KIPTCHAK, leep-chik', or 1CAPTCHAK, the ((Kingdom of the Golden Horde,' the suc cessor to the kingdom of the famous Mongol conqueror, Genghis Khan, by whose descend ants it has been ruled since his day. It was very much mixed up with the affairs of Russia for many years and the Romanoffs, the late royal Russian family, had in their veins the blood of the rulers of the Golden Horde, which at one time included much of modern Russia, reaching as it did westward to the Dnieper and extending far into central Asia. Its cap ital, Sarai, which was founded on the Volga in 1242, became, in the course of time, noted for its wealth, barbaric splendor and slave market, where the Russians taken in the al most ceaseless contests between Mongol and Slav, were sold. Timur the Terrible plundered Sarai and the surrounding country in 1395, and it suffered several times in later years at the hands of the Russians. The kingdom of the
Golden Horde before whose magnificent bar baric court many a powerful 'Russian prince was forced to bow for centuries finally fell because of dissensions within itself which di vided the kingdom into two independent gov ernments. These fell, one by one, before the growing power of the grand princess of Rus sia, but not without many a bloody struggle which the Slays long remembered. (See GENGHIS KHAN). Consult any good history of Russia; also Curtin, 'The Mongols' (Boston 1908) • Douglas, 'Life of Genghis Khan> (London 1877) i - Erdmann,
der Unerschfitterliche (Leipzig 1862); Holworth, 'History of the Mongols> (London 1877-88); Hoyle, 'History of the Mongols> (London 1890); Johnston,