Nogai

The Nogais are Kipchak Turkic pastoral nomads of the Pontic-Caspian steppe, formed around the Mongol Manghit tribe and Turkic clans. Their name recalls Nogai Khan, a kingmaker of the Golden Horde who died around 1300; in the 1390s the Manghit commander Edigu welded their tribes into the Nogai Horde. Around 1500 it grazed from the Danube to the Yaik, wintering at Saraychik.

After Russia took Astrakhan in 1556 the Horde split: Qazi Mirza led a Lesser Horde to the Kuban in 1557, while the Great Horde remained by the Caspian. Nogai horsemen rode with the army that burned Moscow in 1571. From about 1630 the Kalmyks shattered the Great Horde.

When Russia annexed Crimea in 1783, Suvorov crushed the Kuban Nogai rising. Catherine the Great's government resettled the survivors, burning their tents to force settlement; the Treaty of Jassy in 1792 carried the Russian frontier across their old pastures.