Jani Beg ( fa, , tt-Latn, Canibäk), also known as Djanibek Khan, was a
Khan of the
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragme ...
from 1342 to 1357, succeeding his father
Öz Beg Khan.
Reign
With the support of his mother
Taydula Khatun, Jani Beg made himself khan after eliminating his older brother and rival
Tini Beg at
Saray-Jük in 1342; he had already killed another ambitious brother, Khiḍr Beg. He is known to have actively interfered in the affairs of
Rus principalities and of
Lithuania. The
Grand Prince
Grand prince or great prince (feminine: grand princess or great princess) ( la, magnus princeps; Greek: ''megas archon''; russian: великий князь, velikiy knyaz) is a title of nobility ranked in honour below emperor, equal of king ...
s of
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
,
Simeon Gordiy and
Ivan II were under constant political and military pressure from Jani Beg.
Jani Beg commanded a massive Crimean
Tatar
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different force that attacked the Crimean port city of
Kaffa in 1343. The siege was lifted by an Italian relief force in February. In 1345 Jani Beg again besieged Kaffa; however, his assault was again unsuccessful due to an outbreak of the
Black Plague among his troops. Jani Beg's army catapulted infected corpses into Kaffa in an attempt to use the Black Death to weaken the defenders. Infected Genoese sailors subsequently sailed from Kaffa to Genoa, Messina, and Constantinople, introducing the Black Death into Europe. The story involving the catapult has been disputed. It is originally based on
Gabriel de Mussis of Piacenza in Italy who wrote about the plague in 1348. It is more likely that rats carrying plague infested fleas went from camp to city and thereby infected the Genoese.
In 1356 Jani Beg conducted a military campaign in
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
and conquered the city of
Tabriz
Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...
, installing his own governor. He also asserted Jochid dominance over the
Chagatai Khanate
The Chagatai Khanate, or Chagatai Ulus ( xng, , translit=Čaɣatay-yin Ulus; mn, Цагаадайн улс, translit=Tsagaadain Uls; chg, , translit=Čağatāy Ulusi; fa, , translit=Xânât-e Joghatây) was a Mongol and later Turkicized kh ...
, attempting to unite the three
khanates of the
Mongol Empire. After accepting surrender from
Shaikh Uvais, Jani Beg boasted that three uluses (districts/nations) of the
Mongol Empire were under his control. Soon after this, he faced an uprising in Tabriz resulting in the rise to power of the
Jalayirid dynasty, an offshoot of
Ilkhanate
The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate ( fa, ایل خانان, ''Ilxānān''), known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (, ''Qulug-un Ulus''), was a khanate established from the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. The Ilkhanid realm ...
, and ultimately in the death of the Khan.
Muscovy's
Chudov Monastery
The Chudov Monastery (russian: Чу́дов монасты́рь; more formally known as Alexius’ Archangel Michael Monastery) was founded in the Moscow Kremlin in 1358 by Metropolitan Alexius of Moscow. The monastery was dedicated to the mi ...
, founded at about the time of Jani Beg's fall by Metropolitan
Aleksii and
Sergei of Radonezh, was built on land that according to legend was granted to Aleksii by the Khan as thanks for the miraculous curing of his mother Taydula by the former.
The reign of Jani Beg was marked by the first signs of the feudal strife which would eventually contribute to the demise of the Golden Horde. Jani Beg's assassination in 1357 opened a quarter-century of political turmoil within the Golden Horde. Twenty-five khans succeeded each other between 1357 and 1378.
Family
Jani Beg had a number of sons, only one of whom, Berdi Beg, reigned after him but who proceeded to eliminate his brothers. Two or three more khans appear to have claimed to be Jani Beg's sons and are sometimes treated as such by modern scholars.
*
Berdi Beg
Berdi Beg or Berdibek ( fa, , tt-Latn, Möxämmät Bärdibäk) was Khan of the Golden Horde from 1357 to 1359, having succeeded his father Jani Beg. Berdi Beg was the last khan to rule before the beginning of a long cycle of civil wars in the ...
(r. 1357–1359)
*(pretended?)
Qulpa
Qulpa (Qūlpā, sometimes read as ''Qulna'' (Qūlnah); ''Kulpa'' and ''Askulpa'' in Russian chronicles, and ''Colbadinus Cam'' in a contemporary Venetian document), was Khan of the Golden Horde from August 1359 to February 1360. He came to the th ...
(r. 1359–1360)
*(pretended?)
Nawruz Beg (r. 1360)
*(pretended?)
Kildi Beg (r. 1361–1362)
* a daughter, Shakar Beg, married Aq Sufi
Qongirat, the prince of the
Sufi dynasty of
Khwarezm. Their daughter
Khanzada Begum later married into the
Timurid dynasty
The Timurid dynasty ( chg, , fa, ), self-designated as Gurkani ( chg, , translit=Küregen, fa, , translit=Gūrkāniyān), was a Sunni Muslim dynasty or clan of Turco-Mongol originB.F. Manz, ''"Tīmūr Lang"'', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Onl ...
.
[Martin Bernard Dickson, Michel M. Mazzaoui, Vera Basch Moreen, ''Intellectual studies on Islam: essays written in honor of Martin B. Dickson'' (1990), p. 113.]
Genealogy
*
*
Genghis Khan
**
Jochi
Jochi Khan ( Mongolian: mn, Зүчи, ; kk, Жошы, Joşy جوشى; ; crh, Cuçi, Джучи, جوچى; also spelled Juchi; Djochi, and Jöchi c. 1182– February 1227) was a Mongol army commander who was the eldest son of Temüjin (aka G ...
***
Batu Khan
Batu Khan ( – 1255),, ''Bat haan'', tt-Cyrl, Бату хан; ; russian: хан Баты́й was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Golden Horde, a constituent of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi, thus a grandson of Genghis Kh ...
****
Toqoqan
Toqoqan was a member of the ruling family of the Mongol Empire. He was a son of the Khan of the Golden Horde, Batu. Through his father, he was also a great-grandson of the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan. Though Toqoqan never reigned himself, many su ...
*****
Mengu-Timur
Munkh Tumur or Möngke Temür ( mn, ᠮᠦᠨᠺᠬᠲᠡᠮᠦᠷ, Мөнхтөмөр; russian: Мангутемир, Mangutemir) (?–1280), son of Toqoqan Khan and Köchu Khatun of Oirat (daughter of Toralchi Küregen and granddaughter of ...
******Toghrilcha
*******
Uzbeg Khan
The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak m ...
********Jani Beg
Popular culture
The 2012 Russian film ''
The Horde'' is set during the reign of Jani Beg and is a highly fictionalised narrative of how Aleksii healed Taidula from blindness.
See also
*
List of Khans of the Golden Horde
References
Bibliography
*Buell, P. D., ''Historical Dictionary of the Mongol World Empire'' Oxford, 2003.
* Gaev, A. G., "Genealogija i hronologija Džučidov," ''Numizmatičeskij sbornik'' 3 (2002) 9-55.
* Horrox, R., ''The Black Death''
*
*
David Morgan, ''The Mongols''
* Počekaev, R. J., ''Cari ordynskie: Biografii hanov i pravitelej Zolotoj Ordy''. Saint Petersburg, 2010.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beg, Jani
1357 deaths
Khans of the Golden Horde
Murdered royalty
14th-century monarchs in Europe
Year of birth unknown
Mongol Empire Muslims