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Khanate of Kazan

The Khanate of Kazan (Tatar: Казан ханлыгы, romanized: Qazan xanlığı; Russian: Казанское ханство, romanizedKazanskoye khanstvo) was a medieval Tatar Turkic state that occupied the territory of the former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El, Chuvashia, Mordovia, and parts of Udmurtia and Bashkortostan; its capital was the city of Kazan. It was one of the successor states of the Golden Horde (Kipchak Khanate), and it came to an end when it was conquered by the Tsardom of Russia.

Khanate of Kazan
Казан ханлыгы

Independent

Chagatai language (literature, lingua franca, court)
Old Tatar language (dynastic, literature)

Ulugh Muhammad (first)

 

1438

1552

Geography and population[edit]

The territory of the Khanate comprised the Muslim Bulgar-populated lands of the Bolğar, Cükätäw, Kazan, and Qaşan duchies and other regions that originally belonged to Volga Bulgaria. The Volga, Kama and Vyatka were the main rivers of the khanate, as well as the major trade ways. The majority of the population were Kazan Tatars. Their self-identity was not restricted to Tatars; many identified themselves simply as Muslims or as "the people of Kazan". Islam was the state religion.


The local feudal nobility consisted of ethnic Bulgars, but the court and bodyguard of the Kazan khans were composed of steppe Tatar (Kipchaks, and later of Nogais) that lived in Kazan. According to the Ginghizide tradition, the local Turkic tribes were also called Tatars by the steppe nobility and, later, by the Russian elite. Part of the higher nobility hailed from the Golden Horde. It included members of four leading noble families: Arghin, Barin, Qipchaq, and Shirin.


Peoples subject to the khan included the Chuvash, Mari, Mordvins, Mishar Tatars, Udmurt, and Bashkir. Some of the Komi tribes were also incorporated into the Khanate. The Mishars had arrived during the period of the Golden Horde and gradually assimilated the resident Mordvins and Burtas. Their territory was governed by former steppe Tatars. Some Mishar duchies were never controlled from Kazan and instead gravitated towards the Qasim Khanate or Muscovite Russia.


Most of the khanate territory was covered by forests, and only the southern part adjoined the steppe. The main population of the steppes were the nomadic Manghites, also known as Nogais, who sometimes recognized the rule of the Kazan khan, but more often raided agricultural Tatars and Chuvash, as they had done in the Golden Horde period. Later, Nogais were transplanted and replaced with Kalmyks. More recently, this area was settled by Tatars, Chuvash and Russians, who erected defensive walls to guard the southern border. Since the khanate was established, Tatar Cossack troops defended the khanate from the Nogais.


Russian sources indicate that at least five languages were used in the Kazan khanate. The first and foremost was the Tatar language, including the Middle dialect of the Kazan Tatars and the Western dialect of the Mishars. Its written form (Old Tatar language) was the favoured language of the state. The Chuvash language was a descendant of the Bolgar language, spoken by the pagan Chuvash people. The Bolgar language also strongly influenced the Middle dialect of Tatar language. The other three were probably the Mari language, the Mordvin languages and the Bashkir language, likewise developed from the Bolgar and Kipchak languages.

Society[edit]

The khan governed the state. He based his actions on decisions and consultations of a cabinet council, or Diwan. The nobility comprised the ranks of bäk (beg), ämir (emir), and morza. Military estates consisted of the uğlan (ulan), bahadir, içki (ichki). Muslim clergy also played a major role. They were divided into säyet (seid), şäyex (sheikh), qazí (qazi), and imams. The ulema, or clergy, played a judicial role and maintained the madrassas (schools) and maktabs (libraries).


The majority of the population comprised qara xalıq (black people),[4] a free Muslim population[5] who lived on state land. The feudal lands were mostly settled by çura (serfs). Prisoners of war were usually sold to Turkey or into Central Asia. Occasionally they were sold within the Khanate as slaves (qol) and sometimes were settled on feudal lands to become çura later. The Muslim and non-Muslim population of the Khanate had to pay the yasaq.

Culture[edit]

In general, the culture of the Kazan Khanate descended from that of Volga Bulgaria. Cultural elements of the Golden Horde were also present in noble circles.


A large part of the urban population was literate. Large libraries were present in mosques and madrassahs. Kazan became a center of science and theology.


Although Islamic influence predominated, lay literature also developed. The most prominent Old Tatar language poets were Möxämmädyar, Ömmi Kamal, Möxämmädämin, Ğärifbäk, and Qolşärif. Möxämmädyar renovated the traditions of Kazan poetry, and his verses were very popular.


The city of Bolghar retained its position as a sacred place, but had this function only, due to the emergence of Kazan as a major economic and political center in the 1430s.


The architecture of the khanate is characterized by white-stone architecture and wood carvings.

List of Kazan khans

Islam in Tatarstan

Tatar nobility

Ar begs

List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

Qasim Khanate

"Qazan Xanlığı (Khanate of Kazan)". (in Tatar). Kazan: The Republic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences. Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia. 2002.

Tatar Encyclopaedia

Viacheslav Shpakovsky, David Nicolle, Gerry Embleton, Armies of the Volga Bulgars & Khanate of Kazan, 9th–16th centuries, Osprey Men-at-Arms 491 (2013).

Azade-Ayshe Rorlich, in: The Volga Tatars, a Profile in National Resilience (1986).

Origins of Volga Tatars

Muhammad Murad Ramzi (محمد مراد الرمزي) (1908), , First edition (الطبعة الاولي) Volume 1 (المجلد الاول) Printed at the Al-Karīmiyyah and Al-Ḥussayniyyah printing shop in the town of "Orenburg" upon committed expenses (طبع بالمطبعة الكريمية والحسينية ببلدة "اورنبورغ" على مصاريف ملتزمه).

Talfīq al-akhbār wa-talfīḥ al-āthār fī waqāʼiʻ Qazān wa-Bulghār wa-mulūk al-Tātār (تلفيق الاخبار وتلقيح الآثار في وقائع قزان وبلغار وملوك التتار)