Nogai Horde,
Nohai Horde or
Nogai Yortu was a confederation of about eighteen
Turkic and
Mongol tribes that occupied the
Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the
Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the
Manghits constituted a core of the Nogai Horde. In the 13th century, the leader of the
Golden Horde,
Nogai Khan a direct descendant of
Genghis Khan through
Jochi, formed an army of the Manghits joined by numerous Turkic tribes. A century later the Nogais were led by
Edigu, a commander of
Manghit paternal origin and
Jochid maternal origin, who founded the Nogai dynasty. In 1557 the Nogai
Nur-al-Din Qazi Mirza quarreled with Ismael Beg and founded the
Lesser Nogai Horde on the steppe of the North Caucasus. The Nogais north of the Caspian were thereafter called the Great Nogai Horde. In the early 17th century The Great Nogai Horde broke down further under the onslaught of the Kalmyks.