Early Life Under Batu and Berke
Nogai was born to Tatar (Tutar), a son of Terval who was a son of Jochi. He would rule his grandfather's appanage after his father died. After the Mongol invasion of Europe, Batu Khan left Nogai with a tumen (10,000 warriors) in modern-day Moldavia and Romania as a frontier guard. He was a nephew of Berke Khan as well as Batu Khan and Orda Khan, and under his uncle, he became a powerful and ambitious warlord.
In his later years, Berke began to delegate more and more responsibility to his promising nephew. Nogai's leading role first appears, along with Talabuga, under famous Mongol general Burundai as a battle commander in 1259/1260, leading the second Mongol raid against Poland and plundering Sandomierz, Kraków and other cities.
Nogai converted to Islam, just like his uncle, Berke Khan, but it is not known exactly when his conversion occurred, probably soon after Berke converted, in the 1250s. His name was included on the list of new converts sent by Berke to the Mameluke Sultan al-Malik az-Zahir in 1262/1263. Almost a decade later, in 1270/1271, Nogai himself indicated that he embraced Islam in a letter to the Sultan of Egypt.
Read more about this topic: Nogai Khan
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