The architecture of the Golden Horde borrowed traditional decorative techniques from the Central Asian urban culture. The process of penetration of Eastern traditions into the Golden Horde accelerated with the adoption of Islam in the early 1320s, during the reign of Khan Uzbek.

The main forms of exterior decoration came to the Golden Horde from Central Asia as well; and these included glazed tiles, mosaics and ganch — clay and gypsum mix, which was very durable and resistant to moisture. The design of the city buildings was notable for the opulence of the exterior decoration.

Mosaic panels were used to decorate public buildings — mosques, palaces and mausoleums. They were placed on the outer walls. A complex composition was made up of many small colored tiles, such as the one displayed at the Volgograd Regional Museum of Local History.

Passers-by perceived these large ornamental panels as whole pictures. In this sense, mosaic panels were better suited for decorating external walls than patterned glazed tiles. The elements for mosaic compositions were made in the technique of glazed ceramics. Glaze was a thin vitreous coating on a tile.

The glaze was applied to one side only, and could be white, yellow, turquoise or even ultramarine. The tiles were beveled on the sides and grooved to make them stick better to the lime mortar, which sometimes also served a decorative function.

Such hexagonal glazed tiles were made both of kashi — a special mixture of quartz sand — and a red-clay base. Kashi was considered a higher-quality and more expensive material.

Production of the kashi architectural ceramics in the Golden Horde was local; besides, domestic raw materials were used. The Golden Horde mosaics were distinctive with additional ornamentation of the elements made of gold foil on a red base. The Golden Horde architectural decor was more refined and opulent than its Central Asian prototypes.