Battle of the Kondurcha River
| Battle of the Kondurcha River | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Tokhtamysh–Timur war | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Timurid Empire |
 Golden Horde | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Timur |
Tokhtamysh | ||||||
The Battle of the Kondurcha River was the first major battle of the Tokhtamysh–Timur war. It took place at the Kondurcha River, in the Bulgar Ulus of the Golden Horde, in what today is Samara Oblast in Russia.
Background
After the death of Abu Sa'id in 1335, the last ruler of the Ilkhanid Dynasty, a power vacuum emerged in Persia. Persia's vulnerability led to military incursions from Persia's neighbours. In 1383 Timur started his military conquest of that country. In 1385 he captured Herat, Khorasan and all of eastern Persia. In the same year Tokhtamysh raided Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran. The city of Tabriz was plundered and Tokhtamysh could retire with a rich booty. From 1389 Timur and Tokhtamysh began fighting, each raiding the others territory.
Battle
Once the two armies met at Kondurcha, Tokhtamysh made the first move. He sent the cavalry to try and encircle Timur's army from the flanks. However, Timur's army withstood the assault, after which its sudden frontal attack put the Horde troops to flight. However, many of the Golden Horde troops escaped to fight again at the Battle of Terek.
Aftermath
After Timur's major victory at Kondurcha, he continued to push deeper into Golden Horde territory. The Tokhtamysh-Timur war continued with most engagements resulting in a Timurid victory except for a successful Raid of Shirvan by Tokhtamysh. After his resounding defeat in the Battle of the Terek River, Tokhtamysh was deposed and replaced by Edigu, fleeing to the Ukrainian steppes and asking for help from Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania. The two combined their forces in the Battle of the Vorskla River in 1399, but were defeated and annihilated by Khan Temur Qutlugh and Edigu, two of Timur's generals. Around 1406 Tokhtamysh was killed in Siberia by Edigu's men; in turn, Edigu would be slain thirteen years later by one of Tokhtamysh's sons. The Golden Horde never recovered from this war. In the middle of the 15th century, it fragmented in smaller khanates: the Kazan khanate, Nogai Horde, Qasim Khanate, Crimean Khanate and Astrakhan Khanate. Thus Tatar-Mongol power in Russia was weakened and in 1480 the 'Tatar yoke' over Russia, a reminder of the bloody Mongol conquest, was definitively shaken in the Great standing on the Ugra River. The last remnant of the Golden Horde was destroyed by the Crimean Khanate in 1502, and the Khanates that arose after the Golden Horde's fragmentation were annexed by Muscovite Russia between the 1550s and early 17th century, except the Crimean Khanate which survived until 1783, under Ottoman protection.
References
- "Кондырча буендагы сугыш". Tatar Encyclopaedia (in Tatar). Kazan: The Republic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences. Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia. 2002.
- Marozzi, Justin (2004). Tamerlane Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-711611-X.
- Hookham, Hilda (1962). Tamburlaine the Conqueror. Hodder and Stoughton.