Kazan Khanate
The Kazan Khanate ( Tatar Казан Ханлыгы / Qazan xanlığı ; Russian Казанское ханство / Kazanskoje Khanstvo ) was a Tatar successor state of the Golden Horde with the capital Kazan from 1438 to 1552 . According to today's terms, it roughly comprised Tatarstan together with Mari El , Chuvashia , parts of Mordovia , Udmurtia and Bashkortostan, as well as some neighboring regions on the central Volga . Alongside her, the Vyatka and Kama were the main rivers and thus the main routes of transport. It was also known as the Tatar Khanate .
The state religion was Sunni Islam , which determined the self-image of the state much more than membership of the Tatar people.
The khanate was founded by Ulug Mehmed around 1437/38 when the Golden Horde broke up . Before that, an autonomous Volga Bulgarian principality within the Horde had already existed in Kazan , the throne of which was taken ( usurped ) by Ulug Mehmed with the help of the local nobility . Even after this coup the khanate was very unstable: in the 115 years of its existence there were nineteen changes of power, but the khans were always elected from among the descendants of Genghis Khan .
Initially in a strong position vis-à-vis Russia - the Grand Dukes of Moscow had to pay tribute to the khan - this relationship turned in 1487 after the first conquest of Kazan by Ivan III. around. It was not until 1521 that an alliance with the Khanate of Crimea , the Astrakhan Khanate and the Nogai Horde succeeded , which was able to shake off Moscow's dominance for the time being. This fragile alliance did not last long, however, and under the pretext of intervening in disputes over the throne, Ivan IV "the terrible" launched a new campaign against Kazan. In August 1552, a siege of several weeks began , which fell on October 3rd. The reigning Khan Yädegär Möxämmät was captured, baptized in the name of Simeon on February 26, 1553 and enfeoffed the city of Zvenigorod by Ivan IV . Moscow had thus incorporated the last opposing state on the way to Siberia , which could subsequently be opened up and conquered. In memory of his victory over Kazan, Ivan had St. Basil's Cathedral and other churches built on Red Square in Moscow .
The territory of the Kazan Khanate was systematically occupied, incorporated into the tsarist empire and in the following centuries Russified and Christianized through resettlement measures. In the following decades up to 1610, however, revolts against Russian supremacy broke out again and again, aimed at restoring the khanate. These include the revolts under Husein since 1552, under Mamysch Berdy in 1556/57, and the great upheavals of 1572–74 and 1608–1610. Since a large part of the old Tatar nobility was wiped out by the suppression of these unrest, the original political objectives were soon forgotten and the later uprisings had more of the character of economically motivated peasant unrest.
Kazan was already an important cultural center beyond the Volga region during the time of the Khanate. In particular, literature was promoted and flourished. From the end of the 19th century, it was the center of the "Tatar Renaissance", a literary and intellectual movement in the course of which the local population went back to their Tatar roots.
coat of arms
In the great coat of arms of the Russian Empire in the heraldic right circle, Kazan was represented in the fourth coat of arms (shield 1) (Khanate of Kazan): In silver a gold-crowned, gold- armored , red- winged black basilisk ( Zilant ) with a red tip (Kazan's coat of arms). The golden crown of the Kingdom of Kazan rests on the shield.
See also
literature
- Gavin Hambly (Ed.): Central Asia (= Fischer Weltgeschichte . Volume 16). Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1966, p. 197 ff. (On conquest and post-history).