Taydula Khatun

After Öz Beg's death in 1341, Taydula's position of influence only increased: already the chief wife of the former khan, the current khan's mother commanded even more respect, and enjoyed extensive financial power, apparently amplified by her grateful son. She had her own revenue based, for example, on the taxes paid by Italian merchants and other foreigners.^[9] She also intervened decisively in politics. When Öz Beg died, his eldest son and designated successor Tini Beg was absent from court, residing in the lands of the recently suppressed Ulus of Orda. Although he was duly recognized as khan, Taydula Khatun favored her younger son, Jani Beg, who perhaps acted as regent during his brother's absence, or had perhaps already been designated successor by their father himself. Jani Beg murdered one of his other brothers, Khiḑr Beg, for his ambitions. When Tini Beg was on his way back to court, perhaps fearing for Jani Beg, Taydula Khatun incited the emirs to murder Tini Beg, which they did at Saray-Jük in 1342. Jani Beg now became khan.^[10]

Taydula Khatun continued to exercise significant influence over Jani Beg, and her close cooperation with him led some foreign sources to conclude, erroneously, that she was his wife rather than his mother; there may also be some confusion between similarly named or titled royal women.^[11] She showed favor towards Christians and Christian institutions, and was already thanked for this by Pope Benedict XII in a letter dated 17 August 1340.^[12] She is also mentioned in a letter of the Venetian Doge Andrea Dandolo to Jani Beg Khan.^[13] Taydula also forbade the Russian princes from interfering with church justice, as shown in the diploma (yarlik) issued to John, the bishop of Sarai, in 1347.^[14]

When Jani Beg began to tax the Christian clergy to raise revenues for his campaigns, Taydula Khatun issued diplomas (yarliks) granting tax exemptions for the Russian metropolitans Feognost and Aleksej on 26 September 1347, 4 February 1351, and 11 February 1354, as well as two other diplomas in Latin for Catholic clergy, from 1358.^[15] The Russian metropolitans often visited her and received gifts.^[14] The Russian chroniclers referred to her as "patroness of the Russian Church".^[14] In 1357, Taydula Khatun suffered from blindness, and Metropolitan Aleksej was summoned to cure her with his prayers. After some difficulty, his prayers and a sprinkling with holy water resulted in an apparent miracle, as Taydula recovered her sight.^[16] According to another interpretation of events, Aleksej's patient was actually the Khan Jani Beg himself, while Taydula's blindness was a cover story to conceal it.^[17]

When the new khan, Taydula's grandson Berdi Beg, seemed determined to exterminate his male kin, Taydula attempted to intercede for them, according to the Timurid historian Muʿīn-ad-Dīn Naṭanzī (earlier known as the "Anonymous of Iskandar"). She hoped to arouse his pity by approaching him with his 8-month-old brother in her arms, but Berdi Beg seized the baby from her hands and killed it by hurling it to the ground.^[18] The anecdote is unverifiable, but the purge is confirmed in other sources.^[19] On the other hand, Taydula may have retained sufficient influence to ensure continued royal favor to the Russian metropolitan, Aleksej, and he was allowed to return home after Berdi Beg's accession.^[20] She also helped reach a compromise in the dispute between the Venetians and the Khan (inherited from Jani Beg's reign) over the Venetians' treatment of subjects of the Khan captured in the seizure of a Genoese galley.^[21]

The death of Berdi Beg in 1359 left his grandmother Taydula Khatun the senior royal in a court apparently without a suitable male heir, and the subsequent rapid succession of khans is blamed on her intrigues.^[22] According to Ötemiš-Ḥājjī, on the death of Berdi Beg, with the apparent extinction of the line of Batu Khan, son of Jochi, Taydula Khatun invited Khiḍr, a descendant of Shiban, son of Jochi, to take the throne.^[23] Pleased with her choice, Taydula proposed that Khiḍr marry her. However, when he was dissuaded from doing so by an adviser, she caused the emirs to expel him and he returned home across the Ural River. Taydula next placed on the throne the pretended Kildi Beg, apparently a mistake in this tradition for the Qulpa of the more primary sources, but he was not accepted as a genuine and legitimate ruler.^[24] Taydula finally settled on a certain Bazarchi, a descendant of Tangqut, son of Jochi, as khan and husband.^[25] This may be the same person as the Nawruz Beg of the more primary sources.^[26] Khiḍr, however, did not give up his ambitions and, supported by the vengeful son of an emir put to death by the new khan, gathered a force with which he marched on Sarai. In a battle before the city, he captured the khan and Taydula Khatun, and had them executed. Thus, in 1360, Khiḍr succeeded in becoming khan.^[27]

•  "Тайдула" . Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.
• Doumenjou, M. F., and L. Geevers, "The Golden Horde, the Spanish Habsburg Monarchy, and the Construction of Ruling Dynasties," in: M. van Berkel and J. Duindam (eds.), Prince, Pen, and Sword: Eurasian Perspectives, Leiden, 2018.
• Favereau, Marie; Pochekaev, Roman Yu. (2023). "The Golden Horde, c. 1260–1502". The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire. Cambridge University Press. pp. 243–318. ISBN 978-1-107-11648-1.
• Gaev, A. G., "Genealogija i hronologija Džučidov," Numizmatičeskij sbornik 3 (2002) 9-55.
• Gibb, H. A. R. (trans.), The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa A. D. 1325–1354. Vol. 2. Cambridge, 1962.
• Howorth, H. H., History of the Mongols from the 9th to the 19th century, Part II.1, London, 1880.
• Judin, V. P., Utemiš-hadži, Čingiz-name, Alma-Ata, 1992.
• Pelliot, P., Notes sur l'Histoire de la Horde d'Or, Paris, 1949.
• Počekaev, R. J., Cari ordynskie: Biografii hanov i pravitelej Zolotoj Ordy. Saint Petersburg, 2010.
• Safargaliev, M. G., Raspad Zolotoj Ordy. Saransk, 1960.
• Seleznëv, J. V., Èlita Zolotoj Ordy: Naučno-spravočnoe izdanie, Kazan', 2009.
• Spuler, B., Die Goldene Horde. Die Mongolen in Russland. 1223-1502, Leipzig, 1943.
• Tizengauzen, V. G. (trans.), Sbornik materialov otnosjaščihsja k istorii Zolotoj Ordy. Izvlečenija iz persidskih sočinenii, republished as Istorija Kazahstana v persidskih istočnikah. 4. Almaty, 2006.
• Vásáry, I., "Mongolian impact on the terminology of the documents of the Golden Horde," Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 48 (1995) 479–485.
• Vásáry, I., "The beginnings of coinage in the Blue Horde," Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 62 (2009) 371–385.
• Zimonyi, I., "Ibn Baṭṭūṭa on the First Wife of Özbeg Khan," Central Asiatic Journal 49 (2005) 303–309.