lands, and only the North of the Black Sea and Crimea remained for Mamai. Tokhtamysh won and established legal power, and the "Great Zamyatnya" ended. It was almost at the same time as the Battle of Kulikovo, which we will discuss below.
Battle of Kulikovo
To know who Mamai is, you need to understand what role he played in the clash on the Kulikovo field. This battle was between the troops of Mamai and Dmitry Donskoy. There are several reasons that led to this battle.
Relations between the Mamaev Horde and Moscow worsened when the temnik took away the label to the Principality of Moscow from Donskoy, which had already been given to him. For this, Prince Dmitry stopped paying tribute. Temnik decided to send his ambassadors, but they were all killed by order of the prince, who had many supporters. After that, there were small clashes between the warring parties, but Mamai himself had not yet attacked. So far, only Arapsha (Khan of the Blue Horde serving under Mamai) has ravaged some large Russian principalities.
In 1378, Temnik sent his troops to battle with Dmitry,but the Horde were defeated. Around the same time, Mamai began to lose part of his territory, as Tokhtamysh and his people attacked him from the other side. In 1380, preparations for battle began. Moscow troops, led by Dmitry, were going to head to the Don through Kolomna. The main regiment was led by Donskoy himself, the second regiment was commanded by Vladimir the Brave, and the third by Gleb Bryansky. Many Russian cities also provided great military support to Prince Dmitry, sending their troops to help.
It is also interesting to note the number of troops. Various sources mention the number of Russian soldiers from 40 thousand to 400 thousand. But many historians believe that these numbers are exaggerated and that the number of soldiers did not exceed 60 thousand. But in the troops of Mamai, there were from 100 to 150 thousand people.
The Battle of Kulikovo took place on September 8, 1380 on the banks of the Don at the Kulikovo Field. It is known that the Russians advanced with banners depicting Jesus Christ. First, there were small clashes between the advanced troops, in which the Tatar-Mongol Chelubey and the Russian monk Peresvet were killed.
Since Mamai's troops outnumbered the Donskoy's troops, the Russians initially had little chance of winning. But they had a certain tactic. They hid the ambush detachments of princes Vladimir Serpukhov and Dmitry Bobrok-Volynsky, who helped a lot at the end of the battle. Thus, Mamai's side began to lose. Almost all the Horde warriors were killed. The battle ended with the flight of the Tatar-Mongol.
This battle had a greatmeaning. Although Russia still continued to be under the yoke of the Golden Horde, it became more independent, the Moscow principality was greatly strengthened. A hundred years later, Russia finally freed itself from the influence of the Horde.
Death
After losing to the Russian troops and Khan Tokhtamysh, Mamai fled to the territory of present-day Feodosia in the city of Kafu, but he was not allowed to go there. Mamai tried to hide in the city of Solkhat (now it is Stary Krym), but did not have time to get there. On his way, Tokhtamysh's people attacked him. By this time, all Mamai's supporters had gone over to the side of the legitimate ruler, so the temnik did not have reliable protection. In the battle with the people of Tokhtamysh, he was killed. Khan buried the body of his opponent with full honors. His grave (mound) is located in the village of Aivazovskoye near Feodosia (the former city of Sheikh-Mamai). Found the grave of our glorious painter Aivazovsky.
Rod Mamaia
According to historical genealogies, the descendants of Mamai were princes living in the Principality of Lithuania. The great family of the well-known Glinskys is supposed to have been descended from Mansur Kiyatovich, the son of Mamai. Prince Mikhail Glinsky, for example, is famous for his rebellion in Lithuania, after which he and his family moved to Moscow. Also, the descendants of Mamai are the Ruzhinsky, Vishnevetsky, Ostrogsky and Dashkevich families. The princes of these families are very famous in the history of Zaporozhye as people who did a lot for Ukraine militarily.
Interesting facts
Several interesting facts are known about Mamai's temnik:
- There is a saying “how Mamai passed”, which meansdisorder, ruin. It is also said about a person who left behind a mess. This expression occurred after the troops of Mamai successfully devastated the cities of Russia.
- In addition to numerous historical books and sources, the name of the temnik is mentioned in the song "Mamai" (performer: Ukrainian group "Vopli Vidoplyasova"). But here it is worth noting the fact that there is such a thing as "Cossack Mamai" - which means the collective image of the hero-Cossack of Ukraine. But the name did not come from the name of the temnik, but from the ancient word "mamayuvati" (to travel, lead a free lifestyle). So it has nothing to do with the darkness.
Conclusion
We found out who Mamai is. This is a temnik, beklyarbek and military leader of the Golden Horde, the unofficial ruler of the self-proclaimed state of Mamayev Horde. He managed to win the trust of many Tatar-Mongolians, to make many victories.
He became famous for his successful campaigns in Russia, but at the very end of his life he lost in the great Battle of Kulikovo, and a little later to Khan Tokhtamysh, with whom he fought for power for a long time. His mistakes led to the weakening of the influence of the Golden Horde, and his own death.
