Khanate of Sibir

Aristocracy

The Sibir Khanate was administered by mirzas (which is a noble title) who originated from various indigenous Siberian tribes. These mirzas organized loosely knit dominions, which were all under the nominal authority of the khan of Tyumen and Sibir. Mirzas also led the warriors of the Khanate of Sibir into battle and owed nominal allegiance to the khan of Tyumen and Sibir.

Culture

Islam was the professed religion of the Sibir Khanate; it was the religion of the ruling Khan of Tyumen and Sibir. Grand mosques, palaces and fortified walls were constructed by the ruling class in both Tyumen and Sibir.

Islam was professed not only by the Khan but also by the Mirzas, who were often educated in famous Islamic centers in Central Asia like Bukhara and Samarkand. However, shamanism and other traditional beliefs were practiced by much of the masses. Some groups practiced a form of Islam that incorporated elements of shamanism.

The leading Imams and Muftis of the Sibir Khanate are known to have had some influence in Kazan and Samarkand. The Khanate of Sibir was the northernmost Muslim state in recorded history.

The Khanate of Sibir had extensive trading connections with Central Asia and the Khanate of Kazan.

History

The area was originally inhabited by mainly Samoyedic and Ugric peoples. In the 11th century, Kipchaks began inhabiting the region which led to the Turkification of the population. In the 13th century, the Mongols conquered the region and it was incorporated into the territory of the Golden Horde. Some of the Tatars who arrived with Batu Khan during the conquests settled in the area.

The original capital of the Khans was Chimgi-Tura, founded by the first Khan Taibuga, who was a member of the Borjigin. He was succeeded by his son Khoja or Hoca. The Khanate of Sibir as an independent polity was established in the fifteenth century, at a time when the Mongols of the house of Jochi were generally in a state of decline.

The Taibugids' control of the region between the Tobol and the middle Irtysh was not uncontested. The Shaybanids, descendants of Jochi, frequently claimed the area as their own. Ibak Khan, a member of a junior branch of the Shaybanid house, killed Mar and seized Chimgi-Tura. A Taibugid restoration occurred when Mar's grandson Muhammad fled to the eastern territories around the Irtysh and killed Ibak in battle in c. 1493. Muhammad decided not to remain at Chimgi-Tura, but chose a new capital named Iskar (or Sibir or Qashliq) located on the Irtysh. The Russian conquest of Kazan in 1552 prompted the Taibugid Khan of Sibir, Yadigar, to seek friendly relations with Moscow. Yadigar, however, was challenged by a Shaybanid, Ibak's grandson Kuchum. Several years of fighting (1556–1563) ended with Yadigar's death and Kuchum becoming Khan.

Conquest of Sibir

Kuchum attempted to convert the Siberian Tatars, who were mostly shamanists, to Islam. His decision to conduct a raid on the Stroganov trading posts resulted in an expedition led by the Cossack Yermak against the Khanate of Sibir. Kuchum's forces were defeated by Yermak at the Battle of Chuvash Cape in 1582 and the Cossacks entered Iskar later that year. Kuchum reorganized his forces, killed Yermak in battle in 1584, and reasserted his authority over Sibir.

Over the next fourteen years, however, the Russians slowly conquered the Khanate. In 1598 Kuchum was defeated on the banks of the Ob and was forced to flee to the territories of the Nogai, bringing an end to his rule.

Taibugids and Shaybanids

The Khanate of Sibir and the town of Tyumen were founded by Taibuga sometime in the 13th century. He was probably of Keraite origin. However, some scholars also attempt to link the Taibugids to the Kipchak elites and others. Control alternated between the descendants of Taibuga and the Shaybanids who had descended from Genghis Khan. There are hints that the Shaybanids were more connected to the steppe nomads and that the Taibugids were more connected with the forest peoples to the north and east.

Taibuga's father was called On (On-Son, Onsom and other variants). Grousset says that they were 'the issue of Taibugha-bäki' without explanation ('bäki' (bek) was a princely suffix and Taibuqa was a Naiman chief at the time of Genghis Khan.) A few sources identify him with Bek Ondi Oglan, the great-great-great-grandson of Shayban, and thus a Shaybanid. The Stroganov chronicle says that On was killed by a chief called Chingi who spared Taibuga, sent him to fight the Ostyaks and granted him his own principality. Taibuga founded Tyumen and named it Chingi-tura in honor of his benefactor. Another source makes of a Nogai whose 'Hoflager' (German for 'court-camp') was Kasyl-Tura at the mouth of the Ishim River about 160 kilometres (100 mi) east of Tobolsk. Another source says that when Tokhtamysh was defeated he fled to the 'land of Sibir' (the first mention of 'Sibir' in Russian chronicles). Here he was protected by On until both were killed by Edigu about 1405.

There is no more information about Taibuga except that some say he drove the Novgoroders from his lands. In 1428 a 17-year-old Shaybanid called Abu'l-Khayr Khan was chosen Khan on the Tura River (possibly at Tyumen). This implies that the Taibugids had been pushed aside. When he led his followers south for better things the remaining Shaybanids gathered around Ibak Khan, who was from a junior branch of the house. The Taibugids must have been restored because sometime between 1464 and 1480 Ibak killed the Taibugid Mar and made himself Khan. In 1483 Fyodor Kurbsky is said to have led an army to the Irtysh River, but this had no lasting effects. Ibak went to the Volga where he killed the last Khan of the Golden Horde. Returning, he was killed by Mar's grandson called Mamuk or Makhmet or Mamet (about 1495). Makhmet moved the capital from Tyumen to Sibir and was briefly Khan of Kazan (1496). In 1552 the Taibugids Yediger and Bekbulat congratulated Ivan the Terrible on his conquest of Kazan. Later they paid a limited tribute to Russia. In 1563 Ibak Khan's grandson Kuchum seized the throne from Yediger and Bekbulat. In 1573, following the Russo-Crimean War (1571) he stopped paying tribute and raided the Perm lands. In 1582, he was driven out by Yermak and died sometime after 1600.

List of khans

List of Taibugids:

1. On
2. Taibugha
3. Khoja
4. Mar (killed by Ibak)
5. Obder (perhaps died as Ibak's captive)
6. Muhammad
7. Abalak (son of Obder)
8. Aguish
9. Kasim
10. Yadiger (killed by Kuchum)
11. Bekbulat (brother of Yadiger and possibly a co-regent)
12. Seid Ahmad (reoccupied Sibir after Yermak's death, captured by the Tsardom of Russia in 1588).

List of Shaybanids:

1. Ibak Khan
2. Murtaza Khan
3. Kuchum Khan
   • Ali son of Kuchum (tried to reoccupy Sibir after Yermak's death),
   • Ishim (Asim?) son of Kuchum (married a Kalmyk & settled in their territory in 1620)

Additional sources

• Forsyth, James. A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581–1990. Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-521-40311-1
• The West Siberian Tatars by Edward J. Vajda
• Timeline Siberia Archived 2017-06-30 at the Wayback Machine at Timelines of History by Algis Ratnikas