Mommy who did what. The meaning of the word mamai in a brief biographical encyclopedia

One of the prominent representatives of the Mongolian military aristocracy, a talented and energetic military leader and politician in the Golden Horde.

The name Mamai is an ancient Turkic version of the name Muhammad, was widespread during the time of the Kazan Khanate. For the Georgian holy Catholicos of the same name, see Art. Mamai Georgian

On the paternal side, he was a descendant of the Kipchak Khan Akopa, descended from the Kiyan clan, on the maternal side, from the Golden Horde temnik Murza Mamai. He rose under the Golden Horde Khan Berdibek (1357–1361), marrying his daughter. Not belonging to the clan of Genghis Khan, he could not be a khan himself. But, taking advantage of the internecine struggle for the khanate in the Golden Horde, after the death of Khan Berdibek, in the middle of the XIV century, in the fight against Tokhtamysh, he subjugated most Golden Horde western territory, that is, the land from the Don to the Danube, made his way to power with poison and a dagger. By the end of the 1370s, he became the de facto ruler of the Golden Horde, ruling it through dummy khans (Russian chronicles called them "Mamaev tsars"). Under him, several khans were replaced, who obeyed him in everything: Abdul, Mohammed-Sultan, Tyulyubek, and others, after which he himself proclaimed khan.

Inciting feudal strife between the Russian princes, who fought among themselves for a label for a great reign, counteracting the strengthening of the strongest of the lands subject to him in Russia - Moscow, Mamai consistently supported her opponents. He made the main bet on Tver, and also - for tactical reasons - and on Ryazan. At the same time, for the sake of warning, he repeatedly broke into the territory of the Ryazan principality (which served as a buffer between Moscow Russia and the Horde), devastating it. Mamai's orientation towards the Grand Duchy of Lithuania accompanied him hostility to Moscow Russia.

In an effort to revive the power of the Golden Horde, he undertook a number of campaigns in Russian lands. In Mamai, he burned Nizhny Novgorod, which by that time was under the patronage of Moscow, and at the same time sent a detachment of Murza Begich to collect the missing taxes from the Moscow prince Dmitry Ivanovich. As the chronicle tells, Mamai wanted to restore power over Russia, wishing "to be like under Batu".

During the conduct of hostilities, Mamai used such factors as surprise, swiftness, attack by large masses of cavalry in open areas. Often maneuvered on the battlefield in order to dismember the enemy or bypass his flanks and go to the rear, followed by encirclement and destruction; at the same time, he showed excessive self-confidence, due to success in battles with weaker opponents.

In the summer, he gathered a large army, which included not only the Tatars, but also the Circassians, Yases, and Chechens conquered by him. However, on September 8, 1380, the Battle of Kulikovo took place in which Mamai was defeated and fled from the battlefield with a small detachment of Tatars to Kafu (Feodosia). The chronicler reported: "... the filthy Mamai ran with four men into the bend of the sea, gnashing his teeth, crying bitterly ..."- this is how the Legend of Mamaev massacre. In the Crimea, he was met by Tamerlane's henchman, Khan Tokhtamysh, to whom Mamai was to cede power over the Golden Horde. Mamai wanted to hide with his treasures and a few adherents in Kaffa, but here he was treacherously killed.

Literature

• Nasonov A. N., Mongols and Russia, M.-L., 1940.
• Grekov B. D., Yakubovsky A. Yu., Golden Horde and its fall, M.-L., 1950.
• Egorov V. A., Historical geography of the Golden Horde in the XII-XIV centuries., M., 1985.
• Russia under the yoke: how it was, M., 1991.

Used materials

• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron.
• "MAMAI," Dictionary of personal names:

His name entered everyday culture at the level of sayings: "how Mamai passed." One of the most famous pages of history is connected with it - the Battle of Kulikovo. He played secret political games with Lithuanians and Genoese. Beklyarbek of the Golden Horde Mamai.

