Editing Tokhtamysh (section)

==Legacy==
When he reunified the Golden Horde in 1380–1381, Tokhtamysh promised to revitalize and stabilize it after two decades of chronic civil war. He was the last khan of the Golden Horde who minted coins with [[Mongolian script]]. His sack of Moscow in 1382 undid the setback suffered by the Golden Horde in its domination over the Russian principalities at the Battle of Kulikovo two years earlier. Finally, the invasion of Azerbaijan followed in the path of the aspirations of earlier khans for the exploitation or conquest of that region. In 1385, Tokhtamysh was at the height of his power and his future, as well as that of the Golden Horde, looked bright.

However, in entering into and exacerbating the conflict with his former protector Timur, Tokhtamysh set a course for the undoing of all his achievements and for his own destruction. Seeking allies, after he had weakened Moscow, he strengthened it with the concession of making the Grand Principality of Vladimir a hereditary possession of the Prince of Moscow in 1389, and by allowing it to take over Nižnij Novgorod in 1393.<ref>Halperin 1987: 57.</ref> Similarly, he helped Lithuania establish a precedent for involving itself in the government and politics of the Golden Horde, and making and unmaking khans, several of them Tokhtamysh's sons, for decades to come.<ref>Jackson 2005: 218–220.</ref> Neither of these alliances saved Tokhtamysh, whose authority was dealt severe setbacks by the two great invasions of Timur into the core territories of the Golden Horde in 1391 and 1395–1396. These left Tokhtamysh competing with rival khans, ultimately driving him out definitively, and hounding him to his death in Siberia in 1406. Tokhtamysh's relative solidification of the khan's authority survived him only briefly, and largely due to the influence of his nemesis Edigu; but after 1411 it gave way to another long period of civil war that ended in the disintegration of the Golden Horde. Moreover, Timur's destruction of the Golden Horde's main urban centers, as well as the Italian colony of [[Tanais|Tana]], dealt a severe and lasting blow to the trade-based economy of the polity, with various negative implications for its future prospects for prosperity and survival.<ref>May 2018: 308.</ref>

<gallery>
Image:Tokhtamysh.jpg|Tokhtamysh's Siege of Moscow in 1382
File:Defence of the city.jpg|Muscovites gather during the Siege of Moscow
File:Оборона Москвы в 1382 году.jpg|Warriors of the Golden Horde attack Moscow.
File:Vasnetsov Kreml pri Dmitrii Donskom.jpg|Muscovites prepare for the Siege of Moscow
</gallery>