Khanate of Kazan

The Khanate of Kazan was a Tatar state on the middle Volga, occupying much of the former Volga Bulgaria, and existed from 1438 until its conquest by Muscovy in 1552. It was one of the successor states of the Golden Horde. Historians date its foundation to the late 1430s, when Ulugh Muhammad established himself in Kazan, although some place the beginning of his son Maxmud's rule in 1445. The khanate covered the lands of modern Tatarstan, Mari El, Chuvashia, Mordovia and parts of Udmurtia and Bashkortostan. Kazan, its capital, was a major commercial centre and home to the Taşayaq fair, which linked trade with Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Sunni Islam of the Hanafi school was the state religion, and the khan ruled formally with the diwan, an assembly of religious and secular aristocrats. Politics were unstable: rival pro-Moscow and pro-Crimean factions repeatedly changed khans, and from 1487 to 1521 the khanate was effectively a Muscovite protectorate. Ivan IV's campaign ended with the siege and capture of Kazan in 1552. Resistance continued in the countryside until about 1557, after which the territory was incorporated into the Tsardom of Russia.