Khanate of Sibir

The Khanate of Sibir was a Siberian Tatar state in western Siberia, founded at the end of the fifteenth century after the break-up of the Golden Horde. Its ruling houses, the Taibugids and the Shaybanids, were both direct patrilineal descendants of Genghis Khan through Jochi, and they contested the throne for most of its history: Ibak Khan killed the Taibugid Mar between 1464 and 1480 and held Tyumen, and the Taibugid Mamuk killed Ibak in about 1495 and moved the capital from Tyumen to Sibir. The khanate lay between the middle reaches of the Ob and the Tobol and Irtysh rivers, bordered by Great Perm, the Nogai Horde and the Kazakh Khanate, and it was the northernmost Muslim state on record. Its people were mixed, Siberian Tatars together with Khanty, Mansi and Selkup, governed through loosely knit dominions held by mirzas who owed the khan nominal allegiance. Grand mosques, palaces and fortified walls were raised in Tyumen and Sibir, and the khanate traded with Central Asia and Kazan. Kuchum, who seized the throne in 1563, stopped paying tribute to Moscow; in 1582 the Cossacks of Yermak Timofeyevich stormed his camp and took Qashliq, opening the Russian conquest of Siberia, though his relatives fought on for years.