What did Golden Horde get out of the alliance with Mamluks?

Upvote:1

Yeah Golden Horde had some benefit from this allies with the Mamluks

  1. Money from every slave sold to Mamluks
  2. With Hulegu fight on two front with Mamluks and Berke so Hulegu cant form full scale coordinate attack to golden horde with chaghatayid from central Asia
  3. Berke can deter chaghatayid with this action against Hulegu... golden horde greatest enemy was chagatayid and not Hulegu. Remember chagatayid take over jochid land in khawaresm before Berke accession in the bloody struggle...
  4. Legitimacy for Berke in the eye of his subject, Berke convert to Muslim. So he must prove that this convert would give to golden horde some of victorious battle. because Russia. Poland. and other had been defeated so he need new powerful enemies. i.e. Hulegu
  5. The most important. spoils of war from Hulegu was so impressive because Hulegu occupies wealthy land like Baghdad and Persia. That makes the Golden Horde very wealth. Every single soldier from golden horde received thousand gold dinar (one gold dinar equivalent with 200-250 usd)spoils of war with Hulegu

Upvote:6

(I saw your other question on Qutuz's mud-slinging with Hulagu. So, I hope I don't blow your bubble here).

Here goes:

What did the Golden Horde get out of the alliance with Mamluks?

Answer: They did not have one. The Mamluks claimed they had an alliance with the Golden Horde, but that's just it: a claim and a very long con by the Mamluks. Gives new (old?) meaning to the saying: Fake it till you make it!

Baybars was just full of it because he was trying to cover up his slave background with an invented 'alliance' with Berke (of the Golden Horde). Like Qutuz (the other question), Baybars was a Qipchak Turk who was sold into slavery.

Mamluk is Arabic for "property" or "slave" (depending on context).

SOURCE: Anne F. Broadbridge, Kingship and Ideology in the Islamic and Mongol Worlds (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p.58:

... despite delays, distances and lies, and despite Baybars's lowly origin and the tenuous ideological position, the Mamluk Sultan established an alliance with Berke based on Baybars's promotion of proper Islamic military values. Or did he? The historical record reflects Baybars' own point of view, distilled through his official biography and copied by later writers. Despite Baybars's presentation of an alliance of equals, Berke appears to have seen Baybars with the imperial Mongol world view: that is, as an obedient subject, in this case a Muslim. ... When Berke's ambassadors met with Baybars they informed the Mamluk sultan about Berke's laws, which were required knowledge for any vassal. (emphasis mine)

Berke's fights with Hulagu had nothing to do with the Mamluks. That's another totally different issue re Chinggisid dynastic issues. The Mamluks just took advantage of the situation/confusion when the giants collided.

p.s. Most of the Wikipedia entries on Mongol history are generally out-dated (or wilfully misleading in some cases)

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