Astrakhan Khanate
Encyclopedia
The Khanate
of Astrakhan
(Xacitarxan
Khanate) was a Tatar feudal state that appeared after the collapse of the Golden Horde
. The Khanate existed in the 15th and 16th centuries in the area adjacent to the mouth of the Volga river, where the contemporary city of Astrakhan
/Hajji Tarkhan is now located. Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi
and grandson of Genghis Khan
.
The Khanate was established in the 1460s by Mäxmüd of Astrakhan
. The capital was the city of Xacítarxan
, also known Astrakhan
in Russian chronicles. Its territory included the Lower Volga valley and the Volga Delta, including most of what is now Astrakhan Oblast
and the steppe
land on the right bank of Volga in what is now Kalmykia
. The North-Western Caspian sea
side was a southern boundary and the Crimean Khanate
bounded Astrakhan on the west.
tribes since the 6th century AD. There were, for example, the Khazars
. Following the invasion of Mongol tribes from the east and the splintering of their empire, the area came under the rule of the Golden Horde
. This empire, too, was wracked by civil war, and the semi-independent Astrakhan Khanate was established by Qasim I around 1466. Its location at the mouth of the Volga, straddling important trade routes, allowed it to accumulate significant wealth, but also attracted the attention of neighbouring states and nomad
ic tribes, subjecting the khanate to numerous invasions. Meñli I Giray
, the khan of the Crimea
who had destroyed the Big Horde's capital of Sarai-al-Jadid caused significant destruction to the khanate.
, Crimea
Central Asia
, and the Transcaucasus region.
The nobility consisted of feudal ranks, which were, from highest to lowest: the khan
, sultan
s, beg
s and morzalar. The rest of the population were known as qara xalıq, black people (or more accurately in Old Turkic, "great creation" implying 'the creatures at large" or common folks, when "qara" stood for "big" and "great" not just black, and "aq" (white), stood also for delicate, small, dainty etc)- the standard Turkic designation for commoners. The state religion was Islam
.
, better known as Ivan the Terrible, captured Kazan
; shortly thereafter a pro-Muscovite party took power in Astrakhan.
Ivan dispatched soldiers to Astrakhan, establishing Darwish Khan as a vassal
ruler of the Astrakhan Khanate in 1554. Pro-muscovite nobles and Nogay tribesmen supported Russian forces occupying Astrakhan. After the threat of Crimean raid against Astrakhan had subsided, Darwish Khan conspired with the Crimean Khanate
to drive the Russians
out of the region. Ivan IV sent Russian Strelets and Cossack
armies, who conquered and annexed the region in 1556. Xacitarxan
was besieged, burned; the khanate was adsorbed by Russians and abolished. Darwish Khan escaped to the castle of Azov
. After the fall of khanate, Tatars were attacked by Kalmyk
s, that displaced Nogai nomads.
Many Nogay were transplanted in Kazakhstan
and Daghestan. However, approximately 70,000 Astrakhan Tatars still live in Astrakhan Oblast
.
The capital of the khanate was Xacitarxan
(or Khadjitarkhan), located about 12 km from modern Astrakhan
.
Khanate
Khanate, or Chanat, is a Turco-Mongol-originated word used to describe a political entity ruled by a Khan. In modern Turkish, the word used is kağanlık, and in modern Azeri of the republic of Azerbaijan, xanlıq. In Mongolian the word khanlig is used, as in "Khereidiin Khanlig" meaning the Khanate...
of Astrakhan
Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...
(Xacitarxan
Xacitarxan
Xacitarxan or Hajji Tarkhan , Hashtar Khan / Actarxan or Astrakhan, was a medieval city at the right bank of Volga, situated approximately 12 km north of the modern city of Astrakhan. The first mention of the town was recorded in 1333. In the 13th and 14th centuries it was one of the main...
Khanate) was a Tatar feudal state that appeared after the collapse of the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
. The Khanate existed in the 15th and 16th centuries in the area adjacent to the mouth of the Volga river, where the contemporary city of Astrakhan
Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...
/Hajji Tarkhan is now located. Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi
Jochi
Jochi was the eldest of the Mongol chieftain Genghis Khan's four sons by his principal wife Börte. An accomplished military leader, he participated in his father's conquest of Central Asia, along with his brothers and uncles.-Early life:...
and grandson of Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
.
The Khanate was established in the 1460s by Mäxmüd of Astrakhan
Maxmud of Astrakhan
Khan Mäxmüd of Astrakhan was one of Kuchuk Muhammed's sons and a Genghisid who founded the Khanate of Astrakhan in the 1460s.After years of struggle for the throne of the Great Horde against Akhmat Khan, he escaped to Xacitarxan, establishing the independent Khanate of Astrakhan there...
. The capital was the city of Xacítarxan
Xacitarxan
Xacitarxan or Hajji Tarkhan , Hashtar Khan / Actarxan or Astrakhan, was a medieval city at the right bank of Volga, situated approximately 12 km north of the modern city of Astrakhan. The first mention of the town was recorded in 1333. In the 13th and 14th centuries it was one of the main...
