Tumen upon the Terek: From a Horde Ulus to a Caucasian Principality

Abstract

The article focuses on the origin and development of the Tumen lordship in the North Caucasus. Particular attention is given to clarifying the etymology of its name and its borders. The author traces the political evolution of Tumen from an ordinary ulus of the Golden Horde into a North Caucasian principality, analysing its social and political structure and its relations with the Great Horde, the Crimean khan, the Russian state, and the neighbouring Caucasian principalities. The article concludes with the period when Tumen lost its independence at the end of the 16th century.

Keywords: Tumen; ulus; principality; North Caucasus; Golden Horde; Djulat; shamkhals.

Introduction: A fragment of the Golden Horde

By the middle of the 15th century the definitive collapse of the Golden Horde had become an evident reality. A number of political formations arose on its fragments. The most prominent of these were the Great and Nogai hordes and the Crimean, Siberian, Uzbek and Kazan khanates. Yet alongside these vast former uluses of the Horde, smaller state formations also emerged. One of them was the "Tumen Khanate" — a term introduced into scholarly use by Ye.N. Kusheva in 1963³ — also known as the Caucasian Tumen.

The origin of the name

Several theories exist regarding the origin of the name of the Tumen lordship. A.-K. Bakikhanov links the name of the Tumen domain with the early medieval principality of Touman. The territory of the latter, in his view, encompassed the possessions of the shamkhal and the plain portion of the domain of the utsmi⁴. It is not entirely clear how such a state formation could have existed on this territory simultaneously with the Kingdom of the Huns, Khamrin, the Khazar Khaganate, Jidan (Jandar / Shandan), and later with the Shamkhalate and Kaitag. Bakikhanov himself offered no explanation on this point. In locating Touman he relied on the Darband-Nama (late 16th – early 17th century) and its sources — Arabic chronicles whose authors were often poorly versed in the geography of the North Caucasus and usually confined themselves to lists of toponyms without paying due attention to their actual location. Given the chronological gap between the last mention of Touman and the first mention of Tumen — almost seven centuries — we are inclined to hold that there is no historical or political continuity between early medieval Touman and the Caucasian Tumen. The latter existed much later than Touman and was inseparably linked to the valley of the Terek.

The most obvious connection is that of the toponym Tumen with the Golden Horde administrative unit tümen (tumen). This term refers to the nominal figure of ten thousand, but it is unclear whether in this case it denoted the ten-thousand-strong army that could be fielded or — more probably — the number of taxable population capable of maintaining that number of warriors. In this connection, the evidence brought to light by I.A. Mustakimov concerning the tumen "Djulat Cherkes" — held by Shiban, son of Jochi, and centred on the site of the Upper Djulat fortified settlement (present-day Elkhotovo in North Ossetia) — is of particular interest⁵. According to Ye.I. Narozhnyy, the well-known Golden Horde geographical term Djulat is a parallel name for the Caucasian Tumen⁶. Such an identification is indirectly supported both by the dominance in the Tersk region in the second half of the 13th century of the Shibanid Tama-Tokhta⁷ and by the prevalence of toponyms containing the root tumen (for example, Tmenikau, Tumena, Touman, Toumanta) in the foothills of North Ossetia, in the immediate vicinity of Upper Djulat (Elkhotovo)⁸. It is characteristic that, when describing one of the skirmishes between Ilkhanid troops and a Golden Horde frontier force (lashkar-i qaraul) led by Tama-Tokhta¹, Rashid al-Din estimates its strength at precisely one tumen⁹.

Djulat and the western sources

Yazdi calls Djulat a region and reports that Timur's warriors laid in grain supplies there. The latter circumstance attests to a considerable farming population in the region. Johann Schiltberger mentions Djulat as a mountainous country¹⁰. In this connection, the testimony of the elders of the Tumen tribal community before the Social-Landholding Commission (1860s) is interesting: according to their traditions, "the Tumen tribe was once large," and "apart from the Tumens living in the Aksay and Baryshly villages," there were also Tumens "at the headwaters of the Argun river, living on the mountain Shubut"¹¹.

