[4] According to contemporary Timurid source Nizam al-Din Shami’s Ẓafar-nāma Kiyats were called Uzbek: "chun hissa-yi ab-i khud bi-Uzbak dadi ki az nasl-i Qiyat ast, dar ulus-i Chaghatay zikr-i in makrumat baqi manad".

He appears to have died by 1359, and the governorship was entrusted to a member of another clan, Qutluq-Buqa of the Kungrat, a brother of the chief emir (beglerbeg) Mogul-Buqa.

[6] Troubled by this desertion and possibly already threatened by a rival claimant to the throne (Qulpa), Khan Berdi Beg (1357–1359) apparently recalled Mamai to the court and named him chief emir (beglerbeg).

[7] Perhaps in keeping with tradition within the Golden Horde, Mamai (like Edigu after him) does not appear to have taken the title of Güregen, commonly taken by men marrying women descended from Genghis Khan.

[9] The sudden (and probably violent) death of Berdi Beg in August 1359, and the resulting accession of Qulpa undermined Mamai's position of supremacy at court.

Under Qulpa and his successor Nawruz Beg, Mogul-Buqa became beglerbeg again, confirming Mamai's exclusion from power at court, although his precise position and relations with the khans remains unclear.

The murder of Khiḍr Khan, a descendant of Jochi's son Shiban, and the struggle among his kinsmen and rivals for possession of Sarai in 1361 gave Mamai the opportunity to do so.

A more plausible hypothesis identifies Mamai's puppet khans with a cluster of suitably-named princes listed among a "Crimean" branch of the descendants of Jochi's son Togai-Timur in the genealogical compendiums Muʿizz al-ansāb and Tawārīḫ-i guzīdah-i nuṣrat-nāmah.

Mamai's inability to hold Sarai in 1362 is possibly to be attributed with his preoccupation with his western front, where the Lithuanians had inflicted a defeat on the representatives of the Golden Horde at the Battle of Blue Waters.

His rival Ḥājjī Cherkes, ruler of Astrakhan, struck at Mamai's power base in the Crimea, forcing him to leave Sarai and rush home.

While Ḥājjī Cherkes was distracted with defending Astrakhan, his protégé Ūljāy-Timur lost the throne of Sarai to Ḥasan Beg (1368–1369), a nephew of the earlier khan Khayr-Pūlād, and thus a descendant of Jochi's son Shiban.

After suppressing opposition in Volga Bulgaria with the help of Dmitrij of Suzdal', Mamai felt secure enough to proclaim Muḥammad-Sulṭān khan at Sarai the end of 1371 or the beginning of 1372.

Perhaps during Mamai's absence, in 1373, Sarai attracted a new conqueror, Urus Khan, another descendant of Jochi's son Tuqa-Timur, who had become ruler of the former Ulus of Orda in the eastern portion of the Golden Horde.

Urus appears to have ejected Mamai's protégé Muḥammad-Sulṭān from Sarai, only to lose the city immediately (if he ever held it at this point) after failing to dislodge Ḥājjī Cherkes from Astrakhan.

Nevertheless, they still exercised authority in the lands north, west, and south of the city, and in 1375 Mamai was able to have his khan recognized at Astrakhan, following the death of his old rival Ḥājjī Cherkes.

[20] Continued reverses in Volga Bulgaria and Russia (see below) threatened Mamai's position, and perhaps because of this he disposed of his puppet khan Muḥammad-Sulṭān and replaced him with a new protégé, Tūlāk, by February 1379.

[22] Closer to home, he was in frequent diplomatic contact or armed conflict with the Italian merchant colonies in the Crimea and, more generally, the northern shores of the Black Sea.

On at least two occasions, in 1362 and 1374, Mamai lost control over Sarai, because he and the bulk of his forces had to rush to the western frontier to oppose Lithuanian advances from the northwest.

Although for the most part he managed to stem these advances, Mamai lost territory to Lithuania, most notably the Podolia following the Lithuanian victory at the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362.

Algirdas' son Jogaila eventually decided that he needed Mongol support against his uncle, and sent an envoy to Mamai to make peace and arrange for an alliance between them.

Although some other Russian princes did continue to pay their tribute (most notably that of Tver'), Mamai sought alternatives to make up for the lost influx of silver.

[25] Early in his political career, Mamai may have assisted in the diplomatic initiative that secured the liberation of the Metropolitan Aleksej from Lithuanian captivity, and his return to Moscow in 1360.

Dmitrij did not yield the grand princely throne, and in fact attacked Mihail as he was returning from Sarai, forcing him to flee to his brother-in-law Algirdas of Lithuania.

Dmitrij may have felt the need or opportunity to refuse Mamai's demands for tribute, as his influx of silver from Hanseatic trade in the Baltic declined, while the Golden Horde was apparently impacted by an outbreak of plague.

Mamai retaliated by raiding the lands of Nižnij Novgorod and sacking Novosil' in 1375; he also invested Mihail of Tver' with the title of grand prince of Vladimir once again.

By 1376, most Russian princes transferred their obedience to Qāghān Beg and his cousin ʿArab Shāh, serving them in a punitive expedition in Volga Bulgaria.

When the Russian princes helped themselves to local wealth without authorization, they risked the khan's wrath, and in 1377 the Moscow and Nižnij Novgorod joined forces to defend themselves against their new overlord.

But while ʿArab Shāh prepared to engage them, and in the absence of the Muscovite forces, Mamai intervened (assisted by the Mordva), defeated the Nižegorodians at the P'jana river, and then sacked and burned Nižnij Novgorod in 1377.

Abandoning their usual defence strategy, the Russian forces suddenly attacked Mamai's army on 8 September 1380 at Kulikovo Field on the banks of the Neprjadva river near the Don.

Mihail L'vovič Glinskij was the most illustrious member of the family: he studied at the German university, took part as a knight in the Italian Wars, was the most powerful man in Lithuania in the 16th century, but later rebelled and ran away with his brothers to Muscovy and helped the Russians to retake the city of Smolensk.