Nogai

also Nokai). Born in the first half of the 13th century; died in 1300. Temnik (commander of 10,000) in the Golden Horde. Great-grandson of Khan Jochi.

As the commander of Khan Berke’s army, Nogai conducted numerous campaigns against Hulagu and his successors. After Berke’s death a vast area from the Danube to the Don came under Nogai’s control. He married Efrosinia, the illegitimate daughter of the Byzantine emperor Michael Palaeologus in 1273. Several Russian principalities, as well as Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Serbia, sought to ally themselves with Nogai. With Nogai’s help, Khan Telebuga was deposed and replaced by Tokta (Togtu). Seeking to free himself from the powerful temnik, Tokta undertook military actions against Nogai. In 1300, Nogai was defeated, taken prisoner, and killed. His name was later given to the Nogai people.

a people living chiefly in Stavropol’ Krai and the Dagestan ASSR, as well as in the Chechen-Ingush ASSR and the Karachai-Cherkess AO. Population, 52,000 (1970 census). They speak the Nogai language, and believers among them are Sunni Muslims. They are descended from various Turkic and Mongol tribes that were ruled by the Golden Horde temnik (commander of 10,000) Nogai. These tribes mixed with the Turkic-speaking Polovtsy and adopted the latter’s language. Prior to the October Revolution of 1917 the principal occupation of the Nogai was livestock raising. The Kuban’ Nogai took up a settled way of life in the late 18th century and became farmers. The remaining Nogai gave up nomadism during the Soviet period. In the Nogai’s collectivized agriculture, crop cultivation has developed alongside livestock raising. Many Nogai work in industry, and a national intelligentsia has evolved.

the language of the Nogai, who live mainly in Stavropol’ Krai, the Dagestan ASSR, and the Karachai-Cherkess AO. It is spoken by more than 46,000 persons (1970 census). Nogai is related to the Kypchak-Nogai subgroup of the northwestern (Kypchak) group of Turkic languages. A notable feature of this subgroup is the correspondence of š and s to Common Turkic č and š, respectively. Nogai is divided into three dialects: Nogai proper (Stavropol’ Krai), Kara-Nogai (Dagestan), and Ak-Nogai (Karachai-Cherkess AO). A literary language was created after the October Revolution of 1917. It was based on the Arabic script until 1928, when the Latin alphabet was introduced. Since 1938 it has been written in the Russian alphabet.