Yazdi and Shami write that Timur descended to Djulat after approaching the Terek from the Sunzha and crossing it. The fact that Tumen and Djulat are never mentioned alongside one another in the sources also supports Ye.I. Narozhnyy's view of their identity; but it stands in contradiction to Schiltberger's epithet "mountainous," quoted above, which is wholly unsuitable for the lower Terek. For this reason we take the view that, given the scarcity of sources on the history of the region in the 14th–15th centuries, it is still too early to bring this question to a final close.

G.-R. A.-K. Guseynov offers a different etymology of the name Tumen, deriving it from the Kipchak word tömen meaning "lower" (in relation to the mountains) and seeing in it a designation of the lower Terek¹². If so, the name could have arisen in the Kipchak period (11th–13th centuries), which accords well with the testimony of Abu'l-Ghazi about the flight of the Kipchaks, defeated by the Mongols and dwelling between the Itil (Volga) and the Tin (Don), into "the yurt of the Circassians and the Toumans"¹³. Regardless of the etymology of the name, Abu'l-Ghazi's statement is itself of interest for determining the ethnic composition of Tumen's population.

The Maiki-biy legend

Nogai traditions associate the rise of the Tumen lordship with Maiki-biy of the Uysun clan¹⁴. Zh. Sabitov identifies this epic hero with the noyan Khushiday-Bayku of the Khushin (Uysun) clan, whom — together with three others — Genghis Khan placed under the command of his son Jochi for the conquest of the western lands¹⁵. After Jochi's death, Bayku served as chief of the right wing under Batu. According to Rashid al-Din, the bulk of the troops of the Ulus of Jochi rulers Tokhtay and Bayan was descended from the four thousand warriors of Bayku-noyan. The remaining six thousand were made up of Majar, Circassians and Kipchaks; together they formed a single ten-thousand-strong army — that is, a tumen¹⁶. In this case, however, we have a striking example of a wandering motif, for the Kazakhs of the Senior Zhuz also trace their genealogy back to Maiki-biy. In Karakalpak traditions he appears as a common ancestor of the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Nogais and Karakalpaks. Uzbek traditions call Maiki-biy the son of a certain Tumen¹⁷. A large stratum of legends connected with Maiki-biy's name has also been preserved among the Bashkirs, particularly the Tabyns¹⁸.

The borders of the Tumen lordship

Data from the late 15th and 16th centuries refer to the western neighbours of the Tumen lordship as "Cherkasy" — that is, Kabardians¹⁹. With some caution, the remains of semi-nomadic settlements in the Terek–Sulak interfluve dated to the 15th and early 16th centuries can be linked with the Tumens; the surface finds from these sites show a typological similarity to the Volga ceramics of the 14th–15th centuries²⁰.

Thus, in the west the Tumen lordship included at least the Upper Djulat region and bordered on Kabardian settlements, while in the south it covered the Terek–Sulak interfluve (the Kumyk Plain). L.I. Lavrov reached similar conclusions on the basis of source analysis²¹.

Timur's campaign and the rise of the city of Tumen

On 15 April 1395 the territory of the Caucasian Tumen became the arena of the greatest clash between the armies of Tokhtamysh and Timur. Timur's campaign could not but have had the most disastrous effects on its population.

On the basis of the analysis of archaeological materials and their comparison with the evidence of the Timurid chroniclers, Ye.I. Narozhnyy concludes that it was precisely during the Golden Horde period that a large settlement took shape in the Terek delta, which he is inclined to identify with the town of Tumen²². Tumen traditions themselves place this town on the site of the Esgi-Kala fortified settlement to the south-east of the stanitsa of Aleksandriyskaya (now the village of the same name in the Kizlyar district of the Republic of Dagestan)²³.

Tumen in the sources of the 15th century

The Caucasian Tumen is first mentioned in the sources in 1401, among the Catholic missions which before 1392 had been part of the "bishopric of the Caspian mountains"²⁴. We should clarify that in the 14th century, as a result of active missionary activity, the Catholic Franciscan order managed to establish a number of missions in the Golden Horde, including in the North-Eastern Caucasus. Alongside the Franciscans, the Carmelites were also represented in the North Caucasus; valuably, Johann Schiltberger mentions them in connection with the mountainous country of Djulat (setzulat), in which, according to him, a Catholic bishopric was also active²⁵.

