Mongol Golden Horde - Jani Beg dirham, 1347 A.D.

The Golden Horde, over which Jani Beg ruled (AH 742 - 757; or 1342 - 1357 A.D.) consisted of two sub-hordes the Blue and the White. He directly ruled the Blue Horde that ran it's raiding and pillaging operations in Rus (Russia) and into Lithuania and Crimea. His common and lasting fame came from his time in the Crimea. Jani Beg commanded a massive Crimean Tatar force that attacked the Crimean port city of Kaffa in 1343. The siege was lifted by an Italian relief force in February. In 1345 Jani Beg again besieged Kaffa; however, his assault was again unsuccessful due to an outbreak of the Black Plague among his troops. Jani Beg's army catapulted infected corpses into Kaffa in an attempt to use the Black Death to weaken the defenders. Infected Genoese sailors subsequently sailed from Kaffa to Genoa, introducing the Black Death into Europe. The Black Death, also known as the Pestilence and the Great Mortality, was the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history. The Black Death resulted in the deaths of up to 75–200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Plague, the disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, was the cause; Y. pestis infection most commonly results in bubonic plague. History likes to pin this horrendous death toll on Jani Beg's actions but there is no doubt that the Plague would have traveled to Europe without his catapult action. He did cause the Genoese to sail to the Crimea though. Therefore he could be called the greatest mass murderer in history. [Wikipedia]
Obverse
Translation:
Sultan the Just
Jani-Beg Khan
Reverse
Translation:
Minted in Saray
al-Jadida
(742 - 747)

Album # 2027
Sagdeeva # 231
Fren# 79