Tulun Beg Khanum

Tulun Beg Khanum (Tūlūn-Bīk Ḫānum; died 1386) was a princess of the Golden Horde. Exceptionally for this political formation, she served as female monarch and had her name inscribed on coins minted in 1370-1371 at Sarai and Mokhshi.[1]

Tulun Beg Khanum
Queen of the Golden Horde
Western Half (Blue Horde)
Reign1370–1371
PredecessorʿAbdallāh
SuccessorMuḥammad-Sulṭān
Died1386
SpouseMamai, Tokhtamysh
DynastyBorjigin
FatherBerdi Beg
ReligionIslam

It appears that she served as a stopgap ruler, appointed by the beglerbeg Mamai to reign between the death of his protégé Khan ʿAbdallāh (1361-1370) and his next protégé, Khan Muḥammad-Sulṭān (1371-1379).[2] At the end of 1371 or the beginning of 1372, Mamai replaced Tulun Beg on the throne with the young Muḥammad-Sulṭān.[3] The origins and identity of Tulun Beg Khanum are not stated expressly,[4] but she has been identified plausibly as the otherwise unnamed daughter of Khan Berdi Beg, who was married to the kingmaker Mamai.[5] This would make Tulun Beg the last monarch of the Golden Horde demonstrably descended from Batu Khan.

Following his defeat by the Russians at Kulikovo in 1380, Mamai was defeated by a new Khan of the Golden Horde, Tokhtamysh, and fled to the Crimea, where he was murdered in late 1380 or early 1381 by agents of Tokhtamysh, after being turned out by the local Genoese and by his own governor. Even before Mamai's death, his harem fell into Tokhtamysh's hands after the Battle of the Kalka, and Tulun Beg married the new Khan Tokhtamysh. He treated the corpse of his former rival Mamai with honor and extended his protection over Mamai's family.[6]

Tulun Beg appears to have been implicated in an obscure plot against Tokhtamysh in 1386, and was executed. In the words of the Russian Rogožsk Chronicle, "This same year, Tsar Tokhtamysh himself killed his own Tsaritsa, named Tovlunbek." Related to these events may be the unexplained appearance of coins with the name of the long-dead Berdi Beg, Tulun Beg's father, in this period.[7]

Genealogy

References
  1. Počekaev 2010a: 130; idem. 2010b: 59-60. Her reign is often cited as 1370-1372; her coinage was issued during the Hijra years 772 (= AD 26 July 1370-14 July 1371) and 773 (= AD 15 July 1371-2 July 1372). Grigor'ev 1983: 43, agreeing with the identification of Tulun Beg Khanum with "Tovlunbek," the wife of Tokhtamysh executed in 1386, doubted the dating of Tulun Beg Khanum's coins; Sidorenko 2000: 286-287 places her reign in the Hijra year 773.
  2. Commonly, but perhaps erroneously, Muḥammad-Sulṭān is often conflated with Mamai's last protégé, Tūlāk/Būlāq, and referred to as Muḥammad-Būlāq, e.g., Howorth 1880: 208; Bosworth 1996: 252.
  3. Počekaev 2010a: 131.
  4. Howorth 1880: 207 hypothesized that she might have been the widow of Khan ʿAzīz.
  5. Varvarovskij 1994: 139; idem. 2008: 89; Mirgaleev 2003: 37; Počekaev 2010a: 122; idem. 2010b: 35. The daughter of Berdi Beg married to Mamai is mentioned simply under the title Ḫānum by Ibn Khaldun: Tizengauzen 2005: 277.
  6. Počekaev 2010a: 161; idem. 2010b: 94.
  7. Počekaev 2010a: 165, 313, n. 356; idem. 2010b: 224, n. 297.

Sources
  • Bosworth, C. E., The New Islamic Dynasties, New York, 1996.
  • Grigor'ev, A. P., "Zolotoordynskie hany 60-70-h godov XIV v.: hronologija pravlenii," Istriografija i istočnikovedenie stran Azii i Afriki 7 (1983) 9-54.
  • Howorth, H. H., History of the Mongols from the 9th to the 19th century, Part II.1, London, 1880.
  • Mirgaleev, I. M., Političeskaja istorija Zolotoj Ordy perioda pravlenija Toktamyš-hana, Kazan', 2003.
  • Počekaev, R. J., Cari ordynskie: Biografii hanov i pravitelej Zolotoj Ordy. Saint Petersburg, 2010a.
  • Počekaev, R. J., Mamaj: Istorija “anti-geroja” v istorii, Sankt-Peterburg, 2010b.
  • Sidorenko, V. A., "Hronologija pravlenii zolotoordynskih hanov 1357-1380 gg.," Materialov po arheologii, istorii i ètnografii Tavrii 7 (2000) 267-288.
  • Tizengauzen, V. G. (trans.), Sbornik materialov, otnosjaščihsja k istorii Zolotoj Ordy. Izvlečenija iz arabskih sočinenii, republished as Istorija Kazahstana v arabskih istočnikah. 1. Almaty, 2005.
  • Varvarovskij, J. E., Ulus Džuči v 60-70-e gody XIV veka, Kazan', 2008; posthumously published version of author's dissertation Raspad Ulusa Džuči v 60-70-e gody XIV veka (po dannym pis'mennyh istočnikov i numizmatiki, Kazan', 1994.


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