Under the biy Yusuf (1549–54), the Noghay Horde still remained strong and influential. The defeat that was inflicted by the Crimea in 1549 caused little damage to the Horde, though it was a painful lesson for the mirzas. It was not in the Khanate of the Girays that the main threat to the Noghay nomadic empire resided. The mighty Russian state pressed from the West. The Russian conquest of the Kazan Yurt (1552) upset the equilibrium of political forces established by that time in Eastern Europe. The state of Astrakhan was increasingly losing its independence coming under the influence of neighboring countries, until a Moscow-controlled puppet was enthroned there in 1554. The system of Late Jöchids' yurts eventually collapsed. Noghays participated neither in the Kazan nor in Astrakhan campaign of the czar's army — they were becoming watchers of history rather than its architects. The irresolution of the biy Yusuf was not the only reason for that; the strong right-wing opposition which formed by that time also contributed to such a state of affairs. The mirza Isma'il, the wing's head, started to look to Moscow in his politics. He was able to win over the Volga region mirzas, a numerous and authoritative faction of the Manghit nobility. Power was slipping out of Yusufs hands. Foreign rulers began to deal with Isma'il going over the biy's head. It seemed that Isma'il was now, to all intents and purposes, "number one" in the nomadic state. This situation had no peaceful outcome. The mid — 1550s saw the outbreak of the Second Unrest in the Noghay Horde.
These developments were a terrible shock to the Noghay Horde. The argument of the mirzas over economic and political orientation resulted in a protracted internal war that was aggravated by the great famine of the late 1550s. The biy Isma'il (1554–63) emerged victorious from that war. His victory was, however, a Pyrrhic one indeed: many subjects of the preceding biys (his brothers) left the Horde for the adjacent Yurts, enormous numbers of Noghays fell in battle, starved to death or were killed by the plague. Though internal conflict somewhat abated by the end of Isma'il's rule, it was a mere reduced likeness of the former strong Noghay empire — the Horde of the so-called Great Noghays — that he was able to hand down to his successors. The descendants of Shaykh Mamay behaved more and more independently. Another Noghay state — the Little Noghay Horde, or the Qazi Ulus — was shaping in the North-West Caucasus. Bands of the Noghay "qazaqs" roamed the steppes; they had no wish to join any of the Yurts. Some of them eventually settled in Russia and in Polish lands.
The relative stability under the biy Din Ahmad (1563–78) continued into the beginning years of the rule of Urns (1578–90), rekindling hope for the return of the Horde's erstwhile power and influence. The biys mustered many mirzas around them, trying to pursue a policy of independence. However, they overestimated their forces. Unlike the period of the late 15th — early 16th cc., when the Manghit Yurt had been surrounded by enemies engaged in mortal combat with the Noghays, now the Yurt's inhabitants had a real opportunity to emigrate in search of a better, safer life. They first moved to the Little Noghay Horde and the Uzbek Khanates, spreading then in Russia and the Crimea. The people started to leave the trans-Volga steppes. At the close of the century, successors of several biys started fighting for power over their depleting subjects. That was the third and the last Noghay Unrest.
As a result of internal conflict, Kalmyk invasions and other events, the Great Noghay Horde disintegrated during the first decades of the 17th c. The Noghays did not vanish off the face of the earth, though. On the contrary, they settled far and wide, spreading all over Eastern Europe and Central Asia, becoming integrated into various peoples and countries. Having lost their single political center, the nomads started forming Hordes, power structures of the ulus type. Yedisan, Yedishkul and thé union at Bujak turned out to be the largest and most long-lived of those states. The nomads of the Noghay Horde also formed the people of Qaraqalpaqs. All of them preserve historical memories of their former life in the nomadic empire beyond the Volga.
The second part of the book ("Nogaica") is a series of essays concerning the most important subjects: "Territory", "Population", "Economy", "The State", "Culture", "Contacts with Russia".
A number of peoples came into contact with the Noghay Horde and the Noghays originating from it, partly assimilating them. Those were the ancestors of Kazakhs and Kirghizes, of the Kazan, Crimean, Siberian and Astrakhan Tartars, of Bashkirs, Qaraqalpaqs, Turkmenians, Kalmyks, the Don and the Ural Cossacks, as well as of many peoples of the North Caucasus.
Analysis of the influence, in all its forms and varieties, exerted by the Noghays on the peoples of Eurasia shows that its earliest form was political impact. It reached its peak in the 16th — 17thcc., in the epoch of the Noghay Horde. Cultural influence comes next, as regards its significance in that time. After the disintegration of the Noghay state, when the Noghays scattered in all directions, leaving their original Manghi't Yurt, their political role dramatically lost its significance. On the other hand, their wide scattering resulted in a substantial strengthening of their ethnic and cultural influence on the neighbors. Historical and ethnological evidence shows that, over the last five centuries, the Noghay people made an important contribution into the history and civilization of Eurasia.
The Appendix contains the genealogical trees of the Noghay nobility of the 15th — 17th centuries.
Vorsatz