Origin

Khan Mamai became the prototype of the famous character of Ukrainian folk culture - the Cossack knight (knight) Mamai. Modern Ukrainian reformist historians even seriously write about the Ukrainian origin of the khan, and esotericists call the Cossack-Mamai "a cosmogonic personification Ukrainian people generally". For the first time in the everyday culture of the common people, it appeared rather late, in the middle of the 18th century, but it became so popular that it hung in every house next to the icons.

Mamai was half Polovtsian - Kipchak, half - Mongol. On his father, he is a descendant of Khan Hakopa from the Kiyat clan, and on his mother, from the clan of the Golden Horde temnik Mamai. Then it was a common name, meaning in Turkic Mohammed. He successfully married the daughter of the ruler of the Sarai - Khan Berdibek, who had previously killed his father and all the brothers, the Great Zamyatnya began in the Horde - a long period of civil strife. Berdibek himself was also killed, and the direct line of the Batuid dynasty on the main throne of the Horde was interrupted. Then the eastern descendants of Jochi began to lay claim to Sarai. Under these conditions, Mamai captured the western part of the Horde and installed khans there - indirect heirs of the Batuid clan. He himself could not rule without being Genghisides. And here a big policy with the participation of Mamai unfolded.

“The talented and energetic temnik Mamai came from the Kiyat clan, hostile to Temujin and who lost the war in Mongolia back in the 12th century. Mamai revived the Black Sea power of the Polovtsians and Alans, and Tokhtamysh, heading the ancestors of the Kazakhs, continued the Dzhuchiev ulus. Mamai and Tokhtamysh were enemies." Lev Gumilyov.

Mamai vs Tokhtamysh

Tokhtamysh was an adherent of the old Horde order, striving to unite the splitting horde. In addition, he was a Chingizid and had uncontested rights to Sarai, as opposed to Mamai. Tokhtamysh's father was killed by the ruler of the White Horde, Urus Khan, but after the death of the latter, the nobility there refused to obey his descendants and called Tokhtamysh. Tokhtamysh lost the internal war, but escaped after a decisive battle, having sailed across the wounded Syr Darya - to the possessions of Tamerlane. He said: "You, apparently, are a courageous person; go, return your khanate to yourself, and you will be my friend and ally." Tokhtamysh took the White Horde, received the Blue Horde - by right of inheritance, and moved on Mamai. Now everything depended on alliances formed in the West.

big politics

Since the Golden Horde weakened in strife, the Lithuanians began to strengthen in the territories formerly controlled by the Mongols. Kyiv became practically Lithuanian, Chernihiv and Severskaya were under the influence of Lithuania. Prince Olgerd was a militant anti-Orthodox, while the majority of the population in the expanded Lithuania was already Russian, and Moscow used this against the Lithuanians. However, other Russian princes, on the contrary, used Lithuania against Moscow - first of all, Suzdal and Novgorod. There was also a division according to Western politics in the Horde.

Mamai bet on Lithuania, and Tokhtamysh on Moscow. Mamai led a pro-Western line, because he needed money to fight Tokhtamysh. The Crimean Genoese promised to help with money in exchange for concessions for the extraction of furs in the north of Russia. Mamai tried for a long time to persuade Moscow to fulfill the conditions of the Genoese in exchange for a label and other privileges. Both the Muscovites accepted. Metropolitan Alexy, who ruled de facto when Dmitry was a child, used Mamai to elevate, both legally and de facto, the Principality of Moscow. But in the end, Moscow turned its back on Mamai, and the so-called “great peace” took place. Not without the influence of Sergius of Radonezh, who said that there could be no business with the Latins (Genoese and Latins).

From the “Word on the Life and Repose of the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich, Tsar of Russia”: “Mamai, incited by crafty advisers who Christian faith they held on, but they themselves did the deeds of the wicked, he said to his princes and nobles: “I will seize the Russian land, and I will destroy the Christian churches ... Where there were churches, I will put murmurs here.”

