Sarai, capital of the Golden Horde

Batu Khan founded Sarai on the Akhtuba branch of the Volga in the mid-13th century. Under later khans, above all Özbeg Khan (1313-1341), the city became the political and commercial centre of the Golden Horde; scholars sometimes treat Batu's Sarai and the later New Sarai (Sarai al-Jadid) as separate cities.

Ibn Battuta, who was here in 1332-1333, describes Sarai as a large and beautiful city with streets full of people, and writes of separate quarters for Mongols, Kipchaks, Russians and Byzantines. In 1395, after defeating Tokhtamysh, Timur destroyed Sarai. Its ruins lie today in Russia's Astrakhan region, near the village of Selitrennoye.