The Tumen steppe figures in the work of Josafa Barbaro in connection with the movement of Navruz and Kichi Muhammad from Astrakhan to the Sea of Azov (le carnagne de Tumen)²⁶. The Tumen steppe is also known, in the form Tamani Budur, to the Ossetian Nart epic²⁷.

Fyodor Soymonov, a companion-in-arms of Peter the Great, referring to the chronicles, reports that in "the year 6983 from the Creation of the World" — that is, in 1475 — forty Ustyug merchants intended to go to the Caspian Sea to trade with Tumen, but were seized and killed along the way by the Kazan Tatars²⁸.

In 1487 Tumen was devastated by the Qizilbash under Haydar Safavi, during which a considerable number of Christians living there — possibly North Caucasian Catholics — were killed and taken prisoner²⁹.

The Timurid lineage in Tumen (1501–1532)

By 1501, the descendants of the Golden Horde khan Timur-Qutlugh (d. ca. 1400), led by Murtaza, son of Khan Akhmad, had established themselves in Tumen³⁰. Murtaza was at odds with his elder brother, Shaykh-Ahmad, khan of the Great Horde. Murtaza was accompanied in his flight to the Terek by his brothers Muzaffar and Hajji-Muhammad, as well as by his father's former beklerbek Hajjike of the Mangyt clan.

In 1502 the Great Horde ceased to exist, and its territory was divided between the Astrakhan and the Crimean khanates. Murtaza, who aimed at the restoration of the Great Horde, entered into negotiations with the Nogai mirzas. Having come to terms with Mirza Shaykh-Muhammad, he proclaimed his younger brother Hajji-Ahmad khan of the Great Horde (he considered himself too old for this task: "… being old, he cannot hold the kingdom"). Curiously, in his election certain "Tumen sultans" took part³¹.

At that time "sultan" was a title borne by non-reigning members of the dynasty. That is, in Tumen at that moment (in 1514) a Jochid appanage with high-born local rulers was still preserved. Shaykh-Muhammad, who had been appointed beklerbek under the new khan, at once attempted to rid himself of the khan's kinsmen, but failed. In particular, Muzaffar fled to Hajji-Tarkhan (Astrakhan), to Khan Janibeg, who — having learned from him the details of the coronation on the banks of the Terek — began preparing an army against potential rivals in the struggle for power over the Volga region³².

In 1515 the Astrakhan khan Janibeg arrived in Tumen with an army and routed the supporters of Hajji-Ahmad. The local nobility, however, still retained some independence. In 1518 the "Cherkasy" and Tumen were in communication with the Crimean khan and agreed to assist him in the war against the Astrakhan Khanate³³. In 1532, with the support of the "Cherkasy", Ak-Kubek, son of Murtaza and grandson of Akhmad, established himself on the Astrakhan throne³⁴.

The memory of the Tumen rulers of the Timur-Qutlugh line, merged with traditions about the events of the early 18th century — in particular, the 1705 revolt on the Terek — was embodied, several centuries later, in the historical tradition of the "Vilayet of Tatarkhan", which became the core of the Tarikhi Qizlarqala chronicle compiled in Kizlyar in the early 20th century³⁵.

From sultans to beks: a change of ruling elite

The first sign of a change in the ruling elite of Tumen is seen in information from Khan Shaykh-Ahmad's letter of 1527 to the Polish king, preserved in the Lithuanian Metrica: "…in the Tumen horde there are now other (inshyi — i.e. new. — Yu.I.) princes, and with them we have certain dealings"³⁶. It is significant that in the "Tumen horde" it was no longer sultans but "princes" — beks, a non-dynastic nobility, most probably of local origin — who now held sway.

Overall, the first half of the 16th century is characterised by the confrontation in the Lower Terek region between the Astrakhan Khanate and the Shamkhalate of Tarki. After the seizure of Astrakhan by the Crimean Tatars in 1547, the scales tipped in favour of the Shamkhalate.

