Nogai Khan (died 1299) was a Khan of the Golden Horde and a great-grandson of Genghis Khan. His name is also spelled Nogay and Nogaj.
He was a nephew of Berke Khan, and under his uncle he became a powerful and ambitious warlord. In his later years, Berke began to relegate more and more responsibility to his promising nephew. Nogai first appears as a battle commander in the late 1250s, fighting in Poland and plundering Cracow. In 1262, during the civil war between Berke and Hulagu Khan, Nogai's army surprised the invading forces of Hulagu Khan at the Terek river. Many thousands were drowned, and the survivors fled back into Azerbaijan. In 1265, Nogai led his army across the Danube, sending the Byzantine forces fleeing before him, and devastated the city of Thrace. In 1266, the Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, anxious to make an alliance, gave his illegitimate daughter Euphrosyne Palaeologina to Nogai as a wife. That same year Nogai lost an eye fighting his brother-in-law, Abaqa Khan, in Tiflis.
Despite his power and battle prowess, Nogai never attempted to seize the khanate for himself, preferring to act as a sort of kingmaker. He served under Berke, Mengu-Timur, Tuda-Mengu, Talabug, and Tokhta. This last khan proved to be more headstrong than the others, and he and Nogai began a deadly rivalry.
Nogai was killed in battle in 1299 at the Kagamlik , near the Dnieper. His head was brought to Tokhta Khan, who was offended that a mere Russian soldier had slain the mighty khan. He had the Russian put to death, since "a commoner is unfit to kill a king."
His son by Euphrosyne, Chaka, became khan of Bulgaria and his name was borne by the Nogai Horde, who ruled east of the Ural river.
Sources
- Saunders, J.J. The History of the Mongol Conquests, 2001
