Toqta

Tokhta (also spelled Toqta, Toktu, Tokhtai, Tochtu or Tokhtogha; died c. 1312) was Khan of the Golden Horde from 1291 to 1312.

The Khan's father-in-law Saljiday of the Khunggirads, his wife Bekhlemish,[2] the granddaughter of Tolui, and other Chingisids in the Horde also complained about Nogai's contrariness to him.

In 1300, Tokhta finally defeated Nogai at the battle of the Kagamlyk River, south-southwest of the city of Poltava, and united the lands from the Volga to the Don under his authority.

Chaka was found strangled and his head was sent to Khan Tokhta to show the allegiance of Theodore Svetoslav and the Bulgarian nobility.

Tokhta then divided Nogai's lands, which had stretched from the Crimea and the Russian principalities to modern Romania, among his brother Sareibugha and his sons.

After solidifying his control over the Russian principalities and the Kipchak steppes, Tokhta demanded that the Ilkhan Ghazan give back the regions of Azerbaijan and the Arran.

During the reign of Oljeitu, the respective armies of the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate engaged in small border conflicts, but this was not to last long.

The cause behind this was apparently Tokhta's displeasure at the Italian trade in Turkic slaves who were mostly sold as soldiers to the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate.

Relations between the Italians and the Golden Horde remained tense until 1312 when Tokhta died during preparations for a new military campaign against the Russian lands.

In 1297, Khan Tokhta married Maria Palaiologina, the illegitimate daughter of the Byzantine Emperor, Andronikos II Palaiologos.

The division of the Mongol Empire , c. 1300 , with the Golden Horde shown in yellow.