Khans of the Golden Horde were distinguished by a tough style of government and ruthlessness even to the closest people. Despite these well-known facts, the years of the reign of Janibek Khan were considered one of the calmest in the Mongolian state, and Janibek himself was considered a gentle person. Let's look at the facts of his biography and check the assessment of the character of a military leader and a person from the point of view of modern morality.
Biography
Khan of the Golden Horde Dzhanibek (Tatar name - Җanibәk) was the third son of the numerous offspring that Uzbek left behind. Like many before him, he flooded his path to the throne with the blood of his own relatives - he killed two older brothers - Tinibek and Khizra. As you can see, this act of his does not characterize the future khan as a kind and law-abiding person. Maybe in the future his character will be softer?
Khanate
In 1342 he became the Khan of the Golden Horde. Janibek saw his goal as strengthening statehood and strengthening centralization. But the methods that Uzbek Khan used seemed ineffective to him - what could be easier than pouring bloodremote areas? You won't get richer from this. And Khan Janibek chose a different policy.
He still de alt harshly with his enemies and did not trust his friends. But Janibek changed the tactics of government radically. The Golden Horde Khan decided to bring religion to his side. Under him, mosques and madrasahs began to ascend to the sky in all the territories of the Horde. He continued to preach Islam and attract interpreters of Islam and sacred suras to his side. Such Islamization, fortunately, did not affect the northern uluses and did not have the proper impact on the religion of the inhabitants of the Moscow principality.
Written information
Chroniclers call this Golden Horde Khan "the good king Dzhanibek". This emphasizes his complete opposite to his father, who was called in the annals "the formidable Khan Uzbek." Indeed, the word "terrible" in ancient times meant fierce, ferocious, soulless. When compared with his own father, Khan Dzhanibek really seemed kind.
Metropolitan's acquaintance with Khan
Despite the spread of Islam, the ruler did not interfere with the strengthening of Orthodoxy in the Russian lands. Under him, the construction of churches and monasteries resumed, there were no persecutions of priests and desecration of Orthodox shrines. Therefore, in church literature, the period of Janibek's reign is characterized on the positive side.
Perhaps this showed the "softness" of the ruler? Alas and ah - it was simple foresight. The Orthodox Church coped well with the role of a peacemaker, and there was no need to change it. ExceptMoreover, one should not neglect the worldviews of a man of the Middle Ages - faith for him was more valuable than life. You shouldn't take their last toys from the slaves - so Janibek reasoned and turned his gaze to the south.
Trip to Russia
Khan Janibek undertook his only campaign in the northern lands in 1347. Villages and villages near the town of Aleksina suffered. Compared to the avalanche of pogroms and murders that the campaigns of Uzbek Khan always turned into, Janibek acted much more modestly. The small campaign was undertaken to demonstrate their own power, and not for terror. Repression and pressure were not required - the atrocities and murders that Uzbek Khan and his horde committed on Russian soil were too fresh in the memory, the price of new disobedience was too high.
Perhaps the only campaign within the Russian lands gave grounds for the Moscow chroniclers to give a "soft" characterization of Khan Dzhanibek. In the face of Moscow and neighboring principalities, Janibek really looked like a gentle ruler. But what will other nations say about him?
Trip to Azerbaijan
In 1357, Janibek undertook an aggressive campaign against Azerbaijan. The population of this country was dissatisfied with the internal politics of the tyrant Malik Ashref. The grand campaign ended with the defeat of government troops and the seizure of land. Janibek Khan leaves his son Berdibek as governor of the new ulus, and he returns to the Horde.
Khan's coin found in treasure found in AzerbaijanJanibek. This indirectly confirms his long trips far to the south.
Indirect evidence is confirmed in the annals and notes of random travelers.
The decline of the Golden Horde
The long absence from the south of the country has weakened the reins of vertical rule. Fermentation began in the Golden Horde, which threatened to end in disintegration. But Khan Janibek returns to the Horde unhe althy and does not have the strength to stabilize the situation in the country. In Russian sources, there is information about the same disease that affected the Khan and his mother, Khansha Taidula. Moscow Metropolitan Alexei arrived on a visit to the Horde and undertook to cure high-ranking patients from an unknown disease. Taidula received the Metropolitan and, thanks to his prayers, was cured. Janibek persisted in his faith and did not accept the metropolitan. He eventually succumbed to an illness in 1359. Although other sources claim that he did not pass the cup of betrayal and was killed by his own son.
Results
Does a rich biography speak of Janibek's gentle nature? Unfortunately no. He was no better or worse than other rulers, except that he preferred to replace senseless cruelty with far-sighted political action. The strengthening of the Orthodox Church, a peaceful life without raids (40 years of silence), meant for the Golden Horde Khan an increase in the flow of money and the strengthening of his own power. He achieved the same as his father - he just used different methods to achieve it.
