Zolotoordynskoe Obozrenie (Jul 2016)
Research Seminar “The Eastern Uluses of the Kazan Khanate” »
Abstract
February 25, 2016, Sh.Marjani Institute of History of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences held an academic seminar on the theme “The Eastern Uluses of the Kazan Khanate”. The seminar was organized by M.A.Usmanov Centre for Research on the Golden Horde and Tatar Khanates. The Head of the Centre, Dr. I.M. Mirgaleev, and Dr. A.V. Aksanov acted as speakers. The seminar was dedicated to the main aspects of the history of the Western Urals’ Tatars. Participants discussed the hypothesis of the destruction of the Great (Ural) Hungary (Bascardia) and forcible deportation of its people as a result of the Western campaign of Batu (original idea by Roman Hautala). On the basis of heterogeneous authentic inforamtion, archaeological, epigraphic, genetic and linguistic materials, speakers proved the thesis of settling in the territory of Greater Hungary of the Kimaks, Bulgars and Khwarezmians, as well as of establishing in its place of Akidel ulus, that later became a part of the Kazan Khanate. Speakers pointed to the discrepancy between the notions of historiography about Bashkir ulus’s location in the Kazan Khanate and authentic sources’ information of the 15th–16th centuries. On the basis of wide use of Bashkir shedzheres and extrapolation of the later information on the situation in the Kazan Khanate, many researchers came to the conclusion that the Bashkir ulus located in the southeast of the Khanate. In turn, the authors of the 16th century wrote that this ulus was located at the north-eastern borders of the Kazan Khanate. Speakers hypothesized that Bashkir ulus had a special military and strategic value both for the Kazan Khanate and for the Russian state, which came to replace it. However, under the authority of the Russian state this ulus began to be used also for the purpose of conquering the Southern Urals. At the end of the 16th century, the main conflict zone shifted to the southeast and this was followed by inclusion in the Bashkir ulus of new “Bashkirs” from among the Nogai and Shibanid Tatars. Consequently, the ulus area shifted and substantially expanded. In 1586, it received the status of Ufa district.
