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The Golden Horde. History and Culture This is the first exhibition in the center created jointly by the State
Hermitage and the Kazan Kremlin State Historical, Architectural and Art
Museum-Park. Among the participating institutions in the exhibition are
the Azov Historical, Archeological and Paleontological Museum-Park, the
Astrakhan State United Historical and Architectural Museum-Park, the Volgograd
Oblast Museum for Regional Studies, the Moscow Kremlin, State Historical
and Cultural Museum-Park, the State Inspectorate for the Preservation
of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Voronezh Oblast, the St
Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the
St Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies within the Russian
Academy of Sciences, the Saratov Oblast Museum of Regional Studies, the
Center for Ethnographic Research of the Ufa Research Center within the
Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (London).
Financial support was provided by the Office of the President of the Republic
of Tatarstan, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan, and
the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Tatarstan in St Petersburg
and the Leningrad Oblast. There are more than 800 monuments on display, of which more than 700 come from the State Hermitage. These are objects from the 13th - 15th centuries which were made by master craftsmen of the Golden Horde (Ulus Juchi), the westernmost state formed after the death of Genghis Khan on the territories which he held. This very rich material allows us to trace the history of one of the largest state transformations in Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages. Within the Golden Horde a culture was created which blended the traditions of the various peoples who were living on these territories, including Mongols, Polovtsy, Volga Bulgars, Slavs, and Persians. These superb art works reflect the diverse ties linking the Golden Horde to Byzantium and China, to the countries of East and West, and provide evidence for the profound interpenetration of cultures. A large part of the monuments come from 19th and 20th century archeological expeditions which were carried out on the sites of Golden Horde cities, settlements and burial places. Among the earliest monuments of the military culture of the Juchids (first half of the 13th century - 1260's), one should mention the sets of belts made of gold and gilded silver, an iron axe with inlaid brass and silver, the covering of horse saddles, and decorations for horses. The variant of Islam which took root in the Golden Horde was notable for its tolerant approach to other creeds and its respect for the customs of others. This also explains the tolerance for luxury and for drink. This is all confirmed by the golden dishes, gold and silver drinking cups and bowls, as well as the belts of military commanders. Amulets of ongons, anthropomorphic figurines of special family divinities, household spirits or the souls of ancestors, are the symbols of childbirth and tell us about the existence of paganism and shamanism in Golden Horde society. Alongside Islam and paganism, Christianity also existed in the country. A 14th century cenotaph was found in Solkhat with depiction of a lamp (one of the most popular motifs in the art of Islam) and a cross. This tombstone is valuable evidence of the way Moslems and Christians drew together in the area of social life and, at the same time, of the integrity of the Golden Horde cultural world. It is also known that two out of three Persian-language translations of the Gospels created in the 14th century were copied over in Solkhat. In the 14th century there was an abrupt leap in the development of pottery-making technologies. The highest achievement of the Golden Horde in the field of pottery is a special kashin variety of faience which was used to make tableware, vessels for pharmacies, ink holders, elements for facing buildings, and window gratings. All forms of slip glaze kashin vessels except for lustrous were made in Khoresm, Saraichik, and the cities of the Lower and Middle Volga. One very interesting item is a unique ceramic cup found during excavations in the Golden Horde city of Azak (Azov) in 1992. Crimean sgraffito ceramics dating from the 13th-14th centuries were rarely decorated with compositions depicting human figures. However, several bowls on display in the exhibition attest to attention devoted to a new hero – the man of the city, and also tell us that the Byzantine and Seljuk traditions survived in the local Eastern Crimean school. One unusual page in the cultural history of medieval Eastern Europe is Bulgar metalworking by chasing and related techniques. One especially noteworthy exhibit within a group of items dating from the 10th-11th centuries is a silver Dish with a Falconer. During the 12th - 13th centuries, the Bulgar metal craftsmen began to use niello in combination with abundant gilding. A superb example of this new style is the Marriage Plate. Various works of jewelry demonstrate that not only the women in the khans' households but also simple city folk of the Golden Horde possessed large quantities of adornments. Along with gold, silver and bronze articles there was widespread use of necklaces, pendants, bracelets and rings for the fingers made of multicolored glass. One vivid proof of trade relations closely related to the development of crafts and cities is the broad distribution of coins across the territory of the Golden Horde. Thus a treasure trove found in Bulgary in 1882 consisted of 14 silver bars and more than 1000 silver coins. Domestic trade was firstly in household articles and adornments. There was a large demand for metal mirrors and vessels, as well as for glazed vessels and tiles used to decorate buildings. Imported bowls and cups, mainly from Iran, Syria and Egypt constituted a special group. Timur's Stone was a phenomenon of the history and culture of Genghis Khan's successors, the Jenghizids. This fragment of rock with an inscription in two languages (in Arabic and Chagatay) was carved in 1391 on behalf of Emir Timur (1370-1405) during his campaign against the Khan of the Golden Horde Toktamysh (1376-1395). A scholarly catalogue to the exhibition has been prepared by the Slavia Publishing House, St Petersburg. This volume opens with an address from Memtimer Shaimiev, President of the Republic of Tatarstan and has an introductory article by Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Member of the Russian Academy of Arts, and Doctor of History. The author of the catalogue and curator of the exhibition is M. G. Kramarovsky, leading researcher of the State Hermitage's Oriental Department and Doctor of History. |
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