Özbeg or Uzbeg Khan (1282–1341), also known as Giyas ad-Din Muhammad Uzbek Khan, was Khan of the Golden Horde from 1313 to 1341. He was the longest-reigning khan, under whose rule the state reached its zenith.Sinor, 178. He was succeeded by his son Tini Beg. He was the son of Toghrilcha and grandson of Mengu-Timur, who had been khan of the Golden Horde from 1266 to 1280.
Biography
Öz Beg was born in 1282. His father Togrilcha was one of the Genghisid princes that overthrew Tode-Mengu (). Later, he was executed by his brother Toqta (). Toqta took Togrilcha's widow for wife and sent his son Öz Beg to exile in a distant region of the Golden Horde: either Khorazm or the country of Circassians.
Converted to Islam by Ibn Abdul Hamid, a Sunni Sufi Bukharan sayyid and sheikh of the Yasavi order, Öz Beg assumed the throne upon the death of his uncle Toqta in January 1313 with the help of the former Khans' vizier Temur Qutlugh and of Bulaghan (or Bayalun) khatun. At his conversion, he officially took the name Ghiyāth al-Dīn Muhammad. His conversion is also mentioned in Russian chronicles, but without any detailed information; the standard entry notes that the khan Toqta died in the year 6821 (1313) and the new khan Öz Beg took the throne and "became a Muslim" (obesermenilsia). Öz Beg may have converted in order to secure support from the Muslim begs.
At first, many Mongol nobles were against him due to fears that they would be forced to adopt Islamic law. As a result, they organized a plot to kill the new khan. Öz Beg discovered the plot and crushed the rebels.Rene Grousset – Central Asia: Empire of Steppes Öz Beg determinedly spread Islam among the Golden Horde and allowed missionary activities to expand in the surrounding regions. Öz Beg found out that his competitor was backed by the envoys of the Great Khan Ayurbarwada Buyantu and this fact helped deteriorate his relationship with the Yuan dynasty.Encyclopedia of Mongolia and Mongol Empire, see: Golden Horde The last of his rebellious relatives was shamanist Ilbasan of the eastern half of the Golden Horde, who was murdered in 1320. Öz Beg installed the Muslim Mubarak Khwaja as a replacement to the throne of the White Horde, but he discouraged their independence. In the long run, Islam enabled him to eliminate inter-factional struggles in the Horde and to stabilize state institutions. Russian scholar Lev Gumilev wrote that in this manner was Öz Beg able to turn the khanate into a sultanate.Л.Н.Гумилев – Великая степь и Древняя русь
Despite his strong commitment to Islam, Öz Beg allowed the Russian Church and other religious minorities to feel free from oppression, and he confirmed Mengu-Timur's decree to give Russian clergy a tax exemption. Öz Beg was very tolerant of Christians as exemplified by a letter of thanks he received from Pope John XXII, in which the Christian leader thanked Öz Beg for his kind treatment of Christians.The preaching of Islam: a history of the propagation of the Muslim faith By Sir Thomas Walker Arnold, pp. 200–201. Öz Beg also permitted Christians to operate in the regions bordering the Black Sea. Öz Beg had sent a letter to Metropolitan Peter which stated:By the will and power, the greatness and most high! Let no man insult the metropolitan church of which Peter is head, or his service or his churchman; let no man seize their property, goods or people, let no man meddle in the affairs of the church...Their laws, their churches and monasteries and chapels shall be respected; whoever condemns or blames this religion, shall not be allowed to excuse himself under any pretext, but shall be punished with death. The khan also granted tax exemption to the Franciscan missionaries in the Golden Horde, following the Mongolian fiscal tradition.Enerelt Enkhbold, "Religious Services and Rational Choices: Two Cases of Limited Tax Exemption in the Mongol Empire," Central Asiatic Journal 67, no. 1-2 (2024): 195-219, https://doi.org/10.13173/CAJ.67.1-2.195.
Reign
Military and politics
Öz Beg maintained one of the largest armies in the world, which exceeded 300,000 warriors. He employed his military clout to conduct campaigns against the Ilkhanate in Azerbaijan in 1319, 1325 and 1335. Ilkhanid commander Chupan repulsed one Öz Beg's first two attempts and even invaded deep into the Jochid Ulus in 1325. Öz Beg found an ally against the Ilkhanids in Mamluk Egypt; indeed, one of Cairo's squares was named after him. The Khan had the daughter of previous Khan's sister, Princess Tulunbuya, married to a Mamluk sultan, but she died in a few years. The khan instructed his merchants to lend 27,000 dinars to the Mamluk ambassador in order to finance the feast for the bride at Sarai. Soon after Öz Beg was disappointed with the Mamluk sultan's divorce with Tulunbuya and indecisiveness regarding the joint invasion of Ilkhanate. In 1323, a peace treaty was signed between Egypt and the Ilkhanate. This situation nullified the alliance and the Mamluks refused to invade the Ilkhanate. Öz Beg's next incursion coincided with Abu Said's death. However, the weather turned bad and the new Ilkhan Arpa Ke'un came with a large force; Öz Beg's army was forced to withdraw.
