Olugh Mokhammad ([
?'lug m?hæm'mæd];
Ulugh Muhammed,
Makhmet,
Ulu-Makhmet,
Tatar Olug Möxämmäd, [
?'lu? mœxæm'mæt]) (died 1445) was
khan of the
Golden Horde (1419 - 1422/23 and 1428 - 1433), the founder and the first
khan of
Kazan Khanate (1437 - 1445). Olugh Mokhammad was a descendant of
Jochi, and consequently a
Genghizid. By some accounts, he was a son of
Jalal ad-Din khan, and grandson of
Tokhtamysh, by other accounts he was a son of Khasan, one of
Edigu's puppet khans.
Olugh Mokhammad together with Devlet Berdi was one of the two major powers in the disintegrating Golden Horde. He acted as a khan of the Horde from 1419 until he and Devlet Berdi were defeated by Baraq Khan in 1422 or 1423. In 1424 he appeared at the court of Vytautas the Great in Grand Duchy of Lithuania, while Devlet Berdi went to Crimea. Before 1428, with help of Vytautas, Olug Moxammad assembled an army and took Saray from Baraq, establishing himself again as a major power on the territories of the Golden Horde. A letter dated March 14, 1428, from Olugh Mokhammad to Murad II, sultan of Ottoman Empire is known. In this letter Olugh Mokhammad writes that relations with the sultan were interrupted by Baraq, who temporarily gained power in Golden Horde (Desht-i Qipchaq, as the steppe was called). Now, he is victorious and his army defeated and routed Baraq and Mansur.
After regaining the throne of the Horde, Olugh Mokhammad unsuccessfully invaded Crimea against his old rival Devlet Berdi. He was likely supported by Qarachi. In 1430 Olugh Mokhammad lost his major supporter as Vytautas died. That put an end to Mokhammad's plans to conquer Crimea. The priorities shifted to Lithuania, where he supported Sigismund I Kestutian against Svitrigaila in the fight for Lithuanian throne. Displaced Svitrigaila in turn supported Olugh Mokhammad's rival Sayyid Ahmad I, who in 1433 gained the Golden Horde throne. Vasili II of Russia also supported Sayyid Ahmad in order to weaken Olugh Mokhammad.
Sigismund was a weaker leader than Vytautas and could not offer as much support. Sayyid Ahmad quickly consolidated power. In 1433 he participated in a civil war in Crimea and took Solkhat, capital of the Crimean Yurt which resulted in Haci I Giray becoming a ruler there. Mokhammad was forced to leave Horde and move to upstream Volga, where in 1437 he captured town Belev (now in Tula Oblast) and attempted to establish a dominion there. He could not maintan control. Vasili II recaptured the town next year.
