The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 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 division of the Mongol Empire after 1259, it became a functionally separate khanate. It is also known as the Kipchak Khanate or the Ulus of Jochi, and replaced the earlier, less organized Cuman–Kipchak confederation.
Vasily I Dmitriyevich was Grand Prince of Vladimir and Moscow from 1389. He was the heir of Dmitry Donskoy, who reigned from 1359 to 1389.
Mamai was a powerful Mongol military commander of the Golden Horde. Contrary to popular misconception, he was not a khan (king), but was a kingmaker for several khans, and dominated parts or all of the Golden Horde for almost two decades in the 1360s and 1370s. Although he was unable to stabilize central authority during the 14th-century Golden Horde war of succession known as the Great Troubles, Mamai remained a remarkable and persistent leader for decades, while others came and went in rapid succession. His defeat in the Battle of Kulikovo marked the beginning of the decline of the Horde, as well as his own rapid downfall.
Tokhtamysh was Khan (ruler) of the Golden Horde, who briefly succeeded in consolidating the Blue and White Hordes into a single polity.
Giyasuddin Muhammad Uzbek Khan, better known as Özbeg (1282–1341), was the longest-reigning khan of the Golden Horde (1313–1341), under whose rule the state reached its zenith. He was succeeded by his son Tini Beg. He was the son of Toghrilcha and grandson of Mengu-Timur, who had been khan of the Golden Horde from 1266 to 1280.
Hacı I Giray (1397–1466) was the founder of the Crimean Khanate and the Giray dynasty of Crimea ruling from c. 1441 until his death in 1466. As the Golden Horde was breaking up, he established himself in Crimea and spent most of his life fighting off other warlords. He was usually allied with the Lithuanians. His name has many spellings, such as Haji-Girei and Melek Haji Girai.
David VI Narin (1225–1293), from the Bagrationi dynasty, was joint king of king (mepe) of Georgia with his cousin David VII from to 1246 to 1256. He made secession in 1259, and from 1259 to 1293, ruled a Kingdom of Western Georgia under the name David I, while his cousin David VII continued to rule in a reduced Kingdom of Georgia (1256–1329) in eastern Georgia, under Mongol control.
Edigu was a Mongol emir of the White Horde who founded a new political entity, which came to be known as the Nogai Horde.
De Ghisolfi was the name of a Genoese-Jewish family prominent in the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance.
Urus Khan was the eighth Khan of the White Horde and a disputed Khan of the Blue Horde; he was a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. Urus himself was the direct ancestor of the khans of the Kazakh Khanate.
Temür Qutlugh or Tīmūr Qutluq (Kypchak: تمور قوتلو; Turki and Persian: تیمور قتلغ; was Khan of the Golden Horde from 1397 to 1399.
Ulugh Muhammad or Muhammad Khan was a medieval Tatar statesman, Gengisid, Khan of the Golden Horde, ruler of Crimea (1437), and the founder of the Khanate of Kazan, which he ruled from 1438–1445. He was the son of the oglan Ichkile Hassan and the cousin of Tokhtamysh. He received the nickname "Ulugh", meaning older or large, in contrast to Küchük Muhammad, meaning younger or small.
David, also known by the hypocorism Datuna, was a prince (batonishvili) of the royal house of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia. He was the only son of King Teimuraz I of Kakheti to have survived into adulthood. He fathered the future King Heraclius I of Kakheti, who continued the royal line of the Kakhetian Bagrationi. From 1627 until his death in battle with the pro-Persian Georgian ruler Rostom of Kartli, he held sway over the fief of Mukhrani, whose princely rulers had been dispossessed by Teimuraz I.
Nestan-Darejan was queen consort of Kartli, a kingdom in eastern Georgia, as the wife of King Simon I, whom she married in 1559. Nestan-Darejan was a daughter of King Levan of Kakheti and a half-sister of Levan's successor to the throne of Kingdom of Kakheti, Alexander II. Her husband spent nearly five decades fighting the Safavid Iranian and Ottoman encroachments on his kingdom, twice losing his throne and personal freedom. Nestan-Darejan suffered further, being humiliated by his half-brother, the king of Kakheti, who capitalized on Simon's difficulties to attack and loot Kartli. After Simon had been sent a prisoner to Iran in 1569, Nestan-Darejan's estates had been pillaged by Prince Bardzim Amilakhori, Alexander's father-in-law; and in 1580, following Simon's return to Kartli and his defeat by Alexander at Dighomi, the latter carried off after the battle his half-sister's drawers on the point of a lance. Nestan-Darejan outlived her husband and died sometime after 1612, having mothered six children, including Simon's successor to the throne of Kartli, George X.
Rusudan was a daughter of a Circassian noble and a wife of Vakhtang VI, Hoseyn-Goli Khan, who ruled the Georgian kingdom of Kartli as a regent from 1703 to 1712 and a king from 1716 to 1724. She followed her husband in his exile to the Russian Empire, where she lived for the rest of her life.
Tulun Beg Khanum was a princess of the Golden Horde at the time of the Great Troubles. Exceptionally for this political formation, she served as monarch and had her name inscribed on coins minted in 1370–1371 at Sarai and Mokhshi. She was the only female monarch of the state.
Qāghān Beg was Khan of the Golden Horde from 1375 to 1377. He held the traditional capital Sarai during a period of civil war among rival contenders for the throne. Throughout his reign, the westernmost portion of the Golden Horde was under the control of the beglerbeg Mamai and his puppet khan Muḥammad-Sulṭān, while the easternmost portion was under the control of Urus Khan and then his sons.
ʿArab Shāh was Khan of the Golden Horde from 1377 to 1380. He held the traditional capital Sarai during a period of civil war among rival contenders for the throne. Throughout his reign, the westernmost portion of the Golden Hode was under the control of the beglerbeg Mamai and his puppet khans, while the easternmost portion was under the control of the sons of Urus Khan and then Tokhtamysh.
Qādir Berdi was briefly the khan of the Golden Horde in 1419.