Prior to and during the Esen Buqa–Ayurbarwada war, Chagatai Khan Esen Buqa I attempted to gain the support of Öz Beg Khan against Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan, the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and the Emperor of the Yuan dynasty, in 1313 and 1316. Esen Buqa warned Öz Beg that the Great Khan would overthrow him from the throne of the Horde and install another Khan from the Jochids instead. However, Öz Beg's vizier convinced him not to believe this and the Khan refused to help Esen Buqa. Nevertheless, remembering their support for the rival claimant to his throne, Öz Beg tried his best to eliminate every influence and inspiration of the Yuan dynasty on the Golden Horde in the early part of his reign. The Khan's diplomatic relationship with the Yuan, however, improved in 1324.Encyclopedia of Mongolia and Mongol Empire, see: Golden Horde, J.J. Saunders – the history of Mongol conquests Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan granted him the de jure rights to rule the Golden Horde (Ulus of Jochi in the Yuan sources). By the 1330s, Öz Beg had begun sending tribute to the Mongol Yuan Emperors and received his share from Jochid possessions in China and Mongolia in exchange.
Öz Beg was engaged in wars with Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire from 1320 to 1332. He repeatedly raided Thrace, partly in service of tsar Michael Shishman of Bulgaria war against both Byzantium and Serbia that began in 1319. His armies pillaged Thrace for 40 days in 1324 and for 15 days in 1337, taking 300,000 captives.H. H. Howorth – History of the Mongols, d.II: pt.II After Öz Beg's death in 1341, reportedly in October or November, his successors did not continue his aggressive policy and contact with Bulgaria lapsed.Christopher P. Atwood – Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire, p. 73. His attempt to reassert Mongol control over Serbia was unsuccessful in 1330. Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III purportedly gave his illegitimate daughter in marriage to Öz BegMihail-Dimitri Sturdza, Dictionnaire historique et Généalogique des grandes familles de Grèce, d'Albanie et de Constantinople (English: Great families of Greece, Albania and Constantinople: Historical and genealogical dictionary) (1983), p. 373. but relations turned sour at the end of Andronikos's reign, and the Mongols mounted raids on Thrace between 1320 and 1324 until the Byzantine port of Vicina Macaria was occupied by the Mongols. Andronikos's daughter, who adopted the name Bayalun, managed to escape back to the Byzantine Empire, apparently fearing her forced conversion to Islam. In the south-east of the Kingdom of Hungary, Wallachia and its ruler Basarab I became an independent power with the support of Öz Beg after 1324.
Öz Beg allowed Genoese merchants and mariners, who had been harassed by Tokhta, to settle in Crimea. However, the Mongols sacked Sudak under Khan Öz Beg in 1322 as a result of a clash between Christians and Muslims in the city. The Genoese merchants in the other towns were not molested in 1322. The Pope himself intervened and asked Öz Beg to restore the Roman Catholic churches that were destroyed in revenge, because of the Christian clash against Muslims in the city. Öz Beg was friendly towards the Pope and exchanged letters and gifts. Khan Öz Beg signed a new trade treaty with the Genoese in 1339 and allowed them to rebuild the walls of Caffa. In 1332 he had allowed the Venetians to establish a colony at Tanais on the Don.
New Sarai
During the reign of Öz Beg, Sarai (literally meaning "palace" in Turkish and Uzbek, and a hotel / inn / temporary residence in Persian and Urdu) was more quickly becoming a main commercial center and industrial trading center of the country rather than just a political center. The expression of Mongol camp mentality, following Ash and the nearby absence of some structures. The traveler Ibn Battuta described the capital as "one of the finest of cities, of boundless size [...] choked with the throng of its inhabitants, and possessing good bazaars and broad streets".
To successfully spread Islam, it was necessary to build a mosque and other "elaborate places" like baths, an important element of Muslim culture. Sarai attracted merchants from European, Asian and Islamic countries as well as Middle East. Slave trade flourished due to strengthening ties with Mamluk Sultanate. Successful commercial revolutions require new markets and caravans: "places where merchants find their way." Growth of wealth and increasing needs of production always stimulate population growth. This did not suffice solely in Sarai. The accretion of the dwellings in the region transformed the capital into the center of a large Muslim government, giving it the appropriate aspect and status. Öz Beg actually came to build a new city, which received the official name Saray al-Jedid or New Sarai.
Relationship with Russian princes
Historians have described the reigns of Toqta and Öz Beg as marking "the apogee of Mongol rule in Russia". Öz Beg continued to interfere in relations between the Russian princes; he supported the earliest princes of Muscovy—his brother-in-law Yury of Moscow and Yury's successor Ivan I—against their relatives, the westward-leaning princes of Tver. Yury was made grand prince and Öz Beg's sister married him. Four of these princes of Tver—Mikhail of Tver, his sons Dmitry ("The Terrible Eyes") and Aleksandr Mikhailovich, and his grandson Fyodor—were all killed in Sarai at Öz Beg's behest. The Russian proverb "Near to the king, near to death" (Близ царя — близ смерти) is thought to date back to the time of Öz Beg's reign.
In 1317, Mikhail Yaroslavich defeated Yury at a village called Bortenevo. Mikhail captured Yury's wife, Konchaka, who was the Khan's sister. Unluckily, Konchaka died when she was in the custody of Mikhail; Yury announced to the Khan that she had been poisoned by order of Mikhail. He and Yury were summoned to the court of the Golden Horde for a trial, after which Mikhail was beheaded in November 1318.Martin, Medieval Russia, 175; John Fennell, "Princely Executions in the Horde 1308-1339," Forschungen zur Osteuropaischen Geschichte 38 (1988), 9-19.