By taking the stories of prominent individuals who lived in the Jochid Ulus and situating them within a broader discussion about nomadic state-formation, long-distance trade, and nomadic lifeways, she creates a history that transcends national and regional historical narratives. This ambitious monograph seeks to “examine the Horde on its own terms,” by combining a “bird’s-eye view with a microhistory perspective of Mongol Eurasia” (p. 8). This dependence on outside perspectives has resulted in the Jochids assuming a somewhat marginal position in their own history, which Marie Faverau has sought to rectify in The Horde. Yet the lack of any textual sources written inside the Jochid court has made it a difficult topic for researchers, who have relied upon the accounts of neighbours or conquered vassals to reconstruct elements of its political, social and economic history. Its commercial, diplomatic, and political ties to the Byzantines, the Papacy, the Sultanate of Delhi, and the Mamluk Empire, not to mention its role in the rise of Muscovy, the Kazakh hordes, the Uzbeks and the Crimean khanate, make it a central, albeit mercurial player during the Global Middle Ages. 1The Jochid Ulus (1241-1556), popularly known as the Golden Horde, encompassed the territory and people between the Irtysh and Danube rivers and was one of the most durable and influential offshoots from the United Mongol Empire (r. 1206-1260).
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