Accentology of the Takht Eli: The Great Horde or the Greater Horde?

Research objectives: The author makes an attempt to determine the correctness of the emphasis in the Russian name of the Khanate Taht Eli – Bol’shaya (Great) or Bol’shaya (Greater) Horde; to check the connection of this name with the Mongolian and Turkic designations of the Mongol Empire, the Golden Horde, and the Crimean Khanate. Research materials: Russian, Lithuanian, and Crimean diplomatic correspondence from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries; Russian medieval chronicles and other works; works of European authors of the sixteenth century; Turkic, Mongolian, and Persian histo­rical works from the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries; Golden Horde yarlyqs; monuments of Tatar and Kazakh folklore, historiography of the problem under study. Results and novelty of the research: The author concludes that the designation “Great Horde” (Bol’shaya) existed in Russian speech of the fifteenth century. This conclusion has to be justified, since, firstly, it seemed obvious and therefore had never been argued in historiography. Secondly, it must be discussed due to the recently proposed variant pronunciation ‘Bol’shaya’ (Greater Horde). The analyzed Russian name of Takht eli was a translation of one of the versions of the official name of the Jochi Ulus and at the same time, it repeated the distorted name of the Mongol Empire. The possible origins of the Russian name of the Jochi Ulus, the ‘Golden Horde’, are also to be found within the imperial history of the Mongols.