Before the Battle of Kulikovo

Interesting events took place before the Battle of Kulikovo. Since Mamai hoped to conclude an alliance either with Moscow, and then with other principalities against Moscow, he often sent embassies to Russia. To Ryazan, Tver, Moscow itself, etc. These embassies were often mistreated. This happened in Nizhny Novgorod (then under the reign of Suzdal), where he sat Suzdal Bishop Dionysius. He raised the townspeople against the Tatar embassy. As Lev Gumilyov writes, “all the Tatars were killed in the most cruel way: they were stripped naked, released onto the ice of the Volga and poisoned by dogs.” Mamai overtook the drunken Suzdal troops on the Pyana River and cut them, repeating the same thing a little later in Nizhny. On adrenaline, Mamai decided to continue moving towards Moscow, but the troops of Mamaisky Murza Begich were defeated on the Vozha River. After that, the main open clash between Mamai and Moscow became inevitable.

The princes of Glinsky called themselves descendants of Mamai. According to their family legend, the descendants of Mamai served in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and supposedly the Glinskys descended from Mamai's son Mansur Kiyatovich. If so, then Mamai was the ancestor of Ivan IV the Terrible by his mother, Elena Glinskaya.

Doom

In the Battle of Kulikovo, about which we have written a lot, Mamai lost not only the army, but also legitimacy: the infant Khan Mohammed, who ruled de jure in Saray, was killed. Thus, Tokhtamysh almost did not have to fight in order to finish off the remnants of Mamai's army on the Kalka River - people themselves went over to a more legitimate ruler. Mamai went to the Genoese in Kafa (present-day Feodosia), but it is clear that they were no longer interested in him. There he was killed. Whether by the Genoese, or Tokhtamysh's scouts: this is not so important, since his fate was sealed, and his time was over.

Name: Mamai

Years of life: OK. 1335 - 1380

State: Golden Horde

Field of activity: Army, politics

Greatest Achievement: Not being a descendant of Genghis Khan, he became the ruler of part of the Golden Horde. Led the Mongol army in the Battle of Kulikovo

The name Mamaia is widely known in Russia. How did it happen that the temnik managed to become not only the actual ruler of the Golden Horde within twenty years, but also entered into world history through your work? Mamai was born in Cafe, presumably in 1335, belonged to the Mongolian family of Kiyats. By origin, he could not be a khan - only Genghisides occupied the throne. But he managed to become the son-in-law of the last of the Batuids.

Viceroy Mamai

In the sixties of the fourteenth century, two very important events- Khan appointed him governor of the Northern Black Sea region. At that time, he was already married to the Khan's daughter, which undoubtedly made his appointments expected and logical.

In 1359, the eighth Khan of the Golden Horde, Muhammad Berdibek Khan, was killed as a result of the seizure of power by Kulpa, a self-proclaimed Khan, his distant relative. After the death of the father-in-law of the temnik, the twenty years began, which went down in world history as "". Mamai did not stay away from these events - he unleashed a war against the new ruler. Mamai controlled the western part of the state. He himself could not sit on the throne due to insufficiently noble origin. He needed a complaisant and weak-willed khan who would allow him to become the de facto ruler. In 1361, his choice falls on Abdullah from the Batuid family, a relative of the late ruler, whom he appoints as the ruler of the White Horde. But other khans began to challenge this decision, presenting their claims to the Khan's Golden Horde throne. For two decades, a total of 9 khans claimed it.

Mamai understood that in the struggle for the khanate he needed allies in international politics. And so he began to establish ties with Western countries.