, also known Astrakhan
Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...
in Russian chronicles. Its territory included the Lower Volga valley and the Volga Delta, including most of what is now Astrakhan Oblast
Astrakhan Oblast
Astrakhan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Astrakhan.-Demographics:Population: Ethnic groups...
and the steppe
Steppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
land on the right bank of Volga in what is now Kalmykia
Kalmykia
The Republic of Kalmykia is a federal subject of Russia . Population: It is the only Buddhist region in Europe. It has also become well-known as an international chess mecca because its former President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is the head of the International Chess Federation .-Geography:*Area:...
. The North-Western Caspian sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
side was a southern boundary and the Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
bounded Astrakhan on the west.
Before the Khanate
The area surrounding the lower Volga was populated by various TurkicTurkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
tribes since the 6th century AD. There were, for example, the Khazars
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
. Following the invasion of Mongol tribes from the east and the splintering of their empire, the area came under the rule of the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
. This empire, too, was wracked by civil war, and the semi-independent Astrakhan Khanate was established by Qasim I around 1466. Its location at the mouth of the Volga, straddling important trade routes, allowed it to accumulate significant wealth, but also attracted the attention of neighbouring states and nomad
Nomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...
ic tribes, subjecting the khanate to numerous invasions. Meñli I Giray
Meñli I Giray
Meñli I Giray , also spelled as Mengli I Giray, was a khan of the Crimean Khanate and the sixth son of the khanate founder Haci I Giray....
, the khan of the Crimea
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
who had destroyed the Big Horde's capital of Sarai-al-Jadid caused significant destruction to the khanate.
Demography and society
Most of the population of the Astrakhan khanate were Astrakhan Tatars and Nogays. Merchants carried on a transit trade between Muscovy, KazanKhanate of Kazan
The Khanate of Kazan was a medieval Tatar state which occupied the territory of former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El,...
, Crimea
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
, and the Transcaucasus region.
The nobility consisted of feudal ranks, which were, from highest to lowest: the khan
Khan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...
, sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
s, beg
Beg
Beg refers to:* Begging* Beg or Baig an alternative form of the Turkic title Bey . It is also used by Indian, Iranian, Afghan and Pakistani people....
s and morzalar. The rest of the population were known as qara xalıq, black people (or more accurately in Old Turkic, "great creation" implying 'the creatures at large" or common folks, when "qara" stood for "big" and "great" not just black, and "aq" (white), stood also for delicate, small, dainty etc)- the standard Turkic designation for commoners. The state religion was Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
.
History
In the 1530s Astrakhan cooperated with the Crimean Khanate and the Nogay Horde in a campaign against Russia. Later, Astrakhan was involved in conflicts against its erstwhile Tatar allies. In 1552 Tsar Ivan IV of RussiaIvan IV of Russia
Ivan IV Vasilyevich , known in English as Ivan the Terrible , was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 until his death. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state spanning almost one billion acres,...
, better known as Ivan the Terrible, captured Kazan
Kazan
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...
; shortly thereafter a pro-Muscovite party took power in Astrakhan.
Ivan dispatched soldiers to Astrakhan, establishing Darwish Khan as a vassal
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
ruler of the Astrakhan Khanate in 1554. Pro-muscovite nobles and Nogay tribesmen supported Russian forces occupying Astrakhan. After the threat of Crimean raid against Astrakhan had subsided, Darwish Khan conspired with the Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
to drive the Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
out of the region. Ivan IV sent Russian Strelets and Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
armies, who conquered and annexed the region in 1556. Xacitarxan
Xacitarxan
Xacitarxan or Hajji Tarkhan , Hashtar Khan / Actarxan or Astrakhan, was a medieval city at the right bank of Volga, situated approximately 12 km north of the modern city of Astrakhan. The first mention of the town was recorded in 1333. In the 13th and 14th centuries it was one of the main...
was besieged, burned; the khanate was adsorbed by Russians and abolished. Darwish Khan escaped to the castle of Azov
Azov
-External links:** *...
. After the fall of khanate, Tatars were attacked by Kalmyk
Kalmyk people
Kalmyk people is the name given to the Oirats, western Mongols in Russia, whose descendants migrated from Dzhungaria in 1607. Today they form a majority in the autonomous Republic of Kalmykia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Kalmykia is Europe's only Buddhist government...
s, that displaced Nogai nomads.
Many Nogay were transplanted in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
and Daghestan. However, approximately 70,000 Astrakhan Tatars still live in Astrakhan Oblast
Astrakhan Oblast
Astrakhan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Astrakhan.-Demographics:Population: Ethnic groups...
.
The capital of the khanate was Xacitarxan
Xacitarxan
Xacitarxan or Hajji Tarkhan , Hashtar Khan / Actarxan or Astrakhan, was a medieval city at the right bank of Volga, situated approximately 12 km north of the modern city of Astrakhan. The first mention of the town was recorded in 1333. In the 13th and 14th centuries it was one of the main...
(or Khadjitarkhan), located about 12 km from modern Astrakhan
Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...
.