An orda (also ordu, ordo, or ordon) or horde was a historical sociopolitical and military structure found on the

Eurasian Steppe The Eurasian Steppe, also simply called the Great Steppe or the steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Transnistr ...

, usually associated with the Turkic and

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

peoples. This form of entity can be seen as the regional equivalent of a

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, mea ...

or a

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...

. Some successful ordas gave rise to

khanate A khaganate or khanate was a polity ruled by a khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum. That political territory was typically found on the Eurasian Steppe and could be equivalent in status to tribal chiefdom, principality, kingdom or empire. Mo ...

s. While the East Slavic term ''ordo'' and later derived term ''horda/horde'' were in origin borrowings from the Turkic term ''ordo'' for "camp, headquarters", the original term did not carry the meaning of a large khanate such as 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 fragmen ...

. These structures were contemporarily referred to as ''ulus'' ("nation" or "tribe").

Etymology

Etymologically, the word "ordu" comes from the Turkic "ordu" which means army in Turkic and Mongolian languages, "seat of power" or "royal court". Within the Liao Empire of the Khitans, the word ordo was used to refer to a nobleman's personal entourage or court, which included servants, retainers, and bodyguards. Emperors, empresses, and high ranking princes all had ordos of their own, which they were free to manage in practically any way they chose. In modern times the term is also used to denote Kazakh tribal groupings, known as zhuz. The primary ones are the Younger Horde (junior zhuz) in western

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, the

Middle Horde A ''zhuz'' ( kz, ٴجۇز , Жүз, translit=Jüz, , also translated as " horde") is one of the three main territorial and tribal divisions in the Kypchak Plain area that covers much of the contemporary Kazakhstan. It represents the main tribal d ...

(middle zhuz) in central Kazakhstan and the Older Horde (senior zhuz) in southeastern Kazakhstan.

East Slavic ''orda''

The word via

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

passed into East Slavic as ''orda'' (орда), and by the 1550s into English as '' horde'', probably via Polish and French or Spanish. The unetymological initial ''h-'' is found in all western European forms and was likely first attached in the Polish form ''horda''. '

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Mongolian, the Government Palace is called "Zasgiin gazriin ordon". William of Rubruck described the Mongol mobile tent as follows:

Ibn Battuta Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah (, ; 24 February 13041368/1369),; fully: ; Arabic: commonly known as Ibn Battuta, was a Berber Maghrebi scholar and explorer who travelled extensively in the lands of Afro-Eurasia, largely in the Muslim ...

writes: ''The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia'' (1911) defined ''orda'' as "a tribe or troop of Asiatic nomads dwelling in tents or wagons, and migrating from place to place to procure pasturage for their cattle, or for war or plunder." Merriam–Webster defined ''horde'' in this context as "a political subdivision of central Asian people" or "a people or tribe of nomadic life". Ordas would form when families settled in

aul An aul (; ce, oil; russian: аул) is a type of fortified village or town found throughout the Caucasus mountains and Central Asia. The word itself is of Turkic origin and simply means ''village'' in many Turkic languages. Auyl ( kk, Ауы� ...

s would find it impossible to survive in that area and were forced to move. Often, periods of drought would coincide with the rise in the number of ordas. Ordas were

patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males ...

, with its male members constituting a military. While some ordas were able to sustain themselves from their herds; others turned to pillaging their neighbors. In subsequent fighting, some ordas were destroyed, others assimilated. The most successful ones would, for a time, assimilate most or all other ordas of the

and turn to raiding neighboring political entities; those ordas often left their mark on history, the most famous of which is the

of the later

Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, ...

. Famous ordas (hordes) include: * the

White Horde The eldest son of Genghis Khan, (who established the Mongol Empire) Jochi had several sons. When he died, they inherited their father's dominions as fiefs under the rule of their brothers, Batu Khan, as supreme khan and Orda Khan, who, although ...

, formed 1226 * the Blue Horde, formed 1227 * the

, a Tatar-Mongol state established in the 1240s * the Great Horde, remnant of the Golden Horde from about 1466 until 1502 * the Nogai Horde, a Tatar clan situated in the Caucasus Mountain region, formed in the 1390s In modern Mongolian language, the form of the word, Ordon is more commonly used throughout Mongolia and Inner Mongolia.

Etymology

East Slavic ''orda''

See also