Saray

Saray (на ПРОЗА.РУ)

This name was used for several cities at the mouth of the Volga river. This is the term used for the residence of the Great Khan of the Golden Horde. Depending on who founded the Saray, his name was added through the dash: Saray-Batu, Saray-Berke.

But there are also unnamed capitals of Western Eurasia. In historical literature, there is a Great city of Sarai throughout Western Eurasia. It was used by Lev Gumilev when he represented the collapse of the khazar society due to the flooding of their capital, the city of Itil, in a lofty style. He attributed this event to the 13th century.

The khazars were forced to leave Itil, and many of them settled in the Great city of Sarai. It must be assumed that under this term were hidden several Sarays, among which the khazars were gradually assimilated by the founders of these cities, the chingizids and bulgars, and later by Rus.

The name of the city comes from an ancient root common to the indo-aryan and indo-european vocabulary «sar», which meant the peoples of this vocabulary King, Khan, Head of state.

Researchers believe that Khan Batu founded the Saray of his name, and Khan Berke, Batu's successor, founded Saray al-Jadid. Both towns was established in new places where there was nothing.

Bariev believes that both cities were new developments of the old bulgarian cities. The name of one of them has been preserved: Saksin-Bulgar, which became the first capital of the nascent Golden Horde.

In 1250, Batu Khan did not set up his residence in Saksin-Bulgar, but put it in the place where the ancient Silk Road between China and Europe passed. It was closer to the mouth of the Volga.

After Batu's death, his successor Khan Berke moved his capital to Saksin-Bulgar, which was also called Sarai-Berke. Bariev notes that by this time Saksin was destroyed by the mongols. We must assume that the new capital of the Golden Horde was not built by Khan Berke on the ruins of Saksin, but somewhere nearby, since this place was already lured by merchants many hundreds of years earlier.

Around 1395, Tamerlane defeated the Golden Horde. It destroys many lower Volga cities, including both Sarays. The people who lived there, according to eyewitnesses, mostly bulgars, moved to their tribesmen on the Kama river.

In 1334, Ibn Battuta visited the city of Saray, which was the center of the ulus under Uzbek Khan. Battuta himself does not specify which of the Sarays he was in, but his secretary made a note that it was a New Saray, a Berke Saray.

Ibn Battuta notes that it was a beautiful city that reached an extraordinary size. It stands on a level place, and there are a lot of people who walk along the wide streets and trade in the vast bazaars.

Further, Ibn Battuta reports that the owners of the country, the mongols, live in Sarai, some of whom are Muslims, and Ases also live there, some are also muslims, also kipchaks; Rus, byzantine christians.

In 1396, the Great Emir Timur destroyed the capital of the Golden Horde, Saray-Berke, but the city continued to exist under the name Saray, a common name for all the central cities of the Golden Horde.

In 1435, Timur's nephew Gyasetdin banishes the Khan Ulu-Muhammad without the khanate and sits on the throne in the city of Saray. The source does not specify which city it was.

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