The Battle of the Terek River (1395)

As a young man Tokhtamysh had taken refuge with Timur and, with his help, won the throne of the Golden Horde. Once strong, however, he turned on his former patron and raided Azerbaijan and Transoxiana. Timur had defeated him on the Kondurcha river in 1391, but Tokhtamysh gathered strength again.

In the spring of 1395 the two armies met on the Terek river in the North Caucasus. In the battle that began on 14 April, Tokhtamysh's cavalry struck Timur's right wing and centre. According to Mamluk envoys, in the middle of the fighting a Horde noble named Aktau left the field with thousands of his men, sealing Tokhtamysh's defeat.

Pursuing Tokhtamysh, Timur laid waste the Horde's capital Sarai, Astrakhan and Azov. The campaign dealt a heavy blow to the Golden Horde's Silk Road trade and hastened its decline. The Rus principalities subject to the Horde gained most from this enmity between two Turco-Mongol rulers.