The
Nogai Horde was a confederation of about eighteen
Turkic and
Mongol tribes that occupied the
Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the
Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the
Manghits constituted a core of the Horde. In the thirteenth century the
Golden Horde commander
Nogai (Nogai Khan) formed an army of the Manghits joined by numerous Turkic tribes. A century later the Nogais were led by
Edigu, a commander of Manghit origin, who founded the Nogai ruling dynasty.
Society
There were two groups of
Nogais: those north of the
Caspian Sea under their own
Bey (leader), and those north of the
Black Sea nominally subject to the
Crimean Khan. The first group was broken up circa 1632 by the
Kalmyks. The second shared the fate of the
Khanate of Crimea.
Nogai language was a form of
Kypchak Turkic, the same language group as that of the neighboring Kazakhs, Bashkirs and Crimean and Kazan Tatars. Their religion was Muslim, but religious institutions were weakly developed.
They were pastoral
nomads grazing sheep, horses, and camels. Outside goods were obtained by trade (mostly horses and slaves), raiding, and tribute. There were some subject peasants along the
Yaik river. One of the main sources of income for the Nogais was raiding for slaves, who were sold in
Crimea and
Bukhara. Hunting, fishing, caravan taxation, and seasonal agricultural...
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