Mamai and the Golden Horde

Abdullah Khan dies in 1370. There are different versions about his death, including a violent death. The next khan was, according to some versions, the wife of the temnik herself. Archaeologists even find minted gold coins with her image. But no matter how satisfied Mamai was with the candidacy of his wife, Tulunbek Khanum, he understood that a male Khan Chingizid should be at the head of the horde. The fate of this woman, Mamai's wife, subsequently developed tragically. After the death of Mamai, she was married to strengthen the authority of his power, but a few years later she was executed by him on suspicion of conspiracy.

In 1372, the eight-year-old Mohammed Sultan was proclaimed khan. Ten years later, he died in, but at that time he was quite convenient for Mamai as a well-managed ruler.

But everything was not easy with the legality of Mohammed's rights - according to Yassa, the law, the khans proclaimed by Mamai, were illegal.

Mamai in the Battle of Kulikovo

After the murder of his father, Tokhtamysh fled under protection. And he used the fugitive Genghisides to gain control over the Horde. Several times the army of Timur and Tokhtamysh tried to seize the throne, but failed each time. Circumstances helped - in 1380, in the Battle of Kulikovo, Mamai not only was defeated, but Bulak Khan, proclaimed a temnik, died in this battle. This did not break Mamai, but circumstances were still against him.

An attempt to hide in the Crimea under the protection of the Genoese, in his native Kafa, failed - he was not allowed into the city. Mamai was soon killed by mercenaries sent by Tokhtamysh. The most honorable funeral was arranged for the outstanding and famous temnik.

Regarding the most fatal event in the life of Mamai - the Battle of Kulikovo - historians have two versions. Some, led by L. Gumilyov, N. Karamzin, G. Vernadsky, believe that there was no battle, and the Tatars were more allies than oppressors. And it was this union that saved Russia from disappearing as a state during a difficult period of civil strife.

Opponents of this group of scientists rely on the descriptions of the atrocities of the Tatars in Russian chronicles - mass executions, destruction of cities, murders. But most of the annals could have been edited much later - during the reign of Ivan III, for political purposes, to please the current international situation - in particular, in connection with the aggravation of relations with the Principality of Lithuania, a long-time ally of the Mongols.

Both versions have the right to life, but perhaps the truth is somewhere in between.

Purposeful work on a total change in history began in the seventeenth century, within the framework of the so-called reform activities the first representatives of the Romanov dynasty.

Old monuments, tombstones, basically all destroyed. And they died because they had symbols that the Romanovs rejected. It was replaced by a new symbolism of the reformist time of the seventeenth century. And in order to remove these traces as much as possible, in particular, a large-scale action was taken to destroy old tombstones. As part of this action, the Peresvet stove was destroyed. Such large-scale transformations could have been caused by religious motives and the desire to bring the Russian historical science in line with new Western standards.

Allegedly, in Russia, before the era of Peter the Great, the era of the Romanovs, in general, there was no cartography of its own. Existing maps, such as maps of Moscow, are maps made by foreigners. Old documents, old maps, primarily of the Russian Horde Empire, often categorically contradicted the new Romanov version. They depicted geography, the geography of Russia, Europe, the geography of the world, which is at odds with the new geography created in Western Europe the school of Scaliger and in our country the school of Romanov historians.

Icon depicting the battle on the Kulikovo field

The Yaroslavl Museum has an old icon dating back to the middle of the seventeenth century. A unique image of the Battle of Kulikovo. How many centuries this image lay in oblivion, we do not know. According to the technology of icon painting, the image was covered with drying oil, which had the property of gradually darkening. Approximately, after a hundred years, the icon without restoration became completely black. And on top of the disappeared image, a new one was drawn, not always coinciding with the previous one. When in the twentieth century, with the help of chemical means, they learned to remove the old layers, many initial plots were revealed. The same story happened with this icon. Only in 1959, the image of the Battle of Kulikovo was revealed. To an attentive and unprejudiced eye, a masterpiece of Yaroslavl painting will tell a lot of interesting things.

Here are the troops led by Mamai, crossing the river, descending from a high hill. There are no such elevation changes on the plains Tula region. But the red hill in Moscow exactly follows the image of the icon painter.

