List of Khans of the Golden Horde


This is a complete list of Khans of the White Horde, Blue Horde, Golden Horde and of the Great Horde. Khans of the Blue Horde are listed as the main constituent part of the Golden Horde, although many late rulers of the Golden Horde were descended from the White Horde.

Secondary list with short biographies

This is mainly an index to the linked articles with some help from Baumer and Howorth.

Main horde and western half

Between 1242 and 1380 the eastern and western halves of the horde were generally separate, the dividing line being somewhere north of the Caspian. The relation between the two is not clear, but we do not hear of any conflicts, except for I. and L. below. The western khans had a capital at Serai on the lower Volga while the eastern khans had capitals or winter camps on the Syr Darya, especially Sighnaq. Most rulers of the eastern half are poorly documented.
Following Tokhtamysh there was no longer a clear distinction between east and west. For the first twenty years power was held by descendants of Urus Khan and Tohktamysh and by the warlord Edigu. There was then a confused period, followed by a several long reigns. The last khan was deposed in 1502. The Golden horde broke up as follows: before 1400: Lithuania expanded as far east as Kiev, ?: Kursk as Lithuanian vassal, c 1430: land east of the Ural held by Abul Khayr, 1438: Kazan, 1449: Crimea, 1452: Kasimov as Russian vassal, 1465: Kazakh khanate, 1466: Astrakhan, 1480: Russia, before 1490?: Sibir. The steppe nomads then became organized as the Nogai Horde.