He was followed on the throne by his two sons, Tuktakia and Timur Malik, each in turn; the first reigned but for a few weeks, and the second was killed in a battle against Toktamish, the son of his father's enemy. Toktamish seized the throne (1378), not only of Eastern Kipchak but also of the Golden Horde, over which his arms had at the same time proved victorious. He reigned as Nasir ed-din Jetal el Mahmud Ghujas Toktamish. His demands for tribute from the Russian princes met with refusal, and Tokta mish therefore at once marched an army into Russia. Having captured Serpukhov, he advanced on Moscow. On Aug. 23, 1382, his troops appeared before the doomed city, and a general slaugh ter followed. The same pitiless fate overtook Vladimir, Zveni gorod, Yuriev, Mozhaisk and Dimitrov. With better fortune, the inhabitants of Pereslavl and Kolomna escaped with their lives from the troops of Toktamish, but at the expense of their cities, which were burned to the ground. Flushed with success, Toktamish demanded from his patron Timur the restoration of Khwarizm, which had fallen into the hands of the latter at a period when disorder reigned in the Golden Horde. On Timur's refusal Tokta mish marched an army of 90,00o men against Tabriz. Af ter a siege of eight days the city was taken by assault and ruthlessly ravaged. In the meantime Timur was collecting forces to punish his rebellious protege. When his plans were fully matured, he advanced upon Old Urgenj and captured it. More merciful than Toktamish, he transported the inhabitants to Samarkand, but in • order to mark his anger against the rebellious city he levelled it with the ground and sowed barley on the site where it had stood. On the banks of the Oxus he encountered his enemy, and after a bloody battle completely routed the Kipchaks, who fled in con fusion. A lull followed this victory, but in 5390 Timur again took the field. After a considerable delay, owing to an illness which overtook Timur, his troops arrived at Kara Saman. Here envoys arrived from Toktamish bearing presents and a message asking pardon for his past conduct ; but Timur was inexorable. He marched forward month of ter month through the Kipchak country in pursuit of Toktamish. At last, on June 18, he overtook him at Kandurcha, in the country of the Bulgars, and at once forced him to an engagement. For three days the battle lasted, and finally the Kipchaks were completely routed and fled in all directions.
Toktamish, though defeated, was not subdued, and in 1395 Timur found it necessary again to undertake a campaign against him. This time the armies met upon the Terek, and after a fiercely contested battle the Kipchaks again fled in confusion. Timur, threatened by the advancing autumn, gave up further pursuit, and retired with a vast booty of gold ingots, silver bars, pieces of Antioch linen and of the embroidered cloth of Russia, etc. On his homeward march southwards he arrived before Azak, which was then the entrepot where the merchants of the east and west ex changed their wares. In vain the natives, with the Egyptian, Vene tian, Genoese, Catalan and Basque inhabitants, besought him to spare the city. Circassia and Georgia next felt his iron heel, and the fastnesses of the central Caucasus were one and all destroyed. Timur rested for a time in luxurious splendour and then marched against and utterly destroyed Astrakhan. Sarai was similarly
treated and Timur having destroyed the empire of Toktamish for the second time returned home.
The fate which thus overtook the Golden Horde was destined to be shared by all the western branches of the great Mongol family. The khans of Kazan and Kasimov had already in 1552 succumbed to the growing power of Russia, and the Krim Tatars were next to fall under the same yoke. In 1453 Constantinople had been taken by the Osmanli Turks, who, having quarrelled with the Genoese merchants who monopolized the trade on the Black sea, sent an expedition into the Crimea to punish the presumptuous traders. The power which had captured Constantinople was not likely to be held in check by any forces at the disposal of the Genoese, and without any serious opposition Kaffa, Sudak, Balak lava and Inkerman fell before the troops of the sultan Mohammed. It was plain that, situated as the Crimea was, between the two great powers of Russia and Turkey, it must of necessity fall under the direction of one of them. Which it should be was decided by the invasion of the Turks, who restored Mengli Girai, the deposed khan, to the throne and virtually converted the khanate into a dependency of Constantinople. But though under the tutelage of Turkey, Mengli Girai, whose leading pblicy seems to have been the desire to strengthen himself against the khans of the Golden Horde, formed a close alliance with the grand-prince Ivan of Russia. Mohammed Girai Khan in 1521 marched an army north wards until, after having devastated the country, massacred the people, and desecrated the churches on his route, he arrived at the heights of Vorobiev overlooking Moscow. A treaty was arranged by which the grand-prince Basil undertook to pay a perpetual tribute to the Krim khans. Before long, however, a contention arose over the khanate of Kazan, recovered by the Mongols and lost again to Russia together with Astrakhan in 1555. The sultan, however, declined to accept this condition of things as final, and instigated Devlet Girai, the Krim khan, to attempt their recovery. On arriving before Moscow walls the latter found a large Russian force occupying the suburbs. With these, however, he was saved from an encounter, for just as his foremost men approached the town a fire broke out, which, in consequence of the high wind blowing at the time, spread with frightful rapidity and in the space of six hours destroyed all the churches, palaces and houses, with the exception of the Kremlin, within a compass of 3o miles. Another invasion of Russia, a few years later (1572), was not so fortunate for the Mongols, who suffered a severe defeat near Molodi, 5o versts from Moscow. A campaign against Persia made a diversion in the wars which were constantly waged between the Krim khan and the Russians, Cossacks and Poles. So hardly were these last pressed by their pertinacious enemies in 5649 that they bound themselves by treaty to pay an annual subsidy to the khan.