Zolotoordynskoe Obozrenie (Dec 2023)
Chingi-tura in the History of the Tyumen Khanate
Abstract
Purpose: To identify the main evolution stages of the status of the settlement of Chingi-tura as the political center of the Tyumen Khanate. Research materials: The work was carried out on the basis of an analysis of published sources (chronicles, embassy documents, letters, contracts, travelers’ notes, cartography data, and results of archaeological excavations). Results and scientific novelty. In historical research, largely under the influence of various editions of the so-called “Siberian chronicles,” there is a traditional concept about the connection of Chingi-tura, first of all, with the activities of the princes from the Taibugid dynasty. The city practically stopped existing with their departure to Isker-Siberia. However, a more comprehensive approach to sources, including archaeological ones, allows for considering this issue in a different way. The formation of the city (taking into account the specifics of applying this term to Siberian realities), was associated specifically with the Ulus of Jochi, dating back to the last quarter of the 13th century when the population changed there and Chingi-tura became one of the centers on the Transural trade route. The economic and possibly administrative significance of Chingi-tura in the 13th–14th centuries became the basis for its political rise in the first third of the next century. It appeared to be the center that attracted those Shibanids who would fight for uniting all lands of that dynasty’s representatives into a single state. Moreover, until the end of 1420 the city was under the control of representatives of the Burkut tribe whose history is obviously connected with the Siberian Taibugids. Only after 1431, in the time of Abu-l-Khair, did Chingi-tura receive the status of a throne place (Tyumen of Russian sources) which is a reasonable basis to refer to the state as the Tyumen Khanate. For a long time, the specificity of the city was determined by the fact that it was located on the northern border of this steppe state, something which greatly complicated its development. Also, contrary to the established historiographic tradition, it can be said that Chingi-tura was not abandoned after the death or murder of the Tyumen Khan Ibrahim (Ibak) no later than 1495. The collapse of the city is associated with the crisis of the Tyumen Khanate itself in late 1510. Despite the apparent decrease of its importance, the city continued to exist and play a certain role in the political ideology of Khan Kuchum, a grandson of Ibrahim. It was finally abandoned by the Tatars after Yermak’s campaign. Owing to this, by 1586, the time of the construction of Russian Tyumen nearby, it was already called as “an empty settlement”. Further understanding of Chingi-tura role in the history of the Siberian statehood of the Shibanids is impossible without the urgent continuation of archaeological excavations of the settlement remains that have survived to this day.
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