Tulak Khan
Born: Unknown Died: 1380 Reigned: 1379 - 1380 Khanate: Golden Horde (Great Disorder) Title: Khan
Overview
Tulak Khan was the last of Mamai's puppet khans, a Chinggisid figurehead installed by the powerful Manghit commander as his nominal sovereign during the final years of the Great Disorder's western phase. He died at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 — or in its aftermath — the catastrophic engagement in which Mamai's forces were defeated by the combined armies of Dmitri Donskoi, Grand Prince of Moscow. The battle was a turning point in both Mongol-Russian relations and in the collapse of Mamai's power.
The Battle of Kulikovo, fought on September 8, 1380, on the Don River, was the first major Russian military victory against the Golden Horde since the Mongol conquest of the thirteenth century. Though the Golden Horde would continue to dominate Russia for decades afterward, Kulikovo represented a psychological and symbolic watershed — proof that Mongol armies could be defeated in open battle by a Russian coalition.
Tulak Khan's death at Kulikovo was symbolic of the whole enterprise of the puppet-khan system: a Chinggisid figurehead dying in service of a non-royal commander's ambitions, in a battle that the commander himself could not win. Mamai fled the field and was subsequently killed by Tokhtamysh's forces, and with his death the entire western puppet-khan structure collapsed.
Rise to Power
Tulak Khan was installed by Mamai as his Chinggisid figurehead in 1379 or early 1380, replacing earlier puppet khans in the role that had been occupied by Abdallah, Tulun Beg Khanum, Muhammad-Sultan, and others. His installation coincided with Mamai's preparations for the campaign against Moscow.
Rule and Achievements
- Served as Mamai's final puppet khan during the build-up to and execution of the Kulikovo campaign
- Was present at the Battle of Kulikovo on September 8, 1380
- Died at Kulikovo or in its immediate aftermath as Mamai's army collapsed
The campaign against Moscow that ended at Kulikovo was the largest military operation Mamai had undertaken, and its failure destroyed both Mamai's power and his nominal khan simultaneously.
Legacy
Tulak Khan's death at Kulikovo marked the end of Mamai's twenty-year dominance of the western Golden Horde and the end of the puppet-khan system that had defined that dominance. Within weeks of Kulikovo, Tokhtamysh swept westward and destroyed Mamai's remaining forces. The Great Disorder was effectively over. Tulak Khan died as an instrument of a failed strategy, his fate bound entirely to a commander whose military and political project collapsed around him at the worst possible moment.