But the most intriguing Yaroslavl icon there are no significant differences between the Tatar and Russian troops. The same faces, the same banners. And on these banners is the image of the Savior not made by hands, which from time immemorial was considered the patron saint of Russian soldiers. On both sides were both Russians and Tatars. At that time there was no division into nations in the modern sense. It was all mixed up and more unified. And we see that these old images convey to us a completely different version of history than the one we know today from the textbooks of Romanov history. Moreover, some documents say that the Volga Tatars were very reluctant to serve Mamai. And there were not many of them in his army. Mamai led: Poles, Crimeans, Yasses (Ossetians), Kosogs (Cossacks) and Genoese. who also dealt financial support his company. Meanwhile, the baptized Tatars, along with the Lithuanians, fought on the side of Dmitry.

Who was Khan Mamai really?

As you know, Mamai had an army called a horde. However, the Russian army is also called exactly the same. Here is a quote from Zadonshchina. “Why are you, filthy Mamai, encroaching on Russian land? Did the Zalesky horde beat you? Zaleska land was called the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. So maybe the word "horde" simply means - the army, and not the Tatar hordes, as we used to understand? But who, then, was Mamai really? According to the chronicle, a temnik or a thousand, that is, a military leader (Cossack chieftain). A few years before the Battle of Kulikovo, he fights with the ruling khans, and tries to usurp power.

Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich in Moscow has a very similar story, and even taking place at the same time. The son of a thousand, Ivan Velyaminov, having quarreled with Dmitry, flees to the horde and there he prepares for a campaign against his ruler. It is not difficult to notice that the actions of the thousands, in the history of the Battle of Kulikovo, somehow strangely duplicate each other.

According to the chronicles, Ivan Velyaminov, a traitor, who appeared in the Russian land, will be executed right on the Kulikovo field, after Dmitry's victory. In memory of this event, Grand Duke, even orders to mint coins. On the coin of Donskoy, there was an image of the prince himself, who holds a sword and shield in his hand. At his feet lies a defeated enemy, whose head has been cut off. It is known that Ivan Velyaminov was executed. His head was cut off and this coin records the fact of victory over his enemy.

Dmitry and his opponent with swords in their hands. A few more minutes and the bloody slaughter will begin. And on reverse side coins, a man with a shield. But do they use a shield during an execution? It turns out thousand Velyaminov, died on the battlefield. According to the generally accepted version, Mamai, after the defeat, fled to the steppes and in the same year faced a new enemy - Tokhtamysh, the khan of the hare horde. They met on the banks of the Kalka, where history repeated itself exactly. As in the Kulikovo field, poor Mamai was betrayed by his Lithuanian ally and was defeated.

If we take into account that vowels were not used in the ancient chronicles, then the names "Kalka" and "Kulikovo" are not just similar, but absolutely identical and consist of only three letters - KLK. In addition, coins have been preserved, on which, on one side, it is engraved - Khan Tokhtamysh, in Arabic, on the other in Russian - Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. Historians are trying to explain this by the fact that coins were minted on the one hand by Takhtamysh, and on the other hand by Dmitry Donskoy.

But this can also be explained in another way. Several languages ​​were used in Russia: Russian, Arabic, Tatar. And on the same coin, the name of the same ruler could be minted on both sides, on two different languages. The presence of such ancient coins is a fairly strong argument in favor of the fact that Dmitry Donskoy and Khan Tokhtamysh are one and the same person.

So maybe there were no two different battles that are similar to each other, like two drops of water? And there was one - on the Kulikovo field. Where is Prince Dmitry Donskoy, aka Khan Tokhtamysh, defeated the troops of the traitor Ivan Velyaminov, also known as Mamai.

There was no Mongol-Tatar yoke!