The use of the title shamkhal (shaukhal, shevkal) in reference to the Tumen ruler is telling. Most probably, after Ak-Kubek's departure for Astrakhan, a new dynasty came to power in Tumen, whose representatives preferred to style themselves shamkhals, like their southern neighbours — the lords of Tarki. This is attested by the fact that in 1549 the Nogai Mirza Ismail boasted of his victories over the Tumens and the "Kabartey Cherkassians", but two years later was asking the tsar for two "small" cannons for the war against the "Tumen shaukhal"³⁷. Power in the domain passed not from father to son but — like in the Shamkhalate — according to the principle of seniority within the clan³⁸. Another hint at a change of dynasty is the presence in Tumen's social structure of an estate characteristic of the North Caucasian peoples — the uzden. In particular, the name of the uzden of the Tumen prince Saltanay Aray has been preserved³⁹.

Under pressure from Moscow (1554–1580)

In 1554 the Astrakhan khan Yamgurchi fled to Tumen, from which he departed for Azov and further to Crimea, and brought, in order to fight Ismail, detachments of Nogais — subjects of Qazy and the sons of Yusuf⁴⁰. These detachments, however, were repulsed by the army of Prince Jan-Timur, son of Dervish-Ali, at that time an ally of Moscow. Somewhat later Dervish-Ali went over to the side of the Crimeans. Taking advantage of this, Ismail — who by that time had become the Nogai bi — proposed to Ivan IV his own candidate for the Astrakhan throne, Kaybulla, son of Ak-Kubek, who had begun his political career in Tumen, but did not meet with understanding⁴¹. The tsar preferred not to set up a puppet khan in Astrakhan but to annex the khanate directly to the Russian state.

After the conquest of Astrakhan by Ivan the Terrible, Russian sources mention "Shevkal of Tumen" Agish, who accepted Russian suzerainty in 1558; Agish was succeeded in 1559 as "shevkal" by "the Tumen prince Tokluy", and Tokluy in turn in 1569 by his nephew, the Tumen prince Tyugen Atyakov (Tugan Aytekov)⁴².

In 1560 the voyevoda Ivan Cheremisinov, on the tsar's orders, led a campaign against Tumen and Tarki. Despite his initial success at Tarki, Cheremisinov's army failed to seize Tumen or to pass on into Kabarda as had been planned⁴³.

In 1563–1564 the Muscovite envoy in Crimea, Afanasiy Nagoy, reported to the Ambassadorial Chancery on the threat of a Turkish and Crimean campaign against Astrakhan. The main reason, according to Nagoy, was the Turkish sultan's irritation at complaints by the Muslims of Tumen and of the Crimean-Shaukhal² that the Terek voyevodas would not allow pilgrims through to Mecca⁴⁴.

In 1577 news reached Moscow of further clashes between the Great Nogais and the "Tumen-Shevkal host"⁴⁵.

The fall of Tumen (1588–1594)

The last ruler of the Caucasian Tumen on the Terek was Saltanay. In 1588 the Russian streltsy founded the fortress of Terki on the little river Tumenka (now the Stary Terek). The Russian voyevodas and Cossacks were assisted in the seizure of Tumen by the Kabardian prince Janklish (Kanklych) Cherkassky, of the Idarov clan⁴⁶. The shamkhal was preparing to give Saltanay military aid and had begun to gather North Caucasian lords for a campaign; however, Janklish's cousin, Prince Mamstryuk Cherkassky, intervened and by diplomatic means prevented their joint action⁴⁷.

In 1594 the Tumen lordship — having existed for about a hundred years — disappeared from the ethno-political map of the North-Eastern Caucasus as a result of the Muscovite conquest. Not recognising the rule of the Muscovite tsars, the Tumen rulers and their subjects placed themselves under the protection of the independent Kumyk prince Sultan-Mahmud (Soltan-Mut) of Endirey. In his domains they settled in the lower reaches of the Sulak (Koysu) river — in particular, at the so-called Saltanay's Place, which can be identified with the later village of Tumen⁴⁸, which was absorbed as a quarter into the growing neighbouring settlement of Sultan-Yangi-Yurt, as well as at the nearby locality of Burunchak⁴⁹.

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Archival sources

• TsGA RD (Central State Archive of the Republic of Dagestan), F. 105, Op. 5, D. 18: "Memorandum of a member of the Commission on Estates in the Kumyk District" (ll. 52 ob., 53, 64).
• TsGA RD, F. 147, Op. 6, D. 2, L. 1: Military topographic map of the Khasav-Yurt District of the Terek Oblast.