But in this case, an even more unexpected question arises. Was there a Mongol-Tatar yoke at all? In the light of new assumptions, it turns out that it was not. And there was a huge Russian-Horde empire, which in the second half of the fourteenth century, was divided into three parts. Golden Horde. White Horde or White Russia. And Little Russia, she is the blue horde. The Golden Horde, another name for the Volga kingdom, falls into a long and dangerous turmoil. In twenty-one years, there are twenty-five rulers. There is a fierce struggle for the throne, which in 1380 is resolved by a grandiose battle on the Kulikovo field.

The history of the distant fourteenth century needs further research. And most importantly, in the search for new documents and material evidence unknown to science. It is they who can confirm or refute the theories that exist today. However, there are facts that are not in doubt. The Battle of Kulikovo really took place. It took place in 1380, and Dmitry Donskoy won it. And, of course, it is rightfully considered a symbol of courage, valor and honor of Russian soldiers.

And one more curious detail. Already today, in the center of Moscow on the Krasnokholmskaya embankment, a cross has been erected, on the granite base of which, it is engraved: “In this place, a monument will be erected to the holy faithful, Prince Dmitry Donskoy, the defender of the Russian land. In the summer of 1992, September 25". Then the sculptor could not know about the Moscow version of the battle. It just wasn't designed. But it so happened that the memorial cross is absolutely precisely oriented to the place where the legendary Kulikovo field could be located.

From internet source

Any child knows Mamaia as the Kulikovo antagonist, the main villain, and also the opponent of the bright Dmitry Ivanovich. But who is he? What is his fate? Who was he, who did he become? What he really is?

Mamai is a famous Khan of the Horde, who claimed his rights to the throne, although he did not have them. He was a great politician who lasted for twenty years in power. At the same time, he managed to play a huge role in the fate of Russia and the whole of Eastern Europe. Mamaia was born in a hereditary family known as the Kipchaks. Khan Akop was his father, he brought up all the best in Mamai human qualities like endurance, strength, courage. In addition, he gave him a good military training, because of which Mamai became a great commander and beklarbek under the young Khan Muhammad. In fact, only two people could have such a high title (the title of beklarbek) in the Golden Horde, and Mamai was one of them.

Mamai owned rather large territories, but due to the growing power of Tokhtamysh, he soon lost almost all of his lands, with the exception of a couple of Polovtsian steppes - the Northern Black Sea region and the Crimea. There he remained the undivided master and lord over the army and supreme court, who led a cold and straightforward policy, distinguished by excellent prudence.

But let's move on to the battle that decided the fate of this great commander and khan, which crossed out all his policies, built by an intelligent and prudent person for twenty whole years; to the battle that made him shamefully run shamefully from the battlefield, which made him again afraid of the Russian troops and broke his spirit and the spirit of his army; to a battle in which all his hired people and the Mongol-Tatars who remained loyal to him perished. We are moving on to the Battle of Kulikovo, to the checkpoint that radically changed the fate of the great leader Mamai.

So, the Battle of Kulikovo was early in the morning, full of fog of fears and hopes, on September 8, 1380. It began with a duel between Chelubey on the part of the Mongol-Tatars and Peresvet on the part of the Russians, from which both heroes did not come out alive. Chelubey fell dead with his head towards Mamaev's army. It was Bad sign, very bad.

In the end, everything turned out, as the corpse of Chelubey foretold: Mamai's troops crushed Dmitry's advanced regiment, began to put pressure on the large regiment, but it was too large, so they did not begin to put pressure on the left flank. He succumbed to attacks and almost died, which would enable the Mongols to penetrate the rear of Dmitry's soldiers and chop them all from behind. But it was not there. Behind them appeared the Ambush Regiment, organized by Dmitry specifically for this occasion. The Mongols got scared and fled, panic began. Mamai also ran away from the battlefield. He sincerely thought that it was the Russians rising from the dead. Soon he showed up in the Crimea, where he was cut down by Tokhtamysh's mercenaries.